Open Printer Project

Printers, the 2D kind are remarkable because they are immune to Moore's law. This is because the EvilCorp manufacturers aren't in the business of selling printers, they like continuous income from overpriced ink cartridges and obsolescence of the printer itself.

A quick look at any supplier of printer consumables will show you that there are THOUSANDS of slightly different printers from each manufacturer, such a frenzied pace of innovation must lead to a remarkable improvement in performance? No, the 2 monochrome printers from about 2009 perform similarly to a recently bought model. In fact, close inspection reveals that inside the plastic case with pointless swoopy lines and tiltable screen, it looks the same. The cartridges look very very similar, same manufacturer... it would make everyone's life simpler if they fit... no, some soulless engineer added a plastic lump so it doesn't fit. You can cut it off, but they thoughtfully added a chip... To protect me from the inferior print performance I assume.

In an attempt to curtail the ranty tone, I'll summarize. The company that makes a reliable printer with minimal maintenance and running costs is negatively incentivized. Instead, rebadging the same-ish hardware under a new model number every year or two seems the only way to survive.

The solution might be an open source hardware project. Open source 3D printers exist, which demonstrates the feasibility of 2D equivalent nicely, in fact it's more achievable. Similar projects, like the modular mobile/cell phone by "Phonebloks" are a bit silly. When hardware changes as fast as smartphone hardware does, a fully integrated design is likely to win. Printers, however, are easy. No one cares if a printer takes up +/-39 cubic cm, weighs +/-2000g, has a chrome bezel & a 4k UHD front facing camera. Even the price isn't that important, everyone I asked today ONLY knows you don't buy a cheap all in one. It's there for the taking as long as it ABSOLUTELY DEFINITELY: 1. Prints. No 4min calibration and no, you're not getting a new cyan cartridge, I want my boarding pass now.

2. Stops printing. Every printer I've ever used, when asked to stop by software or hardware, doesn't. Stop now, not in 3 pages time. "Right, I'll yank your power cord, that'll teach you.... wait, why does this printer take longer to boot than my pc... and now its calibrating.."

3. Has very very much ink. I used to have a little monochrome laser Samsung, it coped with all my monochrome printing in my whole PhD on one cartridge. Samsung don't make printers anymore because they clearly violated the code. Anyhow, point is it would be trivial to increase the toner 3-10 fold for a decade of printing.

4. Has a stable, reliable available driver. This should be downloadable from the printer. It should be gettable via USB from the printer, it should have "Driver available at www.openprinterproject.com" printed on it. It should have a list of drivers from other companies that will also work to various levels. The driver code should be embossed into the printer surface, or perhaps be derivable from basic principles.

5. Hold a whole ream of paper. I have two printers, both over a foot tall that don't. Why are they doing this? It also takes guesswork on how many pages they CAN hold. That should be written in the tray, the minimum # being "500".

On top of that basic platform people are free to add stuff. A duplex module here, Wifi there, GPS for no reason whatever. Also none of those yellow dots the government uses. Maybe it could have laser/inkjet combo. Go wild.