7/5/2026 at 9:33:07 PM
Interesting comment from last time this was posted https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48093670Inkjet 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 a pre-crowdfund landing page without a demonstrating a working prototype. I would like to be wrong, but I expect you to be waiting a long time. An inkjet printer is not a collection of off the shelf parts. It is a machine that operates at the edge of chemistry, fluid dynamics, and electro-mechanical design...you have to place tiny tiny drops of liquid ink on commodity wood pulp with precision under arbitrary environmental conditions, get that ink to dry on the wood pulp, but not in tank or nozzel, while producing acceptable color, durability, and ease of use. Also lawyers...there are patents.
by HelloUsername
7/5/2026 at 9:46:27 PM
On the technology side, I'm somewhat hopeful because it looks like they're using off-the-shelf HP ink cartridges for this. HP cartridges embed the printhead into the cartridge itself, and that printhead is arguably the most complicated part of the entire device. Outsource the printhead, and you're just designing a plotter with a PCL interface.I agree that the bigger challenge is going to be patents.
It also wouldn't surprise me to see HP add DRM to cartridges to authenticate the printer itself if this catches on. (Possibly requiring a printer driver/firmware update.)
by tjohns
7/6/2026 at 8:17:34 AM
The cartridge heads have a super curious digital protocol - the cartridge electronics have no power supply. There is no power rail internally either.Instead they use the fact mosfet gates have capacitance, and can therefore store 1 'bit' of information. Through a network of hundreds of MOSFETs, the right bits can be put on all the nozzle gates as needed, and then a 'fire' pulse is sent which for around a microsecond turns on a tiny heater (or not, depending on mosfet gate state). The heater boils some ink, making a pressure wave which travels down a pipe and makes a drop of ink fly out towards the paper. That heating and cooling again can happen around 10,000 times per second per nozzle (and there are ~300 nozzles).
I suspect this decision is because the custom silicon process needed to manufacture these nozzles is cheaper if they only have n type MOSFETs - and without p type MOSFETs you can't make a typical push pull logic gate.
The nozzles themselves are quite a lot of silicon - perhaps 100mm^2, with deep etched holes, and are effectively disposable, so I assume huge efforts have been taken to reduce costs - including this curious electrical design.
The protocol also is hugely irregular, which I suspect might be to avoid any wires on the chip needing to cross eachother.
by londons_explore
7/6/2026 at 9:12:50 PM
This sounds fascinating. Do you have a reference?by hyperbrainer
7/6/2026 at 2:53:34 AM
Impression v. Lexmark is directly relevant to the patent situation here; in a case involving reprogrammed ink cartridges, the Supreme Court held that patent rights are exhausted by first sale doctrine; that is, if you sell me something patented, you can't sue me for patent infringement for using the thing you sold me, even if I do something later that makes you upset.It's also been widely held that ink cartridge compatibility tools/hacks are allowed under DMCA.
However, it does seem likely that there's probably some shenanigan involved in the area - one example I could think of would be if HP have patented the way the ink cartridges are retained in the printer, for example, that would have to be carefully audited. And there will be license and trade secrets issues with the use of the cartridges, although if they were reverse engineered cleanly and the printer doesn't come with cartridges, those are probably pretty easily side-stepped.
by bri3d
7/6/2026 at 8:20:39 AM
These cartridges were first released in 2004, and there don't seem to have been any major design changes since then. The electrical and digital interface for printing has remained the same, as well as the mechanics. There is a new DRM system using another chip, but that is one-way - ie. It prevents an original printer from using the cartridge, but doesn't prevent use of an original cartridge by a third party printer.Any patents are probably expired or very close to it.
by londons_explore
7/6/2026 at 6:51:21 AM
A sea of patents designed to inhibit competition & promote rent extraction, and we are running around in circles chasing our tails wondering how we can compete with China.by 4gotunameagain
7/6/2026 at 8:28:44 AM
China is changing stance on patents... Thier companies are now filing for patents at great speed, and I wouldn't be surprised if they start mass suing American companies for violations.I could totally imagine a rapid upheaval of the patent system as soon as we see it being used against us.
