this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2026
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Open Source Printer coming before 2027 (www.opentools.studio)
submitted 3 days ago by BeatL@pawb.social to c/opensource@lemmy.ml
88 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Open source printer with refillable ink, no bullshit, accept rolls of papers.

Finally an open source printer ! I dealt with so much stupidity with printers. it warm my heart.

I do have too much joy to practice mandatory critical thinking about the release of a new project. Lets talk about it? i am not the only one to be happy about it, i have no info about the price though :/

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[–] stinkytofuisgood@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 hours ago

Sacré bleu, c'est magnifique!!

I'm not sure if most will know, but an open source printer is a very challenging thing to do correctly. Tons of people have been pouring their hearts and souls into this effort.

One primary issue has been practicality. Open source is only as good as the ability to actually utilize that openness in practice. This includes the being able to actually repair the device as an end user whether on your own or with assistance. This doesn't even touch on the fact that if it doesn't print well, it doesn't matter how open it is because nobody will care to use it.

Obviously this is pre-release so don't quote me on this, but I think this may just be one of the best attempts I've personally seen. Parts are off the shelf and reasonably priced, it can print in multiple sizes right at release, and from the videos the print quality looks very good!

I wish I could get my hands on one of these. I can't say too much publicly, but there is a group of people who I would love to demonstrate this to and educate about. I know for a fact that even for those who don't give a damn about open source, people do give a damn about the realities around modern-day printing.

For everyone's sake, these need to reach the average Joe and be understood. Much of my life seems to be acting as a bridge between the OSS heavyweights and the average consumer if I think about it.

[–] rekabis@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

You know, vintage printers offer much the same.

I have an HP 4050DTN from a good quarter century ago that has no DRM of any kind, no tracking dots, no reporting home to the mothership, is eminently repairable, and can accept overstuffed toner cartridges that are advertised to do 20,000 sheets at 5% coverage.

And the toner claim largely bears out. Two degrees later and I’m only on my third cartridge in the machine’s entire life. Last I ran a duty report the sheet count was getting close to 50k. Low 40s, at the very least. So it’s tracking decently close.

Sure, it now needs some parts refreshed. Rollers, fuser, and so forth. After a quarter century of use I would be surprised if something wasn’t starting to go. But parts are still readily available and surprisingly cheap. I mean, I have the parts in, I just haven’t had the time yet to swap them in.

The only downside of kit this old is that networking was an afterthought. Most units will come with USB, DIN-8, serial, and parallel ports, but finding a good JetDirect Ethernet network card - ideally 635n or newer - is difficult and expensive (the 615n bricked itself with distressing regularity, avoid at all costs).

I also have an HP 5000DTN that is of the identical build quality and can do oversized sheets up to 11×17. Beautiful machine in its early-2000s brutalist beigeness.

So if you want HP at their peak of printer glory, long before enshittification set in, hop on over to Wikipedia and consider any LaserJet model first released before 2006-2012.

[–] renormalizer@feddit.org 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

To fix the networking you could get a dedicated USB print server or a RasPi with CUPS and attach the printer via USB. Probably cheaper than a vintage printer network card.

[–] rekabis@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 day ago

Yes but JetDirect is still cheaper and better integrated. There is the issue with outdated certificates and max. TLS 1.2 with the print server, but in a home/SOHO environment this should not be a critical security shortfall.

[–] BeatL@pawb.social 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Thanks a lot ! I learned so much things. Thanks for the precise references.

It is a solution but i am not sure the supply will last. It can only dwindle.

Your arguments are sounds and valids. I have another solution to a problem, thanks again !

[–] rekabis@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 day ago

Get an extra roller kit and fuser kit, and you should be golden for the next two decades. The cartridges aren’t going away any time soon.

[–] bennieandthez@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 1 day ago

Its actually funny that Gta6 came out before this.

[–] N0x0n@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 day ago

Never will i go back to ink cartigage or refillable ink... Those wear off faster than speed of light.

I switched 2 month ago and it's day and night...

[–] cmhe@lemmy.world 26 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

Not Open Source hardware or firmware.

License is CC-NC-SA, which fails all formal definitions of Open Source.

[–] AnimalsDream@slrpnk.net 4 points 1 day ago

Also why are they using a content license for software and hardware? We need to create an online course that teaches people how not to suck at doing foss... and then license that course with a eula, cause that would be so fucking funny.

