A thermal printer uses special paper and no ink. You cant use regular paper with it. I am sure you have seen the labels that are on boxes that come from say UPS or are on boxes you get from other places and they have a barcode on them and information on them about the shipping or whats inside? Almost always those are thermal printed. If you have ever gone inside a plant that ships items via truck, rail or other methods they will use a thermal printed label to identify the objects inside.