I would love to do some fun things with the thermal printer I have lying around, however, I’m not so sure it is possible to get BPA free paper. Even the “BPA free” paper comes with similar molecules like BPS, which has been shown to be just as bad for the human endocrine system. If anyone can correct me on this and point me to some paper I would be comfortable with my kids handling (kids put everything in their mouths), please let me know.
Most of the alternatives today (including the Costco receipt in my pocket) are labeled "phenol free". As I understand it they use vitamin c or a urea derived compound.
Yep! WA State is the first to ban retailers from using phenol paper starting this year. I'd imagine hobbyists buying thermal printers online are likely to end up with the bad stuff, so I think it's good for people to be aware of the issue and the fact that there are cheap alternatives.
Thermal printers for TTRPG handouts is such a good idea. Handing a player a physical slip with a riddle or loot description is way more immersive than reading off a screen.
Just a question, but on these threads it’s nonstop talk about how dangerous the paper is like using it for one dnd game will give you cancer but we don’t blink twice at cashiers handling it 8hrs a day?
Wait until they find out that restaurant order tickets use the same types of printers and the tickets are frequently directly in contact with your food.
When I worked at a register in my teens we were given gloves to wear.
It’s pretty uncontroversial that the paper is hazardous. And when you’re sweating the BPA absorbs into the skin more readily. The issue is more about the dose curve; according to the FDA and other regulators, it’d be impossible to hit the upper limit on exposure by just handling receipts, while there’s plenty of evidence that there is no harmless threshold. Kinda like lead, albeit without a doubt BPA is less harmful than lead.
There are a ton of brands and I got a random knock off so I can only report on that one. I would recommend putting some thought and research into what size you think you'll need. I got a 58mm printer and I'm realizing it's quite narrow.
Also you might want to consider the size of the printer itself. I bought a open-box new printer off ebay and the seller's photos didn't give any sense of scale. I was surprised how big this "mini" printer is. It's about the standard size of a printer you'd see at a grocery store, so I don't think I'll be keeping it on my desk.
In the US my impression is that printers marketed with a size in inches are quality printers from reputable brands but bottom feeding Chinese printers are marketed with a size in mm.
I'd very much recommend a second-hand Epson TM-M30 if you can pick one up for cheap. It prints at 203dpi and can output true grayscale (multi tone) without dithering.
I have one of those AliExpress ones that look like a white box with a colored circle on one side, stylized to look like a cat. They go for a few bucks used in the secondary market. I wrote a simple webapp for it to avoid using the bulky official app, it uses the web Bluetooth API (Chrome only sadly): https://purrint.github.io/
I got the Phomemo M02 Pro and have liked it alright for printing out playtest cards on-the-fly. Claude did manage to replicate an integration someone else did the hard work of working out w/ dithering etc, but the native app's fidelity & speed has been better for my use-case, at least
For daily to-dos a generic 58mm Chinese ones is probably enough. For pen and paper stuff I highly recommend going with anything 80mm, as 58mm can be too narrow...
Search "58mm usb thermal receipt printer esc/pos" on Amazon and you will find various generic models
There are many similar models from other companies; however, while Bluetooth is advertised as its primary connection, this one also has a USB port, which works with Linux!
Bluetooth also works, but it was too unreliable for me. I ended up using Claude to write a small CLI tool which prints via raw USB: rock solid and simple.
This looks awesome but I've read in the past that there are a lot of PFAS chemicals on these thermal printer papers. Is there like "safe" paper they have now that you can use for these things?
> If you must give paper receipts, look for “phenol-free” paper, which is safer for human health and has fewer environmental effects. Three types that do not contain BPA or BPS and are competitively priced contain either ascorbic acid (vitamin C), urea-based Pergafast 201, or a technology without developers, Blue4est. The latter uses a coating that reveals an underlying dark layer when heat is applied.
> Companies that offer phenol-free alternatives: ...
I was thinking about this recently in order to solve the problem of RPG fights. Deterministic combat is not super exciting, but dice throwing is even worse. What if instead you quickly printed a puzzle that you can do on a timer, and your score determines whether you miss or hit a critical.
Also instead of meta-progression through stats you have increased difficulties through the puzzles, but you improve your puzzle-solving skills.
Years of re-enactment combat got me thinking along the same lines.
The core of hand-to-hand combat is feinting - persuading you are going to hit your opponent in one place, so they move their defences to that place, and then hitting them in another place. That's a simple mechanic that could be translated easily into cards or any other bluffing format.
It gets more interesting with animals (who don't feint much) and large monsters (who don't need to feint because their attacks will overwhelm your defences), so dodging and armour come into it then.
