The product was develop by a company called Zink, a spon-off of Polaroid. It was featured on New Scientist Tech magazine, and here is a description of the printing process: “To bring out the correct colour at each pixel, the temperature and exposure to the heater element is precisely controlled. The crystals in the top yellow layer require the highest temperature and shortest time to melt and become coloured; the magenta middle layer a lower temperature and longer time; and the bottom cyan layer the lowest temperatures and longest exposure time.”

The beauty of this new technology is that the printed images, apart from having a good quality, will also be more resistant and water proof. The producer confirmed that some products might enter the market already by the end of 2007.