I've been thinking a lot about spontaneity; Its good to just do things sometimes. To make things. We'd all be better off if we failed twice as often without even having more net success.

Welcome to my monument to failure - my article on thermal printing.

If you just want to get started, feel free to scroll to the end. But, if you want to follow my little three-ring circus on a journey of paper-products and phthalates, read on.

First Things First: Why?

Thermal printing is great. Its fast, its cheap. What's not to like? You see something, you print it. For $30 in gear and $20 in media you can run that workflow about 700 times.

Every game I play now I try to print a little keepsake image of something cool which happened during the game and give it to my opponent. It's really gratifying.

Ive also been doing analog battle reports; putting little stickers with pictures of my games alongside a little ditty about what happened, and then talking about the imaginary aftermath. Its like a 'zine, but meant only for me, and maybe folks I want to brag to.

Thermal printing provides the aesthetics of illustration, with none of the skill requirements. Its not a replacement for something lovingly hand drawn, but its less stark and lower profile than a cellphone pic.

Its been cool, and its been a lot of fun.

So why aren't more people fucking with this tech?

Thermal Printing Does Suck a Bit

If you're thinking of getting started yourself you should know that thermal printing has two big problems, neither of which are super ideal.

• Most thermal print media is mildly toxic.
• Under the wrong conditions, thermal prints age like a banana.

I've done some research and even a few experiments and I'm here today to tell you, despite those two items thermal printing is still worth pursuing.

But How Toxic IS Thermal Printing Exactly?

Most common thermal print media contain a class of chemicals called 'phthalates' - usually BPS or BPA - which are endocrine disruptors. They act like hormones, either blocking signaling or firing signals where they shouldn't be.

There's some link to infertility and developmental issues downstream of those effects, but the stability that makes phthalates excellent industrial chemicals makes them difficult to detect.

Coming from a laboratory background, I thought to get back in contact with my old professors and do some testing, but a little research revealed that none of the basic assays I was familiar with (spectrophotometry and nuclear magnetic resonance) would be able to meaningfully detect phthalates as distinct from other more benign plastics.

Further, its hard to say how serious the risks are, but it's a pretty sure thing that the shit is everywhere and we should all be trying to reduce our exposure.

Bummer. Guess that's it then?

Not quite. If you live in Washington, Illinois, Connecticut, California, or anywhere in the EU, then you're mostly in the clear. There are laws in place making it illegal to put phthalates in shit willy-nilly.

If you don't live in one of those places, you can simply find products which follow the requisite safety laws.

I recommend checking with any distributor/vendor about their compliance with the following regulations. Most will probably only deal in specific regions, so you may only get one hit out of them, but any should be good enough to ensure your safety:

• California Prop 65
• Washington TFCA
• EU REACH/RoHS

What About That Bit With The Banana?

Yeah, I did say that thermal prints age like a banana, didn't I? But I did also say that was only under *certain conditions*.

Thermal prints use heat to activate a developer. If they get too hot they develop into solid black paper. The heat you need for that is pretty high though - about 160-190F. That means you probably shouldn't put your prints in the oven, but even in a hot car they should be fine.

I won't bore you with the details, but Ive left a lot of thermal prints in a hot car recently, and the only time the heat got to them was when they were face down directly against a hot dashboard.

UV though...UV has turned out to be my Waterloo.

UV light degrades basically any pigment that is not designed to be UV-fast. Most commercial stickers and prints are, but for reasons of chemistry, thermal print media cannot be formulated to stand up to UV.

None of the UV protection solutions I tried offered any resistance, so you shouldn't leave your prints out in the sun...

...for days at a time. Ive been leaving controls in various medium-exposure locations and so far the UV doesnt seem to be getting to them. Ive got stickers on my painting kit, my boxes of minis, my wallet, and my work badge, and if they have degraded at all, I basically cant tell.

In the long run, everything rots, and near as I can tell a thermal print treated well will last long enough for my tastes.

Where Do I Sign? What Do I Buy?

I've had great luck with the Ponek M100 (pictured on the left, with its feed-bay open) - its cheap, its fast, its battery lasts forever,and its worked with every type of media I've put through it. Note: the media it comes with is unsafe. Throw it out.

This is not a sponsorship, but it works, and it costs less than a 40k troops-choice circa 2010.

As for media, I have it on good authority that everything from OnlineLabels.com should be phthalate-free, and unlike a lot of other places, you can order single rolls.

Personally I use the RL938DT, which nets you 700+ 2"x2" stickers. You need to re-roll them to fit inside the M100, but that's like a 2-second operation.

Happy printing!