How to print on plastic?

How do they print photos on plastic and where can I get the sheets?

• My son got his school pictures recently. Included was a sheet of plastic that had his picture on 3 bookmarks, 2 key chains and 2 wallet cards. My question is how did they do this? I would like to make them myself. I think they used some form of Dye Sublimation printing, but where did they get the perforated plastic sheets? And example of the sheets can be found here: http://www.schoolphotocompany.org/images/Digital_Products/Family_Fun_Pack.jpg I'm looking for these exact sheets. Thanks

• Answer:

  merlotony, You're exactly right - what you're seeing there is dye-sublimation processing/printing. Dye-sub printing has come a long way in the last few years - even to the point that one can use a fairly low-end Epson inkjet printer as part of the process. It can also be quite fun & pretty simple. The concept is that ink is baked into specialized substrate materials (for example, a coaster with a special coating on top) - this actually places the ink into the material, so scratches and wear/tear won't affect it. Unfortunately, the printing process does require some specialized things that can make it a bit costly to get started - specialized inks and/or a specialized printer, a heat press, and special "imprintable" materials. If you're interested, I'd encourage you to take a look at http://www.dyesub.org - this site has quite a bit of info about the process and does a good job of explaining it. Also, if you'd like, you can take a look at http://www.johnsonplastics.com - this is just one of many companies that specialize in this process, but they were quite helpful in explaining the processes and options when I was starting to look into it. I hope this is helpful to you. Have a good one!