Printers

Ever wonder how images get printed on things like phone and tablet cases? UV inkjet printers can print on just about any surface, and can even create textures. Strange Parts takes us inside of the Besjet factory, where they make these industrial wonders, and offers a look at how they’re made, as well as their capabilities.

This nifty bit of tech from EBS Ink-Jet Systems can be used to imprint text, images, and barcodes onto metal, plastic, textiles, concrete, wood, cardboard, and more. The EBS-260 is designed for industrial uses, but it could be pretty sweet for street artists.

Digital fingerprinting and identity tracking is a fact of life these days. But did you know that even the pages your printer has been spewing out could be tattling on you? According to this video from Half as Interesting, printer manufacturers have been outputting a hidden serial number onto every sheet of paper for years.

PrintDreams’ PrintBrush XDR is a handheld thermal color inkjet printer designed to print directly onto a surface. It can print on paper, wood, plastic, textile and metal. It accounts for your hand speed and will print properly no matter how fast or slow you go.

HP’s Tango printer is designed to be used primarily with its companion app. It lets you print both via a Wi-Fi and a data connection, scan and share documents, even automatically order ink refills. It also works with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and Microsoft Cortana.

(Flashing colors) The latest video from the masters of video gimmickry features a gag that was made using more than 500 individual printers, each spewing out sheets of Double A paper to create an animated backdrop. The track is from the 2014 album Hungry Ghosts.

JK Brickworks shows off another awesome mechanical build – a fully-functional printer/plotter that uses a pen to draw words and images on a sheet of paper that it feeds using the wheels from a LEGO vehicle, and a Mindstorms’ EV3 controller.

(PG-13: Language) While it’s not quite as satisfying as the PC LOAD LETTER scene in Office Space, we still can appreciate the way thehypnoguy1 and his pals fixed their broken laser printer once and for all.

A portable printer that quickly outputs copies of Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and other images on your phone onto 2″ x 3″ mini prints. Each glossy print has a peel-off sticky back so you can slap them on notebooks, laptops, and other surfaces. Sticker packs cost $10 for 20 sheets.

These days, there’s not a ton of need to print things, but sometimes it’s still nice to have a hardcopy. The compact Rolto printer wirelessly connects to your iPhone and can print perfectly proportioned screengrabs in black and white. Great for recipes and to-do lists.

Epson finally caught on to third-party ink vendors. Its new EcoTank printers have no ink cartridges; each color tank is refilled by the bottle. The printers come loaded with around 2 years’ worth of ink (at least 4000 black/6500 color pages).

A tiny inkjet printer driven by a robot. PocketPrinter prints grayscale documents at about one page per minute. Its cartridge carries enough black ink for 1,000 printed pages while its battery lasts up to an hour per charge.

Help the Breakfast team release a consumer version of Instaprint, a portable photo booth that prints pictures taken using the Instagram app based on hashtags or location.

This goofy little gadget lets you subscribe to feeds including news, weather, sayings, puzzles, and more, and prints them out for you to carry around or pin up on your corkboard or fridge.

This cool machine lets you cut foam and other sheet materials up to 27″ wide and 2″ thick using your computer as a controller. Computer and Shop-Vac not included. Also draws with Sharpies.

Dongyeon Kim’s concept device lets you to print on sticky notes wirelessly. The sticky notes are placed in such a way that you can still tear off a piece if you want to write a note by hand.

From the “why didn’t we think of this?” file comes a touchscreen display that doubles as a wide-format printer and a scanner. Byeong Min Choe’s design is only a concept, but it should be real.

The talented Faith Pearson was challenged with incorporating old ink cartridges into her artwork. She transformed them into geeky, humorous works of art with heavy sci-fi and pop culture references.

PC Load Letter! WTF does that mean? Think of this video like the laser printer destruction scene in Office Space, but with a funny-looking cat instead of three nerd-dorks with a baseball bat.

This clever ad for HP Photosmart printers was shot by printing out each frame of its animation in real time. We’re amazed they didn’t jam or run out of ink. Nothing like a little movie magic.

We love horseattack’s supercool LEGO felt tip 110 printer, made from analog motor electronics, sensors and printer driver. Wondering if those markers are the scented kind. (Thanks to all!)

Sure, you could just Makerbot, but if you’re in the market for an industrial-strength printer for cranking out 3D prototypes, you might want to check out HP’s new physical object printer.

Introducing Iron Chef: Inkjet Edition; Cornucopia: Digital Gastronomy is an ongoing project by two MIT grad students to develop a 3D printer that mixes, deposits, and cooks food.

We hope you can read fast, because this Ghostmatrix printer uses an array of UV LEDs to scan across phosphorescent paper; the result is a stream of letters that slowly fade.

Yup, you read it right: MakerBot’s CupCake CNC is a 3D printer that essentially spits out plastic into shapes of your own design; it’s crude, but cheaper than commercial printers.

Goofy name, but cool tech with Dell’s Wasabi: measuring 5″x3″x1″ and weighing only 8 oz, this ultra-portable printer spits out 2″x3″ photos and uses no ink thanks to Zero Ink tech.