I stumbled across this link in the comment of another post, and thought it was super promising!
Someone mentioned something about in the US, this would be illegal due to DRM laws - not sure about the specifics of this, but regardless an open source printer seems like something we’ve needed for ages, as printers are something that always seem like way more of a headache then they need to be. It seems like such a simple technology that has existed for quite some time, but they are always such a pain to deal with. (Maybe it’s just my bad luck with printers?)
>inkjet
LED printers have been around for fucking ever, and the average person doesn’t need the graphic fidelity that only an overpriced pigment soup, which goes bad in a month, can supply.
Oh, and literally every part of a toner-based printer is easier to replace/repair… so why would a printer designed around repairability and upgradability use ink???
Edit’ And I almost forgot: toner is cheaper per page than ink! Whyyy???
because it makes it way more easy to build such a “open source” printer, the print head with all its mems chips structures is already on the ink cardrige, meaning hardware wise this thing is just a 2 stepper motors, one for x and y axis.
laser/led printers would be in fact the superior printer, but it would also be way more complex hardware wise.