Dye-sublimation printing

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History of printing
Techniques Woodblock printing 200 Movable type 1040 Intaglio (printmaking) 1430 Printing press c. 1440 Etching c. 1515 Mezzotint 1642 Relief printing 1690 Aquatint 1772 Lithography 1796 Chromolithography 1837 Rotary press 1843 Hectograph 1860 Offset printing 1875 Hot metal typesetting 1884 Mimeograph 1885 Daisy wheel printing 1889 Photostat and rectigraph 1907 Screen printing 1911 Spirit duplicator 1923 Dot matrix printing 1925 Xerography 1938 Spark printing 1940 Phototypesetting 1949 Inkjet printing 1950 Dye-sublimation 1957 Laser printing 1969 Thermal printing c. 1972 Solid ink printing 1972 Thermal-transfer printing 1981 3D printing 1986 Digital printing 1991
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Dye-sublimation printing (or dye-sub printing) is a term that covers several distinct digital computer printing techniques that involve using heat to transfer dye onto a substrate.

The sublimation name was first applied because the dye was thought to make the transition between the solid and gas states without going through a liquid stage. This understanding of the process was later shown to be incorrect, as there is some liquefication of the dye. Since then, the process has become properly known as dye diffusion, though this technically correct term has not supplanted the original name.^[1]

Historically, "dye sublimation" referred to page printers that use a thermal printhead to transfer dye from a ribbon directly onto the print media via sublimation. While it originally was used in creating prepress proofs, today this technology survives in ID card printers and dedicated photo printers, often under the name dye diffusion thermal transfer (D2T2).

The term was later also applied to the indirect sublimation transfer printing process, which uses a standard ink-jet printer to deposit sublimation-capable ink onto a transfer sheet. The printed transfer sheet is then pressed with the substrate with heat, transferring the dye to the substrate, such as plastic or fabric, via sublimation.^[2][1] Thus, this process is indirect, since the final substrate does not pass through the printer, and the sublimation step occurs separately.

The term direct dye sublimation is sometimes applied to a variant of digital textile printing using dye-sublimation inks printed directly onto fabric, which must then be heated to set the dyes, without the use of a transfer sheet.^[3][4]