What is Dye Sublimation?
By Richard Bradley & Jurie Gryffenberg
The term “Dye Sublimation” or “Dye Sub” is frequently and incorrectly used to describe what should strictly be called the “Dye Diffusion Thermal Transfer” or “D2T2” printing process. The name “dye sub” has stuck however and so for the purpose of keeping this explanation as simple as possible we will refer to the process by this name.
The Success of Dye Sublimation
The advent of dye sublimation printing revolutionized the event photography market almost overnight. With the notable exception of Polaroid, the dye sub process created the instant print. This changed the way event photographers could do business, no longer was it a case of taking telephone numbers and addresses, then posting the photographs to the customer. With dye sub printing, the customer could have the print in a mount in their hands in under a minute! For a photographer, the dye sub process finally gave them the chance to make serious money from the events market.
The Process
Dye sublimation printing is a thermal process whereby colour dyes are transferred from an ink ribbon onto, or rather into, the surface of a special substrate which is then laminated during the final stage of the process.
During the printing process, the rollers move the paper and one of the colours together under the printer’s thermal head. The print head heats up as it passes over the film, causing the dyes to vaporize into a gas, the dye diffuses and permeate the surface of the paper, creating a gentle gradation at the edge of each pixel and produce a near photo quality print. After the first colour the printer moves the paper out the way (most push the print out of the printer but some actually keep the print inside) in order to reset the roller for the next colour. Once the process has gone through the three colours, the substrate makes one final pass to laminate the picture and the process is complete.
Some printers can complete this process in less than seven seconds for a 5 x 3” or 6 x 4” print!
How Dye Sublimation Works
