FARGO electronic S000256 manual Functional Specifications

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Functional Specifications

The 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. (Note: 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 Persona C25 Card Printer uses to
Sublimation	produce smooth, continuous-tone, photographic images. (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 (YMC).

•The Printer always prints the yellow panel (first), the magenta panel (second), and the cyan panel (third).

•As the print ribbon passes beneath the Printhead, thermal elements within the Printhead heat the dyes on the ribbon. (Note: When these dyes are heated, the dyes vaporize and 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 no dot pattern.)

Resin	Resin Thermal Transfer is the print method the Printer uses to print sharp
Thermal	black text and crisp bar codes that can be read by both infrared and visible-
Transfer	light bar code scanners.
	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.
	The difference, however, is that solid dots of resin-based ink are
	transferred and fused to the surface of the card to produce durable,
	saturated printing.

Persona→ C25 Card Printer User Guide (Rev. 4.0) 12