I recently wrote about the controversy when it comes to whether or not the materials used for printing in the Indigo are “ink” or “toner.” Well there is a company out there that has taken the ink and toner concept and thrown it right out the window. Zink, which means Zero Ink, has developed a new process of printing without the use of any toner or inks. It is all about the paper!

According to the Zink website…

The ZINK Technology encompasses both the ZINK Paper™ and the intelligence embedded in every ZINK-enabled device. The technology enables a new category of color printing devices and paper that work as a system to print in a whole new way.

It all has to do with special crystals being embed into the paper and when the paper passes through their special device it activates these crystals in order to make the full color print. The papers have cyan, magenta and yellow crystals embed in them. The paper appears white and similar to most digital printing paper but once it passes through the Zink enabled device you are given a beautiful print. What really amazed me about this whole printing process is how small the actual printer can be.

It sounds like they are going to sell a small hand held printer that works with 2″ x 3″ inch semi-gloss Zink paper. The idea is you can print images from your camera or cell phone right on the go. They are even taking it to the next level by offering a digital camera which has the printer already in it. I think this is a really cool idea and could see this catch on.

However, from a production stand point I think the cost of the paper is obviously going to need to come down and the sheet sizes are going to need to increase before we see it used by commercial printers. It isn’t clear if this is a goal of theirs or if it is just something they have developed for the general public. As a digital printing prepress person, I could see this new printing system implemented. It sounds like it might even be a greener way to print and we all know that is becoming more of an issue for print shops these days.

I definitely recommend taking the time to check out the Zink website. There is some fascinating information and some great videos about how this technology works.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 17th, 2008 at 11:12 am and is filed under Printing, Graphic Design, Business, Industry News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.