Sublimation inks are used by inkjet printers as it prepares to print on the sublimation paper. This causes the powdery dyes to heat up and vaporize into a gaseous form. These gaseous dyes diffuse and are allowed to permeate the printing surface, creating a photo quality print by gentle gradations. Once a color has been used, the roller of the printer is then reset for the next color to be printed. After all the colors have been printed , the substrate then makes a final pass over the printed image to give it a glossy outlook by lamination.

Dye sublimation inks are used to print reverse images on heat resistant sublimation paper for the final design. When they are about to be transferred to the polyester fabric, a heat press is used that operates at a temperature around 180⁰C to 210⁰C (375⁰F).

The dyes get separated from each other using a class of organic chemicals system often known as anthroquinone, azo, and phthalocyanine dye systems.

When using Dye Diffusion Thermal Transfer (D2T2), the YMCKO ribbon is used to transfer pixels on the substrate through the thermal head. The ribbon consists of Y-yellow, M-magenta, C-color spectrums, K as black panel and O is the overlay which is a thin protective covering.