Live data from Hacker News

Show HN: Printercow – Turn any thermal printer into an API endpoint

printercow.com

51–60 of 111 posts

Re: Show HN: Printercow – Turn any thermal printer into an API endpoint

#51

Is there something out there like this that is self-hosted? It’s ridiculous that this isn’t, and it’s going to become a pay-per-print model?! I don’t care about the AI nonsense, it’s a printer. I could see myself using something like this to print recipes. I’d like to avoid getting my fancy cook book dirty, but have still have recipe in the kitchen to reference. Phone works okay until you have to scroll with dirty/we…

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: Printercow – Turn any thermal printer into an API endpoint

#52
post #11

> I'm particularly excited about the AI integration possibilities. Instead of yet another chat interface, you can have AI generate content that exists in the physical world – artwork, poems, todo lists, custom receipts, etc. Incredible. Instead of just creating online trash that nobody wants to read, it can create physical trash too! For maximum art, it can feed directly into a shredder.

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: Printercow – Turn any thermal printer into an API endpoint

#53
post #11

> I'm particularly excited about the AI integration possibilities. Instead of yet another chat interface, you can have AI generate content that exists in the physical world – artwork, poems, todo lists, custom receipts, etc. Incredible. Instead of just creating online trash that nobody wants to read, it can create physical trash too! For maximum art, it can feed directly into a shredder.

Why use ai to feed trash nobody wants to read into a shredder when you can use real people? https://youtu.be/SpNlp6AtTOE

haha :D

Re: Show HN: Printercow – Turn any thermal printer into an API endpoint

#57

Is there something out there like this that is self-hosted? It’s ridiculous that this isn’t, and it’s going to become a pay-per-print model?! I don’t care about the AI nonsense, it’s a printer. I could see myself using something like this to print recipes. I’d like to avoid getting my fancy cook book dirty, but have still have recipe in the kitchen to reference. Phone works okay until you have to scroll with dirty/we…

A regular printer, a binder, and a three-hole punch work fine. As a bonus, the printer is also useful in other ways, and any mementos produced with it will last in a way thermal paper never really does.

Yes, it does, and we have one for some recipes. It’s bulkier than these would be, and we don’t have a lot of counter space. Also doesn’t solve the disposable problem. We have plastic sheets to protect the pages which works good enough, and it’s easy to print new pages if some get soiled anyway.

I don’t want mementos, I want disposable references.

It’s also not that big of a deal if this isn’t feasible, because the binder works fine, the phone works fine. This is just sparked a “hey, what if…” idea is all.

Re: Show HN: Printercow – Turn any thermal printer into an API endpoint

#58

Is there something out there like this that is self-hosted? It’s ridiculous that this isn’t, and it’s going to become a pay-per-print model?! I don’t care about the AI nonsense, it’s a printer. I could see myself using something like this to print recipes. I’d like to avoid getting my fancy cook book dirty, but have still have recipe in the kitchen to reference. Phone works okay until you have to scroll with dirty/we…

Once it's out of alpha you can self-host this project

It sounded to me like once it’s out of alpha the pricing model is “TBD, but likely pay-per-print”.

Re: Show HN: Printercow – Turn any thermal printer into an API endpoint

#59

Is there something out there like this that is self-hosted? It’s ridiculous that this isn’t, and it’s going to become a pay-per-print model?! I don’t care about the AI nonsense, it’s a printer. I could see myself using something like this to print recipes. I’d like to avoid getting my fancy cook book dirty, but have still have recipe in the kitchen to reference. Phone works okay until you have to scroll with dirty/we…

// Hardcoded token for authentication $authToken = 'your-secure-token-here'; // Set the printer name (adjust to your printer's name) $printerName = 'YourPrinterName'; // Allow only POST requests if ($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] !== 'POST') { http_response_code(405); echo json_encode(['error' => 'Method not allowed. Use POST.']); exit; } // Check for token in the request if (empty($_POST['token']) || $_POST['token'] !==…

I don’t think you can just send any document to a thermal printer and have it come out usable… there’s definitely value in software that can _convert_ arbitrary data to whatever format/dimensions/etc the thermal printer needs. Like the post mentions automatic dithering of images. Stuff like that. The HTTP glue is not the hard part.

Re: Show HN: Printercow – Turn any thermal printer into an API endpoint

#60
post #7

In case you don't want to create an account, you can just comment with your prompts and I will enter them myself. You can watch let it print on https://twitch.tv/printercow then. :)

Ok how about a D&D style character sheet for a Lvl 2. Aarakocra barbarian. Lets make it brief and fun with emojis and include prompts for basic rolls and a way to keep track of health points by filling in bubbles or boxes.

We've got you covered!

https://sales-and-dungeons.app/

Post reply on HN