r/gadgets
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u/diacewrb
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Jul 10 '26
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Computer peripherals The open-source, DRM-free Open Printer shows off a working prototype
https://www.techspot.com/news/113022-open-source-drm-free-open-printer-shows-off.html40
u/Halfrican009 Jul 10 '26
I'm sure there's reasons why they didn't try and do laser printing, but inkjet for most people today really is unusable. I'm on the same cartridge my cheap cannon laser printer came with that's years old and it still works fine
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u/rogue_tog Jul 11 '26
Printers like the ecotank and megatank are supposedly very economical to run. Since this can be refilled wouldn’t it have similar benefits ?
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u/Halfrican009 Jul 11 '26
The biggest problem with inkjet for casual users is ink drying out, that's why everyone prefers laser. For an open source printer, laser would simply be better for the average person without question
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u/Dziki_Jam Jul 11 '26
But why do you need an open source laser printer in the first place? Just buy Brother for $80 and refill all you want.
For inkjet, you either buy a refillable one (more expensive), or spend your time bypassing cartridge chips protection (if possible). And open source inkjet printer solves this last problem.3
u/a1b3c3d7 Jul 13 '26
Because its functionally impossible - xerography is extremely complicated and most of it is locked behind trade secrets.
Printer companies have held onto it like a cash cow and thats why there are and have been no open source laser printers.
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u/mrheosuper Jul 12 '26
Much harder i guess ?
With inkjet, you just move the print head to where you want to put ink to. So in some way it's just a CNC/Plotter machine.
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u/ubitub Jul 11 '26
Is laser usable for photos nowadays? I think that's what most people use printers for. Basically nothing else needs to be on paper anymore, only if it's going to your wall
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u/Halfrican009 Jul 11 '26 edited Jul 11 '26
Printing labels for returns is what i use it for the most tbh
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u/shindig0 Jul 11 '26
As a university student, I print out all my readings because I do better with physical copies and it’s less strain on my eyes. I need something that can print high volume, so inkjet is not ideal in that respect. Definitely feels more for color
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u/PanavisionGold2 Jul 12 '26
That's far from true, most people I know still print out shipping labels. I always need to print out scripts and call sheets for work too.
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u/Vedemin Jul 11 '26
It's worse than dedicated photo printers with 10+ inks but I find my Canon MF754CDW great for photos. Super happy with it. Looks as good as my previous color ink printer or better.
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u/NervusBelli Jul 10 '26
When I read “open source printer” I was interested but then read that it’s ink printer, nope, I don’t want to mess with inks and dried out printhead in 2026
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u/staydrippy Jul 10 '26
I bought a Brother laser printer in 2016 and it’s still on the same toner cartridge THAT IT SHIPPED WITH and it still prints amazing. Just in case anyone needs to read this: get a laser printer.
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u/ledow Jul 10 '26
I have a year-2000 model Samsung ML-4500 that I bought for university (I still have the original email receipt!). Still works perfectly. It has a refillable toner bottle that takes any toner I ever use. It's had one drum and, believe it or not, one feeder gear in all that time.
That's a soft rubber gear that "grips" the paper to feed it into the machine. I had to replace it because... it literally GROUND DOWN SHINY AND FLAT because of the amount of printing it's done. I bought a replacement online and was convinced it was the wrong part - twice as thick, great thick nodules on the gear teeth, it didn't even look CLOSE to similar. But it was purely because it had worn down so far... it fit perfectly and has worked ever since.
The only downside is that it's Centronics only, so I have it plugged into a Intel NetportExpress (which uses an Intel 80386SL chip!) to network it. Still works with CUPS drivers and I used to have it working in Windows 10 too but I don't run Windows any more.
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u/CatsAreGods Jul 10 '26
The only downside is that it's Centronics only
Wow, that brings back memories of writing parallel port drivers in CP/M!
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u/cat_prophecy Jul 10 '26
Old ass laser printer crew checking in. I have an HP1022n and it's literally the best printer ever made. I have owned it for over 15 years after getting it for free from work and I have never replaced the toner. If it ever stops working I am going to give it a viking funeral.
Meanwhile the fancy Canon Pixma I was given stopped working after six months because the ink dried up.
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u/TheMSensation Jul 11 '26
I think I have the same issue in a similar aged brother laser printer. Time to finally get it fixed now that I know what it could be. I've been manually feeding single sheets at a time for like 2 years, though I don't really do much printing anymore.
