FARGO electronic II manual How Your Color ID Card Printer Works Special Features, Introduction

A. How Your

Color ID Card

Printer Works

B.Special Features

The Color ID Card Printer utilizes dye-sublimation printing technology to achieve its direct-to-card photo-quality output. Dye-sublimation is a process which 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 four separate colors, Yellow, Magenta, Cyan, and Black (YMCK), along the entire length of the ribbon. The ID Card Printer always prints the yellow panel first, followed by the magenta panel, the cyan panel, and finally the black panel. If applicable, the fifth clear overlay panel will always follow the black panel.

As the ribbon and card pass simultaneously beneath the printhead, the 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 the heat intensity of each thermal element within the printhead, it is possible for each transferred dot of color to vary in hue, thus blending one color into the next. The result? Continuous-tone, photo- realistic color images.

The Color ID Card Printer will print from any IBM- PC¨ or compatible running Windowsª 3.1x or Windows 95. This means that you can use the printer with virtually any software package running under Windows without any special set- up or configuration beyond the initial installation of the specific software driver and interface cable.

Data is sent to the Color ID Card Printer in a bit- mapped, rasterized format so your computer, along with the printer driver software, will do almost all of the complex Raster Image Processing (ÒRIPÓ) work; therefore, the faster your computer, the faster the image will be RIPÕd and sent to the printer.

Your Color ID Card Printer has many distinct advantages over other color ID card printers. Its 100 card capacity card hopper allows for automatic card feeding which reduces the time and personnel required to create a photo ID card. In addition, the Color ID Card Printer offers:

■Automatic, dual-sided printing in color or monochrome

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Introduction

Congratulations on your purchase of the Color ID Card Printer. This printer has been designed to provide you with stunning, photo- quality color output on a variety of different card sizes and thicknesses. It offers many features which easily allow you to create full-color photo ID cards complete with high resolution graphics, text, bar codes, and even a clear or holographic overlaminate.

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