Full-color 3D printing at home has long been a wild-eyed dream of consumers and hobbyists alike. Thus far it’s been fun to print out little trinkets in a single color, but to create something more akin to a painted action figure would be a game-changer. And, thanks to inkjet technology, we just might have reached that milestone.
XYZprinting, the maker of the popular Da Vinci line of printers – including a printer-scanner that launched in 2014 – has announced the $3,000 Da Vinci Color, a printer that uses inkjet technology to inject color directly into the filament as its printed. Previous full-color solutions required the use of nylon powder or multiple filaments for mixing enough colors to simulate full-color printing. The Da Vinci Color simply sprays that color into the hot PLA filament it uses to print plastic objects, resulting in full-color objects. Spools of filament cost $35 and the ink costs $65.
