Dye-Sublimation Printers

Dye-sublimation (often abbreviated as dye-sub ) printers are designed to do just one thing: print terrific continuous-tone photographs. Thus, you can't use a dye-sub printer in place of your trusty inkjet or laser/LED printer. However, dye-sub printers produce photo prints as good, if not better, than the best inkjets and are widely used in the "scan, crop, and print-it-yourself" workstations found in many photo departments and camera shops .

Although most dye-sub printers use a printhead rather than a laser mechanism to print, dye-sub printers still qualify as page printers. The photo can't be printed until all the data is received, because the print mechanism must make multiple passes to print all the colors and to apply an optional overcoat used to protect the print.

The Dye-Sublimation Printing Process

Dye-sublimation, like thermal transfer and direct thermal printing, also relies on heat to transfer the image to the media, but the process is very different than with traditional thermal printers:

1. During printing, the printhead heats up to transfer cyan, magenta , yellow, and (sometimes) black dye from special dye-sub ribbons to the paper under computer control (some can print directly from flash or CD media). One pass is used for each color .

2. Unlike thermal transfer, which melts the wax or resin material to the surface of the paper, dye-sublimation dyes turn into a gas when heated and penetrate the surface of the paper. This creates a continuous-tone image. Thus, the relatively modest-sounding typical dye-sub resolutions of around 300400dpi provides better real-world quality than high-resolution inkjet printers.

3. Many recent dye-sub printers apply a protective coating ( overcoat ) to the surface of the print before ejecting it.

Suitable Paper Stock for Dye-Sublimation Printers

Most dye-sub printers sold for home or small-business use fall into the 4x6-inch snapshot size category, although a few are designed to produce enlargements up to about 8x10-inch. Regardless of the size , you should use only media that is made for a particular printer (either by the printer vendor or a reliable third party).

You can get sticker or compact print paper for some printers, and some vendors sell kits that include the paper and the ribbon cartridge needed to print the quantity of paper packaged in the kit.

Periodic Maintenance for Dye-Sublimation Printers

The only periodic maintenance needed for typical dye-sub printers is to change the ribbons and paper when they run out. If the printer uses a separate overcoat cartridge, make sure to change it when it runs out. Overcoating dye-sub prints helps extend their useful life.