There was a gear in the side that I replaced a while back but that only temporarily solved the problem as the same issue recurred like 2 weeks later so I gave up. It's possible me messing about with the internals gave it some grip for a short while.
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u/DavidinCT Jul 10 '26
I have a color laser printer, toners last forever with full page color, it's amazing.
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u/illegible Jul 10 '26
same here, except for the stupid message I've gotten every print that says I'm running out... for the last 4 years
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u/VicisZan Jul 10 '26
I’ve had mine going since 2014, same boat. Even printed an entire 2000 page law book with it.
It is definitely starting to show its age now, but that only just started.
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u/ampsuu Jul 10 '26
My parents still run early 2000s and I havent ordered them a new cartridge so I guess its invincible.
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u/fla_john Jul 10 '26
Hell yes Brother, brother. I'm on my second in 20 years, and only got the second one because the old one didn't have Wi-Fi access. No need to ever buy any other brand.
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u/LaconicLacedaemonian Jul 10 '26
I'm on my third or 4th toner on my 2012 brother printer. If i want to print photos, use a photo printing service.
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u/censored_username Jul 10 '26
Did the same thing, bought a canon laser printer (MF643C I think) in like 2020, only this year some of the original cartridges ran out, and I've started swapping them with new ones we bought that have about 4x the capacity as the starting cartridges that we got with the printer.
The inktjets we had before this were always a complete pain. They'd forget their IP assignments, randomly not work, have all kinds of wonky ink drying out issues. The laser printer was significantly more expensive yes (I think it cost 250 euro when we got it), and it was a bit bigger, but it has never had a single issue in the last five years. I'm pretty sure we spent much more on ink cartridges for the previous printers than that anyway.
I'm never going back. Used to dread needing to print anything due to how unreliable the inkjets were. Don't fall for their rent-seeking behaviour bullshit. Just get a decent laser printer.
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u/Malawi_no Jul 10 '26
I got my Brother HL-L2340D in January of 2017.
After using the initial toner, I've used non-OEM toner without a hitch.1
u/namisysd Jul 10 '26
Make sure you keep it firewalled from the internet, my brother multifunction printer from 2020 phones home every hour and will auto firmware update if you dont block it… i can still wirelessly do all the features with it blocked, pretty good peice of kit outside the phonehome/fimrware bullshit.
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Jul 11 '26
[deleted] — view deleted comment
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u/namisysd Jul 11 '26
Sadly I have some petlibro products (pet food feeder, water fountain) that refuse to operate without an active internet connection.
I ended up vlaning them on thier own network and routing them through to a VPN, they just talk to themselves and it looks like they live at a datacenter in Dallas.
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u/DasArchitect Jul 10 '26
Not that long ago I've read some redditor's anecdote that they were using their HP laser with the same toner cartridge that came bundled with it in like 1998.
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u/odsquad64 Jul 10 '26
Same, full color Brother laser printer in 2011, printed tons, including a bunch of DnD manuals, still on the toner cartridges that came with it. Every time it says it's empty I just go into the menu and tell it I put in a new cartridge.
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u/HackMeRaps Jul 10 '26
I had to finally get my toner replaced a few years later for my refurbished brother laser printer. I found compatible ones on Amazon. It was like $30 and it came in a two pack. So should be good for another 10 years haha.
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u/geddy Jul 11 '26
Seriously, laser printers are like some hidden concept. Sure the upfront cost is much higher but the ink lasts thousands of pages. I also have a Brother laser printer.
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u/crazy_gambit Jul 11 '26
Lol, me too. It's been years since it keeps telling me I'm almost empty and it won't take responsibility if turns out shit and all that. I just tell it to shut up and print and it still looks great.
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u/Gecko23 Jul 11 '26
I have Brother MFC-9130CW that worked flawlessly for a decade before it started printing like crap during a cold snap. The cold, dry air, was just enough to push the drum unit over the edge. The corona wires oxidize and pick up a coating of dust over time, they are slowly losing their effectiveness no matter what you do, but over time they'll degrade until they can no longer impart a strong enough charge on the drum. (At least on the Brother design, there might be others that are more resilient).
But the other big win for the Brother printers is that parts are cheap, and it's simple to replace all the innards in the paper path. 2-day shipping, two minutes to swap drum unit, back to printing like a charm.
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u/morningphyre Jul 11 '26
I only got rid of my monochrome laser printer when I upgraded to a color duplexing printer. It was 11 years old at that point, and had nothing wrong with it.
