• lolcatnip@reddthat.com
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    11 months ago

    What about printers without ink?

    Laser printers have existed for a long time and they don’t use ink, but they do use toner. I’m gonna assume just scorching the paper has been proven to be a bad idea, because someone would have tried to market a toner-free printer by now otherwise.

    My best guess is that it’s very hard to scorch paper to a color anywhere near black without creating a serious fire hazard. Even if you could calibrate the laser just right, the next batch of paper could burn because it has a slightly different weight, texture, or composition.

    You’d probably end up being special paper stuff something in it that turns black at a fairly low temperature. That’s pretty common for things like receipt printers.

    • entropicshart@sh.itjust.works
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      11 months ago

      Zink Paper is an alternative but nowhere as cheap as regular paper+ink

      The paper has several layers: a backing layer with optional pressure sensitive adhesive, heat-sensitive layers with cyan, magenta and yellow dyes in colorless form, and an overcoat.