Printers

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.

A photo printer for iOS and Android devices. Send a photo from your phone to any LifePrint anywhere in the world via Wi-Fi, 3G or Bluetooth. You can also follow other LifePrint users so their images will be sent to your print queue.

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.

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.