Xyron Design Runner Printer • 2/21/06
I saw this interesting product in the Paper Scrapbooking section of Joann.com. This is actually a portable mini-printer from Xyron that lets you print on virtually anything you’d like. The description said it would print on rough and uneven surfaces like wood, tissue paper, some fabrics and even on ribbon and metal.
The full name of the product is the Xyron Design Runner Personal Papercrafting Printer. It takes 2 nine volt batteries and requires special ink cartridges to print. I think it might have been nice to have an optional AC outlet plug since I’m not a big fan of buying batteries repeatedly. It says that the ink cartridge should last for 5000 embellishments printed. When not using the device, you’re supposed to place it in its supplied dock in order to prevent the ink from drying out.
I believe that it comes with one starter disc that has 40 design embellishments. You basically just select the design you want printed and then just swipe along the area that is going to be printed. The fact that you can print on things without having to run them through a usual stationary printer with rollers (that would probably jam on uneven surfaces) is a huge plus.
One issue that I can imagine would be a bit difficult is the delay before the ink design actually starts to transfer to the surface of the item you’re printing on. I saw some folks note that there is a significant delay before it actually starts to transmit ink. It also seems like the lack of a backlit screen could be an issue in low light environments. It would have also been interesting if it included the ability to create your own embellishments and designs on a computer and then port them over throuh USB or some other method, but I suspect that would be beyond the need of most people who would use the printer.
All in all it seems like an interesting way to get designs printed on textured paper and other surfaces that are difficult to run through a standard printer.
