4 comments
I actually use my printers thank you very much. Even bought one of those bank teller slip printer things and a few boxes check-sized slips. I use them for time tracking and todo list.<p>I didn't go totally crazy, though, and stopped before getting too deep into "...and then OCR them using the check scanner" because I remembered I was already keeping track of start/stop times in a database when printing the slips.
Called me out with that first sentence
Obligatory "be careful with that poison paper" warning![1]<p>[1]: <a href="https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=thermal%20paper%20bpa&sort=byDate&type=comment" rel="nofollow">https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...</a>
An alternative to consider are dot matrix / impact printers.<p>They are used in kitchens, as heat sensitive paper doesn't work well there. It's just plain paper and an ink ribbon.<p>Same underlying protocol as thermal printers, so the code is mostly plug and play.<p>They often can print in two colours (red and black). And sound like the 1980s.
You can buy phenol free paper<p><a href="https://www.pca.state.mn.us/business-with-us/bpa-and-bps-in-thermal-paper" rel="nofollow">https://www.pca.state.mn.us/business-with-us/bpa-and-bps-in-...</a>
Can we not print full pdf type stuff with thermal printers?<p>I just bought one a couple weeks ago actually.