OpenPrinter is a compact inkjet printer from Open Tools, a Paris startup, built to be opened, repaired and refilled instead of replaced. It is the anti-HP printer, built around HP's own cartridges.
Overview
- Refillable cartridges, no DRM. It takes standard HP 302 cartridges in Europe and lets you refill them. Nothing in the firmware blocks a refilled or third-party cartridge.
- Roll paper with a cutter, plus ordinary A4 and A3 sheets. Banners, strips and custom lengths come out of a machine smaller than most desktop printers.
- Driverless on every system. A built-in print server works with Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS and Android, including AirPrint.
- Repairable by design. Standard parts, 3D-printable plastic parts, and design files promised under an open licence.
- Desk or wall. An optional kit mounts it on a wall.
Price: not announced. The Crowd Supply campaign is still "coming soon". A June 2026 update promised a launch "in the next few months", and the latest update, on 17 September 2026, says the team is getting ready to launch. It will come as a self-assembly kit or fully assembled.
Specifications
| Resolution | 600 dpi black, 1200 dpi colour |
| Speed | Not announced, "to be defined" |
| Sheets | A4, A3, Letter, Tabloid |
| Roll | 29.7 cm wide, 18 m or 37.5 m long |
| Cartridges | HP 302 / 302 XL in Europe, HP 63 in the US, HP 803 in Asia |
| Refills | 100 ml bottles of black, cyan, magenta and yellow |
| Connectivity | USB-C, USB-A for flash drives, Wi-Fi 802.11ac with AirPrint, Bluetooth 4.1 |
| Electronics | Raspberry Pi Zero W main board, STM32 cartridge controller |
| Display | 1.47-inch colour screen, 172 x 320 pixels |
| Size | 497 x 233 x 111 mm |
| Power | 24 V DC |
| Licence | Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0, plus a patent and a design registration |
How it works
The clever choice is the cartridge. HP's 302 carries its own printhead, so the part that clogs and wears out is a cheap consumable sold almost everywhere, not the printer. When a head fails, you swap a cartridge. The machine itself is left with belts, rods, a carriage and a small computer, all standard and all repairable.
- Black and colour work independently. Either cartridge alone is enough to print, which ends the "can't print black because the yellow is empty" lockout.
- Refills are part of the plan. Open Tools will sell an "Inkit" with 4 ink bottles and the refill tools.
- No drivers. A Raspberry Pi Zero W inside runs CUPS, the open-source print server behind macOS and Linux printing, so the printer appears on the network like any other.
- The roll lifts off to take single sheets, and the integrated cutter trims roll prints to any length.
Background
The team is small and French: Léonard Hartmann on mechanical design and project lead, Nicolas Schurando on electronics and firmware, Benjamin Forest on firmware, and Laurent Berthuel on industrialisation. elium studio did the product design.
The manifesto names the influences: the Meadows report on the limits to growth, Philippe Bihouix's The Age of Low Tech, and Gilbert Simondon on technical objects. On the practical side, it credits Paul Morin's 2018 Impro concept for a repairable wall-mounted plotter, plus the maker work of YTEC and Jeroen Domburg of Sprite Mods.
In June 2026 the project was nominated for a French design award. The press has been warm, with one pointed exception: Tom's Hardware noted in July that it "still has no price nine months after reveal".
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Repairable by design, with parts that can be sourced or 3D-printed if the company disappears.
- Cartridges on sale everywhere, refillable, and never blocked.
- Roll paper and a cutter at this size are unusual.
- Prints from any system without drivers.
- Compact enough to hang on a wall.
Cons and open questions:
- No price, no ship date, no print speed yet, almost a year after the first reveal.
- The open files come later. Open Tools will publish them only once the final version ships.
- Not fully open. The non-commercial licence stops anyone selling compatible parts or derivatives, and the design carries a patent.
- No scanner. The FAQ suggests a phone scanning app instead.
Who it's for
Occasional printers who are tired of cartridge lock-in and of replacing a printer every few years. Makers who would rather print a broken part than buy a new machine. Anyone who wants banners or labels on roll paper without a large-format plotter.
It is not a volume office printer. Until Open Tools publishes a print speed, nobody can judge that.
Buying considerations
- Wait for the campaign. Follow the Crowd Supply page, and decide once price and speed appear.
- Check shipping and VAT when it opens. Crowd Supply is US-based, so confirm how import VAT and duties are handled for Germany.
- Cartridges are easy. HP 302 and 302 XL are widely stocked in Germany, in shops and online.
- The closed alternative: ink-tank printers such as Epson's EcoTank range solve the ink cost with bottles today, but they are sealed machines with a permanent printhead, not repairable ones.
Verdict
The idea is right, and 3 engineering choices are genuinely smart: the printhead lives in a cheap cartridge, a standard print server removes drivers, and roll paper adds a use no normal printer covers. But almost a year after the reveal it's still a promise, with no price, no speed and no delivery date. It deserves a watch, not a pre-order, until those 3 numbers exist.
Further Reading
