Because it's a thermal printer, the only 'consumable' happens to be the paper. This is because it basically works like your usual fax machine. Because thermal paper don't age gracefully, you won't be using it for archival purposes anytime soon. But for stuff like receipts, information printouts, etc, etc... it's more than perfect.

The printer is able to communicate either through its infrared (IR) port located in the rear of the unit or through a serial port with the bundled cable. On the printer itself, the serial port looks like your keyboard connector but the bundled cable has your usual female serial plug on the other end. The socket for its power adapter brick sits beside the serial port.

IR Port	Power Socket and Serial Port

The controls on the printer are pretty basic. There's only a power button and a LED light on it. Error messages are conveyed to the user via a series of error beeps. So you basically just turn it on and print.

When loading paper, you just slide the papers in from the top slit on the top of the printer as you would any other printer if you're using sheets. But if you're going to use a thermal paper roll instead, then you'll need to plunk the roll into the paper compartment located underneath the printer.

While we're on the topic of paper, I'd like to point out one little point. Forgive me if I'm wrong but it's kinda hard to get A6-wide thermal paper rolls, right? And even if you can find a roll, you're going to have to cut it down to size as the rolls that SiPix provides are 2.5 meters in length.

And well... it's not exactly wise to get thermal paper from a computer distributor because they usually jack up the price. Thermal paper is suppose to be relatively cheap. That's what makes it a good solution for disposable information (like the countless ads you receive on your fax machine!). So, what's a person supposed to do?

Well, the width of an A6 paper is half the size of an A4 paper. So, just get a normal A4 fax roll and cut it down to size! Make sure you do it properly. If not, you'll get a lot of paper jams!