Digital card printers have been available to the public for many years – although some markets still use the ‘Polaroid' style or the cut & paste laminated card process. This page will give you an overview of the technology behind current digital card printers & photo ID systems.

Please contact us if we may answer any further questions.

Information below provided by Eltron, Fargo, Magicard, Evolis, & DataCard:

All plastic card printers feature the same basic printing operations; dye sublimation and/or thermal transfer printing. Both techniques involve heating a thermal print head while in contact with a ribbon. However, thermal transfer printing differs from dye sublimation in that thermal transfer uses ink rather than dye. In thermal transfer printing, heat melts the ink on the ribbon, causing it to transfer to the card surface. In dye sublimation, heat vaporizes the ribbon dye, which then permeates the plastic card.

The ribbon used in color dye sublimation printing is divided into three separate color panels Yellow, Magenta, and Cyan (see Figure 1). This configuration is referred to as YMCKT or YMCKO.
The K Panel ribbon is also known as the monochrome color which is used for any Text fields on the card or Barcodes.

(fig.1)

As mentioned above, thermal transfer differs from dye sublimation in that it uses ink instead of dye. However, both dye sublimation and thermal ink (sometimes referred to as Resin) can be combined in one ribbon (see Figure 2). This ribbon is known as a YMCK Ribbon. The letter "K" designates the color black in the printing industry.

Why do you need a separate black panel, when you can create black by mixing the three basic YMC colors together?

The answer to this question is simple. The black created by mixing the YMC colors together is referred to as "Composite Black." Composite Black typically looks muddy or has a grayish tint when compared to Thermal Transfer (TT or resin) black. Composite Black is not recommended for printing bar codes since it does not produce the sharp edge many scanners require. Although this is invisible to the naked eye, it is easily observable under magnification). Composite Black is also invisible to IR scanners since there is no carbon in the dye. Since you may not know what type of scanner will be used, the rule is to always use TT (resin) black to print bar codes.

In general, all dye-sub printers are capable of printing in monochrome using a single color ribbon. These ribbons are less expensive than full color multi-panel ribbons and can be either dye or ink (thermal transfer). The most commonly used monochrome ribbon is "Black" but there are several other colors available including; Red, Green, and Blue.

Dye Sublimation ribbons are preferred for printing pictures, since they can produce many shades of gray for a smoother look and a better picture quality. A resin black picture normally uses a dithered gray scale (gray made from a combination of pixels which limits the number of shades), producing a coarser, grainy look to the image.

Thermal Transfer (resin) ribbons should be used to print text, bar codes or single color graphics such as simple logos. The letter "K" followed by a lower case "r" or "d" (Kr or Kd) denotes black monochrome ribbons. This page information courtesy of Plasco ID.