[–] Augmented1207@feddit.org 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I disagree. Open source can mean many things, this license permits you to do anything with it, just not selling it.

Only thing is, you have to use the same license when publishing changes, which is normal for almost all open source.

I dont See anything wrong with it and calling it non open source is a bit misleading i think

[–] AnimalsDream@slrpnk.net 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

No they're right, cc-nc-sa is not open source or freedom respecting.

Edit: I'll elaborate. The core principles of the free software movement will follow. All other definitions not only do not conflict with this basic definition, but often expand on it with additional rights expectations. The Four Freedoms:

  • The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose (freedom 0).

  • The freedom to study how the program works, and change it so it does your computing as you wish (freedom 1).

  • Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

  • The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help others (freedom 2).

  • The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others (freedom 3). By doing this you can give the whole community a chance to benefit from your changes. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

Restrictions on commercial use are a suppression on freedoms 2 and 3, and notably (at least as far as I'm aware), none of the licenses to come out of the FSF have commercial restrictions.

And in the Open-Source definition, it's literally in rule 1:

1. Free Redistribution

The license shall not restrict any party from selling or giving away the software as a component of an aggregate software distribution containing programs from several different sources. The license shall not require a royalty or other fee for such sale.

[–] Augmented1207@feddit.org 1 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

I agree that its weird to use a content license.

But in what way do your listed requirements not apply to this project and license?

You can do whatever you want, besides makind money with it or sharing/changing it without attribution.

As far as i know hardware licenses are a bit strange still?

But i just dont unterstand your point and would like to

[–] AnimalsDream@slrpnk.net 1 points 3 hours ago

The restrictions on commercial use are what make it unqualified as an open-source license.

[–] genchu@sakurajima.social 1 points 8 hours ago

@Augmented1207@feddit.org @AnimalsDream@slrpnk.net their point is that commercial restrictions go against both the Free Software Movement and the Open Source Movement as layed out by both of their definitions and it's harmful for several reasons (see https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/programs-must-not-limit-freedom-to-run.html)

sit with the thought for a moment, what if the GNU operating system or the Linux kernel, etc.. had a commercial restriction on them, there would be more complications then, and the physical copies made by other distributions wouldn't be made, and so on

[–] csolisr@hub.azkware.net 132 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Slight open-washing involved though - the license is CC-By-NC-SA, which sadly makes it incompatible with open hardware projects, and restricted from being available as a pre-assembled kit.

[–] BeatL@pawb.social 51 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Well you are right ! Still i see it as a massive positive win in this particular sector, but sure, lets see what happen and be greedy with licensing! May the next one/release/update be more open.

I thank you a lot

They do have a survey that includes the kit question.

Here is the link if you are interested: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc0MLIj1Mfv81vaiOIQG1yMEilruRfNgx7h36l5a0qC-G9TZw/viewform

From this update : https://www.crowdsupply.com/open-tools/openprinter/updates/on-the-road-to-launch

[–] adarza@lemmy.ca 41 points 3 days ago (1 children)

creative commons doesn't even recommend their licenses be used for software (it's in their faq). i'm guessing the same would apply to hardware designs as well.

[–] SwooshBakery624@programming.dev 17 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Creative Commons does not have any guidelines about using their licenses for hardware. It would still be a better idea to use CERN-OHL for hardware though.

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[–] als@lemmy.blahaj.zone 90 points 3 days ago (4 children)

In the linked survey they're talking about selling an ink kit. With that, the non-commerical license meaning nobody but them can sell spares, and them filing a patent, it's almost like they're just trying to start another printer company and just using the open source community to do advertising 🫠

[–] naught101@lemmy.world 31 points 3 days ago (2 children)

I think you're misinterpreting - the thing needs ink one way or another, and the kit suggested in the image is just a standard ink refill kit. They're just asking if people want them to provide that, or if they want to get it elsewhere - I selected elsewhere.

[–] JustEnoughDucks@slrpnk.net 12 points 2 days ago (1 children)

What it means though is that nobody in the community can sell upgrades to the printer, sell spare parts, or, and by far most importantly, nobody can develop a fully open source printhead for this printer to sell.

Right now they are using a proprietary print head from a normal printer (understandably because it is by far the most complex engineering piece and is very complicated). However, an external team that wants to make an open hardware project taking on that engineering challenge with more expertise than this team will not be able to be compensated for their work if they make it specifically for this open source printer. According to my understanding of the license.

