A thermal transfer printer is a printer which prints on paper (or some other material) by melting a coating of ribbon so that it stays glued to the material on which the print is applied. It contrasts with Direct Thermal printing where no ribbon is present in the process.

Plain Thermal Transfer Labels

General Uses: For use in standard and high speed thermal transfer printers.
These labels use a thermal transfer paper uncoated face stock and a general purpose permanent adhesive.
 

Flood Coated Thermal Transfer Labels

These labels use a thermal transfer paper, flood coated face stock and general purpose permanent adhesive. For use in standard and high speed thermal transfer printers. Comes in green, blue, orange pink, yellow and red.
General uses for thermal transfer printers in includes:

• Barcode labels (as labels printed with thermal printer tend not to last long)
• Marking clothing labels (shirt size etc)