Communications of the ACM
New Ink-Less Tech Prints With Water
A new printing system developed by Chinese scientists is based on the use of water, rather than ink or toner.
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Chinese scientists have developed a new method for printing that uses water rather than ink.
The team used a commercially available inkjet printer and filled the cartridges with water for a process that is similar to normal printing, says Jilin University professor and former Hewlett-Packard Labs researcher Sean Zhang. "The magic is in the paper," he notes. The researchers developed a special coating on the paper that responds to water and enables printed characters to last for a day. The special paper can be reused numerous times, and the printing method could potentially have associated running costs that are less expensive that existing printing techniques.
The researchers say the cost of printing is about 1/17th the price of inkjet printing. Zhang's team has been able to print various Chinese and English characters with blue, magenta, gold, and purple colors, using water as a key that activates the dye molecule.
The researchers will now work to combine colors to get black.
From Discovery News
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