Hot off the Press

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Pencil Printer screenshot

News of the world’s first multi-material full-colour 3D printer hit the press yesterday, and designers and manufacturers alike will be baring teeth as they fight to get their hands on this US $330,000 machine.

Author Jo Wilkinson, 01.29.14

News of the world’s first multi-material full-colour 3D printer hit the press yesterday, and designers and manufacturers alike will be baring teeth as they fight to get their hands on this US $330,000 machine. What the everyday print user will be pleased about, however, is news of the far more sustainable, economically-viable, and much smaller Pencil Printer.

The Pencil Printer is an invention by designers Hoyoung Lee, Seungwa Jeong, and Jin-young Yoon to reduce the damaging effects of printers and inkjet ink on the environment. The premise of the design is to print documents using the lead from old pencil stubs, and it’s as easy as one, two three: simply place the pencil in the side of the printer, press start, and you’ll see the device print your document using the grounded pencil powder.

To make the Pencil Printer even more environmentally sound, the device has a built-in eraser. This means if you find a typo in your text, all you need to do is simply erase the mistake and write it correctly rather than throwing the paper out and starting again.

The Pencil Printer will not be replacing full-colour 3D designer printers any time soon, but it offers an alternative to one-off printing when having something on paper is an absolute must.

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