Printing on plastic

The growth of plastics in our lives has been mirrored by a desire to decorate this material, whether for simple aesthetics, to incorporate brand logos, or for security reasons. However, possibly the main reason for wanting to print on plastics lies in the emergence of digital photography. So how's it done?

For the past two decades, the dye diffusion thermal transfer (D2T2) method has been used to print photographic quality images onto plastic substrates. Images are produced using heat which promotes the diffusion of dyes from a dye donor ribbon directly into the plastic substrate. The dyes can penetrate into several plastics, including polyesters and polyvinylchloride (PVC).