Open Printer: an open source inkjet printer!

[MIEW]

Summary

A Paris based organisation called "Open Tools" has announced the development of an open source, repairable and customisable inkjet printer using a Raspberry Pi Zero W as the main board. The project is listed on crowdfunding platform "Crowd Supply", with the funding campaign "launching soon" at the time of writing. 

 

Quotes

Quote

"Open Printer is an open-source, repairable inkjet printer designed for makers, artists, and anyone tired of throwaway hardware." - Open Tools

Quote

"Open Printer can be assembled, customized, and repaired to extend its life. You can easily maintain it and refill cartridges with ink, and its flexible design can adapt to your workspace, working when installed on a wall or placed on a desktop." - Open Tools

 

Images nabbed from their site:

 

My thoughts

Is this it? Is this our escape from the inkjet printer hellscape!? 

 

Sources:

 

Their crowdfunding page:

https://www.crowdsupply.com/open-tools/open-printer 

 

Media Sources:

https://www.hackster.io/news/the-open-printer-is-a-raspberry-pi-zero-w-powered-fully-open-highly-flexible-inkjet-printer-30948a1787cc - hackster.io

 

https://www.xda-developers.com/open-source-printer-raspberry-pi-zero-w/ - XDA Developers

[Blasty Blosty]

I love it when my documents come out all bent and warped

[C2dan88]

I like the idea of this. Not sure how common reeled paper is though? Someone will most likely adapt this for standard printing paper. 

[Needfuldoer]

[ Laughs in laser printer ]

 

What problem does this solve? It's still an inkjet printer that relies on HP 63 ink cartridges that aren't designed to be refilled. Sure they can be refilled, but anyone who's tried that process will tell you it's a pain in the butt. You could just buy refilled cartridges instead, but then you may as well just buy a commercially available printer.

[manikyath]

but how is the print quality?

[Franck]

1 hour ago, C2dan88 said:

I like the idea of this. Not sure how common reeled paper is though? Someone will most likely adapt this for standard printing paper. 

pretty common in enterprise and engineering. Way cheaper than normal paper stack. I never got a paper jam in 15 years with those printers but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen. Look for "plotter printer" if your interested.

[CasualExtremist]

Hey OP, your april fool's post is way late.... How in the absolute hell is inkjet the future of longevity and repairability? The goal should be making entry point of laser printing more accessible. Only flaw w/ laser printing is the initial investment cost.

[CasualExtremist]

4 hours ago, Needfuldoer said:

t's still an inkjet printer that relies on HP 63 ink cartridges that aren't designed to be refilled

This may not be as much of an issue as you initially might think. It is good to use a already set standard, especially if it the opensource printer does not require reading an "authenticity chip" and you can use any aftermarkets.

 

In fact, if I were making such printer, I'd shoot for the most commonly found aftermarket cartridge format regardless of how the OEM cartridge operates. That would allow for more flexibility as I am pretty sure there could be HP Ink 63 aftermarket solutions that allow refilling.

 

Perhaps the HP Ink 63 is not the optimal solution, but they have to adopt some standard to make this viable at all.

 

Please note, I still agree the concept is flawed inherently by being inkjet. Just trying to steelman for the sake of decent discussion.

[dogwitch]

not the first to try this btw.

[Beskamir]

I don't get the point. Isn't toner just better than ink?

[atxcyclist]

23 hours ago, Beskamir said:

I don't get the point. Isn't toner just better than ink?

It depends on what your needs are. Laser printers are great for text, but even decent color laser printers are quite bad at printing photographs. For general-purpose printing, a cheap inkjet printer will be better for most. 

[Sauron]

I don't know why you'd go for this minimal design for something that's supposed to be flexible. What if you want a double sided print? Where's the scanner for copying? Who uses reeled paper at home? The site says you can use normal paper too but I don't really see how you'd feed it in, short of just holding it in place by hand.

