A handmade thermal printer for news, weather, puzzles, and more. Turn the dial, press the button, read the paper. No screen. No subscriptions. Built from walnut and brass.
Press the button when you need it, or schedule prints to show up throughout your day.
16 modules across three categories. Assign any combination to your 8 channels.
Current conditions, hourly and 5-day forecast
Top headlines with QR links to full articles
Articles from any RSS feed URL
Print unread emails from any IMAP inbox
Sun path, sunrise/sunset, and moon phase
Day, week, or month view from iCal
Historical events from today's date
Random quote from a library of 5,000+
A writing prompt to start your day
Generated puzzles in three difficulty levels
Printable mazes with start and end markers
Choose-your-own-adventure using the dial
Custom rich text with formatting
URLs, WiFi, contacts, phone, and more
Pull and print data from any API
IP, disk, memory, CPU, and uptime
Push on the bottom of the faceplate to remove it.
Open printer cover, insert new roll.
Eight positions on the rotary dial, each loaded with the modules you choose.
Your channel prints on 58mm thermal paper.
Walnut enclosure, brass faceplate. Hand-built.
Standard 58mm x 30mm thermal paper rolls, the same kind used in receipt printers. A roll lasts weeks of normal use and replacements cost a few dollars.
Some modules do (weather, news, email, RSS, calendar) but many work completely offline: sudoku, maze, quotes, journal prompts, on this day, text notes, and the adventure game all run locally.
No. You provide your own API keys for services that need them (like NewsAPI). The device itself has no ongoing costs beyond paper.
Yes. There are 8 channels, each configurable with any combination of the 16 module types. Stack weather + sudoku + quotes on one channel, news + email on another. You configure everything through a web interface on your phone or computer.
The device is offline by default — it makes no outbound connections on its own. When you press the button it fetches only what that channel needs. The settings UI runs as a local web server on your network, not exposed to the internet, and is password-protected. Only devices on the same network can reach it.
Yes. The entire software stack (Python backend, React settings UI) is open source on GitHub at github.com/travmiller/paper-console. Modify, extend, or build your own modules.
Plug it in. It prints setup instructions with a WiFi network name and password. Connect to that network from your phone, open the setup page, enter your home WiFi credentials, and you're done. Takes about two minutes.
10 units. Each hand-built to order.