What is the difference between Dye-Sublimation and Ink Jet printers?
The main differences are “photo realism” and archivability. Ink Jet printers spray incredibly tiny drops of ink onto the surface of the paper. Some of the better ones, when used with the manufacturers photo paper, yield fairly nice photographic results. Dye-Sublimation is a technology that uses a matched color ribbon (donor) and photo paper (receiver). As the paper passes through the printer, the ribbon is heated to a gas state. The gas permeates the photo paper before returning to a solid state. The result is an image that looks just like a 35mm print and is typically as archival as 35mm prints. Dye-sublimation printers are typically faster than ink-jet printers for photographs.
