A custom lanyard is one that is made to meet the express desires of the buyer. The buyer selects which colors and what words he wants to have written on his lanyard. One of the great things about lanyards is that the manufacturer is able to do almost anything that the customer wants to make the lanyard truly unique. Dye sublimation lanyards are just one of the choices that most manufacturers offer buyers. The dye sublimation technique (this process is sometimes called full color) is a very specialized way of dying material that involves using very high temperatures to transfer the dye onto the material. What makes this method different from other methods is the fact that in the process of sublimation a solid is transferred into a gas without going through a liquid state. This may not seem important to you, but in the process of printing, it can make a huge difference in the quality and effect of the image. This process is the same kind of printing that they use in many photo shops to print photographs. If you have ever seen a photograph that was done on early printers, you may have noticed that the pictures appeared to be made up of hundreds of individual dots. The fact is that is exactly what they were. Although, each dot could be placed anywhere, the colors were limited to the actual dyes that were in the printer. Sublimation changes this. This process enables the printer to take advantage of what is known as continuous tone technology. A picture that is printed using this type of technology has a much more natural look and quality. The colors seem to blend rather than appearing as separate dots. This same method is used in many of the printers, which are used to produce photographs at home. When this process is used on cloth, the heated gas is absorbed right into the fibers of the material. Once the solution cools, the dye is a part of the very fiber. Over time, cloth that has been dyed using this process is far less likely to flake or crack. Additionally, colors are less likely to fade due to exposure to sunlight or repeated washing. Images that are printed using sublimation can include almost anything. Using this process, a photograph that is printed on material will still look like a photograph and will not have a pixilated look. This method of dying the lanyard is often slightly more expensive than other techniques. If you are designing a lanyard that is straightforward and does not require a lot of colors and details, you may find that a silkscreen one will suit your purposes.
You may never have thought about the process of lanyard dying before. You may even be wondering now why it matters. The answer is simple, when you are buying any product that is going to have the name of your company on it, you should get the very best and this includes buying dye sublimation lanyards.