Inkless Printers

So, what is an inkless printer? It uses Zero Ink. And so its called ZINK! Before you turn skeptical - it also uses zero ribbons and zero toner.

The heart of Zink is the Zink Paper™. It is more than normal paper (though it looks like regular white paper); it is an advanced composite material with cyan, yellow, and magenta dye crystals embedded inside and a protective polymer overcoat layer outside, enabling true ink-free prints. A ZINK-enabled device uses heat to activate and colorize these dye crystals. These crystals, named Amorphochromic™ crystals, represent an entirely new class of molecules, were invented by former Polaroid employees. The properties of each dye crystal were finely tuned to achieve the color palette and image stability required for beautiful, full-color digital prints.

The first product to use ZINK technology, Polaroid PoGo, is a pocket-sized, mobile photo printer, which is baterry operated! You can beam your images via Bluetooth and Viola! you get 2" x 3" photos! The printer is likely to cost $150 and the paper will work out to 40 cents a sheet.

Just how much market share Zink products will garner, remains to be seen! But it is a very innovative product.