Cell phone printers . . . now this is amazing. As we know now, nobody prints their cell phone pictures, but this little piece of technology is out to change all that.

Polaroid has released a pocked sized printer that uses ZINK (zero ink) technology and prints 2″ x 3″ color photos. That’s right, no ink cartridges.

The printer was designed by ZINK Imaging, a company built on the idea that printer ink is not a good thing. The printers they design are ink free. Instead the printers incorporate dye crystals inside ZINK paper. The crystals are secured under a glossy protective layer, and heat produced by the printer melts the cyan, magenta and yellow crystals to release the appropriate colors.

I could not find a price for a pack (or roll) of ZINK paper as of today, but as of last February they were proposing selling 100 sheets for $20. Twenty cents per sheet is on the pricier side, but when you don’t need ink cartridges the price may seem a little more reasonable.

Anyway, back to the printer . . .

You connect your cell phone via USB or BlueTooth and then print. The printer itself is 4.7″ x 2.8″ x 0.9″ and produces 2″ x 3″ photos. Still pretty small, but at least now the image can have a life outside your cell phone. It is expected that the printer will sell for $150.00, and should be released this spring.

ZINK is claiming that if they can put this technology in a printer this small they can put printers within notebook computers, digital cameras, and even cell phones. Let Pacific Ink know what you think of this technology.