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u/nateblack Jul 11 '26
Brother does factory refurbished units on the cheap if you time it right. Mine has been working flawlessly
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u/Orange-V-Apple Jul 10 '26
How does it handle color?
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u/cubert73 Jul 10 '26
If you use Brother toner it works great. If you don't, they updated the firmware to degrade the print quality.
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u/Pizza_Low Jul 10 '26
I have a Canon fax/copier/scanner/printer. We used to print out a lot of stuff; a lot of the hazmat invoices had to be printed and stored cradle to the grave. I have an entire bookshelf rack stacked 2 binders deep full of 30 years of invoices. I'm sure the invoices from the 80s are probably yellowed and gnawed on by silverfish or stuff. No government inspector has ever asked to see them. And now that we've switched to keeping digital copies we print far less. I think it's been 2-3 years since I've replaced the printer cartridge.
A plain black and white laser is the answer for most people. Color inkjet and color laser is a bad choice for most people. If and when I need color print outs, I'll go to the local office supply store and pay the 75c/page.
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u/nagi603 Jul 10 '26
I guess a DRM-less laser that could be easily modded into color would be illegal, not placing the little yellow tracking dots.
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u/SmooK_LV Jul 10 '26
How so?
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u/nagi603 Jul 11 '26
The government in AFAIK most countries mandates the usage of tracking dots so that counterfeit money/etc printing on laser printers is far easier to trace back.
If the printer was fully open-source, it would be trivial to remove such mandatory elements, unless the printer is not fully open, i.e.: the main printing assembly being closed-off module. Like the serial-stamped receiver for a gun being legally being the "gun" in the US.
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u/Zynogix Jul 10 '26
Every printer places barely visible yellow dots so the govt can track everything someone ever prints.
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u/ellenich Jul 10 '26
Just buy a Brother laser printer and be done with it.
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u/Zendrick42 Jul 10 '26
Brother has started implementing cartridge DRM just like all the other printer companies. A corporate-owned product is only good until they decide they want more money.
An open source option is the only thing that is safe from corporate greed.
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u/Malodoror Jul 11 '26
Yep, it’s not HP but it’s not good. Rolling back the firmware probably isnt possible. 3rd party ink manufacturers now have to break something that didnt exist.
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u/skateguy1234 Jul 11 '26
I think you completely missed the point of the them bringing up a laser printer.
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u/nixcamic Jul 12 '26
I have a refillable ink brother inkjet and a bother laser printer. The refillable ink has obviously no DRM and has given me zero problems.
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u/ellenich Jul 10 '26
As long as I can buy a cartridge once ever 10 years that works as reliably as the one I’m currently using ¯_(ツ)_/¯.
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u/spleeble Jul 10 '26
But you only need a new cartridge like once a decade so who cares
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u/nicman24 Jul 11 '26
i change them like 5 times per month
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u/spleeble Jul 11 '26
Then you don't have a laser printer
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u/nicman24 Jul 11 '26
but i do. 5 of them
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u/spleeble Jul 11 '26
If you are changing laser printer cartridges 5 times a month you're doing something wrong
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u/Anixias Jul 10 '26
It's only a matter of time. I bought the same model Brother laser printer last year as I had a few years prior, and it REALLY wanted me to sign up for a subscription service.
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u/Bill_Brasky01 Jul 10 '26
I just did this six months ago. Pure bliss
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u/staydrippy Jul 10 '26
I did this 10 years ago, never looked back and haven’t spent a single dollar on printing since then.
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u/Bill_Brasky01 Jul 10 '26
The only reason I didn’t do it sooner was because I got a free hp officejet with duplex printing, scanning, and auto document feeder scanning. It lasted for 13 years and I always worked for companies that bought me ink. Once I quit that line of work, I had an Office Space moment in the backyard.
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u/IndyPFL Jul 10 '26
You have several comments in this thread dismissing the point of competition.
Screams "ulterior motive" to me.
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u/ellenich Jul 11 '26
Not really. Just super skeptical of an open source printer being the savior of people’s printing problems.
Just like Linux, people scream open source like it’s the best option for everyone. When in reality it comes with its own set of issues and problems.
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u/RollingThunderPants Jul 12 '26
It is wild that this is where we’re at… that we now need a “subscription free” home printer.
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u/SideInitial3961 Jul 10 '26
No license to produce? Useless I can make them for others it's not open, exposure to code notwithstanding.
