ID card printers usually come with ribbons with different sections of primary colors. There are three basic types of colored printers, including YMC, YMCK, and YMCKO. The ribbons lead to colored printing by using different sections of colors on the ribbon.
The most common sublimation ribbon includes the following;
- Yellow, denoted by Y
- Magenta, represented by M
- Cyan dye denoted by C
- Black resin panel denoted by K
- The overlay panel denoted by O
The YMCK ribbon stands for Yellow, Magenta, CYAN, and Black resin sections. The YMCK ribbon is used for printing colored cards with the option to use black for printing bar codes to be read by scanners. Whereas the YMC also offers colored card printing but without the use of crisp black for barcodes. You only get composite black which is acceptable for general use. On the other hand, the YMCKO ribbon does the same job as the YMCK ribbon in printing, except it uses an additional ‘O’ overlay panel that provides thin layers of protection for the card. This layer offers no color but keeps the colors on the cards from fading out or tearing down over time.