Thermal transfer printing (also called thermal transfer overprinting or TTO) is a printing technique in which the ink from thermal ribbon printer foils is transferred or melted onto a printing substrate (e.g. paper, film) by means of heat.
Thermal transfer printing has several advantages, including the following:
In order to enjoy these advantages, it is important that the ribbon and the substrate on which it is used are compatible. Otherwise, the printing results are likely to be poor.
Thermal transfer printing and direct thermal printing are two types of thermal printing.
Unlike thermal transfer printing, direct thermal printing does not use ribbons or ink. Instead, the printhead heats a previously treated chemical substrate, darkening it in the process.
Although it produces quite good printing results, direct thermal printing does not provide the high-quality printing that thermal transfer printing does. In addition to this, the printing results of direct thermal printing are not as durable as those of thermal transfer printing. However, since ribbons or ink are not necessary, direct thermal printing has lower maintenance costs than thermal transfer printing.
Because of its high-quality and durable printing results, thermal transfer printing is often used to print labels. In this case, a so-called thermal transfer printer is used to print the labels.
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