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Direct vs. thermal transfer

Thermal printing is not only competing against other technologies, but direct thermal printing and thermal transfer printing are vying for use in the same application areas. Each has its advantages and disadvantages.

In thermal transfer printing, the ink is carried on the ribbon and heated and transferred to the substrate. “The advantages of thermal transfer printing result in dense, high-resolution images—color or black-and-white—and can be used on a wide variety of substrates,” says Hayakawa. This ability to print a durable image on “a virtually unlimited universe of substrates” is what makes thermal transfer printing one of the primary methods for printing bar codes.