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All photos by Wendell Benedetti
While most consumer photo printers use inkjet technology, Hi-Touch Imaging
Technologies takes a different approach. Their new 730PS is a dye-sublimation
printer. Instead of spraying microscopic droplets of colored inks on the media
like inkjets do, this four-pass dye-sublimation printer deposits color onto
the media by vaporizing plastic ribbons. The dye-sub printhead creates one line
of pixels at a time by vaporizing the ribbon and fusing it onto the surface
of the paper.
Because dye-sub printing is a continuous-tone process, an image printed on a
301 dpi dye-sub printer like the 730PS can look better than a picture printed
on a 1440 dpi inkjet printer. The 730PS places colors on the paper with roughly
the same accuracy as a 4800 dpi inkjet printer.
The new unit is capable of easily generating vivid 4x6, 5x7 and 6x8 prints.
The process begins when the printer pulls the paper in and applies the yellow
portions of the image. After the first pass is completed, the printer pulls
the paper back in and does the same for the magenta and then the cyan components.
The first three passes create the complete color image. A fourth pass applies
a protective film.
The resulting images have smooth gradations, excellent skin tones and bright
colors, without the slightest hint of the individual dots that can be seen on
some inkjet prints.
 Easy
Setup Procedure
Setting up the unit was easy and straightforward. It has one of the easiest
instruction sets to learn and use. The 730PS looks like a mini version of the
popular photo kiosks found at retail photo outlets. Because the sturdy printer
and tethered hand-held control unit sit upright, the 730PS—without paper
tray inserted—takes less than a square foot of desk space. That comes
in handy for cramped quarters.
Attaching the hand-held control unit to the printer, inserting the paper tray
and installing the ribbon is easy. However, care should be taken when inserting
the ribbon assembly into the printer and loading the paper into the paper tray.
Airborne dust particles and misplaced fingerprints can show up as noticeable
imperfections on the finished prints.
The 730PS can be used to generate high-quality output, either driven by a computer
or directly from a digital camera media card. For direct printing, the printer’s
twin-port card reader accepts CompactFlash, SmartMedia, Secure Digital (SD),
MultiMedia Card (MMC), Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro and IBM Microdrives. Images
are displayed on the unit’s LCD panel for review and selection.
The easiest way to become familiar with the printer is to insert a memory card
and make a print. For this review we used several CompactFlash cards (including
a Lexar card that was unreadable with our standard card reader). The 730PS had
no trouble reading any of them, including the problem card.
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