FARGO electronic Card Printer - Manual (Page 6)

Introduction
1
Section 1: Introduction 1
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
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