<p>Is it possible to use a standard color inkjet cartridge to color filament for full color 3D printing?</p>
<p>It seems like a natural next step to me, but I haven't seen much of anything on this. (Just a few ancient experiments on reprap wiki.)</p>
<p>I've learned that some inkjet printers have the heads built into the cartridge whereas others it's part of the printer.  I think the former would be more appropriate.</p>
<p>Unfortunately I haven't seen anything on actually how to drive the cartridges.  I'm guessing the mfgr's treat this as a trade secret (?)  Still, there's got to be some overseas reverse-engineer... something... on this, right?</p>
<p>Anybody have resources/notes they'd like to share?</p>

[{'answer_id': 14340, 'author': 'R.. GitHub STOP HELPING ICE', 'author_id': 11157, 'author_profile': 'https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/users/11157', 'pm_score': 2, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>I don\'t think it makes a lot of sense - you don\'t need that kind of resolution, and getting a sufficient amount of ink that way to coat the filament would be hard. If you\'re going to be switching colors rapidly, you\'d need a long purge between colors anyway. I also doubt the type of ink is suitable for sticking to filament materials.</p>\n<p>If you really want an automated filament coloring system, I would do it with Sharpies and actuators to move individual ones on/off of the filament as it passes through. Coloring PLA with Sharpies prior to printing is a known-working technique, and there are even models available on Thingiverse for holders to keep them in place while the filament runs through. Designing the actuators to switch individual ones on/off, and the firmware controls for them, would be the natural next step.</p>\n<p>Here are some examples I did with manual coloring of natural translucent PLA (from left to right: uncolored, silver Sharpie, and red Sharpie):</p>\n<p><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/4BE8K.jpg" alt="3 printed nuts, colored as described in text" /></p>\n<p>I didn\'t color a long enough segment of filament or properly purge for any of them, which is why the coloring is inconsistent/incomplete. But the technique definitely works.</p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 14352, 'author': 'cactusknight', 'author_id': 23446, 'author_profile': 'https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/users/23446', 'pm_score': 1, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>AS an FYI, this is becoming available commercially:\n<a href="https://www.xyzprinting.com/en-US/product-level/PROFESSIONAL/color-series" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.xyzprinting.com/en-US/product-level/PROFESSIONAL/color-series</a></p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 14370, 'author': 'RomanTenger', 'author_id': 18651, 'author_profile': 'https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/users/18651', 'pm_score': 1, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>This is a thing since I think 2-3 years. There\'s such a printer from XYZ printing. It\'s not cheap but worth it. <a href="https://www.xyzprinting.com/en-US/product/da-vinci-color" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.xyzprinting.com/en-US/product/da-vinci-color</a></p>\n<p>The other thing thats available right now is a new print technology named Multy Jet Fusion, where drops of resin being colored and droped to a 3D Print: <div class="youtube-embed"><div>\r\n                <iframe width="640px" height="395px" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VXntl3ff5tc?start=0"></iframe>\r\n            </div></div></p>\n'}]
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