Core77

Crowdfunding Smash: PrintPods, a Portable Handheld Printing Device

By Rain Noe - July 30, 2020

Here's a surprise crowdfunding success, in a time when few people still write things down on paper: PrintPods, a handheld printing device that you apply to paper (or objects) like a glue stick. A rolling sensor on the bottom detects how fast you're moving, and the unit figures out how much ink to put down accordingly.

Here's the campaign pitch:

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Outside of archiving boxes, I can't imagine what potential application so engaged the backers, but at press time the campaign was up to $156,411 in pledges on a $10,000 goal. I guess the urge to make marks on things--something designers and sketchers take for granted--has a powerful hold on laypeople, particularly in an era when everything is digital. And the fact that there's no artistic talent required, as everything is designed in your phone, must provide a powerful lure too.

At $109 the device isn't cheap, but it's expected to retail for nearly double that.

For those in the market, there's still 14 days left to pledge.

Comments

Mark H

2 years ago

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Core77 featured something just like this last year: https://www.core77.com/posts/82127/
and I believe that you, Rain, covered the commercial version that was marketed for marking lumber. While looking for it, I found another similar personal printer on... let's just say a popular Chinese commerce site. So there's no lack of handheld inkjet printers (that's the search term to start with).

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Eric Strebel

2 years ago

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Z

This would be really useful for prototyping parts with graphics

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Rain Noe

I’m a lapsed industrial designer. I was born in NYC and figured I’d die there, but a few years ago I abandoned New York to live on a farm in the countryside with my wife. We have six dogs.