Dye Sublimation vs. Inkjet Photo Printers: An In-Depth Comparison

Photographers have to understand their choices of printers in the market which are best for their profession. Identifying which the better photo printer is between a dye sublimation printer and an inkjet printer is the best way to help photographers who have not much knowledge regarding this subject. Through this comparison, photographers will be able to make the best choice for their professional photo printing needs.

Dye Sublimation Printers: Photo Printing on the Road and in the Lab

Dye sublimation printers are devices which make use of dye panels as their inks. These dye panels are solid sheets of dye which are thermally imprinted onto photo paper using the printer’s sublimation process. This type of printer is the most preferable printing device for photos mainly because it can print top quality photos in good speeds. It is used as the mechanism of commercial photo printers which are used in photo studios and laboratories.

Dye sublimation printers have two classifications that you can find today. The first one is popularly known as the compact photo printer. The handy size of this kind of device is very ideal for a photographer’s outdoor printing needs. Such a photo printer is best uses for on-the-go photo printing, trips out of town, special occasions where printing or selling photos is a hit, and other places where printers are not commonly used.

The studio photo printer or dry mini-laboratory is the second type of dye sublimation printer which is preferably used for mass photo printing. Such printing device is typically used by commercial photo printing studios which can be found in malls and other public places. These devices are bulky and they have interfaces which are exclusively used for direct photo printing. Because they are commercial-grade, it is understandable that they can be quite expensive. These are best used in the offices of photo printing businesses.

Inkjet Printers: General and Home Photo Printing

To be able to print photos of your family even in your own household, it’s more preferable to have an inkjet photo printer. Inkjet printers utilize nozzles that paint images onto paper as well as ink cartridges that use liquid ink for vibrant colors. The print heads of inkjet printers move back and forth, painting the images of the photo onto the medium.

Inkjet printers are very affordable. Apart from this, they are also very functional. They are very versatile because they can be used for both photo printing as well as general document printing.

For photos, it’s important for an inkjet printer to have high resolutions of around 4,800 to 9,600 dpi and a high number of nozzles, preferably more than 3,000.

Conclusion

Choosing which is better between a dye sublimation printer and an inkjet printer is very difficult. The best way is to identify what each device is best used for and how it can be beneficial for your profession. Through this, you can have sufficient knowledge to decide whichever one really best fits your needs and preferences for photo printing.