Imagine a world without printer ink. It can be a very expensive
substance, it can be messy, it can smudge and it has a habit of running
out when you most need it. Well it turns out that you may never need
printer ink again.
A company based in Massachusetts called Zink thinks they have the
answer. Forget about ink altogether and use special paper instead. The
Zink system involves embedding minute dye crystals in an extraordinary
type of paper and activating them using a special printer head. These
tiny ink particles embedded in sheets of paper are melted by a printer
head that sends out small heat pulses. Depending on the pulses sent
different crystals will melt resulting in different visible colours on
the page.
Thermal printing is of course nothing new with large numbers of cheap
black and white thermal printers sold in the eighties and nineties. But
colour thermal printing is a totally different story. The Zink paper
itself is a composite with layers of yellow, magenta and cyan dye
crystals embedded in side a polymer overcoat. Whilst the unprocessed
paper looks white a thermal device can activate the embedded ink and
transform it to a picture.
The Zink or Zero Ink technology is a highly complex process
protected by over 100 patents. Will initially be used in portable
printing solutions and potentially integrated into cameras, taking the
photography business full circle to the days of the launch of Polaroid
instant printing.
Zink itself has no plans to enter the printer market we are told,
preferring to licence the technology to established businesses in that
sector. The first company to start using Zink’s Zero Ink process
commercially is Polaroid with the release of the PoGo portable printer.
The PoGo printer is 3cm by 8cm, approximately the size of a pack of
cards and can print a picture in less than 60 seconds which is faster
than traditional Polaroid pictures and the image is produced dry to the
touch. Images are sent to the PoGo either via USB or Bluetooth from a
compatible device such as a PC, certain cameras and mobile phones. Many
critics have described the printing quality as average to poor and a
big drawback highlighted has been the lack of compatibility with the
Apple iPhone. It is however quite an achievement for a first attempt
with a totally new technology.
The question now is, will Zink Zero Ink printing catch on or is it
a short lived overly complex solution. It’s very early days to make any
judgements, and Zink is in the process of finding more partners to
implement its unique solution. As the technology makes really small
portable printing possible it does have a significant advantage over
its ink cartridge using competitors, however the limited quality of
Polaroid’s PoGo dose raise questions. When it comes to the traditional
printer market the issue will boil down to two things. Are people
attached to the idea of buying and using standard paper that they can
print with or write on as required and will the cost of the Zink paper
prove cheaper than using standard paper and ink cartridges.