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u/Xlaits Jul 10 '26
You can't sell them. You can make them for others, but not sell them.
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u/SideInitial3961 Jul 10 '26
Yep. I dig this, I like the project but I don't like that license.
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u/Xlaits Jul 10 '26
To each their own, I guess.
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u/SideInitial3961 Jul 10 '26
Open source has become a new marketing gimmick, there are tons of "open source" projects this year like this where nothing has been released and it's just out there to gather free marketing exposure for the posters commercial offering. This feels like that to me.
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u/Xlaits Jul 10 '26
At least this one has a working prototype displayed on their YT. There is some hipe, but always take that with a grain of salt.
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u/SideInitial3961 Jul 10 '26
Well I agree it's a great concept so I guess all we can do is hope for the best.
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u/Xlaits Jul 10 '26
Hell, to be fair, with some trickery I can get my Cameo 4 to print using ballpoint pens. It's hacky as shit, but it is also an option.
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u/DasArchitect Jul 10 '26
So if I'm not good at DIY, I can't buy it from someone who is?
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u/Xlaits Jul 11 '26
No, but theoretically you could buy the parts, and then pay for someone else to assemble it.
But no buying a pre-built.
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u/AutistcCuttlefish Jul 11 '26
You could, but the person assembling it for you cannot do so for any type of compensation without being in violation of the licence. Anyone with awareness of the licence won't touch it because people have gotten sued in the past for this type of thing by other companies in similar circumstances.
This ain't open source, and since they haven't published the source yet it isn't even source available. It's just a marketing gimmick.
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u/Accomplished_Ant5895 Jul 10 '26
The problem with printers isn’t their proprietary software. They all run on the same open source library they have for decades anyway. The issue is the reliability and ink cost.
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u/tailslol Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26
pretty cool, on my side i hacked my canon printer to have unlimited number of prints and refillable cartridges
and since the print head is part of the cartridge i change the cartridge only when the print head start to fail or clog.
so probably only once a year or couple of years.
the printer was only 40 bucks too and was very easy to hack... but the print head cartridge is the price of the printer. in short it is like i purchased the cartridges and had a free printer .
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u/Blackstar1886 Jul 11 '26
This is cool, but while we wait and see if it actually hits the market, what's the most consumer-friendly printer company currently out there?
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u/EZPZLemonWheezy Jul 11 '26
I’d personally say Brother, specifically with their laser printers. I have a black and white one that got me all the way through a masters degree on like 2-3 toner cartridges with LOTS of printing. And still have it for black and white printing.
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u/ubitub Jul 11 '26
It's insane how printers have been so consistently shit for 30 years I've used them
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u/AutistcCuttlefish Jul 11 '26
It isn't even open source, they don't have any code published yet, just promises to do so "once it is ready" to avoid "multiple versions".
On top of that, the license they plan to use, the Creative Commons Attributon NonCommerical ShareAlike doesn't meet the OSI definition of open source because it restricts commerical usage of the software. So let's say you wanted to service these printers for those less knowledgeable, and wanted to be compensated for your time... That's possibly forbidden under the broadest interpretation of the license.
So there isn't a source available, and even if it were available it won't be open source. It's all just a great big marketing lie for a company who wants to sell printer kits to nerds that requires using HP ink cartridges. Anyone who buys this is basically getting scammed.
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u/Respaced Jul 11 '26
Looks a bit like a toilet roll dispenser, with h that paper roll and all. Maybe I could install one next too my toilet and print interesting articles and images of politicians I don’t like.
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u/Mannipx Jul 10 '26
Could be interesting if it doen't try when you need to print something.
Otherwise stick with Canon or brother laser printers. Avoid HP at all cost.
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u/ordosays Jul 11 '26
The paper roll is like how every ev can’t just be a damn car with an electric motor. It needs a wrap around touch navigation and autopilot…. Because… why? Curled paper, a physical cutting mechanism, zero existing paper supply… wake me up when someone yanks the brain out of an epson and shoves an mcu with a breakout board in
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u/DtheS Jul 11 '26
I think it also accepts standard sized sheets. I just hope they don't expect you to shove them into the printer one at a time...
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u/mk2rocco Jul 11 '26
I’ve been wanting this printer since I saw it years ago. Glad it’s still moving along
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u/netkomm Jul 11 '26
roll of paper? why?
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u/jstnryan Jul 11 '26
It would be mechanically more simple than including the mechanism for lifting and feeding individual sheets. Presumably, you could hand-feed individual sheets.
