Page "Dye-sublimation printer" Paragraph 11

The amount of wasted dye per page is also very high ; most of the dye in the four panels may be wasted for a typical print.

Once a panel has been used, even to just print a single dot, the remaining dye on that panel cannot be reused for another print without leaving a blank spot where the dye was used previously.

Due to the single-roll design of most printers, four panels of colored dye must be used for every print, whether or not a panel is needed for the print.

Printing in monochrome saves nothing, and the three unused color panels for that page cannot be recycled for a different single-color print.

Inkjet printers can also suffer from ' dye wastage ' as the ink cartridges are prone to drying up with low usage ( without ' heavy use ', the cartridge nozzles can become clogged with dried ink ).

Dye-sublimation media packs, ( which contain both ribbon and paper ), are rated for an exact number of prints which yields a fixed cost per print.

This is in opposition to inkjet printers where inks are purchased by volume.