By Ron Eggers

June 17, 2005 — Samsung's first consumer-level dye sublimation printers, the SPP-2020 and the deluxe SPP-2040, give photographers the ability to quickly generate 4" by 6" water- and fade-resistant prints that are virtually immune to fingerprints and smudging.

The new printers use the company's Dye Diffusion Thermal Transfer technology, which guarantees a level of color fidelity that is unmatched with inkjet technology. Part of that technology includes built-in color balancing, which consistently produces rich color prints with pleasing flesh tones.

They accept input from a PC via a USB 2.0 cable or directly from a camera phone, camcorder, or digital camera using USB 1.1 PictBridge. They support wireless as well as optional Bluetooth connectivity.

Unlike the SPP-2020, the SPP-2040 also has a 2" color TFT-LCD, which supports direct photo selection, editing, and deletion without the need for an attached PC. Its screen and touch buttons give users the ability to zoom in, rotate, resize, crop and then print. Both printers also have a 7-in-1 memory interface that accepts digital image files from Flash type I and II cards, Microdrives, Memory Sticks, and SmartMedia, SecureDigital, MultiMedia and XD Cards. The SPP-2020 and SPP-2040 ship with 10 sheets of Samsung photo paper and are compatible with Windows-based computers.

(Contact Ron Eggers at Newswatch@earthlink.net)