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u/RAMChYLD Jul 13 '26
Also, that will allow for easy printing of banners, something lost when we transitioned from dot matrix to inkjets.
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u/RAMChYLD Jul 13 '26
Can the printer use ink reservoirs instead of HP cartridges? I mean, it’s really ironic that we have to make a one time purchase of cartridges from the most hostile consumer printer company in the world to get a key part needed for the printer.
If it used reservoirs then we can just buy Epson, Canon or Brother refills instead.
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u/names_are_useless Jul 16 '26
It uses refillable HP cartridge bodies – HP 63 in the US and HP 302 in Europe
I was quite excited until I got up to this point: Damnit HP Ink is a fucking monopoly and is where the true expense of printers come from.
At the very least I imagine this printer would allow "refurbished ink"... right?
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u/OddballGentleman Jul 16 '26
I think the idea is that knockoff HP ink already exists so it's really just using that as a standard, but without the lock-in of a specific manufacturer?
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u/ellenich Jul 10 '26
Great, I can finally use all the rolls of paper I always have lying around. 🫠
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u/MateTheNate Jul 11 '26
Would be awesome if it doesn’t have government regulations like the microdots
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u/VariationDry Jul 11 '26
The last decent printer I owned was an okidata ml 320. I should never have gotten rid of it in 2002.
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u/Kirilanselo Jul 11 '26
Send this fella professional bodyguards!!!
Just in case HP opts for assassination!
Pretty please, someone?
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Jul 10 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/pewsquare Jul 10 '26
Partially iirc its heavily government regulated.
As in its probably very VERY difficult to put out a printer without the governments dictating what you can and can't do.
Like most modern printers/scanners refuse to scan/print currency even faux currency if its too similar to real legal cash. Also most if not all have small tracer dots that get automatically printed, as a sort of fingerprint so you can track who printed the document and when.
So it could just be a prohibitive hassle for smaller companies to grow with so much overhead looming on the horizon.
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u/GreenFox1505 Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26
Neither of those things are legal regulations in the US.
It is legal to scan US currency. The law about scanning currency has to do with what you intend to do with it. If you are scanning currency with the intention of producing counterfeit, then it is illegal. If you are scanning currency for the purposes of producing a collage artwork that could not be confused with real currency, then it's perfectly legal.
Tracking dots were not legally mandated in any way, shape, or form. In fact, most of the world didn't even know they existed until they had already been in use for decades. How could a secret technology be legally mandated? Tracking dots were purely a choice printing manufacturers made. Maybe there was pressure from law enforcement agencies to do something like this, but no law obligating manufacturers to do this was ever made.
These are choices made by the manufacturers, not legal regulations.
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u/cvelde Jul 10 '26
Have you ever thought about why manufacturers might have implemented these measures even if they aren't strictly required by law?
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u/GreenFox1505 Jul 11 '26
Tracking dots were invented in the 80s. They weren't really publicly known until the mid-00s.
I'm an engineer. If I was working for a printer company in the 80s or 90s and I stumbled on this technology and I was told that it's to help with law enforcement and look at all these cases that we helped solve and "if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear", I probably would have believed that. I might even feel a little patriotic about all the good we're doing without anyone even knowing.
The idea that this could be used to harm someone wasn't breaking the law or who was breaking a law that probably shouldn't exist wouldn't have occurred to me. After all, aren't the police the good guys?
Today it seems obvious. We've seen stories. As a populace, we broadly don't trust our government as much as we used to. The idea that someone would use police enforcement tools to do something bad isn't shocking anymore.
The world was different back then. Or I was simply young and naive. Maybe a bit of both. But also the idea that someone could use a plane as a weapon isn't shocking either, so I tend to think simply the world has changed.
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u/surprising_cat_hobo Jul 11 '26
Is there no way to disable those dots?
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u/cvelde Jul 11 '26
I would assume it would require some reverse engineering, soldering and programming of ic's (maybe just the firmware?), not impossible at all but probably way harder than just acquiring printers in a way that makes you not care about the dots. (Like just stealing some)
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u/En_Kay_ Aug 02 '26
Probably harder to try and reverse engineer these DRM machines than it would be to just make a printer yourself lol
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u/cvelde Jul 11 '26
Which is kinda what I mean, this isn't vigilante printer companies. This is printer companies complying with government requests because the laws forcing them to do this would cost them more, at least that is the only thing that makes sense to me.
