You're probably relatively familiar with the strange nature of thermal paper even if you never gave much thought to how it works.

But perhaps the biggest problem associated with thermal paper comes from the very quality that allows it to work.

Different sources say that we can only expect documents on thermal paper to be useful for about three to five years.

Thermal paper commonly comes in a roll that feeds into the machine.

Ballot records printed on the thermal paper will fade with time.

It uses thermal paper, which is a kind of paper that changes color in heat.

More than half of the cuts will be in the carbonless and thermal paper operations.

Even if you protect the thermal paper from extreme temperatures, it doesn't have a very long shelf life.

Office workers often do this by habit when they receive faxes on thermal paper.

Some thermal paper machines can be connected to a laser printer, which is great if you already have one.

Thermal paper comes on rolls (usually 98 feet long), so documents tend to curl.

"Swap you," she said, handing him the second tube of thermal paper.

Many store receipts are printed on thermal paper which allows this to be easily done at home.

The machines print the station's name and date on standardized thermal paper were introduced in the mid-1990s.

However, the fax cannot be on flimsy thermal paper.

We actually had e-mail before anyone else did - these big Teletype machines with thermal paper rolls.

However, the printhead uses roughly the same basic technology as the one that prints on thermal paper.

If you've ever felt thermal paper, you probably immediately noticed that it feels different from plain paper.

Many organizations in charge of record-keeping make sure to avoid keeping documents printed on thermal paper.

Available from www.smartshopperusa.com, SmartShopper costs $149.95 and comes with three rolls of thermal paper.

Thermal paper usually consists of at least three layers:

The Silent 700 was the first thermal print system that printed on thermal paper.

The printer used rolls of thermal paper to print lines of up to 24 characters.

Because of the distinctly chemical smell and feel of thermal paper, many people dislike using it.

Then, it applies this heat to special thermal paper or through a transfer ribbon to print faxes.