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A spark printer uses a special paper coated with a layer of aluminium over a black backing, which is printed on by using a pulsing current onto the paper via two styli that move across on a moving belt at high speed. It was a simple and inexpensive technology which produced fairly good results. At a time when conventional printers cost hundreds of dollars, the sub-$100 price of that type of printer was a major selling point. The only major downside is that it can only print onto the special metallised paper which it uses; unfortunately that paper is no longer readily available. The technology was sometimes misleadingly referred to as a "thermal printer." The Sinclair ZX printer, introduced in November 1981, for the ZX81 and ZX Spectrum computers, used the same spark and aluminised paper printing method, and retailed for £49.95. In the early 1980s, Casio released several printers with "Electro-thermal printing system"• for their range of scientific calculators. Later on they also introduced calculators with integrated printer.
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