Dye Sub

Dye-sublimation

Photopedia

18 October 2007 15:42

A printing process that uses a three-coloured ribbon rather than ink cartridges. It uses tiny heating elements to transfer each colour separately onto a dedicated printing paper. The paper has to pass through the printer for each colour to build up the final image.

The finished prints are much closer to traditional photographic paper in feel and characteristics than most inkjet prints. But both the printers and materials can be more expensive than similarly specified inkjet models, and prints can only be produced on a very limited range of dedicated papers.