 

Inkjet printers especially are so cheap that it rarely makes any sense to repair them if they break, the expensive part is the ink and any printer is going to need that.

[wanderingfool2]

9 hours ago, Sauron said:

Inkjet printers especially are so cheap that it rarely makes any sense to repair them if they break, the expensive part is the ink and any printer is going to need that.

There are a decent amount of inkjet printers that are cheap because they expect to make it up on the ink (there was a time, not sure if it still is the case) where they would actually sell the printers at a loss leader knowing that their protections on the ink you could use would make it so that they would make up the loss.

 

It makes sense to have a printer that is easily serviceable if you are one to purchase non-name brand ink...it can save on the price as well since you don't need the whole ID verification chips  on each cartridge and depending on how they build it they could even have cartridges with build in easily refillable tanks.  

 

 

A key example of this is the Epson eco-tanks.  They are built with the economy to print in mind, and if you buy the official the black and white with color options it's about $110 CAD.  You can buy generic types for $45.  Now in this case the ink could actually be used in the eco-tanks as well but the eco-tank printers aren't exactly cheap either ~$340CAD (and I know on some models of those bottled ink printers they had non-serviceable components like the ink well which would fill up and you would be out of luck needing to  buy a new printer...despite that if you only print like 2 to 3 times a month each time you turn it on it will do a clean cycle meaning which dumps ink in the cleaning well so after 3 - 4 years of not really using it much and a few prints it could be dead)

 

Should note each fill cartridge will be 7500+ pages with 5% coverage. 1.4 cents per color page (which actually rivals a good laser printer)

 

Now if you consider their cheap all in one printer ($70 CAD), official ink is about $87 CAD the cheapest I could find, but prints only 550 pages.  

 

So in the case of eco-tanks the printers are expensive, and they still make a profit on the ink but not nearly as much as the cheap printers.  The break even point is below the 2000 pages before you actually start saving money on the prints (because while a lot of people print documents, the 5% coverage never really holds...I found around 10% coverage is where things are at...at least where I worked).  One full color page actually is equivalent of 20 pages

 

Anyways, that's my long winded way of saying that making a minimalistic printer could be good, and that ink doesn't necessarily have to be expensive.  Buying cheap initially doesn't mean you are saving money.

 

9 hours ago, Sauron said:

I don't know why you'd go for this minimal design for something that's supposed to be flexible. What if you want a double sided print? Where's the scanner for copying? Who uses reeled paper at home? The site says you can use normal paper too but I don't really see how you'd feed it in, short of just holding it in place by hand.

I do see issues in the sense that I think having a tank system actually would have been a smarter approach....but for scanners and reel paper I could understand.  It means you could have it tucked away on a wall without having to worry about it.  Most people that purchase it I'd imagine already have another printer that they might use that has a scanner functionality on it already.  Like for example, I have a laser B&W printer with that functionality.  For the odd times I want to print color I don't need all that extra functionality...what is nice though is having it tucked away where I don't have to think about it.

[Kisai]

On 10/2/2025 at 3:18 AM, Needfuldoer said:

[ Laughs in laser printer ]

 

What problem does this solve? It's still an inkjet printer that relies on HP 63 ink cartridges that aren't designed to be refilled. Sure they can be refilled, but anyone who's tried that process will tell you it's a pain in the butt. You could just buy refilled cartridges instead, but then you may as well just buy a commercially available printer.

I think this is the active problem.

 

Laser printers should be the only printers used when regular paper is used. Inkjets should only be used for photo paper, with photo-ink.

 

Like laser printers have been the superior choice since the 90's. Ink is more expensive than gold. But it's mostly alcohol. There is no reason for it to cost what it does.

 

Color laser is possible, but the printers are often very large since it requires multiple parts.

When you replace a toner cart on a laser printer, you're quite literately replacing half the printer.

 

[StDragon]

3 hours ago, Kisai said:

When you replace a toner cart on a laser printer, you're quite literately replacing half the printer.

