Thermal Printers
A thermal printer is not the kind of printer you usually have your home or in your office, but most of us encounter them every day. A thermal printer is so named because of the printing process it uses to produce an image. Thermal printers require special thermal printing paper, and when this paper passes through the thermal printer, it is heated in a very specific pattern. The thermal paper turns black where it is exposed to heat. Because of the way the heat is distributed, it creates the patterns of letters and images. So where do we encounter these machines in our every day lives? Thermal printers are the kind of printers that print retail receipts, credit card slips, gas station receipts, and just about any other sales document you receive. They are also sometimes used to print lottery tickets, and thermal CD printers print on CDs.

Why Thermal Printers?
Thermal printers have become the gold standard for receipt printers for two reasons. For one, a thermal printer can be very small; small enough to sit on a counter by a register or small enough to be built into a cash register or gas station pump. The other reason thermal printers are popular as a receipt printer is that they are cost effective. Because they use heat and special paper to create an image, they never require ink. As long as the heat system of the thermal printer is in working order, and as long as there is paper in the printer, thermal printers can keep printing forever. This is a lot cheaper and more efficient than having to swap ink cartridges in printers that get a good workout, like receipt printers.

Thermal printers, like thermal color CD printers and thermal label printers, are popular because they work fast and they can print right on the body of the CD. It cuts out the messier pressing printing sometimes used in CD manufacturing.

Buying A Thermal Printer
While a thermal printer is never going to be a printer you need for personal use, they are handy to have on hand for business. They can be bought very inexpensively from office supply stores and printer manufacturers.