Polaroid back with the Quick PIx

Quick pix: This Polaroid printer is about the size of a deck of cards and prints photos on two-inch-by-three-inch sheets of paper, without using ink or toner. Instead, it uses a novel type of thermal-printing technology developed by startup Zink Imaging. Zink developed special paper (bottom) that contains layers of crystals that release pigment when heated.

Polaroid, the company famous for cameras that print instant pictures, unveiled an ultrasmall photo printer today at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The company's new handheld printers produce color photos using novel thermal-printing technology developed at Polaroid spinoff Zink Imaging and first demonstrated earlier this year. (See "Printing without Ink.") John Pollock, the vice president and general manager of digital imaging at Polaroid, says that the printers will be available to consumers by the summer, and they will be priced at less than $150.