by londons_explore
7/5/2026 at 11:56:57 PM
> I agree that the bigger challenge is going to be patents.Surely most/all of the patents around the actual inkjet printing function have expired though, right? I had inkjet printers in the mid 00s and if anything I feel like your average inkjet is worse these days.
by hn_throwaway_99
7/6/2026 at 6:50:46 AM
In medicine, it's a regular trick to find some new patentable formulation or tweak to switch to manufacturing shortly before the original patents expire, so that you continue to have a patent-protected product.It would not surprise me if something similar was happening here: HP's current cartridges have at least one piece that is under active patent protection and they don't manufacture any designs that have no patent protection. I don't know enough to state that's the case, but it wouldn't surprise me.
by Arainach
7/6/2026 at 2:05:41 PM
Mentioned elsewhere in this thread, but the print heads are a very specialized silicon chip with internal microfluidic passages, microscopic heaters, etc. Who else would even make them? The kind of thing you would need millions of dollars to reverse engineer and replicate just to enter the lucrative market of... making inkjet cartridges.I would be shocked to discover that there are counterfeit print heads out there the same way there are counterfeit STM32 microcontrollers.
Unless the patents have something to do with the shape of the cartridge or they somehow have a patent on "technique to fill printer cartridge with ink" which would not be so surprising.
by alnwlsn
7/5/2026 at 10:35:05 PM
Maybe they should have purchased a design from Canon or someone that isn't really in this market anymore. It seems like not only are they locked into a specific older technology generation (which could be ok idk) but they also risk HP just discontinuing that cartridge. It seems like the printers for this cartridge were released around late 2017 so they could deprecate earlier than they normally do. Seems like they provide 10-20 years typically. At the same time , maybe this is just meant for a small user base of nerds and maybe HP wont care.by saturn8601
7/6/2026 at 5:30:07 PM
I did some research on weird inkjet printers a few years ago. We wanted to do stuff like print white[1] graphics continuously onto rolls of black heat shrink tubing.One thing I discovered was that there's whole Chinese industries supplying this stuff in the forms of industrial printers and the application-specific cartridges they consume. And they all had one thing in common: They were based around the functionality of an HP printer cartridge. That was the universal interface.
This leads me to believe that a print cartridge format can be supported by the marketplace for a very long time whether HP likes it or not.
[1]: Printing with white is neat. It sounds impossible and there are those who say it can't happen, but it exists. It's just problematic. The head gets perma-clogged with solids within minutes of disuse in open air. So starting a print job is a race: Get everything set up, uncap the cartridge at the last moment, and then put that cap back on ASAP when the job is over.
by ssl-3
7/6/2026 at 11:19:12 PM
Are you referring to the numerous Chinese UV printers?>The head gets perma-clogged with solids within minutes of disuse in open air. So starting a print job is a race: Get everything set up, uncap the cartridge at the last moment, and then put that cap back on ASAP when the job is over
Decades ago I helped manage a local's school IT systems and we had these Epson C84 printers that used a very photo grade ink. The printheads would clog after a year of teachers printing like 1 document in that year. During that time it seemed like regular purging of ink regardless of print or not was what kept the printheads going. Strategies used by third party repair firms included submerging the head in a cleaner to dissolve the ink on the outside, connecting pipes with the same fluid to the inputs of the top to the printhead and then finally pulling pressure to try and dislodge the material through the head. Due to the non removable design of the Epson print heads, my attempts at trying this would destroy many printheads. I'd like to think this would be a solved problem in 2026. In your case why not run a purge liquid the printhead after each print? The printhead could then be primed with fresh ink each time.
by saturn8601
7/7/2026 at 1:19:46 AM
I don't know what a UV printer is. :)We were using fixed-head printers that we found at the bottom of a deep rabbit hole. The work moved through the machine while the printy-bits remained stationary. We were doing this with HP-style monochromatic carts that came loaded with high-solids "ink" (closer to paint, really) that used opaque white pigment.
Unlike Epson's ecosystem, HP carts most-commonly come as assemblies, with a new print head included in the same disposable cartridge as the ink is. The only connection between the carts and the rest of the printer is electrical; there's no plumbing or functional fluids that are external to the carts.
This self-contained nature means that when ink runs out or heads gets clogged, replacement of everything involved with fluids is fast and easy. Production can continue immediately.