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[–] Starkon@lemmy.ml 9 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

HP 63 et HP 63 XL (US)

HP 302 et HP 302 XL (Europe)

HP 803 et HP 803 XL (Asie)

And the ink they use is cheap/available internationally.

I also think that one can refill these with regular ink bottles from amazon/aliexpress

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[–] elucubra@sopuli.xyz 34 points 2 days ago (2 children)

The hardware is pretty trivial. The cartridges, which are the most problematic part are HP. This is so underwhelming.

[–] muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

All I want is one laid-off and bitter engineer to get drunk one night and say “fuck this” and open source solve everyone’s problems with the abusable HP shit.

I don’t even care if it’s dot matrix all over again.

[–] GTG3000@programming.dev 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Problem is that those cartridge nozzles that deposit tiny droplets of ink precisely when and where you want them are pretty close to magic.

They're about as easy to manufacture as microchips, and they're also the one part of the inkjet printer that you absolutely need to be on point if you want it to print right.

I'm surprised we don't have open source laser printers though, that's still hard but should be doable, if you can source the material for the rollers and figure out the led strip that charges it?

[–] muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago

I’m wondering if you could do a tiny valved pneumatic nozzle the sprays ink that way instead

[–] bort@sopuli.xyz 15 points 2 days ago (1 children)

it's still a good start . Also aftermarket cartridges exists.

[–] bort@sopuli.xyz 12 points 2 days ago (1 children)

oh, and also they offer refill kits.

[–] elucubra@sopuli.xyz 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)

HP carts have the printhead included, disposable, so quality will degrade fast with refilling. Epson/brother and some Canon have permanent printheads which will last orders of magnitude longer. If the cart/printhead is still going to be propietary, epson/brother printheads, which are readily available, and which can be setup pretty easily in a CISS configuration would have been way better. The project is really bad. The fact that they use paper rolls is also dumb. Are you really going to cut every single sheet? Rolls make sense for large format printing. Epson/brother with aftermarket CISS are the way to go, especially because you can get actual Epson ink in bottles for refilling, the ones used in their ecotank line, super cheap.

[–] adarza@lemmy.ca 6 points 2 days ago

it also takes normal sheet paper. but it has an integrated cutter so the rolls enable A4 or A3 (us letter or 11x17), or any other length, or continuous from the same source.

permanent printheads are not really any better from a longevity standpoint. they still do degrade and need replacement. more often than not, that replacement either doesn't exist, hasn't been manufactured since the printer was a new model, or is prohibitively expensive and/or only available from random third-parties.

the last ink tank + separate printhead setup that you could very easily get tanks and printheads for was some old canon printers from 25+ years ago. the printheads were in a removable caddy, and that caddy was sold in stores with and alongside ink tanks.

printheads also need to be used, regularly. once you go a few weeks without printing, every day that you don't increases your chance those printheads will never print again. when the printhead is in the consumable, it gets replaced far easier and automatically on a cartridge swap. yes, that is at the expense of higher cost new consumables.

we've had to bin three brothers, two hp, an epson, and a canon over the twenty years because of bad and unreplaceable printheads. coincidentally we're currently using two salvaged hp printers that use the same cartridges as this 'open' printer, use refilled consumables, and the printers are old enough they don't scream and refuse to print if the color is empty--we can use and print black only.

the problem here with this project is they don't have their own printheads and cartridges, which means some of their code was either lifted from hp printers or reverse engineered; and they rely on hp as the only source for new consumables and printheads. hp would be very hostile to this project, so i hope they fully documented their entire process of development and are ready for the inevitable lawsuit.

[–] edinbruh@feddit.it 29 points 2 days ago

Now do a laser printer

[–] ramenshaman@lemmy.world 15 points 2 days ago (2 children)

No more frustrating blockages like: "Cannot print in black because the yellow is empty."

I think they're trying to seduce me

[–] kestrel7_7@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Doesn't that happen because of legal requirements? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printer_tracking_dots

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[–] Telorand@reddthat.com 29 points 3 days ago (11 children)

Certainly a cool idea, and I hope it succeeds and turns out to be what it seems.

No price listed on their crowd fund page, so who can say what this might cost? Uses a Raspberry Pi Zero W for the brains and a STM32 for the cartridge board.

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[–] bizzle@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago

LETS GOOOOOO I have a small print shop and I only use Linux and it SUCKS

[–] bort@sopuli.xyz 9 points 2 days ago

The perfect color for a printer doesnt exi...

spoiler

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