How Your Color Sign Printer Works - Primera Pictura 310s User Manual

A. How Your
Color Sign
Printer Works
The Color Sign Printer utilizes two different, yet
closely related printing technologies to achieve its
remarkable output Ñ thermal transfer and dye-
sublimation.
Thermal Transfer
Thermal transfer is a process which uses either a
resin-based or a wax-based ribbon roll as a carrier
for transferring color to either ribbonsÕ appropriate
type of print media (see Section 4 for more
information on these ribbons and the appropriate
print media for each). Such ribbons are available in
single spot colors and/or in a paneled form which
includes each of the yellow, magenta, and cyan
process colors on the same ribbon roll. By
providing each of the process colors, paneled
ribbons allow you to conveniently produce full-
color images automatically, from a single ribbon.
As the ribbon and print media pass simultaneously
beneath the Color Sign PrinterÕs printhead,
thousands of thermal elements within the
printhead melt the colored inks, thus transferring
thousands of tiny colored dots from the ribbon
onto the print media. If using a paneled ribbon, the
print media automatically makes a separate pass
for each colored panel on the ribbon. By combining
different colored dots from each ribbon panel in
different combinations (this process is called
ÒditheringÓ), the Color Sign Printer is able to print
up to 16.7 million colors.
Dye-Sublimation
Dye-sublimation is similar to thermal transfer in
that it still involves a paneled, multi-pass process
beneath the same thermal printhead. The
difference, however, lies within the special dye-
sublimation ribbon and print media and in the
transfer process itself.
Unlike a thermal transfer ribbon, each colored
panel on a dye-sublimation ribbon is composed of
a colored dye rather than a colored ink. When the
dyes on the ribbon are heated beneath the thermal
printhead, they vaporize and diffuse into the
surface of the special dye-receptive print media. By
varying the heat intensity of each thermal element
within the printhead, the Color Sign Printer is able
to change the value and hue of each transferred dot
of color. This results in the blending of one colored
dot into the next, producing continuous-tone,
photo-realistic, color-accurate images with no
dithering.
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I ntroduction
Thank you for
choosing the
Color Sign
Printer. The Color
Sign Printer has
been designed to
provide you with
stunning, high-
quality color
output on
outdoor-durable
vinyl, paper,
transparency film
or even T-shirt
transfer paper. It
offers many
features which
make printing
full-color signs,
labels, decals,
proofs, layouts,
and heat transfers
very fast, easy
and exciting.
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