Thermal printer

1. A thermal impact printer or electrothermal printer is a type of printer that uses heated pins to "burn" images onto heat-sensitive paper. These types of printers are commonly used in calculators and fax machines; and although they are inexpensive and print relatively fast, they produce low resolution print jobs.
2. A thermal printer, thermal transfer printer, or thermal wax-transfer printer is a high quality printer that commonly utilizes a thermal wax ribbon that melts a colored wax onto the paper creating near photo-realistic images.

Also see: Printer, Printer definitions, Thermal transfer paper