A lot of photocopiers available for hire today, particularly the multifunction devices commonly used by small businesses and schools, have a very similar design, set of tools and overall user interface.
Part of the reason for this is familiarity, and to create an intuitive user interface to allow office staff to quickly learn how to use a new photocopier without having to expend too much energy and stress having to consciously figure out what all of the new buttons do and how all of the new features work.
Since the development of the printer-scanner-photocopier combined device starting in the 1990s, most manufacturers have found similar solutions to the same problems, but that is not to say that others have not been attempted.
The Canon NoteJet was a fantastic example of an innovative solution to the problems that the photocopier was designed to solve, albeit one that only ultimately had a niche audience.
With that in mind, here are some other examples of the most unusual and unique printers and photocopiers made, and the reasons why they did not supplant the MFD as the primary business printer of choice.
Nail Printers
There are typically three ways in which a photocopier will be unique; they either have an unusual design, scan unique objects and translate them into conventional printouts, or print onto unusual media or use unusual forms of ink.
One of the most unusual in this regard is the nail printer, which prints text, images and patterns directly onto a person’s fingernails, using either an inkjet or thermal process.
What makes these unique is how relatively conventional the printing technology is. Inkjet and thermal printers, outside of using nail-friendly ink, are not too dissimilar to printing processes used in high-quality consumer-grade paper printers.
They are relatively expensive and are only really used in the nail art industry, but that does not stop them from being fascinating.
Pencil Printer
One of the most unusual pencil sharpeners ever made, the Pencil Printer concept works by using the graphite lead in the middle of pencils as an eco-friendly erasable ink.
It looked like a giant pencil and even seemed like a potentially practical idea from a distance. However, it did not succeed and the reasons why it did not become apparent when one looks at the reality of using an erasable printer.
The selling point is that typographical errors no longer need to be fixed through printing another page, and even if it could do that effectively, there is no way to add a correction without manually writing the letter onto the page, at which point it is no better than using correction fluid and a pen.
The other issue is purpose; most companies have a photocopier because they want a permanent or semi-permanent printed record, and the inability to correct a printed document is a feature and not a mistake.
It has about as much purpose as a specialist printer that adds text and images to the pencils themselves.
Other alternative eco-friendly photocopiers use environmentally friendly sources of ink, such as used coffee grounds, to provide a more permanent and potentially more useful alternative.
Toast Printers
Have you ever had a proposal that looked good enough to eat? One particularly baffling printer proposal aimed to make literally edible documents.
The concept of a toaster printer, such as the ill-fated Toasteroid, is not inconceivable; a thermal printer is essentially a hot plate or toaster, so it would be possible to set a toaster to only brown or blacken certain parts of the bread.
It is relatively low-resolution, so full product proposals or worksheets are unlikely to fit on a slice of wholemeal, but the concept seemed rather interesting, even if it fell into the wasteland that many Kickstarter campaigns did and ultimately never released.
Braille Embossers
One of the most important relatively niche printing solutions is the braille embosser, a tool that allows people to print braille text automatically for use on medicine boxes, braille books and important documents.
What makes these interesting is the scope of evolution that braille embossers and printers have gone through over the years.
What originally started as writing frames and styluses that create the bumps on the other side of the paper evolved into typewriter-style notetakers and braillers, printers that can connect to computers in the same way as conventional printers and even devices that can provide real-time feedback in braille.
It is a vital accessibility feature, and there is likely a market for more affordable braille printers and advanced photocopiers that can take documents in other forms of text and transcribe them into braille printouts.