Sublimation, known as Dye sublimation in printing terminology, uses the process of sublimation of printing ink to print full-color images onto paper and other various substrates. The ink, a solid dye material, is vaporized by a small heater directly onto the paper. After being absorbed by the paper, the ink cools down and solidifies. This allows the mechanism, when implemented in a printer, to achieve better control of primary color ratios and good quality pictures at relatively low resolutions. The 'Phaser' series of computer printers from Tektronix were the first mass-produced printers to implement the dye sublimation process of printing.

The printing process involves a long transparent film roll of red, blue, yellow and gray, representing the four basic colors of printing - cyan, magenta, yellow and black, and colored cellophane being heated by a print head as it passes over it. The ink vaporizes instantly and permeates the glossy or matt surface of paper passing under the other side of the transparent film. A gentle gradation at the edges of each pixel is created by the vaporized colors as they permeate the paper surface as compared to the obvious border produced by inkjets. This leads to individual color dots densely packed together on the paper surface as found in printouts from inkjet printers. This allows printing photo-quality pictures at significantly lower costs and higher speeds. The colors printed onto the paper are less vulnerable to fading and distortion over a period time as compared to other methods of printing.

Dye sublimation is also implemented in laser printers for printing special 'transfer toner' sublimation dye onto plain paper that is used to create unique designs on T-shirts, mugs, puzzles, hats, metals and other surfaces. The plain paper is later used to transfer the design permanently onto such materials using a special heat transfer mechanism.