Ink printers are generally thought of as boring pieces of office equipment – they are there solely for the purpose of killing trees, wasting your money on expensive ink, and printing off sleep-inducing presentations. Printers are also often associated with frustration – setup and operation can be extremely irritating at times, as these machines do not always function as they are designed to.
These innovative ink printer designs from around the world will take the boring out of ink printers by giving you a dose of the coolest and craziest ink printers on the planet. You will surely be amazed by these stunning concepts and devices, which turn mundane office tools into gadgets that most techies would kill for.
LaserJet Ink Printer Made Out of Gold – Dubai
There is only one printer made of gold in the world, and it can be found in Dubai. The Gold printer was auctioned off at the GITEX convention with a starting bid of $300. (Of course, this initial price increased exponentially throughout the bidding process – it finally sold for around $20,000.) This ink printer is made from 24-carat gold, and is completely functional.
Wax-On Ink Printer Concept – California
The Wax-On ink printer design eliminates the need for expensive and wasteful ink cartridges by proposing an alternate source of color – solid wax. The wax would cost a small percentage of what a normal ink cartridge would sell for, and the Wax-On printer takes up minimal desk space with its sleek design. Faris Elmasu is the creator of this cool printer, and maybe someday he will be able to make his design a reality. The pictures included above help explain the inner workings of this awesome ink printer creation.
Pencil Printer Concept – Korea
I would love to call this an “innovative ink printer design,” but it cannot be categorized as such. The Pencil Printer, as its name implies, prints using stubby pencils and mechanical pencil lead. This unique concept shreds pencils; you can insert unwanted stubs, and separates the wood fragments from the lead through an electrical burning. (Sounds dangerous, but since when did a little peril discourage gadget chasers?)
Hoyoung Lee, the creator of the Pencil Printer design, has even built in an eraser feature which allows the device to erase paper in order to reprint on the same sheet. If Hoyoung’s vision were to become a reality, we would solve the problem of purchasing un-eco-friendly ink cartridges as well as the widespread wasting of paper. Trees have feelings too, and we wouldn’t want a revolution on our hands – look at the size of those things! They will squash you like a bug, little boy!
Eco Printer – Taiwan
The Eco Printer concept, designed by Sharsha Lee, is an extremely impressive design which seems less feasible than other innovative ink printers in terms of today’s technological capabilities. The Eco Printer would print using a special ink that disappears when exposed to UV light, thus allowing you to print on the same piece of paper forever. Seriously, unless you run out of magical UV light-fearing ink, you’re good for the rest of eternity.
Make sure that, if the Eco Printer becomes a real product, you are not printing sensitive documents. Someone could easily edit your legal papers if you left them lying around and they disappeared at the slightest sign of UV light. This cool design won the 2010 Red Dot concept design contest, and is undoubtedly one of the coolest printer ideas ever to be conceived. The only fear that I have is that the special ink will cost much more than normal ink, which is already at a ridiculous price.
Stick POP Portable Ink Printer – Korea
The Stick POP is a portable ink printer concept by Jihun Kang, Youngho Lee, Changsu Lee, and Jieun Lee. This printer is a 23 cm x 6 cm device which allows you to quickly print out documents on the go. The Stick POP includes a USB insert so you can quickly download documents for printing, as well as an OLED lighting system which displays status updates.
Jack Kieffer is a teenage gadget geek and the founder of Cool Gizmo Toys, a site dedicated to providing fun tech and toy reviews. He loves reading about unique gizmos, playing the piano, volunteering with kids who have special needs, and blogging for the Chicago Tribune.
