However, how do you account for the vertical collimation of the image? There is literally zero aberration from the vertical that would occur with any gaseous diffusion as such a scenario would require. Gas does not operate in such a manner.
In addition, it is recorded in the Bible they did not have time to wash and anoint Jesus' body before the Sabbath began, and that was what the women were on their way to do on Sunday morning when they discovered the stone rolled away.
Such a diffusion as you propose would diffuse into the fibers, not just onto the surface as well. . . as would any gaseous material.
The other problem also is that such a diffusion would leave residues that would be traceable with a micro-X-ray spectrograph. . . and there simply is none. We are talking about a device that could find the traces of the vinyl baggies the thread samples were carried to the test lab in, and was so sophisticated it could tell from those traces what company made those baggies by the composition of those chemical traces!
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Note that the reports (and your interpretation) have the transfer operating at ambient temperatures and pressures -- producing classical Brownian, diffuse, slow, and low-energy mixed transport of the gaseous materials. In that domain, the vapors tend to remain gaseous and, indeed, with time, would diffuse into (and around) the fibers.
The "Dye sublimation" mechanism (if not material) I proposed would have operated in a radically different time_temperature and energy domain.
In that T_t domain, the colorants (or reactive agents) begin and end the transfer process as condensed solids. And, the velocity imparted to them by the brief, but explosively energetic, heating process does, indeed, result in linear ("collimated", if you will) transport from source to destination. (Otherwise, "DyeSub" printing would produce unacceptably-blurred images...)
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Since we already have an established personal contact history, I'll type up something for sharing with you via FReepmail revealing personal, experiential info clarifying why I'm pursuing this specific "skin-to-cloth" transfer/transport mechanism.
So far, I see nothing in it that is at irreconcilable odds with the analyses performed by Rogers & Arnoldi. And, it does address the "collimation" issue...
Again, thanks for the references!! I look forward to communing with you on a different level than "mere Mac stuff"! '-)