FARGO electronic HDP820 - Manual (Page 30)

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HDP 800 Series Card Printer/Encoders Service Manual (Rev. 5.0) 16
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. The
Card Printer will print from any IBM-PC® or compatible running Windows® 98Se/Me,
Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000 or Windows XP Pro.
The following describes how each of these technologies works:
Function Description
Dye-
Sublimation Dye-Sublimation is the print method the Card Printer uses to produce
smooth, continuous-tone images that look photographic. (Note: This
process uses a dye-based ribbon roll that is partitioned by a number of
consecutive color Panels.)
• Process colors: The Panels are grouped in a repeating Series of
three process colors - yellow, magenta and cyan (YMC), along the
entire length of the Print Ribbon.
• Panels: The Printer always prints the yellow Panel first, followed by
the magenta Panel and the cyan Panel.
• Printhead: As the Print Ribbon passes beneath the Printhead,
hundreds of thermal elements within the Printhead heat the dyes on the
ribbon. (Note: When these dyes are heated, they vaporize and diffuse
into the surface of the card. A separate pass is made for each of the
three color Panels on the ribbon.)
• color Shades: 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.)
• Dye-Diffusion Thermal Transfer: It is the process of heating a dye
suspended in a cellulous substrate until the dye can flow, diffusing into
the dye receptive surface of the card or InTM. This produces the image
in the surface of the card.
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