With 3D printing out for a while now, there's zero good reason IMHO that there isn't a 2D-plotter retrofit which allows someone to attach one or more [colored] pencils or pens. I'm really shocked the overpriced ink monopolies weren't attacked in this manner, as a young child I distinctly remember a kiosk in a grocery store which 'printed' messages and images on blank cards using colored pencils, for customer order. None of this is remotely new.
> I'm really shocked the overpriced ink monopolies weren't attacked in this manner,
Inkjet and laser printers easily print whole page 300 DPI raster images in seconds. Plotters need vectorial data and their printing speed depends on how complicated what you are printing. These things simply don’t serve the same use case. You can do nice art and heart warming cards with a plotter, but you can’t hit print on your boarding card / dhl label / word document and expect your plotter to give you what you see on your screen.
> None of this is remotely new.
I agree that none of this is remotely new. Plenty of people tinker with plotters for fun and profit. There are even pre-packaged consumer centric solutions where you pay the price of convenience with lack of freedoms. (See the similar debacle around the Cricut plotters.)
> I'm really shocked the overpriced ink monopolies weren't attacked in this manner
Because those of us who understand mostly don't care. Those who know bought a Brother laser printer and got on with life.
When those who understand need genuine inkjet prints, we go to a store that owns a printer that is several orders of magnitude better than we will ever need and pay them a pittance to get it printed.
That having been said, I really do wish we had an open source laser printer because, at some point, Brother is going to pull this same bullshit.
Man, I love my Brother - it is 10-years old this spring, driver updates keep coming for new operating systems in both 32/x64 - and never has a hassle with third-party toner cartridges. While it is intended for a small office (and therefore fairly large and heavy), it has been easily hands-down the best hardware purchase decision I have ever made. (And - it there was a $300 off sale discount when I got it - so $500+tax)
