It’s time for Framework to build a modular printer
Who’d have thought that we’d still be talking about printers in the 2020s? Wasn’t it all supposed to be paperless by now? The reality is that we’re about as likely to give up paper as we are to get flying cars, which means we have to deal with all the things wrong with the printing industry.
And, let me tell you, there are a lot of things wrong with the printing industry. From shady business practices to even shadier hardware designs, unless you’re willing to fork out for a business-class ink-slinger, there’s almost no way to escape. What we need is an industry disrupter, and looking at what Framework has achieved in the laptop and desktop computer world, I think the company should seriously consider taking on the printer establishment next.
Framework should break the printer industry next
Burn it all down
Framework has made a splash in the computer world and built a loyal following because it does what other tech companies are too scared to do: give you control. Framework doesn’t just offer a little repairability, but lets you replace, upgrade, and swap every part of their laptop and compact desktop systems.
The company even offers ways to make something useful from old laptop motherboard modules and has taken a hard stance against e-waste. Common business wisdom might say that planned obsolescence is good to keep the suckers locked-in and paying for life, but so far Framework is proving that you don’t have to be evil to sustain a tech business.
While the Framework model is still building momentum, I honestly think it would be awesome to apply this disruptive model to the printer industry, because things are looking more than a little bleak.
QuizThe quirky history of computer printers
Trivia challenge
From ink blots to laser precision — how well do you really know the machines sitting on your desk?
HistoryInkjetLaserFun FactsPioneers
Who is widely credited with inventing the first computer printer, a device that printed on paper tape in the 1950s?
Correct! The UNIVAC 1 system, developed by Remington Rand, included an early line printer in the early 1950s that output data onto paper tape. This marked a pivotal moment in making computers practical for business use. Grace Hopper was also a UNIVAC pioneer, but the printer hardware itself came from the engineering team.
Not quite. The UNIVAC team at Remington Rand built one of the first computer-connected printers in the early 1950s. Charles Babbage designed mechanical calculators long before electronic computers existed, and Chester Carlson invented xerography — the technology behind laser printing — not the printer itself.
Which company developed the first commercially successful laser printer, released in 1976?
Correct! Xerox released the Xerox 9700, the first commercially successful laser printer, in 1976. It was an enormous machine the size of a refrigerator and cost around $350,000. The underlying laser printing technology had been pioneered at Xerox PARC by researcher Gary Starkweather in 1969.
Not quite. Xerox released the 9700, the first commercially successful laser printer, in 1976 — built on research done at their legendary PARC lab. HP would later popularize the technology with the LaserJet in 1984, which brought laser printing to a much wider office audience at a far lower price point.
What accidental discovery is said to have led to the development of inkjet printing technology at Canon?
Correct! The popular story goes that a Canon engineer accidentally touched a hot soldering iron to a syringe filled with ink, causing it to jet out a tiny droplet. This eureka moment inspired the thermal inkjet concept, where a heating element vaporizes ink to propel droplets onto paper. HP independently stumbled upon a similar discovery around the same time.
Not quite. The famous legend says a Canon researcher accidentally pressed a hot soldering iron against an ink-filled syringe, causing ink to shoot out — sparking the idea for thermal inkjet printing. HP had a nearly identical accidental discovery happening independently, which is why both companies ended up pioneering inkjet technology around the same period.
Roughly how much does it cost to buy a gallon of standard inkjet printer ink, making it one of the most expensive liquids in the world?
Correct! When you break down the cost of ink in tiny cartridges, printer ink works out to roughly $8,000 per gallon, making it more expensive than vintage champagne, human blood, and even some rocket fuels. Printer manufacturers often sell hardware at a loss, relying on ink sales — a model sometimes called the ‘razor and blades’ strategy.
Not quite. Printer ink is shockingly expensive — when calculated by the gallon, it runs to approximately $8,000, making it one of the priciest liquids on Earth. This is why printer manufacturers often sell printers cheaply and make their real profits on replacement cartridges, a classic ‘razor and blades’ business model.
The dot matrix printer, popular through the 1970s and 1980s, creates images by striking pins against an ink ribbon. What was the name of the first widely adopted commercial dot matrix printer, released by Centronics in 1970?
Correct! The Centronics 101, released in 1970, is regarded as the first widely adopted commercial dot matrix printer. It used a 7-pin print head and became popular with businesses for printing invoices, reports, and receipts. Centronics also lent its name to the famous parallel printer port interface that remained a PC standard for decades.
