[shuttertalk]

This is pretty cool upcoming technology (via furl.net) - a compact printer the size of an iPod that prints without ink. Well sort of... the ink is in the paper itself.

In Zink's system, images are created when a heated printer head comes into contact with a sheet of specialized paper. The paper--which is actually a polymer but feels like ordinary photo paper--contains three crystalline layers. The three layers are clear until heated. When heated, the material turns amorphous and changes colors: one of the crystalline layers turns yellow, the middle one goes magenta, while the final one turns blue. The layers are activated at different temperatures and require different cooking times.

Apart from a printer, they're also looking at a compact camera with built in printer. Hey, sort of reminds you of Polaroid doesn't it? Well no wonder - the company has developed this technology in conjunction with Polaroid.

The first two products likely will be a standalone printer, and a camera with a built-in printer. The company is showing off the technology this week at the technology conference Demo 07, taking place this week in Palm Desert, CA (Sonny Bono and Gerald Ford territory).

http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9682333...=permalink

[Don Schaeffer]

It looks like we've come full circle. In the early 1970s, the first printers for home computers were thermal printers using thermal layered paper. The letters were formed when the paper was heated.