How to build a printer

 (nishantjosh.dev)

122 points | by cat-whisperer 3 hours ago

9 comments

  • ks2048 50 minutes ago
    Good job, but I’m left wanting to know how to build a printer.
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    • cat-whisperer 39 minutes ago
      I'd say it's an eco-friendly printer
  • jarboot 1 hour ago
    This is amazing!!! It just makes sense. And its just how you would want to use a e reader.
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  • greazy 43 minutes ago
    I don't understand the purpose. What am I missing?

    The author "prints" to the eink display. Why not load say the pdf directly?

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    • cat-whisperer 41 minutes ago
      > I was thinking of this, but rendering PDF takes a lot out of a 400KB RAM'd device. It also needs a ton of things to actually work which the ROM can't hold.

      > Kindles have a ton of RAM, this one didn't.

    • stdatomic 35 minutes ago
      From the 4th line in the article:

      > But getting stuff onto it was tedious. I had to join its hotspot and open a little upload website in my browser. Yuck.

      Anyway, very creative, I like the idea a lot.

  • joshmarinacci 56 minutes ago
    I love the concept, but I wonder why he wasn’t printing to PDF. Can this device not render PDFs?
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    • cat-whisperer 50 minutes ago
      I was thinking of this, but rendering PDF takes a lot out of a 400KB RAM'd device. It also needs a ton of things to actually work which the ROM can't hold.

      Kindles have a ton of RAM, this one didn't.

    • bluGill 50 minutes ago
      Probably not. It doesn't appear to have enough ram. I'm not sure the CPU is up to that either.
  • NDlurker 35 minutes ago
    Very cool. I'll be updating to this fork
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    • cat-whisperer 28 minutes ago
      Thanks. It's rough around the edges, so PRs are open, and there's a recipe in the repo if you want to build your own apps.
  • sho_hn 1 hour ago
    This is a fantastic idea!
  • andyfilms1 1 hour ago
    We finally have PADDs from Star Trek!
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  • stavros 1 hour ago
    I've been seeing the Xteink a lot lately. Should I get an X3 or an X4? I don't really know why I want it, but I have an eInk addiction, so I just need it.
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    • hamaluik 14 minutes ago
      I bought an x4 a month or so ago, zero regrets. It sounds hyperbolic but it’s finally been the thing to actually decouple me from my phone. Whenever I’m out and about, bored, I just slide it out and pick up where I left off reading last. It’s a nicer reading experience on my kobo but the portability and.. frankly charm just can’t be beat.
    • a2dam 1 hour ago
      I've owned all of them and the answer is the X4 Pro IMO. It has a backlight, which is the only thing I really missed on the others.
    • cat-whisperer 1 hour ago
      It's funny that X3 is a successor of X4. Only downside is that X4 has a USB-C port and X3 doesn't
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      • stavros 1 hour ago
        What about the back light? Are they otherwise identical?
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        • cat-whisperer 57 minutes ago
          X3 isn't backlit, but the battery lasts 7 days. So, it's pretty good for me
  • Brian_K_White 2 hours ago
    Outstanding! This is so...correct.