But that brings up hit points, which are a ridiculous mechanic for modelling all of this. Stabbing someone in the arm or in the gut is completely different, it has very different effects, and should be modelled differently.
And this is where the rabbit-hole takes over and it gets too complicated ;)
> And this is where the rabbit-hole takes over and it gets too complicated ;)
What do you want from your experience?
I see a TTRPG as a story telling game and the fights have a probability of outcome. Most of the time, the fights in the story goes as you'd expect. Sometimes it doesn't. Kinda like life. And keeping it simple means you get on with your overall story telling.
But I would never stoop so low as to tell you how to enjoy your time. A different approach to fighting could be cool!
I just use index cards and a pen, but I wish I was a competent enough sketcher to make them look as cute as these printout templates. These look great.
I do this, I give my players an rfid tag, scanning the tag prints their character sheet, background and any secret goals they have (With cuts in between) they can then destroy the secret materials and scan again if they forget.
I wonder, are there modern and cheap dot matrix printers (and papers?). They would give a “roguelike” feel to this sort of output.
I remember I enjoyed the simple typewriter behavior of connecting them to a computer db9 cable and using the terminal that used to come with windows to type out directly in the paper something short. I think this app had a red phone as icon or something like it (and there was a reimplementation later with a donkey on the icon).
There are new dot matrix printers but they are expensive cause designed for heavy use. I did find dot matrix receipt printer that could work with this.
I would love to do some fun things with the thermal printer I have lying around, however, I’m not so sure it is possible to get BPA free paper. Even the “BPA free” paper comes with similar molecules like BPS, which has been shown to be just as bad for the human endocrine system. If anyone can correct me on this and point me to some paper I would be comfortable with my kids handling (kids put everything in their mouths), please let me know.
Most of the alternatives today (including the Costco receipt in my pocket) are labeled "phenol free". As I understand it they use vitamin c or a urea derived compound.
Whoa! Really? That’s cool! Thanks!
Yep! WA State is the first to ban retailers from using phenol paper starting this year. I'd imagine hobbyists buying thermal printers online are likely to end up with the bad stuff, so I think it's good for people to be aware of the issue and the fact that there are cheap alternatives.
I really appreciate that you mentioned this, I am now very inspired to do a fun thermal printer project with my kids. Thank you!
In Germany there is a thermal paper that is considered food contact safe
https://www.koehlerpaper.com/en/products/Thermal-paper/TH_Bl...
Maybe someone sells this where you live? I have found a shop in the US: https://www.ncco.com/blue4est/
Searching for blue4est was the key.
I just checked and there is even a seller on Amazon delivering in the U.S., so it shouldn't be too hard to get.
Oekobon [0] claims to sell BPA and BPS free paper, they they do say that phenol-free paper doesn't have either BPA or BPS.
[0] https://www.oekobon.de/
Thermal printers for TTRPG handouts is such a good idea. Handing a player a physical slip with a riddle or loot description is way more immersive than reading off a screen.
It's actually the reason as to why I wanted to get a thermal printer a few years ago. To be honest, I'm surprised someone else had this idea, too.
Alas, that never materialized as the in-person campaign I was DMing fizzled out.
Just a question, but on these threads it’s nonstop talk about how dangerous the paper is like using it for one dnd game will give you cancer but we don’t blink twice at cashiers handling it 8hrs a day?
I think people here just assume they won't ever have to be a cashier and ignore that risk?
Wait until they find out that restaurant order tickets use the same types of printers and the tickets are frequently directly in contact with your food.
When I worked at a register in my teens we were given gloves to wear.
It’s pretty uncontroversial that the paper is hazardous. And when you’re sweating the BPA absorbs into the skin more readily. The issue is more about the dose curve; according to the FDA and other regulators, it’d be impossible to hit the upper limit on exposure by just handling receipts, while there’s plenty of evidence that there is no harmless threshold. Kinda like lead, albeit without a doubt BPA is less harmful than lead.
Thanks for posting my project! was wondering where the influx of GitHub stars came from :)
Thanks for making such a cool project!
Anyone have a good recommendation for a thermal printer? I've been looking to get one for printing out daily to-dos and shopping lists.
There are a ton of brands and I got a random knock off so I can only report on that one. I would recommend putting some thought and research into what size you think you'll need. I got a 58mm printer and I'm realizing it's quite narrow.
Also you might want to consider the size of the printer itself. I bought a open-box new printer off ebay and the seller's photos didn't give any sense of scale. I was surprised how big this "mini" printer is. It's about the standard size of a printer you'd see at a grocery store, so I don't think I'll be keeping it on my desk.
In the US my impression is that printers marketed with a size in inches are quality printers from reputable brands but bottom feeding Chinese printers are marketed with a size in mm.
