[Aloha]

Epson still makes a two color impact printer as well in this form factor.

https://epson.com/For-Work/POS-System-Devices/POS-Printers/T...

I'd be very interested in a "supply your own printer" version of this as well - either using these two color printers or thermal.

I suspect there isnt a ton of money to be made in selling printers, but rather the aggregation services needed to drive it. Let people buy a commodity printers, or a variety of them - if you use CUPS as an abstraction layer, you can basically run anything, and the CUPS turns the actual output device into an abstraction.

[fy20]

You can get used impact printers fairly cheaply off eBay. They still have a use case in restaurant kitchens - where heat doesn't play nicely with thermal paper, and the noise alerts you to a new order. In Europe where fiscal printers are becoming the norm, it's usually cheaper to buy a new printer than repair and recertify it, if it breaks.

Most receipt printers support the ESC/POS protocol, so an abstraction isn't really needed.

[afandian]

A dot matrix at 7am would also solve another problem I have.

[ninalanyon]

I fondly remember a dot matrix printer that looked a bit like a single slot toaster from many decades ago, long before the internet and doomscrolling. You sat it above a stack of fan fold paper. My memory claims it was called Tiger, but what brand it was I have no idea. It was incredibly loud but also very fast.

[smarx007]

This Tiger? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8I6qt_Z0Cg

[ninalanyon]

No :-)

But thank you for the link, it's a long time since I'd heard that.

I've just asked ChatGPT to find it but first it just gave me information about tractor feed printers. Then I asked if there was such a printer called Tiger; it then found the same Eye of the Tiger video!

ChatGPT is a bit like a literal minded child: you have to keep varying the question to get it to give the right answer. I at last remembered that it was called Paper Tiger (of course) and asked ChatGPT about that and it found it:

"Yes, there was a dot matrix printer named the Paper Tiger, produced by Integral Data Systems (IDS). Models like the IDS 440 and Paper Tiger 460 were designed for use with continuous fan-fold paper, utilizing a tractor-feed mechanism to handle such paper efficiently. Internet Archive

These printers were popular in the 1980s and 1990s, especially among users of systems like the Apple II series. They were known for their durability and compatibility with various computer systems of that era. SETI@home

For more detailed information, you can refer to the Paper Tiger 460 manual, which provides insights into its features and specifications. Internet Archive"