And yet it's still cheaper on a cost per page printed. But the decision to purchase laser or inkjet depends entirely on how often you print. Sometimes people only need a disposable inkjet used a few times a year.

 

The best value is buying a used laser printer that was previously in a home office (typically less duty cycles on them).

[Kisai]

9 hours ago, StDragon said:

And yet it's still cheaper on a cost per page printed. But the decision to purchase laser or inkjet depends entirely on how often you print. Sometimes people only need a disposable inkjet used a few times a year.

 

The best value is buying a used laser printer that was previously in a home office (typically less duty cycles on them).

Actually the best value is going to staples/fedex-kinkos/ups-store and just printing off the 2 pages you need a year for 20 cents.

 

The only reason anyone needs a printer at home is because they print things that need to be printed. But we've long since stopped needing personal printers in the late 90's. Businesses even don't print a lot of things anymore. That engineering firm only printed like blueprints on their large format printer, the rest of the printers were basically just for printing meeting information for clients.

[jagdtigger]

14 hours ago, StDragon said:

Sometimes people only need a disposable inkjet used a few times a year.

Actually laser is better for that, you buy it only once and since the toner is already dry it wont really mind not being used for extended periods of time....
(I use a Samsung ML-1665 to this day, look it up when it released.)

[StDragon]

1 hour ago, jagdtigger said:

Actually laser is better for that, you buy it only once and since the toner is already dry it wont really mind not being used for extended periods of time....
(I use a Samsung ML-1665 to this day, look it up when it released.)

It's the upfront cost.

Laser has a better cost-per-page, but you have to print a lot for the ROI to make sense. Actually Kisai is correct, if you're only printing few pages a year then FedEx-Kinkos is the way to go. But you're having to print for school or children at home (homework, home schooled, etc), then buying a used laser printer starts to make more sense.

[wanderingfool2]

23 minutes ago, StDragon said:

It's the upfront cost.

Laser has a better cost-per-page, but you have to print a lot for the ROI to make sense. Actually Kisai is correct, if you're only printing few pages a year then FedEx-Kinkos is the way to go. But you're having to print for school or children at home (homework, home schooled, etc), then buying a used laser printer starts to make more sense.

I find a lot of the printing services have terrible color printing (like printing from home I get better results).  Not saying I don't agree that it makes sense to print from there, just I've found that it isn't as great sometimes (but usually it doesn't matter).  Agree with you as well, school with children you need a printer...also I find print out documents when you need to read gives a better understanding etc of it.

 

Seriously as someone who designed in-house programs for my last job, I would literally be drawing things out or writing certain bits by hand so I can easily process the information etc.  People tend to neglect how printed works can actually speed things up compared to screens.

 

19 hours ago, Kisai said:

I think this is the active problem.

 

Laser printers should be the only printers used when regular paper is used. Inkjets should only be used for photo paper, with photo-ink.

 

Like laser printers have been the superior choice since the 90's. Ink is more expensive than gold. But it's mostly alcohol. There is no reason for it to cost what it does.

 

Color laser is possible, but the printers are often very large since it requires multiple parts.

The named brand ink is more expensive...but that's more due to the cartridges and the printers themselves being sold as a loss leader so they need to make up their money elsewhere.

 

Ecotanks actually eliminate the cost superiority of laser printers.  The biggest downside is the smudging....but honestly if you don't care about name brand ink you could get about 0.1 cents per page (5% coverage).  Same no named brand toner is 0.4 cents.  The most economical one I could actually find was a 0.3 cents per page toner.

 

So overall ecotanks actually end up on a cost per page print to be cheaper.  Operationally they actually I think end up cheaper (although I haven't tried them in a commercial setting as I don't manager that sort of thing anyways).  There actually is one scenario at my former work that I know would benefit from cheaper ink (long term storage of back up contracts, so quality wasn't necessary just needed to be printed and stored for financial reasons...so like 500 pages a day).

