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Photos: Zink's teeny tiny printers | BNET

Zink printer
The portable printer from start-up Zink is about the size of an iPod. It prints 2 x 3 inch pictures, but larger formats will be available in the future. The printer has no ink cartridges, which enables the small size. Crystals in the special paper change from transparent to colored when heated.
 
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  •  
    1

    leeepson7800

    07/05/07 | Report as spam

    Finally A way to have not to worry about ink but..

    Ok so we don't have ink..ok it heat Sensitive something like that those heat treated papaers at the grocerly store..
    So m I to understand fully that each crystalchanges color accordig to the tempature of that color? h.. wahf about sublt changes like the reads and Oragnes in the sunsets with a cloud lining? Just how Much per sheet will this cot and wahts the max resolution that we can get.

    Just how soon will the larger formats be availiable?
    finally no more clogged heads, No more wasting ink for cleaning, hmm and a lot less few places to get dust in it...wh how does one coneect to it? and jsut how much for this nifty lil gadjet..I bet its a pretty penny.

  •  
    2

    meski.oz@...

    08/07/07 | Report as spam

    clogged jets

    If all you want is freedom from clogged jets, try the solid ink printers. This isn't an endorsement, but looks like being my next printer.

  •  
    3

    amg_gccjed@...

    07/08/07 | Report as spam

    Availabilty

    Is it available in the market now? and how much is the cost of this unit and also the paper you are going to use. is it a kind of thermal paper that after a few months the photos will fade away?

    Thanks,

    Andy

  •  
    4

    germanal

    07/11/07 | Report as spam

    Color fastness

    Will these thermal inks fade quickly?? The black prints on thermal papers used in calculators, POSs, etc. fade relatively quick.

  •  
    5

    sfrysfry

    07/14/07 | Report as spam

    Moving pictures on paper

    When I was a child I dreamed of inventing moving pictures on paper.
    I imagined a large stiff-cover horizontal book, with a double-page spread of a 10-second goal-scoring video sequence. My technology was 240 layers of inks that become transparent on exposure to light, (each) in exactly 1/24 of a second - displaying the 10-second sequence at 24 frames per second.

    I now see Zink's tiny-printer plays with adjustable crystals in its paper medium.
    Anyone have any further directions to take these ideas?
    (especially moving pictures on paper - which I am pleased to say I dreamed of decades before liquid crystals and before Harry Potter films exhibited moving portraits hanging in picture frames)?

    S B Fry
    P I Brasil (banking and investment translation)
    London; and Sao Paulo, Brazil

  •  
    6

    randomname

    07/15/07 | Report as spam

    Great gadget!

    What's it good for? Put another way, why would I want a paper pic that small? This looks like a doomed product.

  •  
    7

    Grogman

    07/16/07 | Report as spam

    Zink's teeny tiny printers

    I like this product and see a great potential market for it. The paperr needs to be readily available for purchase. Cheeers!

  •  
    8

    rtwgn

    07/16/07 | Report as spam

    This is a Polaroid generated product

    Don't know if everyone is aware but this product was developed by the Polaroid Research people. The company that won't die.

    It will be interesting to see how many more gadgets are still left in the closet over there. And believe me there are many.

    I think the Zink can have a great future.

  •  
    9

    sborger

    07/17/07 | Report as spam

    Great Idea if......

    I think this will be great for use with PDA's. Printer on the go.
    But it would have to be wireless...is it? And haveing the picture(or in my case it would be reciepts), not fade away ever. That to me is the deciding factor.
    I know there are small portable printers available, but an inkless printer would definately be more practicable.

  •  
    10

    pistonhead

    07/18/07 | Report as spam

    Cost of supplies

    Umm... how much does this special paper cost?

  •  
    11

    Tonymckeehan@...

    07/25/07 | Report as spam

    price and how its done

    from an internet source..
    ZINK's trick is to use special photo paper. Each sheet of paper, which will cost 20 cents, has microcrystals embedded in it. The ZINK printer heats the paper, "activating" the crystals to reveal color. According to the company, the images are "high quality, long-lasting, and durable."

    The company expects to launch products--mobile printers and fully featured seven- megapixel digital cameras with ZINK printers inside--by the end of the year. Check out the AP article here.

  •  
    12

    jon@...

    07/29/07 | Report as spam

    Thermal paper?

    I had a thermal paper printer back in the 80s. It connected to my Commodore 64. Back then, thermal paper printers were popular with fax machines as well. There are still some fax machines that use thermal paper today.

    The problem with B&W thermal paper is that it fades over time, and if it's left in the sun the whole thing goes completely black. Not to mention the fact that B&W photo paper is always super thin, easily torn, and difficult to handle.

    If this color printer product uses the same basic principles as B&W thermal paper, they had better at least do something about post-printing exposure to heat and sunlight, or else it will be a fad one year and forgotten the next, as people see all their photos fade away.

  •  
    13

    cainr@...

    07/30/07 | Report as spam

    ... but is it "green"

    This looks very cool but is this just another smoke & mirror approach to a "better environment"? I hope not, but we still have to ask the hard questions. How much energy does it take to produce the printer, the electronics and the paper - and like most new tech things - how do we dispose of it? What happens when it breaks?

    My initial thoughts are that it will be greener just because of it's size. It should take less energy to produce and use less to do what it does - not to mention take less land fill space (in the end). But still a few questions remain.

    ... but maybe most important - can it be connected to the iPhone!?? ha!

  •  
    14

    denniscrinion@...

    08/01/07 | Report as spam

    zinks printer

    Will it print from a mobile phone it would be great craic in the pub to give people their picture i think

  •  
    15

    Romano4444

    08/03/07 | Report as spam

    More gadgets for americans

    David Ricardo important british economist of XVIII century said:
    "If a nation gets rich, a nation gets poor".
    Today, only the americans can think and worst, buy
    such a thing.

    Paulo Romano
    Rio, Brasil

  •  
    16

    bmadives53@...

    08/08/07 | Report as spam

    I really want IT!

    The bigger 4x6, 5x7 is a very intresting thought
    How much is the paper?
    Nancy

  •  
    17

    nina.towns@...

    08/17/07 | Report as spam

    Sounds good to me!

    I would like to have one - but for now, I would just like to have a new, but inexpensive video graphics card for my desktop PC. shocked

  •  
    18

    Durv

    02/21/08 | Report as spam

    RE: (Photos: Zink's teeny tiny printers)

    The device is made by Polaroid using ZINK technology.
    The prints are 2 X 3 inches, smaller than a business card.
    The paper has the technology, so I expect it will be expensive, maybe $1 each.

    Why does anyone care about prints? You can see the image larger than this on the LCD on the camera, or on the computer's monitor. If someone wants to see your pictures, email them, or use an online photo site like Flickr.

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