It's not problematic at all...other than being expensive. :)
by ssl-3
7/6/2026 at 8:01:05 AM
Canon is still in the market, they just supply parts and license IP to the printer manufacturers like HP. They make some high value stuff to sell to the OEMs but I don’t think they can make a whole print head anymore.by throwup238
7/6/2026 at 2:08:33 AM
Why would they bother? They make all their money on the ink cartridges. If this drives more cartridge sales it’s a win/win for them. They generally don’t make much, if anything, on consumer ink jet printers themselvesby tw04
7/6/2026 at 12:39:33 PM
This printer will use refilled cartridges. It could even use cartridges that have been sent out under the 'instant ink' subscription scheme. People in that scheme usually end up with a drawer full of spare cartridges, as they send them to you like they are worth the pennies that they actually cost.by robbak
7/6/2026 at 2:55:24 PM
People willing to use refilled cartridges will use them regardless of the printer they’re going in, so again it’s no lost sale for HP.Heck, it may actually save them money. At one point they were losing money on every printer sale and making it back in ink No idea if that’s still the case.
by tw04
7/6/2026 at 7:15:51 AM
big companies seek control, not money, because money alone is a weak shield against disruptionsby numpad0
7/6/2026 at 2:57:38 AM
> Why would they bother?Many corporate and government types, especially lawyers, want control. They will go broke trying to control everyone and everything.
by RecycledEle
7/6/2026 at 6:53:49 AM
It’s negligible revenue and carries some risk. Say the printer works well, and these enthusiasts drive a couple of thousand more cartridge sales. And that encourages someone to develop an alternative cartridge, which is mechanically and electrically compatible with HP’s.It just seems easier to fire off a cease and desist than to take a risk of other people messing around with your ecosystem.
by brookst
7/6/2026 at 8:59:01 AM
> And that encourages someone to develop an alternative cartridge, which is mechanically and electrically compatible with HPThis already happens for basically every commercially-available ink cartridge.
by 15155
7/6/2026 at 10:10:05 AM
No, those are just repackaged OEM cartridges. And usually they've already been used, which is why they're cheaper.by whyoh
7/5/2026 at 9:56:22 PM
I don’t see why HP would want to do that. They have huge margins on ink, right? I’m sure the increase in cartridge sales would offset lost subscription revenue from useless cloud services, if only because the people who are gonna use an open source printer would never pay for that anyway.by pbronez
7/5/2026 at 10:10:06 PM
Looks like the intended use case here is you buy the cartridge once, and refill it, and OpenPrinter won't lock you out after doing so like HP does.by ldoughty
7/6/2026 at 12:46:24 AM
Yea, but then the print head clogs up after the second time you refill it and you buy another expensive print head + ink from HP.Frankly, I think 99% of the reason they started integrating the print head with the cartridge was to avoid all the problems you so frequently see on printers that don’t use disposable heads.
by labcomputer
7/6/2026 at 12:08:39 AM
Yeah, if you’re buying the ink they would be happy, I’d think. The ideal razor-and-blades business model!by taneq
7/6/2026 at 2:06:27 AM
The crowdsource page says it has refillable ink tanks rather than cartridges. Unless they are modifying HP cartridges, which is probably not smart from a legal standpoint.by ehnto
7/6/2026 at 2:34:16 AM
The tech specs say it uses HP 63 cartridges (or HP 302/803 outside the US), and that the cartridges can be refilled using a refill kit.The photos clearly show HP cartridges installed.
by tjohns
7/6/2026 at 3:07:13 PM
Well, they can just make the printer support multiple cartridges - problem solved.by m4rtink
7/6/2026 at 10:36:00 AM
In the case of DRM it might be easier to use third party cartridges.by whazor
7/5/2026 at 10:50:03 PM
I noticed that previous post is from a couple of months ago, and it looks like about a week ago they posted a project update and they claim for their current prototype: "We are successfully printing in both black and full color." https://www.crowdsupply.com/open-tools/open-printer/updates/...Of course I have no way of verifying either way. Still I do think the project looks quite interesting, I'm in the market for a printer and this is certainly the most interesting one I've seen in a while.
