Conventional Thermal dye transfer printing uses cyan, magenta and yellow (CMY) dyes to build up a full color image. This paper concerns the use of fluorescent dyes to build up a full color image which is virtually invisible under normal illumination, but glows brightly when illuminated with a UV blacklight. In order to obtain the image, the CMY dyeset is replaced by a red, green and blue (RGB) fluorescent dyeset. Unlike other forms of printing, the process employs additive color combination. If the RGB ribbon is used in a conventional printer instead of a CMY ribbon, the image must first be converted to a negative in order to give the correct color values. There are a number of applications envisaged for this process. It can provide an additional level of security on transaction cards, or it could be used for novelty applications.
Ian R. Stephenson, Richard A. Hann, "Full Colour Fluorescent Images Printed by Thermal Dye Transfer" in Proc. IS&T Int'l Conf. on Digital Printing Technologies (NIP21), 2005, pp 191 - 192, https://doi.org/10.2352/ISSN.2169-4451.2005.21.1.art00054_1