Help me utilise my printer

October 27, 2007 8:48 PM

I love printing things. Please direct me to websites with cool things to print out (e.g., interesting pdfs, stationery, stickers, posters, foldable objects, paper cd cases, quotations I should keep, anything that allows me to make the most of my printer!!)
posted by mjao to computers & internet (21 answers total)

Zug's Printer Pranks are a great set of "leave behind" pieces. I once had the "DO NOT DISCARD THIS SHEET" remain undiscarded by coworkers for a month or so, because, you know, you can't disobey a piece of paper...
posted by fvox13 at 8:52 PM on October 27, 2007 [1 favorite]

Graph paper and other useful stuff.
posted by Fins at 8:53 PM on October 27, 2007

PocketMod
posted by phatkitten at 9:01 PM on October 27, 2007 [2 favorites]

You'd probably love the Paper Forest blog. Not only do they link to tons of great toys and paper crafts and projects and automata themselves (go through the archives), the link menu on the right links to dozens more sites to check out, most with free templates and downloadable projects. Also, this site has page after page templates of cute little boxes you can print out and fold.
posted by iconomy at 9:05 PM on October 27, 2007 [2 favorites]

Canon's Japan site has a big section of papercraft stuff to print (there's halloween masks and decorations right now too).

I'm not sure if their American/English site has anything similar, but you might try other printer sites - Epson, HP, etc..
posted by p3t3 at 9:06 PM on October 27, 2007

This is part of an imageboard called 4chan dedicated to papercraft and origami. I suggest you stay away from some of the parts of the sidebar like /b/ which is full of gross out pictures, porn, and neonazis.

This and this is fun too, cutting out manga or comic characters and posing them on your desktop.
posted by sebastienbailard at 9:08 PM on October 27, 2007 [1 favorite]

Flying Pig has printable 3-D paper animation kits that are just awesome. Paper animation doesn't adequately describe the genius of what he creates. Most of the kits are for purchase (though very inexpensive considering the engineering that goes into them), but he has a few free downloads too.

The wife has made a couple of the pay kits, the flying spaghetti monster and Schroedinger's Cat, and they are both, well, awesome.
posted by derMax at 9:27 PM on October 27, 2007 [3 favorites]

Library of Congress

Free Stock Images

Art Renewal Center
posted by santojulieta at 9:30 PM on October 27, 2007

Ravensblight is Halloween-y!

Readymechs are hip!

As mentioned above, PocketMod is awesome!
posted by lekvar at 9:39 PM on October 27, 2007

the small object has a lot of super-cute downloads to print on the sidebar.
wee wonderfuls has adorable paper doll downloads.
holiday cards
paper skeletons
haunted paper toys
posted by logic vs love at 10:29 PM on October 27, 2007

Second sebastienbailard 's 4chan /po/ (papercraft board). Third the "don't click anything else (except maybe /ck/ (cooking)) unless you are interested or know how to use eyebleach.

I totally abuse the work provided color printer and /po/ stuff... my cubicle is filled with Tachikoma and other various other color printer abuse things, all from /po/.

I'll sometimes give co-workers the PDF files to print and make their own, but never-ever would I send them to 4chan...

Anyway, yeah, lurk in /po/ and a little bit of scissors or an X-Acto knife, some glue, and lot's of patience and you'll never worry about how to abuse a printer again.
posted by zengargoyle at 10:35 PM on October 27, 2007

Open Source Resistance.
Print until The Man comes a-knockin'.
posted by manyon at 2:52 AM on October 28, 2007

Paper model rockets: Ok, this is the stuff. I'm quite sure that some if these could be reenforced to fly, but even if they don't, they are very cool.

http://jleslie48.com/gallery_models.html (don't be discouraged by the term "GiftShop." These are all free)

http://rocketry.wordpress.com/ultimate-paper-rocket-guide/ (this is a list of links to other sites - more good stuff)
posted by Gungho at 5:27 AM on October 28, 2007

If you're looking for quantity, here's the "printables" tag at del.icio.us.

Here's another list: Useful Items You Never Knew You Could Print Out - The Ultimate Guide.
posted by booth at 6:09 AM on October 28, 2007 [2 favorites]

I have one of these dragons on my desk. (Watch the vid to see it in action.)
posted by booth at 6:17 AM on October 28, 2007 [2 favorites]

Seconding booth's dragon recommendation.
posted by spasm at 8:33 AM on October 28, 2007

oo, I'm the first one to suggest the rasterbator!

You can use the rasterbator to print out huge versions of photos or posters to hang on your wall.
posted by carpyful at 9:06 AM on October 28, 2007

Unamerican.com.
posted by JPowers at 9:43 AM on October 28, 2007

Speakerdog(go to one of the series galleries, and see the "fetch link" for pdf download) and PaperBird
posted by p3t3 at 5:55 PM on October 29, 2007

fvox13 writes "Zug's Printer Pranks are a great set of 'leave behind' pieces. I once had the 'DO NOT DISCARD THIS SHEET' remain undiscarded by coworkers for a month or so, because, you know, you can't disobey a piece of paper..."

I printed the "DO NOT DISCARD THIS SHEET" one Monday afternoon. It's still sitting on top of the shredder in the copy room today.
posted by chiababe at 2:27 PM on October 30, 2007

Paperkraft.net will keep your printer cartridge supplier in business for a very long time.
posted by gennessee at 3:43 PM on November 2, 2007