 

You don't need to print of photo paper.  All inks will smudge, but there are some inks that don't really run nearly as badly as the old days.  It's create if you ware actually creating booklets etc.  The biggest think is just to let it dry before sandwiching things together.

 

Fun fact as well, in a power outage scenario an inkjet is the easiest way to run a business where paper print out receipts are necessary for contract signing.  You can purchase a $1000 UPS that can power a PC, printer, and modem to continue operating while the power is out for a considerable amount of time.

 

Anyways, just my 2 cents on the matter.  Laser printers aren't really as cheap as they used to be anymore in regards to lifetime ownership (if you need to print a lot).  Inkjet does have an issue with clogging though...but admittedly in 10 years of owning one printer I haven't had a nozzle clog yet and it's printing a few times a year at best.

[Kisai]

2 hours ago, wanderingfool2 said:

I find a lot of the printing services have terrible color printing (like printing from home I get better results).  Not saying I don't agree that it makes sense to print from there, just I've found that it isn't as great sometimes (but usually it doesn't matter).  Agree with you as well, school with children you need a printer...also I find print out documents when you need to read gives a better understanding etc of it.

 

Not my problem generally. Like any time I needed to print resumes or shipping labels for UPS, something that I otherwise didn't care about the quality of, the store was more economical than plugging in my multifunction-inkjet printer which I've had for 20 years.

 

2 hours ago, wanderingfool2 said:

 

Anyways, just my 2 cents on the matter.  Laser printers aren't really as cheap as they used to be anymore in regards to lifetime ownership (if you need to print a lot).  Inkjet does have an issue with clogging though...but admittedly in 10 years of owning one printer I haven't had a nozzle clog yet and it's printing a few times a year at best.

The only reason inkjets clog is because you don't use them enough. Like I print so infrequently that the ink tank was often dead by the time I printed again. So it's my view that unless you have a specific need that justifies printing more than 1000 pages a year, you are very much wasting money on a home printer, and you should pick a greyscale or color laser printer if you print that much anyway.

 

The only thing that inkjet printers do good enough are photos, which is why "1 hour photo" photos for the last 20 years have been printed on them. They however do not last. So if you have had photos printed at london drugs, costco, walmart, etc in the last 30 years there's a good chance they were some form of inkjet printer and not the traditional photo process, and if you put those photos in frames in a place that gets any sunlight they probably faded within about 10 years.

 

[wanderingfool2]

37 minutes ago, Kisai said:

Not my problem generally. Like any time I needed to print resumes or shipping labels for UPS, something that I otherwise didn't care about the quality of, the store was more economical than plugging in my multifunction-inkjet printer which I've had for 20 years.

 

The only reason inkjets clog is because you don't use them enough. Like I print so infrequently that the ink tank was often dead by the time I printed again. So it's my view that unless you have a specific need that justifies printing more than 1000 pages a year, you are very much wasting money on a home printer, and you should pick a greyscale or color laser printer if you print that much anyway.

 

The only thing that inkjet printers do good enough are photos, which is why "1 hour photo" photos for the last 20 years have been printed on them. They however do not last. So if you have had photos printed at london drugs, costco, walmart, etc in the last 30 years there's a good chance they were some form of inkjet printer and not the traditional photo process, and if you put those photos in frames in a place that gets any sunlight they probably faded within about 10 years.

 

That is due to the ink you are purchasing and particularly the paper in that case.

 

Cheap InkJet printers have a tendency to clog, some of the mid-ranged options actually last quite some time.  Again, I have a printer 10+ years now that prints without failure (and literally I don't have it plugged in except once a year and usually less.  I have printed a total of like 30 documents over the last like 5 years, and it's literally sat for like 2 - 3 year periods without any use).

 

Not saying everyone needs a printer, but by printing at home you can save yourself on time and energy going to print things off (if I were to print something off it literally would cost $2 - $3 in gas just to get there and back)

[williamcll]

Does this still have the tracking watermark that comes with most printers?