What are thermal printers?

Thermal printers use heat to make an impression on the paper. There are two types of thermal printers: thermal direct and thermal transfer. A thermal direct printer applies heat to a specially coated paper to make an impression, where as a thermal transfer printer applies heat to a special ribbon that sits between the printhead and the paper, causing ribbon to transfer ink to the paper. Labels printed using the thermal transfer process usually last longer than the ones printed using the thermal direct process.