Ask HN: Why are there no open source 2d printers?

Re:Ask HN: Why are there no open source 2d printers? by vekelly09 on Thursday October 15, 2020 @10:32AM (#24789010)

I remember it well. All of us computer hackers back in the late 1970s did something like that with a bunch of solenoids. It worked, but you got about 12 cps on a good day, and only constant width fonts. Also, if one of your solenoids was a bit sluggish it would throw off the registration of some of the characters. The advent of daisy wheel technology killed off the Selectric printers. Remember daisy wheels, especially the early metal ones??

OTOH hacking an IBM Executive might have been something. Proportional spacing!! (but a much fiddlier mechanism)

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Re:Ask HN: Why are there no open source 2d printers? by Finnucane on Thursday October 15, 2020 @12:37PM (#24790565)

I have a vague memory that there was even a commercial option for that--a device that fit over the typewriter keyboard, that you could buy, and it would drive the typewriter from the computer.

I had for a while a NEC Spinwriter--loud, slow, built like the proverbial tank. My recollection--it's been more than 30 years since I used it--was that it did support proportional spacing.

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