The entire gnu software movement was started decades ago already because one guy was fed up with printer firmwares and thought they should be replaced with public diy open source firmware to make the printers actually serve their owners.
"it's time" was already forever ago and some serious committed practically religious power devs tried and gave up on it, even while toppling practically all other software ecosystems.
Hell even the current locked down user-hostile printers are actually running linux and gnu software. That must be exceedingly galling.
In case anybody doesn't get the reference, printer driver trouble is what initially motivated Stallman to come up with the idea of free software and ultimately the GPL and the FSF.
I can't believe the entire FOSS ecosystem essentially stemmed from printer issues, and we _still_ don't have a mainstream FOSS printer firmware that removes DRM and tracking dots (and whatever else they do nowadays) akin to OpenWRT, but for printers.
We have fully open source hardware AND software _3D_ printers capable of printing working guns, but we can't improve the process of squirting ink on paper so it's not universally abhorred?
It does always sound really crazy because in our minds 3D is more complex than 2D, but in reality 3D printing is actually really really simple, it's basically just 3 motors, a heat block, and an extruder, that's pretty much it.
Whereas 2D (inkjet) printing has all of the above (minus one motor), and actually comes with a few non-trivial non-printing related expectations as well, like loading and expelling a print surface (often many in one print), optionally flipping said print surface (and this requires that ink has dried as well) and colour processing to map computer colours to real-world colours.
It's actually even more complicated than that. Modern printers include a raster image processor (RIP) [1]. This specialized software converts vector graphics, text, and pixel-based images into a raster dot pattern that controls the print head. The individual dots that get printed can't be varied in size or brightness, so the variations in image tone are controlled by the density of the dots in the raster pattern. This is called halftone [2].
Firmware is the thing that Framework has failed the most at from day one to today. It's every bit as locked down as everyone else's only without the big guys quality control and updates so you get to live with bugs for the entire life of the hardware.
Their firmware updates are complete clown car. When they actually do one, the update process itself is just stupid fragile. Cross your fingers and clear your schedule for the next day in case you aren't lucky. You have a 10% chance of being left with a machine that probably still runs but works worse than before, and no ability to roll back.
I have a 11th gen intel board that is completely unusable after an update, but might possibly still be recoverable if I reinstall it into the laptop so it can use the laptop display instead of displayport. But I'd have to take my current 12th gen board out and then put it all back again after.
A Framework printer, if it matched a Framework laptop, would still have shit firmware, probably licensed from one of the majors, with all the same bad behavior, except with more bugs.
disagree it's all their fault, I've had 0 problems with my amd board on linux, and anecdotally that appears to be common on the forums, where intel is more painful.
That's one of the reasons I refused to invest prior to their amd board. I can't trust intel not to be toxic.
I'd still take a broken crappy printer from framework (assuming it's hackable, and not doom and gloom like you predict) over the status quo. I mean, I mainline linux because software being non-toxic is more important than polish will ever be to me.
This topic has come up several times and there are apparently a host of issues. Patents in paper handling etc. A replacement, open source control board send potentially more doable.
3D printers don't have anywhere near the resolution of 2D printers. Take something like a $300 Epson photo printer [1]. It has 5760 x 1440 dpi with 6 colours!
A Creality Ender 3 Pro, a common budget 3D printer, has an accuracy of 0.1mm. That's an equivalent of about 254 DPI.
Of course, that's just the positioning. If you're 2D printing on a 3D printer by mounting a pen to the end, you're also limited by the thickness of the pen tip.
In any case, you could certainly draw text, but you'd only want to use a font that relies on thin lines, nothing thick. Filled in spaces would be difficult, and of course, photos are just completely out of the question.
As mentioned in a sibling comment, really you'd have just reinvented plotters which have existed for decades.
Yes but it is expensive and slow, rarely big enough for A4 (or Letter) and would be plastic. Additionally it would be maybe up to 4 colours. Not as in CYMK but as in 4 colours total no mixing.
Unless you do a lithographic print but they need a light source to be seen.
Also you can print pixels. You convert to G code so it is made up of lines.
