FARGO electronic manual Introduction, Thank You, HOW Your Card Printer Works, Dye-Sublimation

Introduction

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Thank You...

for choosing a 4200 Series Card Printer. This printer has been designed to provide you with stunning, photo-quality output on a variety of different card sizes and thicknesses. It offers many features which easily allow you to create photo ID cards complete with high resolution graphics, text, bar codes, and much more.

A. HOW YOUR CARD PRINTER WORKS

The 4250 Color Card Printer utilizes two different, yet closely related printing technologies to achieve its remarkable, direct-to-card output Ñ dye-sublimation and resin thermal transfer. The 4225 Monochrome Card Printer, uses only the resin thermal transfer technology. The following describes how each of these technologies work:

Dye-Sublimation

Dye-sublimation is the process your printer uses to print smooth, continuous-tone images that look truly photographic. This process uses a dye-based ribbon roll that is partitioned by a number of consecutive color panels (see Section 4-A for more ribbon information). The panels are grouped in a repeating series of the four process colors Ñ yellow, magenta, cyan, and black Ñ along the entire length of the ribbon. The printer always prints the yellow panel first, followed by the magenta panel, the cyan panel, and finally the black panel.

As the ribbon and card pass simultaneously beneath the Printhead, hundreds of thermal elements within the Printhead heat the dyes on the ribbon. When these dyes are heated, they vaporize and diffuse into the surface of the card. By varying

Section 1: Introduction

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