How many Zink sheets can the Polaroid Snap hold?

ZINK Zero Ink technology is a method of printing photos and other things that use, you guessed it, zero ink. It's pretty cool how it all works. In the world of traditional printing, printers spit out ink in specific combinations of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black to make your color image. If you have ever heard the terms "C-M-Y-K" (cyan-magenta-yellow-black) or "R-G-B" (red-green-blue), they are referring to specific combinations of colors being used. R-G-B is used for digital images that will only be displayed on digital screens and C-M-Y-K is used for printing images.

Pretty much every office or desktop printer you have ever come across uses ink or toner to make the image. With ZINK, all the coloring is done with just the paper without any need for ink or toner. Every piece of ZINK paper contains billions of cyan, magenta, and yellow dye crystals that are arranged into the separate imaging layers which are placed between two outer layers with an inner layer separating the layers of crystals. This is pretty different from the original instant printing technology from the '70s that used a reagent chemical spread between the negative and positive sheets of film.

What happens when the image prints on ZINK paper is that a thermal controlled printhead applies just enough heat at just the right intensity and duration to melt the exact right combinations of crystals to create the color needed for that part of the image. I know, I know, it sounds complicated, but in reality, it's quite simple. The colors cyan, magenta, and yellow can be combined to create millions of colors so it's just a matter of melting the right crystal combo to get the color you need for that set of pixels. This incredibly cool technology is what allows all those instant cameras to help you capture those perfect moments.

In order to keep the camera small and compact enough to be portable, they had to limit the size of the printer bay. Even though 10 sheets of paper may not seem like a lot, it's still pretty impressive that Polaroid is able to fit an entire printer setup in a camera this small. If you try to cram in more than 10 at a time, you might break things so it's a good idea to stick to the recommended amount.

Thankfully, the folks who sell the Zink paper make it easy on you, as they almost always come in packs of 10. You can purchase bundles with more sheets in them but they will be packaged in sets of 10 to make it easier for you.