by infl8ed
7/6/2026 at 8:25:58 AM
There's a video of the prototype printing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XB7iAFXCJQMby Doxin
7/5/2026 at 9:51:18 PM
From the specs: Compatible cartridges
HP 63 and HP 63 XL (US)
HP 302 and HP 302 XL (Europe)
HP 803 and HP 803 XL (Asia)
So they just use HP inkjet technology. That makes it less open-source, but even "open source" parts are going to be under non-commercial license (CC BY-NC-SA) anyway.
by zczc
7/6/2026 at 5:32:03 AM
I suspect it's because the protocol for driving those cartridges is known and others have used them:by userbinator
7/6/2026 at 8:11:59 AM
Make sense. But at the same time sounds like another way to support the biggest predator in that space, no?by szszrk
7/6/2026 at 10:31:01 AM
Remanufactured cartridges for these printers are available. They profit from the first use of the cartridge, but make nothing out of the refilled ones (I've been using them for some time now).by rbanffy
7/5/2026 at 10:05:40 PM
> even "open source" parts are going to be under non-commercial license (CC BY-NC-SA) anywayYou're saying this as if it is a bad thing? I absolutely welcome this decision by the authors!
by phoronixrly
7/6/2026 at 12:21:32 AM
Non commercial licenses are not generally considered open sourceby lima
7/6/2026 at 12:49:12 AM
YesBut how important?
by worik
7/6/2026 at 1:10:03 AM
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.
by __float
7/6/2026 at 7:27:13 AM
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?by Sankozi
7/6/2026 at 9:13:02 AM
Quite a lot of open source hardware is licensed under the BY-SA Creative Commons license which is an actual open source license. E.g. the Arduinos and things like the Milkymist One which can actually run linux.by sehansen
7/6/2026 at 3:05:44 PM
What are you even trying to say? The fact that this is hardware isn't what makes it non-open source, there's plenty of open source hardware out there. The thing that makes it not-open-source is that the license is non-commercial.If you can't legally use the product, the fact that the source is available is meaningless. CC-NC is a source available license, not an open source license.
by hannasanarion
7/6/2026 at 7:59:37 PM
A Raspberry Pi running any flavor of linux, right?by dpoloncsak
7/6/2026 at 4:53:40 AM
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?
by happymellon
7/6/2026 at 5:38:23 AM
Why is the CC BY-NC-SA stopping me to build my own?by whilenot-dev
7/6/2026 at 7:51:52 AM
I didn't say it did.If it is a noncommercial licence then it removes the other option to set up a business selling these pre-built. Not everyone wants to build a printer.
by happymellon
7/6/2026 at 7:34:00 PM
No, it doesn't: I can build a machine described in an All Rights Reserved book. CC BY-SA-NC grants additional permissions on top of that, but it doesn't remove any. You're thinking of patents.by wizzwizz4
7/6/2026 at 7:16:35 AM
dmca?by numpad0
7/5/2026 at 9:40:49 PM
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.by rubidium
7/6/2026 at 12:20:15 AM
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.by hn_throwaway_99
7/6/2026 at 1:13:36 AM
yes, I was about to build another gaming PC, and then I remembered the ASML machine costs 20 bajillion. Will wait for the ASML machine to come down in price, to around couple of grand.by jnaina
7/6/2026 at 1:19:56 PM
You don't need ASML machines. There are labs all over that can build chips. I know of one near me that has a license to make the Pentium I chip (or possibly a similar chip - the exact chips classified, but I know can make the electronics for the Tomahawk missile thus ensuring that in case of war there is supply chain redundancy) - they need to get $30,000 each for them just to break even on labor costs since they don't have mass production.Which is to say you can make your gaming PC at home as a one-off if you want. Though personally I won't get near the toxic chemicals used.
