FARGO electronic C16 service manual Functional Specifications

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Functional Specifications

This Card Printer utilizes two different, yet closely related printing technologies to achieve its remarkable direct-to-card print quality for dye-sublimation and resin thermal transfer. The Card Printer will print from any IBM-PC® or compatible running Windows® 95/98/Me, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000 or Windows XP.

The following describes how each of these technologies works:

Function	Description
Dye-	Dye-Sublimation is the print method the C16 uses to produce smooth,
Sublimation	continuous-tone images that look truly photographic. (Note: This process
	uses a dye-based ribbon roll that is partitioned by a number of consecutive
	color panels.)
	• The panels are grouped in a repeating series of these three process
	colors along the entire length of the print ribbon: yellow, magenta and
	cyan or YMC.
	• The Printer always prints the yellow panel first, followed by the magenta
	panel and the cyan panel. (Note: As the print ribbon passes beneath
	the Printhead, hundreds of thermal elements within the Printhead heat
	the dyes on the ribbon. When these dyes are heated, they diffuse into
	the surface of the card. A separate pass is made for each of the three
	color panels on the ribbon.)
	By combining the colors of each panel and by varying the heat used to
	transfer these colors, it is possible to print up to 16.7 million different
	shades of color. (Note: This blends one color smoothly into the next,
	producing photo-quality images with absolutely no dot pattern.)
Resin	Resin Thermal Transfer is the print method the Printer uses to print sharp
Thermal	black text and crisp bar codes, which can be read by both infrared and
Transfer	visible-light bar code scanners.
	• Used to print ultra-fast, one-color ID cards on the C16. (Note: Like
	dye-sublimation, this process uses the same thermal Printhead to
	transfer color to a card from a resin-only print ribbon or the Resin Black
	(K) Panel of a full color print ribbon.)
	• Solid dots of resin-based ink are transferred and fused to the surface of
	the card. (Note: This produces durable, saturated printing.)

Persona￿ C16 Card Printer Service Manual (Rev. 5.0) 12