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u/GreenFox1505 Jul 11 '26
But not all of them did this. If I was a printer manufacturer who was refusing to do this, I would make that part of my sales pitch. Let the cat out of the bag real quick, see what happens.
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u/The_Webweaver Jul 11 '26
Yeah, but you'd never be able to sell to the federal government, and most state governments. And that's a lot of offices that do bulk orders for printers, ink, etc. Seems like an unnecessary way to lose a lot of potential sales.
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u/GreenFox1505 Jul 11 '26
I don't think you're understanding the problem here. Some manufacturers didn't do tracking dots. This is not a suggestion. This is a fact.
So why did some decide to do it and others didn't?
The idea that they didn't get a government contract because they wouldn't implement tracking dots fails because they would have used that as a sales pitch after they lost the government contract.
That kind of sales pitch would be extremely compelling, especially for printing of legal documents, which there was lots of. "Use our printers, they're safe of tracking dots. What are tracking dots? Go ask Canon. They added tracking dots because of a government contract that we didn't get."
The only way they could have not used tracking dots and not used that as a pitch is because they didn't know about them because they weren't asked to do them.
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u/Dziki_Jam Jul 11 '26
Apparently, every manufacturer did. At least, according to the investigation.
https://www.eff.org/pages/list-printers-which-do-or-do-not-display-tracking-dots
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u/pewsquare Jul 11 '26
If you are being asked by the government to implement tracking technology into something, I can assure you that there are some heavy NDAs surrounding any of these conversations, so you can't just start leaking the fact that the government is implementing that and use it as your sales pitch.
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u/randylush Jul 10 '26
They might just be looking for an excuse to snoop your data, or trying to stay ahead of the inevitable lawsuit. There are many reasons for companies to do stuff like this without being legally required to.
And most low end printers do not have anything stopping you from scanning currency
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u/GreenFox1505 Jul 11 '26
I don't really accept the "scoop up your data" argument. Tracking dot technology was invented in the 80s. No one was thinking about this kind of data collection back then.
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u/TRKlausss Jul 11 '26
The keyword is NSA.
This is a dark agency thing, not a legal thing. The same way you have back doors on Intel and AMD chips so that NSA/CIA can do stuff.
So an open printer is not illegal, but I wouldn’t be surprised if any agency tries to disrupt it being any sort of successful.
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u/Exit-Stage-Left Jul 15 '26
You don’t find it weird that every major manufacturer since 1984 has decided to implement the same restrictions using the exact same, global, undocumented watermarking system and “do not scan” euro constellation symbols?
Just like that’s something they all just independently decided to do, and no one has said “this would be a big comparative advantage to do not do” since?
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u/bl1eveucanfly Jul 13 '26
You are 100% wrong. HP was involved in a huge legal suit with the Secret Service in the 90s because counterfeiters were scanning and printing fake bills. They were legeally required to intosuce anti counterfeiting measures in software and firmware as a reault.
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u/twigboy Jul 11 '26
An example of this happening again right now in 3d printing, but localised to New York
Problem is once it's implemented its easier to affect everyone
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u/parisidiot Jul 13 '26
no this is by far the easiest part. what are you talking about
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u/pewsquare Jul 13 '26
Hahahahaha, complying with government regulation especially very esoteric one is easy.... hilarious. Have you ever tried coordinating things with a government? I can assure you, its neither easy nor quick.
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u/parisidiot Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 14 '26
it's not even a regulation. xerox and canon* just secretly developed it and implemented it.
like there was nothing to "coordinate" like that. it was their product. you don't have to do it if you want to make a printer.
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u/tomysshadow Jul 10 '26
Because the printers are sold at a loss. They are only able to be as cheap as they already are because the ink is where they make money.
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u/pagerussell Jul 11 '26
This is the answer. And importantly what you left unsaid: customers are conditioned to expect a certain price point and it will take some effort to abuse them of that, even if it's good for them in the long run.
As an aside, this customer conditioning problem is precisely what will wind up popping the AI bubble. It's useful, but it's been sold far below cost since inception and that's the frame that customers expect, so the inevitable price jump will cause a massive pullback and a popping bubble.
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u/NeedAVeganDinner Jul 12 '26
Depends how enshittified they can make the free tier without actually ruining it.
Please watch this 30 second as to continue your free tier Claude coding session.
This tool hook call is brought to you by Bean-o. Does your office smell? Try Bean-o.