I'd very much recommend a second-hand Epson TM-M30 if you can pick one up for cheap. It prints at 203dpi and can output true grayscale (multi tone) without dithering.
I have one of those AliExpress ones that look like a white box with a colored circle on one side, stylized to look like a cat. They go for a few bucks used in the secondary market. I wrote a simple webapp for it to avoid using the bulky official app, it uses the web Bluetooth API (Chrome only sadly): https://purrint.github.io/
What did you use to reverse engineer the BLE protocol?
I got the Phomemo M02 Pro and have liked it alright for printing out playtest cards on-the-fly. Claude did manage to replicate an integration someone else did the hard work of working out w/ dithering etc, but the native app's fidelity & speed has been better for my use-case, at least
For daily to-dos a generic 58mm Chinese ones is probably enough. For pen and paper stuff I highly recommend going with anything 80mm, as 58mm can be too narrow...
Search "58mm usb thermal receipt printer esc/pos" on Amazon and you will find various generic models
Seeed studio has a module if you want to make your own - https://www.seeedstudio.com/Embedded-Thermal-Printer-p-1621....
Epsons tend to take logical instructions and have linux driver support. They also last forever.
I like my rollo (and i only print standard sticker sizes) but any of the cheap clones will pretty much be equivalent and just as bulletproof.
I have a PeriPage A6 Mini Bluetooth Portable Thermal Printer (https://www.peripageglobal.com/products/peripage-2-a6-mini-p...), the 304dpi option.
There are many similar models from other companies; however, while Bluetooth is advertised as its primary connection, this one also has a USB port, which works with Linux!
Bluetooth also works, but it was too unreliable for me. I ended up using Claude to write a small CLI tool which prints via raw USB: rock solid and simple.
This looks awesome but I've read in the past that there are a lot of PFAS chemicals on these thermal printer papers. Is there like "safe" paper they have now that you can use for these things?
https://www.pca.state.mn.us/business-with-us/bpa-and-bps-in-...
> If you must give paper receipts, look for “phenol-free” paper, which is safer for human health and has fewer environmental effects. Three types that do not contain BPA or BPS and are competitively priced contain either ascorbic acid (vitamin C), urea-based Pergafast 201, or a technology without developers, Blue4est. The latter uses a coating that reveals an underlying dark layer when heat is applied.
> Companies that offer phenol-free alternatives: ...
I was thinking about this recently in order to solve the problem of RPG fights. Deterministic combat is not super exciting, but dice throwing is even worse. What if instead you quickly printed a puzzle that you can do on a timer, and your score determines whether you miss or hit a critical.
Also instead of meta-progression through stats you have increased difficulties through the puzzles, but you improve your puzzle-solving skills.
Years of re-enactment combat got me thinking along the same lines.
The core of hand-to-hand combat is feinting - persuading you are going to hit your opponent in one place, so they move their defences to that place, and then hitting them in another place. That's a simple mechanic that could be translated easily into cards or any other bluffing format.
It gets more interesting with animals (who don't feint much) and large monsters (who don't need to feint because their attacks will overwhelm your defences), so dodging and armour come into it then.
But that brings up hit points, which are a ridiculous mechanic for modelling all of this. Stabbing someone in the arm or in the gut is completely different, it has very different effects, and should be modelled differently.
And this is where the rabbit-hole takes over and it gets too complicated ;)
> And this is where the rabbit-hole takes over and it gets too complicated ;)
What do you want from your experience?
I see a TTRPG as a story telling game and the fights have a probability of outcome. Most of the time, the fights in the story goes as you'd expect. Sometimes it doesn't. Kinda like life. And keeping it simple means you get on with your overall story telling.
But I would never stoop so low as to tell you how to enjoy your time. A different approach to fighting could be cool!
I just use index cards and a pen, but I wish I was a competent enough sketcher to make them look as cute as these printout templates. These look great.
I do this, I give my players an rfid tag, scanning the tag prints their character sheet, background and any secret goals they have (With cuts in between) they can then destroy the secret materials and scan again if they forget.
I kinda love that someone wanted this to exist.
I shared with my ttrpg folk
Obligatory "be careful with that poison paper" warning![1]
[1]: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...
Probably best left for short lived notes, thermal printouts have tendency to degrade
I wonder, are there modern and cheap dot matrix printers (and papers?). They would give a “roguelike” feel to this sort of output.
I remember I enjoyed the simple typewriter behavior of connecting them to a computer db9 cable and using the terminal that used to come with windows to type out directly in the paper something short. I think this app had a red phone as icon or something like it (and there was a reimplementation later with a donkey on the icon).
There are new dot matrix printers but they are expensive cause designed for heavy use. I did find dot matrix receipt printer that could work with this.
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