by bluGill
7/6/2026 at 7:44:23 AM
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.by imtringued
7/6/2026 at 6:16:06 AM
At the 2400 DPI that an HP printer can handle, the printer needs to place the head at 1/100 mm precision three times for every single dot on the page, and not smear them, despite not knowing what thickness or weight or finish the paper has. That is not trivial.by dotancohen
7/6/2026 at 7:53:48 AM
2400 dpi is not the bar for entry, though. Even 240 would qualify as a printer, albeit not a good one (SOTA in 1995 maybe).by a96
7/6/2026 at 12:24:48 PM
I respectfully disagree. For all the use cases shown on the linked page, a 240 DPI printer would not be acceptable.by dotancohen
7/7/2026 at 5:02:12 AM
Yes. There's the obvious difference of "it's a working printer" and desirable and useful product. You don't need to be state of the art to be in the first category was my thought.by a96
7/5/2026 at 11:59:53 PM
The fact the campaign is run on crowdsupply makes me a lot more hopeful it'll get to market vs a site like kickstarter. Crowdsupply requires a working prototype before launching and they provide all the expertise to actually get projects to market, off the top of my head I don't believe any crowdsupply project has failed to deliver.by alden5
7/6/2026 at 11:08:26 AM
Eoma68 did, https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68/micro-desktop I never got mine at least.by skimmed_milk
7/5/2026 at 11:06:29 PM
I have enormous respect for dot matrix printers. They're easy to repair and service, the tech is relatively simple, it's cheap, it's parts are cheap, its supplies are cheap. It's way more sustainable than any other printer: both the printer itself in its manufacturing and the ribbons themselves. The waste they produce is also much less polluting than any other printer.by WhyNotHugo
7/6/2026 at 12:00:55 AM
They also kind of suck. I'm not one for "the latest and greatest", but their output quality is atrocious compared to modern printers, they're loud AF, and I'm guessing it may have existed but I never saw a dot matrix that didn't have the perforated edge for feeding.by hn_throwaway_99
7/6/2026 at 12:12:55 AM
Dot matrix can handle regular A4 paper since the late nineties.They're noisier than ink printers, but non-industrial quality can be pretty reasonable for office-level noises.
Quality certainly isn't on par with laser printers, but for text (both Latin and CJK), it's perfectly clear.
by WhyNotHugo
7/6/2026 at 2:15:42 PM
> Dot matrix can handle regular A4 paper since the late nineties.Did you mean the late 80s'? Growing up we had a Panasonic dot matrix printer from the mid to late 80s that had no trouble with A4 paper.
by Narishma
7/6/2026 at 7:59:52 AM
There was no reason to sell a dot matrix printer that wasn't compatible with tractor feed. Especially when some of the biggest uses of those printers required that stock. Doesn't mean they required tractor feed paper to operate.A Matrix printer is essentially a typewriter with extra steps and typewriters had been eating any paper for .. a century before?
by a96
7/6/2026 at 7:25:59 PM
Are you thinking of Daisy wheel? Dot matrix uses a set of pins arranged in a matrix that they ram forward to press the ribbon against the paper. Daisy wheel uses a raised character glyph and slams it forward into the ribbon. Every typewriter I've used has full glyphs.by geonineties
7/7/2026 at 5:00:41 AM
I'm thinking of everything working on the principle of smashing an inked ribbon into paper to make markings.by a96
7/6/2026 at 12:10:00 AM
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.by taneq
7/6/2026 at 12:25:30 AM
Dot Matrix are still used in outdoor / high humidity environments in USA.A lot of car shops with regular 100% humidity conditions will swear by dot matrix + tractor for feeding paper + printing. Plus, the carbon copy forms are guaranteed to be exact carbon copies which also leads to legal guarantees about copies of paper being provably exactly the same in the court of law.
by dragontamer
7/6/2026 at 12:33:58 AM
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 the risk of innovation with a product that wouldn't sell upmarket anyway.by bitwize
7/6/2026 at 7:35:35 AM
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.by taneq
7/6/2026 at 10:48:34 AM
The most popular pen plotter, and sort of the "holy grail" among hobbyists for this sort of thing, is the HP-7475A, a desktop model which could accept A4 or A3 sized paper (or US A or B size). It cost $1895 upon release in 1984, so yeah, pretty expensive when compared to the $650 an Epson MX-80 (best known dot matrix printer) cost. But there was so much more to the plotter than its paper-feed technology; it was much more a precision instrument in a variety of ways.by bitwize
7/5/2026 at 10:07:32 PM
It really makes more sense to just buy a laser printer, in almost all cases.by amelius
7/5/2026 at 11:57:03 PM
Yeah conceptually this excites me but I decided color printing wasn't worth it at home years ago and haven't regretted it.by ocdtrekkie
7/6/2026 at 12:12:20 AM
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.by taneq
7/6/2026 at 4:55:46 AM
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.
