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Bleed Printer

Any size, any image, any time
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An inkjet (or possibly laser) printer, with a built-in ability to trim the output. This allows you to print any size page (up to the maximum width of the paper supply), including banners, and also to print “bleed” images with zero margins.

The paper is fed from a continuous spool, with tractor feed. The spool is a bit wider than a standard 8.5" piece of letter paper (large format printers could support greater widths). Just past the print head are three rotating blades, two parallel to the path of the paper and one perpendicular. The two parallel blades position themselves at the appropriate width, and the perpendicular blade slides across each page as it comes out, causing the printed sheet and the waste edge material to fall into the output hopper.

ytk, Feb 16 2013

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       I have a suspicion that this is baked, or perhaps was baked back in the 80s and 90s when desktop printers were still new and exciting rather than just getting on with it.   

       However, many (all?) modern inkjet printers can bleed right to the edges of an A4 sheet. I'm not quite sure how they do this without making a mess, but they do (at least, mine does and it's a low-cost Epson printer/scanner/copier).   

       A printer that could cut out complex shapes, though, would be nice; a laser mounted on the print head would do it, when LED lasers get a few- fold more powerful.
MaxwellBuchanan, Feb 16 2013
  

       But with this design, you could trim to any size: Letter, A4, postcard, or even crazy sizes like 4"x250". You could print your own streamers.
ytk, Feb 16 2013
  

       They had a printer that did this at my old job. They used it for making the schematics that went with technical manuals.   

       The paper fed from a roller.
Kansan101, Feb 16 2013
  

       fanfold.   

       I thought it was an "office supplies in Hell" idea.
FlyingToaster, Feb 16 2013
  

       //a laser mounted on the print head would do it   

       I have one of those old Epson ones, with the fitting for the light sabre, not too bad but too easy to cut the edge off the desk/cat etc
not_morrison_rm, Feb 17 2013
  
      
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