Thermal paper is actually thermal printing paper and thermal fax paper. It is used in thermal printers and thermal fax machines. Its quality directly affects the printing quality and storage time and even affects the service life of printers and fax machines. At present, there are more and more popular and trustworthy brands in the market
In the structure, thermal printing paper is generally divided into three layers, the paper base, thermal coating, protective layer, thermal coating, and protective layer have a great influence on the final effect. The more uniform the thermal coating is, the more uniform the color will be, and the better the visual effect will be. If the thermal coating is not uniform, it will lead to different shades of color and reduce the printing quality. Whether the chemical formula of thermal coating is reasonable or not directly affects the storage time of printing paper. Now there is a long-term thermal paper that can be stored for 10 years. As the name suggests, protective coating plays a protective role. It can absorb part of the light that causes the chemical reaction of the thermal coating, protect the thermal coating, slow down the deterioration of the printing paper, and protect the thermal components of the printer from damage.
Three ways to distinguish thermal paper
Appearance: when choosing thermal paper, pay more attention to the appearance of the paper. From the color, we can distinguish the quality of protective coating and thermal coating to a certain extent. If the paper is very white, then the paper's protective coating and the thermal coating are unreasonable, it is likely to add too much phosphor. If the paper is slightly green, it should be of better quality. If the paper looks smooth and flat, the coating of thermal paper is more uniform, otherwise, the coating of paper is uneven, which will seriously affect the printing effect. At the same time, if the paper looks strong reflection, but also adds too much phosphor, it is best not to choose such a thermal paper.
Sunlight contrast identification: this method is very simple, just need to print out a different paper with the same fluorescent pen coated in the sun (this can accelerate the reaction of thermal coating to light)
Fire baking: in fact, the fire baking method and sunlight identification, principle is similar. You can use a lighter to heat the back of the paper slowly, and the color of the paper will change with the heating. If the final color is brown, it means that the heat-sensitive formula is not reasonable, and the storage time may be short; if small stripes or scattered color patches can be seen on the paper, it means that the coating is not uniform. On the contrary, the better quality of thermal paper after heating will eventually appear black green (with a little green), color block uniform, from the center of heating to the surrounding, the color gradually fades.
Now, I believe you have a certain understanding of the purchase of thermal paper, and then look at how to choose photo printing paper.
How to choose photo printing paper
For photo printing, many consumers always mistakenly think that as long as there is a good ink cartridge, but they don't pay much attention to the printing media. In fact, when using a digital photo printer to output images, only using professional photo printing paper can make the output effect achieve high fidelity. Because there is a special coating on the surface of the professional photo paper, it can draw ink into the paper, making the printing effect look bright and bright. At the same time, the coating of the photo paper also has a protective effect, which can maintain the color of the photo output for a long time. Therefore, the choice of photo paper and its importance. According to the different coating layers and paper mediums, the professional photo printing paper on the market can be divided into ordinary photo paper, ordinary glossy photo paper (glossy photo paper), and high-quality glossy photo paper.
In the process of purchasing photo paper, we mainly consider the following points:
Paper Compatibility: some color jet printers or color sublimation printers have special requirements for photo paper. Therefore, we must buy according to the special specifications marked on the printer's manual. For example, Epson's photo paper has poor compatibility, so we need to use Epson's printer to get better results. In contrast, Kodak Photo paper has better compatibility. Kodak officially claims that its photo printing paper can be used on 75 printers around the world.
Choice of the brand: there are many kinds of photo paper on the market, which can be described as a mixture of dragon and fish.
There is no doubt that Kodak Photo paper is one of the two in terms of variety, quantity, and quality. Foreign brands such as Fuji, HP, Canon, Xerox and Prince occupy a large market, but domestic brands are also gradually rising. Tsinghua Tongfang has launched inkjet paper, glossy paper, and high gloss photo paper, whose performance is enough to meet the needs of the household and commercial use. Its high gloss photo paper adopts imported coating technology It can be widely used in various mainstream digital printers including high-resolution images. The surface of the product has good ink absorption and water resistance. High whiteness of paper, clear and fine printing effect. High speed and fast-drying coating technology are also used, which can show high DPI images. The price is not expensive. Seagull is also good, but its photo paper rarely appears on the market. However, when you buy a seagull-compatible photo cartridge, you will get photo paper. At the same time, because different brands and specifications of photo paper printing methods are very different, so when you buy, you must first ask about the printing method and related details, and then make a choice.
Price: Price is an aspect worth considering. Generally, you don't need to buy expensive photo paper, just keep the printed photos well. The quality of Kodak's photo paper is very good, but it's usually expensive. However, if the photo to be printed is very important and you want to keep it for a long time, you can choose high-quality (usually expensive) photo paper, or buy the original photo paper of the same brand as the photo printer. (in fact, the same is true. Using professional paper of the same brand as the printer, the output photos will last longer, print better, and have more realistic colors.)