The two possible thermal printer methods are the thermal transfer method and the direct method. In the process, both methods need a thermal printed, which distributes the heat on the paper that is being printed. The direct thermal technology doesn’t need a heated ribbon to create qualitative images, like the thermal transfer does. It simply projects the selected images on the prepared surface. However, the durability of the print is not that long lasting, due to this more shallow way of printing the images.

It is considered that the direct thermaland thermal transfer methods are the best ways to print bar codes. The reason for this belief is that the two methods offer more accurate and high-quality pictures, the main features that are essential for bar codes printing. The thermal printers are equipped with special capabilities to accurately print the exact bar widths that have been programmed. The both methods can print one- and two-dimensional symbologies of bar codes, or other prints that require the identical speeds and resolutions.

The direct thermal printing method requires heat-sensitive and special chemically prepared surfaces, that get blacker when they undergo the thermal printing. The advantage for direct thermal printers is that they don’t require a heated ribbon, ink, or toner, and are faster than the thermal transfer printers. Thus, they are easier to work with, and require no extra costs for maintenance or acquisition. Their price is comparably lower than that of inkjets, lasers, thermal transfer printers, or impacts. This is why the direct printing method is used by many mobile printers. They also have a more simple design, and are easier to handle.

If you were to choose between a thermal transfer printer and a direct thermal printer, the later can be considered less reliable, because the printed images would fade over time.

There are many label types that can be printed with the thermal printing technology, such as shipping labels, receipts, compliance labels, pick tickets, coupons, event tickets, name tags, citations and parking tickets, visitor passes, or others.

The thermal transfer printers are useful to print more categories of labels than a direct printer can normally print, using the paper, polyester and polypropylene surfaces. The products printed by thermal transfer printing are more durable than those printed by direct printers. It can print resistant wristbands, certification labels, asset tags, common labels, tickets and tags. There must be chosen the proper material for the matching ribbon in order to make sure that the created labels are resistant in time.

This matching is vital for establishing the durability of the printed labels, as well as for enriching these labels with resistance at high temperatures or damaging environmental factors, such as ultraviolet exposure, chemicals, and more. The usual thermal printing processes include the circuit board tracking, product identification, sample and file tracking, inventory identification, asset tagging, certification labels (UL/ CSA), laboratory specimens, outdoor applications and cold storage or freezers.

These specifications are meant to help you decide what type of printer you need. The differences between the direct thermal printer and the thermal transfer printer will show you how to make your choice.

You could say that the road to photography was created ever since the first person picked up a random object and tried to replicate what was around with it, on any kind of surface. Since back in the day where drawing meant you'd use a stick to draw a line in the sand people were fascinated with reproducing and saving everything that was around them. Many many years later, guess what, we're still at it, and getting much better at it too.

The digital camera and digital photography was born and now we have nearly unlimited options when shooting a photo. Still, there's that odd appeal of a printer photograph, that makes it tangible and makes you want to print out things that you could easily store and see on your PC. This is where photo printers become useful. They blend the modernism of digital cameras with the old fashioned print on paper that you can easily store in a photo album and pass on to the future generations.

In a world that's fascinated with photography and mobility at the same time, the only reasonable path to evolution for manufacturers was very predictable. And so the portable photo printer was born. Some people seem to call it the 'Selphy'. This is because it's among the most popular lines of portable printers on the market. The latest model from Canon's popular line is the CP790. As you look at it for the very first time you'll understand what makes it popular. Compared to other types of printer, whether they bare the Canon logo or of another manufacturer, Selphy photo printers are family oriented and look exciting. This particular one could easily pass for a grass-green bucket; and that's because it is one.

After a couple of seconds of disbelief one can only draw the conclusion that Canon has a team of very inteligent people who realized how many things you could actually hide in the bucket, right under the printer; like the power plugs and supplies when you're taking it along outside the house.

The top of the CP790 houses a 3 inch color LCD and the Easy Scroll wheel controls for navigation. This makes for some pretty convenient photo previewing, editing and printing. Scaling, red eye correction as well as color adjustments are all a part of what the CP790 can do. One very important detail is that this Selphy uses dye-sublimation technology. 4 by 6 photographs are printed in great quality and bring back some of that fine gradation so typical of film-based photos. For a photo to actually come out you'll have to wait about 60 seconds. While it's not fast, it's not bad either for a portable printer. Digital camera printing is obviously supported, as is printing straight from a memory cards.

The printer supports SD, miniSD, MMC, Memory Stick, Compact Flash and a couple of others. At $180 roughly, this printer may seem a bit more expensive than other options on the market. But good quality prints combined with an awesome design your kids will love makes this printer perfect for any family.

As soon as a certain type of technology is perfected, the next step for manufacturers is to take the said technology and shrink it to fit a smaller device. How small their devices will become and when they plan to stop, nobody knows exactly. The problem with this kind of thinking is that, at least at first, to fit such technology into a much smaller shell than initially planed means to give up some of the quality, or sometimes all of it.



This is a pretty good rule for netbooks, the small notebooks that are flooding the market as well as for portable printers. Although mobile printers often mean slower printing speeds and not such good photo quality, Canon's printers often managed to be an exception to this rule.

These Canon photo printers were among the first mobile printers released with a 9600 dpi resolution. It continues a long linage of popular inkjet printers, and the direct 'successor' to the IP90v. The Pixma IP100 has a silver matte finish outer shell, complimented by glossy black panels on the side. Its design was borrowed almost completely from its predecessor, the IP90v.

Both the paper tray and the front lid fold up conveniently and the printer becomes easily portable in a matter of seconds. Since it weighs 4.4 pounds, it can be considered a bit heavier than most of the devices of this type; but it makes this up by a slightly more compact form factor and measures 12.7 x 7.2 x 2.4 inches. The input tray can hold 50 sheets of paper, and sizes supported include 2 by 3, 4 by 6, 5 by 7 and 8 by 10 inch.

