from Hacker News

Show HN: Driverless print server for legacy printers, profit goes to open-source

by ValdikSS on 5/4/25, 5:43 PM with 42 comments

  * Supports all OS: Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android. No drivers needed. Windows-on-ARM and Apple M1/2/3/4 also supported.
  * Supports the majority of printers released before ≈2018
  * Profit from sold devices is shared between CUPS, SANE, AirSane open-source printing and scanning projects
  * Surplus and donations are accumulated to improve current open-source drivers and develop new ones

• by raffraffraff on 5/5/25, 5:56 AM

  This is cool.

  I had to do something similar to get an old Epson scanner to work. It astonished me that there are no drivers for it on the Epson website, no generic or legacy Windows drivers. And this was a serious hum-dinger of a scanner which is still much better than a brand new Epson because, shockingly, it's really hard to buy a decent scanner these days. They're ludicrously badly made unless you spend many thousands. Most of the high end ones are aimed at office scanning, with automatic page feed and high throughout etc. If you're an artist, you're screwed.

  Obviously the scanner works on Linux, but my wife is the one who needs to use it. So I hacked together a Raspberry Pi, a heavily customised PHPSane and an ancient Apple iPad (that is similarly unsupported, with almost no software available in the store). The pi boots in about 5 seconds. Now anyone on the house WiFi can scan over the network or walk right up and use the web interface via the iPad which is mounted beside the scanner.

  What was really enjoyable about the project was that I got to use one of my old Pis and a tablet that was heading for e-waste.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Fw7bZoPyVU

• by TMWNN on 5/4/25, 11:58 PM

  I don't need your product as I run CUPS and AirPrint on a Raspberry Pi <https://np.reddit.com/r/printers/comments/o0tin5/using_gener...>, but you offer a useful product/service to those who are not inclined to figure out how to do so.

  (I use the Pi with thermal 4x6 label printers that use either ZPL or variant thereof, to access them either by Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.)

• by braincode on 5/5/25, 4:14 AM

  This project made me wonder if a "physical virtual printer" exists?

  I'd love to send print jobs to a "non-physical" printer that any OS (and/or Adobe DC Reader) sees as a "completely legit, real, physical printer".

  In other words, not just the "Print to PDF" option/dialog on the OS. Then after "printing", have a valid PDF appear on that device's target storage itself (eMMC/SD Card/SMB share...)?

• by kevinsync on 5/4/25, 11:59 PM

  Dot-Ink is a wild TLD and very cool aesthetic choice for this project

• by veggieroll on 5/5/25, 3:20 PM

  Yes!! This is my preferred way to enable network printing and scanning. I've done this for about 5 years.

  I've always hated having printers on my network, because vendor software is absolutely terrible. Completely insecure and open to who-knows-what through automatic updates.

  I use a raspberry Pi and it works great even for non-technical family members. Printing from your phone is also really nice.

  The functionality is about the same as the vendor printers. But the peace of mind is amazing. 100% assurance that there's nothing weird going on, it's secure, and there's no account and stupid cloud.

• by 1970-01-01 on 5/5/25, 2:59 PM

  This has the potential to be a big hit. Go on your Craigslist or Marketplace and search for printers. You will find lots of free or very cheap working printers being scrapped just because they don't natively work with iPhones. With a little more setup refinement, polish, and support, this could be "dropbox for printers".

• by SeosisFexus on 5/13/25, 11:25 AM

  Hi, any chance to run this printserver on different hardware, like RPi or other suitable Pi clones instead OrangePi Zero 3? Is it possible to run the device connected to local ethernet LAN for wired computers?

• by cosmotic on 5/10/25, 4:59 PM

  Have you considered adding a web-driven print and scan interface? Some canon printers have a webserver where you can upload PDFs, JPEGs, etc, and print them without ever invoking a print driver or operating system print feature. Another page to utilize the scanner and download a PDF directly from the browser would also be cool.

• by ongytenes on 5/6/25, 8:26 PM

  I was told that HP no longer allows a person scan a document into their computer without a valid HP cartridge installed. I used an old HP printer for years as a scanner without any cartridge installed. (Brothers as my actual printers) Recently it has died and I am looking to replace it. I been looking at old printers with scanners in the thrift stores as a replacement. Question is; has Brother gone over to Darkside of requiring a cartridge for non-print jobs? Is so I CAN'T and will NOT recommend Brother as my preferred printer to my clients.

• by purpleidea on 5/4/25, 10:39 PM

  Says it's open source but the link is password protected: https://printserver.ink/firmware/

  I'll pass until that's normal.

• by fnwbr on 5/5/25, 11:56 AM

  Can you configure SSID and password when using the access point mode? For example when I have multiple of them in my university, I'd want to name them according to the rooms they sit in, while also making sure people can only print to the ones they can actually physically see (and therefore read the password off of a sticker)...

• by Beijinger on 5/5/25, 11:50 AM

  I wanted to buy one but I had to specify the printer, this confused me. This device should not be locked for one printer.

• by jessekv on 5/5/25, 11:39 AM

  Years ago I got an Airport Express for this. They also had an audio port for connecting a stereo to AirPlay.

• by koiueo on 5/5/25, 4:31 AM

  > If there's a bug, I first try to debug the issue remotely

  Does it mean you have remote access to the device?

• by derbOac on 5/5/25, 12:38 PM

  I was just wondering about this the other day with a Dell printer I love that's getting harder to setup via wifi.