FYI its not actually open source. Its a cool idea but you can't actually sell it or sell derivatives of it. Even at zero-sum. This hinders any actual forks from being successful, as any intention to sell the product (even without aiming for profits) is forbidden by their license. It just allows for tinkerers as contributors without properly allowing forks. Makes me a bit sad tbh, because its so close to being awesome.
this post was submitted on 14 Feb 2026
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Well that's disappointing.
Ah yes, the classic "if you can't build it yourself you don't deserve it". Very cool, surely people will not go for an older laser printer instead.
No they sell it, but only the founders themselves. So better than a modern DRM HP Printer but still, not really FOSS sadly. I hope they change their mind on the license
I saw a maker the other day that released his plans on his project with a non-commercial license. He later found it was being sold on Amazon. He contacted an attorney friend of his, the attorneys said that the maker licensees are only truly effective on art.
If it's a physical functional product, you have very little in the way of legal protection from a creative common license, which kind of sucks because the proper legal method would then be patent, but that puts us in the same scenario that you can't copy it for a non-profit.
I mean with the right legal set-up you could make it work. Make a foundation that releases it under a non-profit license and holds the patent. It could allow for selling derivatives without major profit margins but it'd be difficult to set up.
Might work, but you'd be the precedent. As hasn't as I can tell it hasn't beed tested without it being art.
99% of the difficulty is in the proprietary HP printheads they're using. Once hp realizes they're being used for this, they'll cut them out of the market in the bat of an eye.
it's cool but it's still based on parts that degrade and you can't manufacture.
Illegal due to US govt wanting discrete traceable patterns printed so they can track money duplication on colour printer or track Ransom letters?
Good thing I live outside of the US then ;)
This looks awesome...hope they make it, I'd buy one if it isn't toooo expensive.
I imagine that similar regulations exist in the EU. For instance, no copy machine will let you copy a Euro bill.
Yeah, that's the anti-copy mechamism I recall reading about long ago. I wonder if/how this project will deal with that?
Freedom strikes again.
https://www.eff.org/issues/printers
Not legal, it's not a law. The government "persuaded" the manufacturers.
So what? Thats exactly why I WANT a custom built printer, fucking spying shits.
Well, it being open source helps get around that
Where are you seeing that it’s illegal? I own a pen plotter that can print things without tracking dots and that’s not illegal. I don’t see why this would be any different.
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Come and Take it
Nope, this was only done on laser printers and not all of them.
My non laser colour had it. Left yellow dots on photos, drove me crazy
In a world of homebrew 3D printers and CNC machines, it's kinda weird there never was a similar option for a regular printer.
2D printers are way more difficult than 3D printers. The only reason we didn't have 3D printers in the 90s is Stratasys and their stranglehold patents. Hobby-level 3D printers only became a thing because the Stratasys patents expired.
Before that they were just able to ask for €70k for what's essentially a cheap ABS FDM printer.
Because printers generally just worked and buying OEM expensive refills was a temporary discomfort that, if it bothered you enough, you could work around by getting third party refills and save some money.
But since they’ve started locking down printers to reject refilled cartridges and third party cartridges it’s come to a head and people are looking for alternatives.
3D and CNC are entirely different animals, for multiple reasons. There were pretty much zero hobbyist devices and the available ones were so far out of reach that nobody could afford them except prototyping labs or manufacturers. The hobbyists did most of the legwork making 3D printers and home CNC work before manufacturers decided it was worth getting into the technology. Nobody needed really needed them like paper printers were needed for everything from school work to everyday business.
This is an ink jet printer that uses HP print head / ink cartridges.. Fwiw, repairable impact printers have been around longer than computers. Think of old fashioned teleprinters. Noisy, but likely to survive the apocalypse.
Where're ya gonna get sprocket-feed fanfold paper these days, though, let alone in the apocalypse?
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I'm curious how they source the ink.
I recently watched a video about a 3D printer with color that is effectively obsolete because it used what was once common hp cartridges that hp discontinued.
If you lean on any proprietary component, any printing company is going to intentionally make you obsolete. For them, it's a no-brainer.
As another replier said, they use an HP cartridge. So this open printer will be ewaste in 5 years
HP print cartridges.
Of all the available printer cartridges, they chose those from HP? Eeeeew
This isn't new. I remember seeing a promotion for this exact same printer many years ago already. I'd approach it with suspicion.
I had the same thought. I signed up to be notified when the project starts, but never got an email.
Perhaps they have just had massive delays, but I too would suggest caution.
I like all my documents to curl up.
You can print on standard sheets or paper rolls and choose between black or color cartridges, refillable at your convenience.
I unironically want this to make wizard scrolls
Sounds great. I can't figure out what the status is. Working prototype? Manufacturing?
I'm disappointed they say coming soon. Laat year or so, when they announced it, everyone assumed immediate availability.
And it will still need cyan to print a bw document lol!
It’s going to break doesn’t matter that it is open source. It’s a printer at heart.
Printers can work. At work we have these big canon plotters for big posters. They are basically super size inkjet printers. They have been printing for years and they never need maintenance.
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