Zink Develops Inkless Printing System For Phone Pics

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Zink Imaging LLC is developing an i-pod sized portable device which makes it easy to print photos from digital cameras and phones.

The system uses zero ink - shorten this phrase down and you get ‘Zink’. Instead of ink the device uses heat to activate dye crystals embedded in special photo paper. The dye crystals are normally colourless, but release a colour when they melt.

Crystals in just three colours - cyan, magenta and yellow - can reproduce the full colour spectrum when exposed to different levels of heat for different lengths of time.

Zink’s system produces about 100,000 pulses of heat every second, printing a 2″ x 3″ print in under a minute.

The system is still under development but it will be demonstrated at the DEMO technology show in Palm Desert, California, which focuses on emerging technologies.

Although similar printing technology has been used before, Zink has developed ways to incorporate it into an inexpensive yet long-lasting format.

Zink hopes to enter partnerships with manufactures who can build the technology into handheld printers. These could then be linked to cell phones and digital cameras. There is also the potential to develop hybrid digital cameras with the printers already integrated.