• Yerbouti@sh.itjust.works
    16·
    3 days ago

    Get yourself a thermal printer for 100$. Suits 95% of my needs. No more, “fuck you I won’t print in black, you’re low on red”.

    • BigDaddySlim@lemmy.worldEnglish
      19·
      3 days ago

      Most thermal paper isn’t recyclable though, the chemicals that allow the heat to print onto them can’t be easily recycled. A simple Brother laser printer would be a better option for most people if they’re just printing black text

      • Yerbouti@sh.itjust.works
        13·
        3 days ago

        I actually did not know that. Apparently there’s some eco-friendly thermal paper, I’m gonna look into this. Thanks for pointing it out.

      • Stdfr33@lemmy.world
        1·
        2 days ago

        Yeah but they mean a toner laser printer. Not a thermal receipt printer. I’m assuming they say thermal because it melts the toner to the paper.

    • tempest@lemmy.ca
      7·
      3 days ago

      Do they actually make these for full 8.5 x 11 pages?

      I’ve only seen them for receipts and labels

      • Yerbouti@sh.itjust.works
        1·
        3 days ago

        Oh yeah it does. Rolls a really cheap, I use that most of the time. Regular flat paper is a bit more expensive, I use it only for important stuff. The printer is really small too, easy to put in your bag. I’m sure there’s a lot of brands but the one I got is Phonemo M32 I think.

      • Test_Tickles@lemmy.world
        2·
        2 days ago

        It doesn’t fall off, but it does start to break down pretty quickly. And ambient UV light makes it fade even faster. But if the print is dark and bold, and you store it someplace cool and dark, it should last a year or 2. Having said that, I have noticed that somehow, for some unknown reason, the registers in departments where you make big purchases, like say the electronics department, always seem to print much much lighter than the rest of the registers. It’s some kind of unsolvable mystery that can never be understood.

      • Yerbouti@sh.itjust.works
        1·
        2 days ago

        Nah, definitely not weeks. They say it could deteriorates after a few years, but I have some printed scores from 2024 that still looks good.

        So yeah, in my experience it’s good enough for a couple of years, but it’s not for permanent things you want to keep forever.

    • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
      11·
      2 days ago

      From what I understand, thermal paper is one of the worst sources of BPA. It isn’t regulated because it’s not consumed or touching anything you consume usually, but it would be better to consume it than absorb it through the skin because at least the liver processes shit we consume, while shit we absorb can go straight to the bloodstream.

      This is on top of being generally the shittiest form of printing by most measures, as the other comments go into. I’d prefer dot matrix or inkjet over thermal paper.