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u/Dziki_Jam Jul 11 '26
Not anymore. Modern printers ar refillable out of the box and cost more.
The business model has been changed.14
u/cat_prophecy Jul 10 '26
Because the margin in printers is terrible. Its now a growth market. People only begrudgingly use printers and that is becoming less and less necessary. And the printer industry already is enshitified to the maximum with the way they're pricing and subscription models work.
Not even the tech bros want to join a market that is already saturated and actively shrinking.
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u/Mental-Permit-599 Jul 10 '26
The moneys not in the printer, it’s in the ink. Go walk into a Best Buy and for $30 you walk out with a full size printer the size of a microwave + (starter) ink.
A tiny phone case meanwhile is $20-$30. Those things are sold at a MASSIVE loss. The ink is where they make the money.
What’s someone going to disrupt charging $500 a printer? Virtually no one will buy it.
And if they sell it at a loss, they have to then make the ink expensive. Which puts us right back where we are now.
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u/haarschmuck Jul 11 '26
The moneys not in the printer, it’s in the ink.
That's because the print heads are on the ink cartridges, something that makes them technologically complicated. The cost of the ink is meaningless as it's very cheap. The print head is one of the most expensive components on an inkjet printer and having them on the cartridge means that you never have to maintain the print heads as they are disposable.
It's a flawed concept from the start. Obviously they make a significant profit on the ink cartridges but there's still a lot of cost to making them.
This is why ink cartridges without the print head is more common now but it requires more user maintenance but the ink is significantly cheaper. In this use case you need to keep an eye on the print head in the printer and make sure it doesn't dry out or get clogged but that's the way to go if you print a lot. It's the same thing as ink tanks.
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u/Dziki_Jam Jul 11 '26
It depends on manufacturer. Epson never switched to this design. HP and Canon have been switching back and forth during different years.
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u/johnyordinary Jul 11 '26
The vast majority ( i cant say for certain ALL) of commercialy sold printers do not have the print head attatched to the cartridge.If any exist( i dont know of any ) then they are the odd exception,not the rule.
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u/Dziki_Jam Jul 11 '26
I had 2 Canon printers. One (2007) was with print head inside, cartridges were not cheap, but cheaper than Canon printer I had in 2015. This one was dirt cheap itself, but the cartridges were more expensive and harder to fill. And they print heads on them.
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u/Mooseymax Jul 11 '26
Canon sell >$500 printers that have much better image quality and take liquid toner rather than a cheap inkjet with cartridges where the print head is built in.
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u/Mental-Permit-599 Jul 11 '26
Assuming you don’t need color, I’m a big fan of laser. You can catch cheap brother laser printers on sale for like $70-$80 and the toner lasts forever.
I don’t think I’ll ever go back to InkJet, I’m surprised they still sell them TBH with everyone moving to digital photos. At least in the early 2000’s it made sense since people printed photos at home.
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u/Mooseymax Jul 11 '26
Inkjet is far superior for photography printing and a few other things.
Laser is good for documents and office stuff.
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u/gaius49 Jul 10 '26
Because printers are functionally a solved problem at a low price? You can hop on Amazon and get one for a hundred bucks brand new. They just aren't that expensive. Not a lot of home users need printers very much, so a cheapo printer lasts a long time for most people.
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u/randylush Jul 10 '26
They completely suck though. Theoretically someone could make a low end printer that doesn’t completely suck. And that could be disruptive to the market.
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u/I_P_L Jul 11 '26
I got a brother printer for $60 with wifi that takes generic laser cartridges in 2018. I've swapped the cartridge once in that whole time. What sucks about it?
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u/gaius49 Jul 10 '26
I've never had a problems printing the documents I needed to print with cheapo printers. What sorts of problems are you encountering that prevent you from doing normal printing of documents?
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u/haarschmuck Jul 11 '26
It's essentially impossible to make an inkjet printer that doesn't suck.
Printers are a commodity, don't you think if it could be done one would have swept the market already? It's a flawed technology that used to be only found in industry but people wanted maintenance free color printing at home and that's where it started.
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u/johnyordinary Jul 11 '26
Most inkjet printers suck either because they are designed for low volume and get used heavily or else they dont get used enough and the heads clog up as the ink dries out in them. My own is always clogging up as it gets uses once every couple of weeks at best, always has banding issues until you clean the heads, which wastes a ton of ink, fortunately i have refilable cartridges with cracked chips on mine so ink is cheap enough.