Aside from printing straight from a PC, the IP100 also offers a PictBridge port that will allow direct printing from any compatible digital camera. Sadly there is no memory card slot or Wifi. A Bluetooth adapter can be bought separately, however, which will let you print sans wires from either a mobile phone or laptop. For these Canon photo printers an enhanced 5 ink system was used.

This system is meant to maximize print quality for both photos and documents. The 5 inks include a photo black ink for rich contrast and good photo printing. A separate Pigment black can be used for sharp text and office documents. Documents are printed at good quality. But it's the photo quality that really impresses. Photos look vivid and detailed even on larger paper.

Now it's commonly known that portable photo printers have embarrassing print speeds. It's not the case here. The IP100 can print out a 4 by 6 inch photo in about 50 seconds and a 8 by 10 inch in a bit over two minutes and a half. While it's not mind-blowing and you'll still find it slow as wait time, it's considerably better than most other portable photo printers. Finally, the IP100 retails for about $250. It's greatest disadvantage is the lack of a memory card slot. Other than that it offers great quality, portability and speed.

The Sony UP-CX1 is a high speed photo printer that offers high quality and at the same time a small form factor. As technology the printer uses dye sublimation. Two technologies are generally used for photo printers, dye-sublimation or inkjet. Lately manufacturers are also working on a technology with no ink for instant photo printing, but Zink printers are still few and far between and the technology is being perfected. UP CX1 mainly targets small businesses and was also created for being used to print at events.



What makes dye-sublimation different (and in some ways better) than inkjet is that it features a roll of transparent film with solid dyes embedded in it, corresponding to the four colors generally used in printing, cyan, magenta and black. As the print head passes over this film, it heats up and causes the ink to vaporize. The ink is then transferred onto the glossy surface of the paper and turns into solid.

With dye-sublimation the prints are long-lasting and look professional. Most printers also apply an extra transparent coat at the finish to serve as a protective layer. A significant difference between inkjet and dye-sublimation is that the latter does not lay down ink in small separate dots and makes photographs look much more realistic.

The UP-CX1 makes use of roll printing which also allows higher volume printing. It can produce photos of 3.5 by 5 inch, 4 by 6 inch, 5 by 7 inch or 4 by 8 inch. These Sony UP CX1 photo printers also offer very high printing speeds. A 4 by 8 inch print for example will take just about 21 seconds to produce which is significantly faster than most competing devices.

As soon as you receive the printer you'll also find in the box a manual, paper holder, the paper tray, an AC Power Cord, Cleaning Cartridge, a CD-ROM with drivers and instructions in pdf format and the warranty which is 1 year for the actual printer and 90 days for the thermal head. Sony's UP CX1 photo printers are compatible with both PC and Macintosh and as previously mentioned come with the printer driver software.

The drivers can also be found online on Sony's website. Because Sony managed to keep the size relatively small, this printer will fit just about anywhere. Maintaining the UP CX1 is very simple. The paper is even rolled with the printing surface inside so when you decide to replace it or adjust it you won't leave finger prints or dust on the printing area.

In case you're worried about theft, this photo printer comes with a security slot built in. You'll simply have to purchase a security cable that you can easily find on the market to make sure your printer is safe. If you have a small business and are looking for a fast and efficient printer to produce good quality photographs, you could consider the Sony UP CX1 photo printers that now retail for somewhere under $800.

The Hp Officejet Pro K8600dn wide format color inkjet printer offers wide-format prints on tabloid media. Its target audience is the small office environment and it comes with a decently affordable price tag. The best you can get when it comes to office printers is a fast device that doesn’t cost much to maintain and print. This is what HP is trying to offer with the K8600dn, mixed with some useful networking and wide format printing straight from a user’s PC.



For a long time color laser printers were the best for office use because they offered high capacity, crisp text printing and had a good price per print. Nowadays inkjets are starting to be more competitive, and offer lower printing costs. The speed of inkjet has also improved and the technology is extremely good when it comes to printing imagery and photographs. The same can’t be said about lasers.

The quality of the K8600dn is very competitive. It manages to produce crisp text that’s very similar to the one produced by a laser printer while the photos printed by it look natural and good quality. This HP printers uses four-color printing and is equipped with tanks that load behind the door you’ll find on the front of the printer.

There are two print heads, one for black and yellow and the other for magenta and cyan. The tanks are high capacity and will last somewhere in between 830 and 1070 prints (for standard capacity) or 1510 to 2500 pages (high-yield). Speeds are satisfying for a small office and the HP K8600dn can produce up to 35 pages per minute in draft (both color and mono) or 13 pages per minute in quality that can be compared to the one of laser printers.

Office printers need to also offer good paper capacity. In the case of the K8600dn you’ll be getting a 250 input tray. The lid of the input tray serves as an output tray and has a capacity of 150 sheets. Also featured is an automatic duplexer that allows cost and time saving by printing on both sides of paper. The K8600dn can handle a wide variety of media types and sizes. The list includes envelopes, transparencies, photo paper, cards and others. Connecting this printer can be done through high speed USB 2.0. Standard connectivity also includes HP Jetdirect Fast Ethernet embedded Print server and you can optionally make use of HP Jetdirect external print servers.

Finally, the HP Officejet Pro K8600dn wide format color inkjet printer is not the most affordable of the bunch and most offices will find some of its features a bit too much, as they only need the more basic printing capabilities. The quality is pretty good but unfortunately not as good as a high-end color laser (that you’d most likely be able to get for around the same price). On top of that some users may be inconvenienced by the way you need to load paper with this printer. Raising the tray and struggling with it every time you need to refresh paper is somewhat annoying.