Digital Prints

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Mastering Digital Printing
Examples of dye-sub printers include: Olympus P-440, and P-10; Kodak Pro 8500 and
Photo Printer 6800; and Sony DPP-EX50.
Dye Sub: For What and for Whom?
Dye sub is popular with pro and advanced-amateur photographers who want continuoustone,
photographic image quality. Prints speeds can be very fast: 20 seconds per 5x7 on
the Kodak 6800, or 75 seconds for letter-size on the Olympus P-440. Also, certain types
of dye-sub prints are more scratch-resistant than with inkjet.
While dye sub yields photographic quality to the naked eye, disadvantages are the high
cost of the larger format or specialized printers—Kodak’s 6800 is targeted to event photographers
and studios, and it’s priced at $3,000, the high cost of the consumable
supplies, and the limited choice of special papers and ribbons (glossy and matte only).
The Olympus P-440 Photo Printer is a
dye-sub printer that produces realistic,
continuous-tone images
Courtesy of Olympus America, Inc.