For years, printers have been the ultimate betrayal device. You buy one for cheap at the store… only to discover later that the cartridges cost more than gold dust and are locked down with DRM. Your printer refuses to print because it “thinks” the ink is empty, demands a subscription for the privilege of spitting out homework, or straight up bricks itself after a firmware update. It’s the scam that never dies.
But in 2025, three French inventors have finally said: non, merci. Meet the Open Printer, a Raspberry Pi Zero W-powered, fully open-source inkjet that does the unthinkable: it prints when you want, with whatever ink you want, on whatever paper you want.
The Paris-based team at Open Tools, Léonard Hartmann, Nicolas Schurando, and Laurent Berthuel, designed this machine to put the power back in your hands. Built with modular, off-the-shelf components, it’s repairable, hackable, and designed to never become obsolete. Forget about cartridges expiring after six months or firmware updates sabotaging your prints: this thing just works!
Here’s the magic behind the device: it uses standard HP black and color cartridges with built-in print heads, but without the DRM nonsense. You can refill them endlessly with any ink, and the printer won’t complain. Paper? Load it up with standard sheets (Letter, A4, A3, Tabloid) or go full retro with a continuous roll. The built-in cutter trims each page automatically, which means you can print anything from a 10-meter grocery list to a custom birthday banner without fighting paper size settings.
On the tech side, it’s solid. The Raspberry Pi Zero W runs the brains, while an STMicroelectronics STM32 microcontroller handles the mechanics. It supports USB, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and even printing directly from a USB stick. Compatibility? Handled by CUPS, so it works across Linux, Windows, macOS, and mobile platforms. And yes, it even has a cute 1.47″ screen with a jog-wheel for local control.
Best of all, it’s entirely open source. Every part of the design, electronics, firmware, mechanical files, bill of materials, will be released under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0. That means you can build, repair, upgrade, or even remix your own printer forever.
The Open Printer is set to launch on Crowd Supply soon, and while pricing hasn’t been announced, it’s based on inexpensive components, so expect reasonable costs. More importantly: no DRM, no subscriptions, no tricks.
Finally, a printer that won’t stab you in the back… or in the wallet!