How Do Dye Sublimation Printers Work?
Dye sublimation printing starts with films that contain dyes. This will either be a single four layered film with cyan, magenta, yellow, and gray pigments or four separate films for each color. Because the films contain the pigments, they will appear red, blue, green, and gray. During the printing process, the films are placed on the paper and heated up by the print head. This will cause the pigments to leave the film and enter into the paper where it cools re-solidifies. This is the “sublimation” part. Sublimation means to heat something and turn it into a vapor, then to form it back into a solid. Because the pigments go from solid, to gas, and back to solid, there is little mess compared to ink. What Makes A Dye-Sub Printer So Good? There are two factors that contribute to the quality of dye sub printers. The first is continuous tone, and the other is un-dithered color. The color produced by a dye-sub is the result of the mixing of pigments to get the actual color. This is in contras
