• Thermal printers use heat to print text and images.heat storm image by Nicemonkey from Fotolia.com
  
  Current technology allows thermal printers to print in both color and black and white. The earliest thermal printers used heat-sensitive paper to create black and white printouts. Many supermarkets, drugstores and other businesses still use this early form of thermal printing technology in their receipt printers, fax machines and label printers. Newer thermal printers use heat to transfer colored ink from a donor ribbon to printer paper, which allows for full color printouts.
  
  

Continuous Tone

• The donor ribbon cartridges used in modern thermal printers contain a wax-like ink. When heated, the ink melts and adheres to the printer paper. This process creates even, continuous color tones, instead of the halftone pattern created by inkjet printers.
  
  

Print Quality

• Image quality depends on resolution, density range, tonal scale and color gamut, according to Kodak. Thermal printers can generate high-resolution prints utilizing a high density range of ink, resulting in more detailed and richer images than many inkjet printers can create. Additionally, the continuous tone thermal printers maintain creates super sharp edges, as compared to halftone dot pattern of inkjet printers.
  
  

Dry Process

• Inkjet printers spray liquid ink onto paper. Printing at best quality on an inkjet printer can leave your paper damp for several minutes, making it prone to smudges. The waxy ink thermal printers use does melt, but doesn’t get as wet as the contents of inkjet cartridges. Furthermore, thermal printers use a dryer to ensure the waxy ink and laminate dry completely before your paper leaves the machine.
  
  

Fast, Quiet Printing

• You may have noticed the noise level of your inkjet printer as the carriage moves back and forth over the page. Since thermal printers simply heat the ink, as opposed to spraying it, the process makes much less noise. Additionally, once the print head warms up, it can deliver printouts much faster than the dot-by-dot placement of inkjet printers. Older thermal printers, which heat a special paper instead of ink, work even faster.
  
  

Money Saver

• The older thermal technology employed by some point-of-sale printers, fax machines and label printers offers substantial economic benefits. Unlike inkjets, these black-and-white thermal printers don’t need ink cartridges, ribbons or toner. Since the only consumable product they use is the heat-sensitive paper, this can add up to major savings.