Not quite. The Centronics 101, launched in 1970, was the landmark commercial dot matrix printer that kick-started widespread adoption of the technology. The company is also remembered for creating the Centronics parallel port, the chunky connector used to attach printers to PCs for decades before USB came along.
Which researcher at Xerox PARC is credited with inventing the laser printer in 1969 by modifying a Xerox copier?
Correct! Gary Starkweather, working at Xerox PARC, invented the laser printer in 1969 by modifying a Xerox 7000 copier to accept a laser beam as its light source. His managers initially tried to shut the project down, but Starkweather persisted and produced a working prototype that changed printing forever. He was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2012.
Not quite. Gary Starkweather is the inventor of the laser printer, having hacked a Xerox copier at PARC in 1969 to use a laser instead of a conventional light source. Alan Kay and Butler Lampson were fellow PARC legends known for personal computing and software concepts, while Douglas Engelbart is famous for inventing the computer mouse.
What quirky security feature do most color laser printers secretly embed in every document they print?
Correct! Most color laser printers print a pattern of tiny yellow dots — often invisible to the naked eye — that encode the printer’s serial number, date, and time of printing. This steganographic technique was developed in cooperation with governments to help trace counterfeit currency and forged documents. The Electronic Frontier Foundation first publicly exposed this practice in 2005.
Not quite. The answer is tiny yellow microdots that most color laser printers invisibly embed on every printed page. These microscopic dots encode identifying information like the printer’s serial number and the date the page was printed. The EFF revealed this surveillance-adjacent practice to the public in 2005, raising significant privacy concerns.
Which printing technology do most modern home photo printers use to achieve smooth, continuous-tone images that closely resemble traditional photographs?
Correct! Dye-sublimation printers are the go-to technology for high-quality home photo printing. They use heat to turn solid dye into a gas that diffuses into a special receiver sheet, blending colors smoothly without individual dots. The result is a continuous-tone image that looks almost identical to a traditionally developed photograph and is highly resistant to fading.
Not quite. Dye-sublimation is the technology prized for photo-quality output in home photo printers. Unlike inkjet printing which lays down tiny dots, dye-sub converts solid dye panels into gas using heat, allowing colors to blend seamlessly into each other. The prints are waterproof, smudge-resistant, and have a look and feel nearly indistinguishable from chemical darkroom photographs.
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Printers are problematic in 2026
It prints money (for someone else)
The premise of a printer used to be simple. You bought the printer, paper, and ink. You printed until you ran out of ink. Then you bought more ink. It was simple, and everyone got something out of the deal.
Then printers became disposable. In many cases it was cheaper to buy a whole new entry-level inkjet than it was to buy new ink cartridges for it! That was already a sign that something wasn’t right, but for me, the turning point was the advent of printer subscriptions like HP Instant Ink.
Now, I don’t know about you, but to me, a printer subscription, like a car seat heater, is something that should never be a subscription. The typical printers people buy to use at home really are mostly disposable now. The print heads are built into the cartridges, which is a major reason they cost so much, and there isn’t really anything worth fixing or replacing. At least not in a cost-effective way.
That’s not the experience you get with business printers. For example, my own Epson Ecotank printer costs around $1000, but offers true refillable ink tanks, and it can be serviced by a technician. It’s meant to both minimize the price of each page, and maximize the lifespan of the printer itself. The tradeoff is that high asking price, but there are at least some printers using this approach at more palatable prices. But, I still don’t think it’s enough.
What a printer would look like if it didn’t hate you
We need to LEGO of the old ways
I’m no engineer, but wouldn’t it be great if printers were properly modular? If you could easily swap out the logic board or feed assembly, it would change everything. Obviously, printers are more mechanically complex than laptops, but I would love to see the modular philosophy applied to them.
More than that, however, it would be nice to get rid of ink DRM, or to have the option to upgrade your printer with a screen or better Wi-Fi down the line. What about getting better quality prints by changing to better print heads later?
Of course, it’s easy to just write a wishlist, but if anyone could crack this nut, I think it’s the Framework folks.
Why doing the opposite of HP and its friends might actually win
If you look at how tired people are of Netflix subscriptions, and food subscriptions, and everything that used to be a once-off purchase now being a subscription, it’s not hard to read the room. Companies like HP have overestimated how much capacity we have for these shenanigans.
The bar is low, but all a company like Framework has to do is respect our time, money, and intelligence, and it might end up stealing every disgruntled customer from the printer giants. Even if it means lower quality prints, or more technical friction. So come on Framework (or anyone else), show us what you got.
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