Sublimation Ink (Dye) and Dye-sub photo printers? Difference?

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Ok... I'm looking pointedly at Grandad here while I polish his shows, offer a coffee and settle in to learn a few pearls of wisdom but if anyone else wants to educate my poor feeble noggin then please jump on in.

I am having some difficulties trying to work out what the differences are between Sublimation inks, which apparently can be used in some inkjet printers and Dye-Sublimation printers that seem to have appeared for photo printing.

As near as I can tell the main difference seems to be in the delivery process but that the two inks could actually be one and the same..

So, could anyone please help me understand? An idiots guide with as much detail, links, resources, etc... would help enormously :)

Thanks in advance :)
 

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What I know about this subject would fit into a thimble, with room to spare. However, a quick look on Google gave a few useful links. The first two discuss "dye-sub printing", which apparently uses transparent sheets coated with dye as the color source.
http://science.howstuffworks.com/question583.htm
http://www.sonic.net/mnitepub/pccafe/reviews/alpsprinter/alpsprinter.html

There are numerous links discussing dye sublimation inks, but these don't seem to be as clear. Some links discuss it as a replacement for screen printing (T-Shirts, etc.) and other links seem to refer to it as a dye ink with improved permanence. Perhaps someone who actually knows the answer will respond.
http://www.jesseheap.com/dye-sublimation-faq.php
http://www.a1imaging.com/faqs.html
http://www.t-shirtforums.com/archive/index.php/t-39.html
 

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Ah well.... that thimble pretty much overflows compared to my own knowledge base...

I too had heard about it being used as a replacement for t-shirt printing and then found more discussion about it in a photo printing forum but in relation to a ribbon cartridge set... then yet again someone else asked about liquid inks that could be used in ink-jet printers...

I'm getting the impression that what's happened is that someone at some point has labelled 2 slightly different products with the same name and that's where the confusion is coming from... I'll know soon enough though I guess..

Let's hope someone can tell us :)
 
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