What to Print

July 2, 2020 7:50 PM

Got a new printer! And after more than a decade of not having one in my home, I am not sure what to print. What are some fun, interesting, handy and unexpected things I should print at home?

This is a pretty basic printer (black/white laser). Links to things to print or things to create and then print are greatly appreciated. Thanks!

posted by ellerhodes to Technology (20 answers total)

do you subscribe to one of the big newspapers that publishes a crossword? I print out a crossword every weekday evening to do before bed and it's basically my meditation time.
posted by fingersandtoes at 7:53 PM on July 2, 2020 [7 favorites]

Microsoft Free Templates has a ton of items to print and they are very useful. There are many places to get free forms and calendars and the like; just do a search for free templates.
posted by ydaltak at 7:55 PM on July 2, 2020

Maybe these printable F1 Cars
posted by some loser at 7:56 PM on July 2, 2020 [2 favorites]

It might seem very basic, but being able to print my own postage at home is verrrrrry convenient. You can get pretty reasonable postage via PayPal (even if it’s not for a PayPal purchase) then just print and tape!
posted by itsamermaid at 8:04 PM on July 2, 2020 [7 favorites]

Lots of different and fun board/card/pen+paper games are available as print & play courtesy of Boardgamegeek :D
posted by wats at 8:14 PM on July 2, 2020 [1 favorite]

If you plan a hike on a non-trivial trail, I recommend printing out a map. Batteries in cel phone or GPS may die. They even make waterproof paper.
posted by markhu at 8:22 PM on July 2, 2020 [1 favorite]

The absolutely funnest thing I can think of is:

Rasterbator wall art!
posted by maya at 8:30 PM on July 2, 2020 [14 favorites]

If you have crayons / colored pencils you can now print coloring pages to your heart's content :3
posted by batter_my_heart at 8:30 PM on July 2, 2020 [3 favorites]

Seconding Rasterbator
posted by Wild_Eep at 8:33 PM on July 2, 2020 [1 favorite]

Yep came here to recommend Rasterbator also!
Despite the name, totally safe for work. Basically it helps you create blow up versions of photos by rasterising. (So up close it's lots of dots, far away it's a big photo.) All you need plus the printer is some tape and scissors, but a cutting mat with a straight edge and Stanley knife is handy.
posted by freethefeet at 8:52 PM on July 2, 2020 [1 favorite]

This 3d Dragon works just fine in black in white.

Also, if you're into a larger challenge you could print and construct a model of Disneyland's Haunted Mansion. Here's mine. Disclaimer: While I'm super happy with the result, tons of fine cutting work means I wouldn't do this project again.
posted by jeffmilner at 8:56 PM on July 2, 2020 [3 favorites]

Square weighing in, with labels (example).
posted by Iris Gambol at 9:23 PM on July 2, 2020 [2 favorites]

If you happen to play an instrument, I'm sort of taking up piano for the first time since my teens and it turns out these days you can buy the sheet music to basically any popular song online for a few dollars and learn to play it.
posted by potrzebie at 9:48 PM on July 2, 2020

If you're into bullet journaling, there's a truly ridiculous amount of printables, both free and paid, out there, most of which will work just fine in black and white.
posted by Tamanna at 10:33 PM on July 2, 2020 [2 favorites]

I like using label paper to make my own "stickers". I digitized my handwriting and edited in photoshop to have custom return address labels, but it has also come in very handy for craft projects.
posted by itesser at 10:59 PM on July 2, 2020 [3 favorites]

I like to do digital watercolour (using Rebelle which is awesome fun compared to any CAD) and print (with my awkward Brother MFC) onto butter-paper.

Clients like the tactility, and it gets an idea across without the 'perfectness' and harshness of CAD. And I can recycle parts of the design and use the same colour palette consistently. It's always a bit of a fraught process tho as MFC's are not designed to take non-papery papers...
posted by unearthed at 12:02 AM on July 3, 2020 [4 favorites]

I recently generated and printed a qr code that automatically puts you on my wifi network, which is actually really handy for visitors.
posted by Karmeliet at 12:14 AM on July 3, 2020 [12 favorites]

This is slightly tangential but one of the nice things about laser printers is that (unlike most inkjets) you can stop printing with them for months at a time with no ill effect to the printer. So "nothing that you don't need to print" might be an answer. It's pretty much how I use my printer. :)

That said, it's not a bad idea to put it through it's paces starting off.
posted by Aleyn at 12:56 AM on July 3, 2020 [3 favorites]

I've just printed the Summer Romance Reading Bingo.

Paper models! I posted recently about models of old computers but searching for paper models or papercraft will get you lots. You could look on Etsy for printables too.

And you might like printing out poems and sticking them on your wall.
posted by paduasoy at 12:58 AM on July 3, 2020 [1 favorite]

One of my local escape rooms has come up with a home version called Print+Cut+Escape where you, well, print it out, cut it up, and then escape. It's very well done and the second episode in particular uses the print outs in some very creative ways.
posted by yankeefog at 3:08 AM on July 3, 2020 [3 favorites]