How do thermal colour printers work?

Mark R

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
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I can't work out how you could reliably get good colour rendition from these.

I know how conventional monochrome thermal printers work - the printer simply heats up part of the print head, and as the paper rolls past, the heat causes a chemical reaction converting a white 'pre-ink' into a black ink.

But how do the new colour versions work? Are there different inks, which respond to different temperatures - e.g. apply 50C to start producing cyan, apply 100c for yellow, etc.
 

KF

Golden Member
Dec 3, 1999
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Do you have a link to one of these new printers?

The last one I remember making news many years ago (ALPS?) had a three color ribbon of a some material. I believe they said it heated up the stuff and fused it to the paper. I think it was translucent and so you could get varied colors without the dot pattern method they use for ink jets.
 

Mark R

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
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Originally posted by: KF
Do you have a link to one of these new printers?
Linky

No, this doesn't use ribbons, cartridges, modules, etc. Everything you need is in the rolls of paper.