Zink Takes the Ink Out of Paper

Back in October, I promptly alerted you to a new service introduced to Flickr users to create friendlier business cards for friends and family. Moo dubbed them Flickr MiniCards, and the world fell in love with the idea of creating wallet-sized personal cards using their Flickr photostream. But, as always, technology keeps devising new ways to speed up the printing process, thus leading up to the birth of inkless photo paper.

Zink, which stands for Zero Ink, has developed a special type of photo paper embedded with heat-activated crystal dyes that completely eliminates the need for printers. Imagine being able to print pictures straight from your cell phone or digital camera instantly again. Unlike Polaroid cameras, Zink devices will produce high quality 2-inch-by-3-inch borderless digital photos in full color. These instant photos will come out completely dry just as if you were printing them off a laser printer, which means you don't have to shake them.

The company plans to introduce two Zink devices before the end of this year. One will launch in the form of a digital camera with a built-in photo printer featuring a 7-megapixel resolution, 3X optical zoom, two inch LCD display and SD memory slot. It will print pictures from your memory card instantly. The other device will be a mobile printer that will connect to your digital camera or camera phone via Bluetooth or a USB cable. Gizmodo says each device holds about ten 2-inch-by-3-inch sheets of paper (approx. 20 cents per sheet), and each device will retail for a mere $99. Check out some more images and video of these two Zink devices over at Gizmodo.