My friend Sumeet told me about this video of a Polaroid inkless printer demo’ed at CES. I love the idea.
For serious printing for albums and frames, I just use one of the many online photo printing services with local pick-up (wal-mart, sam’s club, pretty much any drugstore, etc.). But I’ve never had a good solution for quick printing at the house — when I want a print of a recent photograph to stick on the fridge or to put on the magnetic photo rope in my daughter’s room. Sure, I could get an inkjet to fill this void but most of them are too big to keep around for occasional use and I absolutely hate buying ink — or, more specifically, I hate running out of ink because it typically kills whatever impulse I had to pop out a quick print in the first place.
Solution? Stick the “ink” in the paper and deliver the printer in a small form factor. And as an added bonus, these photos have adhesive backs, multiplying their creative potential. This thing is due to ship from Polaroid later this year and the printer is supposed to cost about $150 and the per sheet paper cost is supposed to be <$0.50. A quick write-up on the product at MSNBC.