What Is a Thermal Wax Printer?

Many print technologies are capable of putting images or words onto paper. Thermal wax printers, which literally melt wax-based ink onto printer paper, are not used in most homes today.

Wax Ribbon

Thermal wax printers contain one or several wax ribbons instead of a print cartridge. The printer melts dots of wax-based ink from the ribbon, creating a series of dots to form letters and images.

Paper

Unlike some thermal printers, thermal wax printers are able to use paper that doesn't have a special coating.

Print Quality

Thermal wax printers print letters and images as tiny dots. The resolution of these images is not as high as the resolution of prints made by many modern inkjet printers.

Ink Use

Thermal wax printers use the same amount of ink for every page. This uniformity holds true even if only one line is printed on one page and another page is covered with lines, according to Webopedia.

Speed

While not able to rival the speed of laser printers, thermal wax printers are able to print faster than thermal dye transfer printers and some inkjet printers.

References

• Webopedia: Thermal Printer
• Computer Hope: Thermal Printer