Pinch To Zoom, Swype To Print
THE HUMBLE PRINTER IS ONE OF TECH’S
serial under-performers. Often cumbersome, rarely beautiful and, for some reason, still frequently doubling as a fax, its myriad failings are clear to see. Which is why design collective Artefact’s SWYP (“See What You Print”) is bawling out to be made. It’s a wireless, touchscreen device that scales and crops images and documents, preventing paper waste, before employing a cool, drag-to-print feature. But perhaps the best element is that the paper tray is a fabric design that Artefact reckons could bring an end to paper jams. Dare we dream?
New printers with fresh features come to market every day. Yet when we talk with people about their printers they seldom complain that their printer doesn’t have enough features, but rather that the basic usability is broken. Rather than looking for more features, we decided to focus on the core ones. Not. “What can we add?” but rather. “What can we take away?” As the name suggests. what you see is what you print. It’s easy to edit, preview and use. Tasks that were a challenge before, such as margins and scaling, can easily be adjusted on the touchscreen. The colour fidelity is also much higher with the screen being directly calibrated to the printer. We focused on the utilitarian aspects of the printer: opening the lid for scanning: easy access to the paper tray or ink cartridges. Our goal is to challenge the industry, and to demonstrate that there are still opportunities
for innovative products.
THE HUMBLE PRINTER IS ONE OF TECH’S
serial under-performers. Often cumbersome, rarely beautiful and, for some reason, still frequently doubling as a fax, its myriad failings are clear to see. Which is why design collective Artefact’s SWYP (“See What You Print”) is bawling out to be made. It’s a wireless, touchscreen device that scales and crops images and documents, preventing paper waste, before employing a cool, drag-to-print feature. But perhaps the best element is that the paper tray is a fabric design that Artefact reckons could bring an end to paper jams. Dare we dream?
New printers with fresh features come to market every day. Yet when we talk with people about their printers they seldom complain that their printer doesn’t have enough features, but rather that the basic usability is broken. Rather than looking for more features, we decided to focus on the core ones. Not. “What can we add?” but rather. “What can we take away?” As the name suggests. what you see is what you print. It’s easy to edit, preview and use. Tasks that were a challenge before, such as margins and scaling, can easily be adjusted on the touchscreen. The colour fidelity is also much higher with the screen being directly calibrated to the printer. We focused on the utilitarian aspects of the printer: opening the lid for scanning: easy access to the paper tray or ink cartridges. Our goal is to challenge the industry, and to demonstrate that there are still opportunities
for innovative products.