by happymellon
7/6/2026 at 5:16:29 AM
I don't think this was a mono vs color argument but rather ink color vs laser color.by cromka
7/6/2026 at 2:29:32 PM
Gggp post said they were just sticking with b+w laser, and gp post suggested a colour laser.by happymellon
7/6/2026 at 7:46:08 AM
If you go with a laser color printer you will have to buy four toners instead of one.by imtringued
7/6/2026 at 7:38:51 AM
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.by taneq
7/6/2026 at 5:58:15 AM
I'd have to buy a printer tho. The one I have has done its job for a decade and I think I've bought a grand total of one offbrand toner cartridge in that time.by ocdtrekkie
7/6/2026 at 8:33:05 AM
Except when you need to ocassionally print/copy in color, in which case inkjets are more economical.Even if you can afford a color laser, the problem is a color MFP (ie including a scanner) occupies a lot more space compared to a equivalent inkjet, and for some people this could be a deal breaker.
by d3Xt3r
7/5/2026 at 11:58:52 PM
Ever look at how much energy a laser printer uses?by nritchie
7/6/2026 at 12:05:14 AM
Extremely little? High quality inkjets may make sense for corporate or industrial uses, but the majority of home/consumer use cases probably print very infrequently these days. In that scenario inkjet is pretty bad because the ink dries out between uses - there is a reason it's such a common trope that inkjets never work right when you need them.I switched to laser because I only print like maybe once a month on average (but when I need it, I need it). I'm not the slightest bit worried about the delta energy usage between my laser printer or the inkjet, and I'm sure the inkjet came out worse given the number of cartridges I had to throw away or paper I wasted printing diagnostics.
by hn_throwaway_99
7/6/2026 at 1:54:59 AM
None, in the months (sometimes years) it spends switched off (off, not standby) between print jobs. It's a quarter of a century old and I can still get replacement cartridges when I need them.by usrusr
7/6/2026 at 12:11:06 AM
Are you counting the energy used for print head cleaning, and to manufacture all the wasted ink?by taneq
7/6/2026 at 7:08:53 AM
The single hardest part is the print head. If you can reuse an existing one, and you can, then you're most of the way there.The paper path itself is mechanically involved, but not to an impossible degree - it's hard to make it work, but it's not MEMS magic, it's manufacturable in the same way advanced 3D printers are manufacturable.
by ACCount37
7/6/2026 at 4:51:20 PM
Yet it's the paper handler that constantly jams and the printhead is fine after alignment.by beAbU
7/7/2026 at 4:52:22 PM
I looked into hackable printers 10+ years ago when building a demonstrator prototype of a bioproduced ink dye. The key challenge challenges is that they are an integrated system between mechanical, electronical, and chemical (ink formulation, surface chemistry) domains.I would believe most relevant patents are now expired and that we should be able to build a printer that at least gives sufficient quality prints. Given sufficient motivation and time investment, that is.
by wuschel
7/6/2026 at 5:45:44 AM
I certainly don't have deep knowledge in this area but my understanding is that the cartridge is basically a cavity with a small hole at the bottom and a piezo electric element at the top to sputter liquid down. The tolerances are tight but considering how advanced manufacturing is, I would imagine someone competent could design and prototype it with the tools and manufacturing ecosystem that's available now.There's at least one project that has tried to design an actual DIY/open-source inkjet printer [0], along with inkjet print heads [1].
The ink most likely need some special sauce? But I imagine there's many organizations that can specialize in making the ink so that it can be treated close to a commodity. If not, maybe this can also be engineered?
by abetusk
7/6/2026 at 6:10:56 AM
This printer uses HP 502 cartridges. Readily available, but don't expect to save on ink costs compared to a regular HP printer.They do claim that this printer will print in black when the colour cartridge is empty, which they imply is not possible with common printers. The only time I ever encountered that I simply removed the colour cartridge and the printer was happy to print in black.
by dotancohen
7/5/2026 at 9:41:07 PM
That's why this is just using off the shelf cartridges with commercial heads.by drum55
7/5/2026 at 10:19:34 PM
Which is why its more surprising this was first announced last year and there's no Proof of Concept demo yet?But really, I've given up on ink jet printers, and have gone the cheap B&W laser route for anything I need to print at home (In the past year, 2 times, a backup ticket and some paperwork that needed a real signature sent back).
