Direct-to-Card (DTC®) printing is the most common technology used by desktop card printer/encoders to transfer images directly onto a plastic ID card.

DTC technology prints images by heating a print ribbon beneath a thermal printhead, resulting in the transfer of color from the ribbon to a blank card  Sharp edges, deep blacks and the full spectrum of colors

DTC technology uses two printing methods to achieve its incredible image quality:

Dye-sublimation prints smooth, continuous-tone images
that look truly photographic. A dye-based ribbon is partitioned by multiple color panels, which are grouped in a repeating series of colors along the ribbon’s length.

A printhead containing hundreds of thermal elements heats the dyes, which vaporize and diffuse into the card surface.
By combining colors and varying the heat used to transfer them, dye-sublimation is capable of producing up to 16.7 million colors.

Resin thermal transfer uses a single-color ribbon to print sharp black text and crisp bar codes, which can be read by both infrared and visible-light scanners.

While this process uses the same thermal printhead as dye-sublimation, solid dots of color are transferred rather than a combination of colors.

CardJet Printing Technology is a quiet and highly dependable method of ID card personalization.

Using a specialized HP inkjet-based print engine, Fargo CardJet Printers transfer color and monochrome inks to specially formulated CR-80 CardJet Cards. A thermal inkjet printing process heats the ink, generating vapor bubbles ejected in small drops through nozzles in the CardJet Ink Cartridge.

Drops are precisely placed on specially coated CardJet Cards to form text and images. CardJet Ink bonds and dries instantly, producing full-color, 600 dpi images that run over the edge of cards.