Long. Printers are pretty complicated machines, because they have to work with a natural product that shrinks, expands, folds, rolls itself up and sticks to other pieces of paper. I once heard a printer engineer explain that they use small puffs of air to lift the paper, but because there’s also heat involved in the printing process that the paper sometimes rolls itself up or expands which causes jams etc. And I’m sure there’s more going on.
Which isn’t to say that HP aren’t bastards.
If we shoot for a much more primitive printer, we’re pretty close.
Something that uses a pen or quill to draw on an unmoving sheet of paper. Kind of like how CNC routers are set up. The gantry moves along the full length and width of the paper.
After that, you can print everything outside the electronics and the quill. Right?
That’s just a plotter. Replace the extruder nozzle with a pen and you’re there.
not until the existence of 4D printer, that can print a 3D printer
But wouldn’t that mean that you already have a 3d printer that can print a 2d printer? As the 4th “D” is time?
The fourth D is right beside you, even if you can’t see it. It penetrates you everywhere.
Oh wow I must be an expert in 5D then, 6D on special occasions.
The D was inside you the whole time.