There are other types of printers available, mostly special-purpose
printers for professional graphics or publishing organizations. These
printers are not for general purpose use, however. Because they are
relegated to niche uses, their prices (both one-time and recurring
consumables costs) tend to be higher relative to more mainstream
units.
Thermal Wax Printers
These printers are used mostly for business presentation
transparencies and for color proofing
(creating test documents and images for close quality inspection
before sending off master documents to be printed on industrial
four-color offset printers). Thermal wax printers use sheet-sized,
belt driven CMYK ribbons and specially-coated paper or
transparencies. The printhead contains heating elements that melt
each wax color onto the paper as it is rolled through the
printer.
Dye-Sublimation Printers
Used in organizations such as service bureaus — where
professional quality documents, pamphlets, and presentations are
more important than consumables costs — dye-sublimation (or
dye-sub) printers are the workhorses of quality CMYK printing. The
concepts behind dye-sub printers are similar to thermal wax
printers except for the use of diffusive plastic dye film instead
of colored wax. The printhead heats the colored film and vaporizes
the image onto specially coated paper.
Dye-sub is quite popular in the design and publishing world as
well as the scientific research field, where preciseness and
detail are required. Such detail and print quality comes at a
price, as dye-sub printers are also known for their high
costs-per-page.
Solid Ink Printers
Used mostly in the packaging and industrial design industries,
solid ink printers are prized for their ability to print on a wide
variety of paper types. Solid ink printers, as the name implies,
use hardened ink sticks that that are melted and sprayed through
small nozzles on the printhead. The paper is then sent through a
fuser roller which further forces the ink onto the paper.
The solid ink printer is ideal for prototyping and proofing
new designs for product packages; as such, most service-oriented
businesses would not have a need for this type of printer.
