I've always been fascinated by thermal printers – there's something magical about seeing text and images materialize on paper in seconds. But I found that working with them programmatically was always a pain. You either had to deal with ancient printer protocols or use clunky vendor-specific SDKs.
So I built Printercow (<a href="https://printercow.com" rel="nofollow">https://printercow.com</a>) – it turns any thermal printer into an HTTP endpoint with just one command.<p>Technical details:
- Supports any ESC/POS compatible printer (Epson, Star Micronics, etc.)
- Handles paper widths from 58mm to 120mm
- Automatic image dithering and scaling
- Built-in failover protection for high-volume scenarios<p>Don't have a printer yet but want to try it out? I've got you covered! When you sign-up you get 300 free prints and you can watch your creations come to life on my printer via Twitch live stream (<a href="https://twitch.tv/printercow" rel="nofollow">https://twitch.tv/printercow</a>). Perfect for testing your integration before committing to hardware.<p>I'm particularly excited about the AI integration possibilities. Instead of yet another chat interface, you can have AI generate content that exists in the physical world – artwork, poems, todo lists, custom receipts, etc.<p>Would love to hear your thoughts, feature requests, or creative use cases you can think of! Also happy to answer any technical questions about the implementation.