Printers: What Photo Booth Companies are Not Telling You:

You have decided to get a photo booth for your event and have started contacting companies. You spend a few minutes on the phone with each photo booth vendor. They find out what you need, and say what they can do for you. Quick question, did the type of printer they use come up in the conversation? That’s like buying a car and not asking about the engine. The Photo Booth’s main goal is to create “high quality” memories that will last for years, and if they use the wrong printer, then they might not withstand the test of time.

What They Don’t Want You To Know:

There are (2) main printer types used by photo booth rentals. One of them is called an inkjet printer  that cost around $150, and the other is a dye-sublimation printer that cost between $150 - $2,300. The professional dye sublimation printers that we use are at the upper end of the scale at $1200 – $2,300 each and we have at least 2 on every job.

I am sure that you have heard of the inkjet printer. It is most commonly found in a family computer room. The reason it is widely used by families, is because it is cheep and does the job. However, inkjet printers will create the illusion of an image by placing very small dots of ink on the paper.

This does not compare to a professional dye-sublimation printer which lays down layers of color and finishes with a layer of lamination that protects the print from water and finger print damage. There are cheep dye sublimation printers that only cost around $150 - $200 but they are very, very slow. The big difference in dye sublimation printers is: The more expensive the printer the faster it is. The cheep printers take 120-180 seconds to print a 4x6. Our printers only take 3 ½ - 7 seconds!

Which Photo Lasts Longer?

When guests take photos in a photo booth, they will typically put the photos in their pocket until they get home. Our dye sublimation printers have an over-coated, laminated protected layer to prevent the photo from getting damaged. This enables your color photo to last for up to 100 years in normal conditions. The dye sublimation print is waterproof and finger print resistant. The output from an inkjet printer or cheep dye sub printer does not even come close to these standards… even with special inks. Some photo booths try to justify their photo quality with a protective plastic sleeve. This is just a short term patch for a long term problem!

Printing Speed:

Time is of the essence, guests get anxious if they wait in line for too long. Our professional dye sublimation printers can produce a photo in less than 7 seconds. Some inkjet printers take up to 2-3 minutes!

The Verdict:

Any company that you consider should tell whether they use inkjet or dye sublimation printers and, if it is dye sublimation, the speed of the printer. As you can tell from the information above, our professional, lab quality dye sublimation printers win hands down and are almost 10 times more expensive and 20-30 times faster. This is the main reason why our Green Screen Photo Booths use professional dye sublimation printers. We want to make sure that your photos will print quickly and last many, many years.
For info on reserving our Green Screen Photo Booth, you can email us at: [email protected]  or call 901-737-2221