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OpenPrinter

opentools.studio

181–190 of 299 posts

Re: OpenPrinter

#181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? Restricting it in this way doesn't make sense to me. If we have a common design them surely we want people to be able to build their own, or buy a prebuilt?

Why is the CC BY-NC-SA stopping me to build my own?

dmca?

Re: OpenPrinter

#183
post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes But how important?

If it is not an open source license, you should not call it open source. Imagine someone saying the same thing about MongoDB's license, for example.

Is there a Linux server run on fully open source hardware (what would that mean btw?)? Should we stop using "open source" because almost all computers are not fully open source?

Re: OpenPrinter

#184
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that’s a product of their time rather than the dot matrix tech itself. Paper feeding is hard . Tractor strips made it easier.

Pen plotters could accept sheets of A4 and very precisely position them since at least the 80s. I'm surprised that dot-matrix printers didn't adopt similar technologies sooner, though it could be because by the mid-80s dot-matrix printers were the budget option, fanfold paper with the tractor strips was still abundant, and it was much easier to just stick with the cheaply manufacturable technologies rather than take…

Were A4 plotters that much of a thing? I'd thought plotters were usually larger format (A0-A2 sort of size) for engineering drawings etc. Also iirc they were insanely expensive compared with your standard microcomputer dot-matrix printer.

Re: OpenPrinter

#185

Interesting comment from last time this was posted https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48093670 Inkjet printing requires orders of magnitude more engineering expertise, materials science, industry experience and financial resources than most people imagine. That is the reason, open inkjet printers don't exist despite having been consumer products with the same drawbacks for more than forty years. That is why this is…

I mean, there's a video:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XB7iAFXCJQM&t=17s&pp=2AERkAIB

Sure it could be fraud but it could also just work.

Re: OpenPrinter

#186
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A colour laser A4 multifunction is only a few hundred bucks these days, five years ago I’d have agreed with you but it might be worth re-evaluating.

I've reevaluated. Still not worth it. My Brother is hitting 10 years now, and I'm trying to think of many scenarios where I really needed to print colour at home.

I have all Brother printers too, they seem to be the only brand that's not actively trying to screw their customers. My B&W laser at home is on its second drum and still soldiering on, we got an A4 colour laser multifunction for work which does double sided document scanning and printing and it was... I think $380 or something, five years ago. Would buy again. I don't really need colour but it's nice.

Re: OpenPrinter

#189
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

99% of this is the printhead and the ink formulation. Assuming you use generic off the shelf solutions for those two components you’re set. All the printer companies do their lock in at the firmware and software layer.

Yeah, I found that original comment to be a bit nonsensical. It would be like arguing you can't build your own PC because the lithography tech needed to make modern ICs is really complicated. I wasn't planning a laying out my own chip, and these guys aren't planning on building their own printhead from scratch.

There's also the long term strategy where if they can sell enough printers, they may at some point in the future do get the budget needed to make their own print head. It's not like printers were invented in 2026.

Re: OpenPrinter

#190
post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've reevaluated. Still not worth it. My Brother is hitting 10 years now, and I'm trying to think of many scenarios where I really needed to print colour at home.

I don't think this was a mono vs color argument but rather ink color vs laser color.

If you go with a laser color printer you will have to buy four toners instead of one.
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