We have a bone to pick with the printer industry.
Today, you can litteraly print anything…
… as long as it is not on paper.
You can 3D print your own laptop parts or even a 3D chocolate cake.
But If you dare to print a black and white A4, then, it’s suddenly it’s super high tech…
Ink Cartridges Are A Scam
An ink cartridge cost about 1$ but is sold up to 100 time its original cost. If you want more break down on ink price, you can check this quite entertaining source.
(Also, check the printer from hell comic from The Oatmeal)
The open Printer Project
The Open Printer Project is was a pretty amazing project trying to set the world free from this whole scam, but it’s really at the infancy. dead. They tried to cover stuff like hardware or ink etc. but unfortunately it is not alive anymore…
This however : DIY Inkjet Printer looks like the closest to open hardware on the topic.
There is also this one: Homemade Arduino Printer
I do find flabergasting that there absolutly no resource on this topic online… honestly you can find more information how turning your house into a smart-ai-driven-network, but no information online anout making a printer… pretty amazing…
if you find something, please send me the info.
Hacking the existing
If we cannot build it then we are left with tinkering with the existing one’s to get the best out of what we bought.
Fixing the chip
so you can use the ink you want
Replacing the ink
just an example among many
Conclusion
Not much to add. I will be updating this post once in a while, as I find more info on the topic, so stay tuned :)