YMC
Glossary
YMC
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Yellow, magenta, and cyan. These are the three colors from which all other colors that appear on ID cards are made.
On ID card printer ribbons made for dye sublimation ID card machines, each of these colors is stored on a separate panel of the ribbon; during the printing process, each panel goes over the blank plastic card in succession. By the time three panels have passed over the ID card, a full-spectrum likeness of the stored image has been achieved.
This acronym - YMC - appears in the designation given ID printer ribbons. Almost invariably the letter “K”, which stands for black, will follow it. The letter “O”, which stands for “overcoat” and is a protective clear layer deposited atop the others, will also then appear.
Black is sometimes defined as the presence of all other colors. But on the surface of an ID card, combining cyan, magenta, and yellow dye produces a blackish gray. The black bar codes and text that ID cards carry are produced when ID badge printers melt the special resin-based black ink carried on the “K” panel.
