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richardmilne
17-05-2011, 07:34 PM
Hello all, I hope someone can give me a bit of advice.

Well I'm in the process of constructing a new web/iphone/android app. I can't go into precisely what it's going to do because it's still months away from launching and I've yet to officially announce it.

Suffices to say, this service will rely heavily on a dye-sub printer, printing onto paper media (either 6x4 or 8x6, haven't decided yet). My end product will be printed on both sides, which poses a big problem in that there appears to be very few dye sub printers that offer duplex functionality. (I've found one - the Kodak D4000 which isn't even on sale yet).

So my first question is this: Does anyone know of a dye-sub printer that will print both sides of my paper media.

Now I've had another idea on this. My end product only needs a photo printed one side. The other side will only be black on white. I'm not ruling out constructing a tray that will transfer the dye-sub print to another (non dye sub) printer. I've actually tested this with an inkjet, with some kodak media but the rear of the media wouldn't play nice with the ink, it just sort of sat on the surface.

So my second query is: Does anyone know of dye-sub media that has a porous surface on the back, with no fuji/kodak etc logos? OR does anyone know if a laser printer would do a better job, as I don't have access to one right now.

For the sake of keeping things simple, I'd really rather just have the one printer. The D4000 looks great, but isn't available yet and looks like it will cost the earth.

Hope someone can advise. I'll be sure to dish out some invites here when this service enters the beta testing phase, which will hopefully be July/August.

Cheers!

Justin
17-05-2011, 07:42 PM
D4000 looks like a thermal printer. If it's sublimation you're looking at doing, i.e. mugs, mouse mats, coasters and so on then this won't be suitable. You need to look at the Epsons/Ricohs as you'll find on the supplier list in the General Sye Sub section. What is the end product? Is it just a paper product or something sublimated?

richardmilne
17-05-2011, 07:54 PM
Yeah just a paper product for now. Should have specified thermal dye sublimation. My tests so far with the inkjet printer and thermal dye sub media have been with prints from a Citizen OP900. It's that sort of thing I'm after, just with duplexing. It would appear this is a very niche requirement with thermal dye sub printers.

bms
17-05-2011, 07:54 PM
Hello all, I hope someone can give me a bit of advice.

Well I'm in the process of constructing a new web/iphone/android app. I can't go into precisely what it's going to do because it's still months away from launching and I've yet to officially announce it.

Suffices to say, this service will rely heavily on a dye-sub printer, printing onto paper media (either 6x4 or 8x6, haven't decided yet). My end product will be printed on both sides, which poses a big problem in that there appears to be very few dye sub printers that offer duplex functionality. (I've found one - the Kodak D4000 which isn't even on sale yet).

So my first question is this: Does anyone know of a dye-sub printer that will print both sides of my paper media.

Now I've had another idea on this. My end product only needs a photo printed one side. The other side will only be black on white. I'm not ruling out constructing a tray that will transfer the dye-sub print to another (non dye sub) printer. I've actually tested this with an inkjet, with some kodak media but the rear of the media wouldn't play nice with the ink, it just sort of sat on the surface.

So my second query is: Does anyone know of dye-sub media that has a porous surface on the back, with no fuji/kodak etc logos? OR does anyone know if a laser printer would do a better job, as I don't have access to one right now.

For the sake of keeping things simple, I'd really rather just have the one printer. The D4000 looks great, but isn't available yet and looks like it will cost the earth.

Hope someone can advise. I'll be sure to dish out some invites here when this service enters the beta testing phase, which will hopefully be July/August.

Cheers!

From what you're saying it looks like you are after a printer that uses a sublimation process to produce a glossy picture directly from the printer. This isn't necessarily the process that is used on this forum, instead we print onto ordinary paper and then use heat & pressure to transfer the image onto produce that Justin refers to. It all depends what you are trying to achieve, but the Kodak printers sometimes get confused with what we do here or people think the Kodak printers can be used for sublimation printing - yes they can but only to produce photos onto photo paper.

John G
18-05-2011, 10:48 AM
Can you not just use a laser printer then laminate afterwards ? - I can't get my head around why it needs to be dye sub printed

Kaz
18-05-2011, 11:08 AM
Sublimation paper doesn't allow you to print on both sides.

Well, it does, but one side won't be as vibrant and clear as the other side.

But to answer your question, the Ricoh GX7000 has duplex facilities, but the duplex unit is about another £150 over and above the initial cost of the printer and inks