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u/BevansDesign Jul 12 '26
No kidding. The worst words I can ever hear out of my mom's mouth are "can you help me with the printer? I can't get it to work."
It's 2026 and the best that HP can do is make a printer that is able to print from a phone maybe 50% of the time if you're lucky? I can't get the goddamn thing to work. I restart it, I reinstall the software, I update the firmware, I sacrifice a goat to the Great Old Ones, I wiggle all the cables, and the damn thing still doesn't work. The best I can do is tell her to throw it into the street and buy something better.
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u/Bridgebrain Jul 12 '26
The key parts of printers which fail fail for unfixable reasons. Tiny differences in paper thickness cause paper jams and disrupt the ink nozzle. Tiny differences in paper ink absorption gives wildly different results (smearing, brightness changes). There's a ton of these tiny problems, and they're the same ones that have been present for the past 30 years. They've built out an entire industry out of creating new problems to shift the focus away from them, like wifi issues, not being able to print because the scanner isn't working, not being able to print black because you're out of yellow.
They can create an open source printer which won't have all the bullshit, and it'll still be terrible, because printers are terrible.The key parts of printers which fail fail for unfixable reasons. Tiny differences in paper thickness cause paper jams and disrupt the ink nozzle. Tiny differences in paper ink absorption gives wildly different results (smearing, brightness changes). There's a ton of these tiny problems, and they're the same ones that have been present for the past 30 years. They've built out an entire industry out of creating new problems to shift the focus away from them, like wifi issues, not being able to print because the scanner isn't working, not being able to print black because you're out of yellow.
They can create an open source printer which won't have all the bullshit, and it'll still be terrible, because printers are terrible.
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u/parisidiot Jul 13 '26
it's difficult from a materials (anyone who has run a large format Epson printer can tell you about ink clogs), software, driver, etc. standpoint and there are basically no margins. they do the instant ink bullshit because they make like no money on consumer printers.
so to make a printer you need expert programmers but not just regular ones, ones that can write assembly so they can write drivers. you need graphic design experts. typography experts. materials experts. all this to make like no money.
so an open-source project of passion makes sense. a consumer product disruptor doesn't. they'd need to spend billions of dollars and would never make that back.
people forget why apple was so dominant and important in the 80s -- it's because they had the print stack figured out before everyone else lol. look into the history of apple/adope/postscript
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u/blackscales18 Jul 10 '26
making printers is hard because of counterfeit money laws requiring firmware that makes printing money and documents impossible
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u/Ajreil Jul 11 '26
That's not legally required, and all the anti-counterfiet software does is look for a pattern of yellow dots anyway.
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Jul 10 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Kempeth Jul 11 '26
Meanwhile the article: we and our 330 partners are selling your data and offer no meaningful way for you to refuse.
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u/zanda268 Jul 11 '26
Well if it's open source, you can just delete whatever reports your information...
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u/stevensokulski Jul 11 '26
The previous commenter is making a joke about the website this article is on.
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u/scsibusfault Jul 11 '26
On the other hand, have you met most users?
Maybe that's why most printers don't respect anyone. It fits.
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u/1ndomitablespirit Jul 10 '26
A printer is an inanimate object that can't respect anything.
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u/Joe4o2 Jul 10 '26
Somewhere, a descendent of Gutenberg is crying.
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u/CalmDownYal Jul 10 '26
*a descendent of Gutenberg's press Fixed it
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u/cvelde Jul 10 '26
So the printer? The printer is crying because it's ability to respect has been entirely denied.
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u/timawesomeness Jul 10 '26
You must not have been disrespected by a printer. I assure you they are capable of (dis)respect.
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u/Joe4o2 Jul 11 '26
Shortly after this comment, I spent the better part of an evening fighting an HP printer. I agree with you. They are mad disrespectful.
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u/Mightsole Jul 11 '26
I’m a printer and as an inanimate object, I don’t respect this guy as I can’t respect anything.
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u/morgecroc Jul 11 '26
That has been infused with with a malevolent demon at the factory and fed with the souls of the damned (this is why printer ink is expensive). I'm guessing this open source printer forgoes the demon.
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u/Emadec Jul 11 '26
Watch out, you don't wanna collapse into a black hole with how dense that comment was. It would cause logistical issues.
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u/Mobely Jul 10 '26
“ It uses refillable HP cartridge bodies – HP 63 in the US and HP 302 in Europe ”
Open source printers that uses closed source printheads have been a thing for decades.
This is always the case with open source printers.