But when I had them, the thing that went bad 99.999% of the time was the cartridges or a clogged nozzle on the head. So the advantage here, on the repairability side not DRM, is the rails and motors?
Also that cutter is going to be a pain, having worked on Lightjet printers, that cutter was nearly all field service issues until the FEs started leaving the "laser" key so lab managers could reset the blade themselves.
by jboy55
7/6/2026 at 5:24:31 PM
Re PoC, they have a YouTube video showing black and white printing and paper cutting on the Crowd Supply page, https://www.crowdsupply.com/open-tools/open-printer/updates/....by pbhjpbhj
7/6/2026 at 1:43:32 PM
Is laser printing more feasible? I've had the same Brother black & white laser for almost a decade and it's more than adequate for everything I do. If I ever need color, I send it off to a service that has much nicer printers than most people would ever want in their homes.by jelder
7/5/2026 at 9:42:43 PM
An open source all-in-one-printer would be a great device to have. For eg I would love to have the scanner include a camera. So I can get “instant scans” most of the time, and a higher res scan when needed. Maybe the camera could also notice when the person making copies or scans forgot their original and ping them?by amenghra
7/5/2026 at 9:49:37 PM
The required super wide field of view for the camera could be tricky, without making the box really deep. Or am I not thinking about it right?by sunshinesnacks
7/5/2026 at 10:31:53 PM
You'd probably need some basic custom lens (not crazy $$) that would distort the heck out of the image, but you could correct the shape in software. Given that GP wanted this to be the "low quality / high speed" secondary scanning option, the inevitable loss of quality would be acceptable.Seeing chromatic aberration on a document scan would be strange, but this is basically how many document scans are created today (using phone camera + software correction). It's just the lens effects from this cheap lens would be a lot worse than what Apple/Samsung/Google can do with their super expensive to design custom lens stacks.
by nerdsniper
7/5/2026 at 11:14:30 PM
That's pointless when ADF scanners will do a dual-side scan, at around 2-3 seconds per page, and more importantly, can do so with a stack of pages.They've been around long enough that you can find them all over the place used for quite cheap and they likely only need a cleaning.
by KennyBlanken
7/6/2026 at 5:22:11 AM
Lol then 3D printing must be space technology that only the most advanced materials labs in the world can achieve, yeah inkjet is not simple, but it’s also not magic,by etdznots
7/6/2026 at 6:22:16 AM
The issue is mainly the nozzle. Ironically 3D printers are a lot easier there, since you just need to melt a thick wire, and not worry about microscopically small droplets.by Double_a_92
7/5/2026 at 11:16:36 PM
The second part is verbose but say absolutely nothing of the difficulty and issues. It could be applied to anything, even cooking a steakby poulpy123
7/6/2026 at 8:04:57 AM
Looks like this printer uses HP 85 ink cartridges, so the hardest bits of the engineering are being bought in from HP.The rest of a printer aren't too hard to design and make, especially if you don't have super tight budget constraints.
by londons_explore
7/6/2026 at 5:31:54 PM
Makes sense, presumably if the project is well enough supported then they can move on to cartridge/head production, or modify to use whatever heads are available.Out of ignorance, I wonder how IPR will work with interoperability rights. Patent rights seem like they might not be exhausted when you buy a spare part to use in third-party device, vs when you buy a spare part for an OEM device.
