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If you work in a retail environment chances are you come across thermal paper everyday as it is the type of paper we use in our tills and credit card terminals.  Have you ever wondered how it works though when you never need to buy a print cartridge? Well wonder no more as we’ve provided a brief overview!

Thermal Paper works on the principal that when heated by a needle within the machine, the needled area then appears as a colour (text). The paper is impregnated with a chemical matrix that when heated causes the elements of the matrix to react with one another causing the colour to appear. Generally the colour is black, but a change in the composition of the chemical matrix allows the colour produced to be either red or blue.

Knowledge you never knew you needed!