https://epson.com/For-Work/POS-System-Devices/POS-Printers/T...
I'd be very interested in a "supply your own printer" version of this as well - either using these two color printers or thermal.
I suspect there isnt a ton of money to be made in selling printers, but rather the aggregation services needed to drive it. Let people buy a commodity printers, or a variety of them - if you use CUPS as an abstraction layer, you can basically run anything, and the CUPS turns the actual output device into an abstraction.
Most receipt printers support the ESC/POS protocol, so an abstraction isn't really needed.
But thank you for the link, it's a long time since I'd heard that.
I've just asked ChatGPT to find it but first it just gave me information about tractor feed printers. Then I asked if there was such a printer called Tiger; it then found the same Eye of the Tiger video!
ChatGPT is a bit like a literal minded child: you have to keep varying the question to get it to give the right answer. I at last remembered that it was called Paper Tiger (of course) and asked ChatGPT about that and it found it:
"Yes, there was a dot matrix printer named the Paper Tiger, produced by Integral Data Systems (IDS). Models like the IDS 440 and Paper Tiger 460 were designed for use with continuous fan-fold paper, utilizing a tractor-feed mechanism to handle such paper efficiently. Internet Archive
These printers were popular in the 1980s and 1990s, especially among users of systems like the Apple II series. They were known for their durability and compatibility with various computer systems of that era. SETI@home
For more detailed information, you can refer to the Paper Tiger 460 manual, which provides insights into its features and specifications. Internet Archive"
> In January 2020, BPA was restricted from use in thermal paper, including tickets and receipts, across the EU (3). As a result, another bisphenol, Bisphenol-S (BPS), began to take its place. In fact, an ECHA survey estimated that 61% of all thermal paper would contain BPS as a substitute for BPA, despite concerns of BPS being equally as harmful (6). Fast forward three years and BPS is now recognised as “toxic to reproduction” and a hormone disruptor, and has been added to the EU’s candidate list for Substance of Very High Concern (SVHCs), a common first step on the road to restriction (7).
claims "no BPA/BPS" and "phenol-free". (Hopefully that doesn't turn out to mean that they found something even worse to make it out of!)
It even seems easy to make you own DIY version: squeeze some lemons, unroll, drench, dry and reroll a properly sized roll of normal paper in it.
Cheers to that. A note about buying BPA-free thermal paper on the site might be nice, especially for those who plan to have children interact with your project.
Honest question, isn't the bpa free paper just using something else than bpa that is unregulated and potentially even worse?
I don’t think it’s a major health problem if you don’t consume your daily newspaper after reading.
Thank you, OP, for posting this, and thanks to the community for all your support!
To answer some common questions/comments/concerns:
- Totally agree with the sentiment regarding screens being a big problem in today's day and age. The main reason I wanted to make Guten was so that I could start my day off reading something on paper instead of staring at my phone. It also helps that you can't doomscroll on a receipt ;)
- I also love Little Printer - it seemed like such a cool product, but I unfortunately never had the chance to purchase one before it got discontinued. This is my attempt to bring back some of the functionalities in Little Printer that I'd find most useful in my day-to-day.
- BPA in thermal paper was a concern of mine as well, but I thankfully found some BPA-free thermal paper on Amazon!