I'm guessing all the tech here has aged out of patent protection though?
by pbhjpbhj
7/5/2026 at 10:49:17 PM
isn't inkjet an outdated tech by now?by NooneAtAll3
7/6/2026 at 5:59:46 AM
Offices, maybe. Photography, not at all. Some photographers prefer inkjet over minilab.by landgenoot
7/5/2026 at 11:03:27 PM
How so?by loloquwowndueo
7/6/2026 at 3:24:16 AM
laser printers are cheap and don't need catrigesby NooneAtAll3
7/6/2026 at 8:42:25 AM
Color laser printers (MFPs with ADFs to be exact) aren't exactly cheap. Last I checked they were 2-3x more expensive than equivalent inkjets, and occupied a lot of space too.by d3Xt3r
7/6/2026 at 4:17:39 PM
> and occupied a lot of space too.all printers are the size of microwave. Inkjets aren't any smaller
> MFPs with ADFs to be exact
at that point you're talking about a full-on office appliance and far above DIY repair scale the discussion is about
by NooneAtAll3
7/6/2026 at 8:56:59 PM
My Brother inkjet with an ADF is smaller than a microwave and super cheap. Not something you'd ever see in a typical office. If I could buy a color laser printer with similar features, dimensions and price, I'd buy it in a heartbeat.by d3Xt3r
7/6/2026 at 10:30:15 AM
How do laser printers not need cartridges? I own two, mind you.by loloquwowndueo
7/6/2026 at 8:18:59 AM
Generic inkjet cartridges (including the nozzles) and ink are readily available. The head movement and is easier then a 3d printer, the will be some learning's for the paper handling but seems very achievable to me.by ZiiS
7/6/2026 at 9:44:09 AM
interesting that on the front page at this time is https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48757900 "The Age of Personalized Hardware Is Coming", which, it seems that it may be, but not for inkjet printers?by bryanrasmussen
7/6/2026 at 5:34:18 PM
Is this not an example - they mention 3D printing of parts to customise for personal requirements?I like the wall mounted example with the output paper holder below. Neat.
by pbhjpbhj
7/6/2026 at 6:11:50 PM
yes but the parent commenter asserts that an open source inkjet will never happen which I take to mean that a customized inkjet is not happening either.by bryanrasmussen
7/5/2026 at 11:37:07 PM
Try to find an typical consumer inkjet printer on AliExpress, you won't find any, or if you do, it will be someone reselling the usual brands like HP or Canon. You will find label printers, industrial printers, 3D printers, thermal printers, and all sorts of weird stuff, but none of them able to put ink on a stack of A4 paper.If the Chinese, who are known for being able to make knockoffs of everything are not able to make inkjet printers, this should tell you how hard it is.
It addition to the print head, reliable paper transport is also really hard. That problem is often sidestepped by using a paper roll or by printing one sheet at a time, as it is the case for the Openprinter.
by GuB-42
7/5/2026 at 11:57:44 PM
No.Per Google, most HP printers are made in China.
A more likely explanation has to do with the economics of ink jet printers. The ink sales are so profitable that HP and other manufacturers subsidize their printers. This leads to prices at or near cost.
Since Ali express vendors can't count on follow on ink sales, they can't compete on price. And competing on price is Ali express's reason for existence.
So, ink jet printer are harder to find on Ali express. At least, low end consumer focused ink jet printers.
Laser printers, which aren't subsidized are common
by ____tom____
7/6/2026 at 12:06:02 AM
Several Chinese companies have their own domestic laser printers, claiming of in-house components and development (Cumtenn, ZoneWin), and one company does inkjet printers in addition to lasers (Deli Printer).https://www.delioa.com/products/a4-inkjet-printer/
ZoneWin, a laser printer company, made a clone of both HP LaserJet 1020 and LaserJet M1005, which reuse most of the original/compatible parts (Q2612A cartridge). They claim it's 100% domestic parts only.
https://www.rtmworld.com/news/new-chinese-made-printer-uses-...
by ValdikSS
7/6/2026 at 10:35:38 AM
Well, the same thinking was going on when Mr. Daniel Gelbart [0] started Creo. In all the videos I've seen from Gelbart, he always repeats that many things are being done wrong, he has some answers, but people keep copying bad design.Saying "no way you will succeed, is way too difficult! look how hard is it for HP" is absolute non-sense.
Also, if the whole printing head is from HP, and they sell it for the price they do, I do not think is the most advanced science the mankind achieved. I would have such doubt maybe if somebody wants to compete with ASML. But Inkjet? really? such an old technology with all patents expired?
[0] https://www.weizmann.ac.il/WeizmannCompass/sections/features...
by f1shy
7/6/2026 at 7:38:04 AM
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.
by Ey7NFZ3P0nzAe