Building a physical <blink> tag!


This is the latest of my many terrible lockdown-induced ideas. I'm saving money on commuting. So I'm spending it on tech-crap I really don't need. I bought a new laptop sticker.

Anyway, enough waffle, here's the end result:

This uses 2-frame lenticular printing.

History

No browser supports the <blink> element any more. It used to make text blink. It was a silly idea that got out of hand.

And now I have summoned it back to life in physical form. I am bad.
Please don't report me to the W3C.

Cost

Lenticular printing is expensive. Most places I found in the UK quoted me around £4 per sticker - but with a minimum order of 100. Youch! They used to give these away free with cereal packets, right?

I contacted a couple of sellers on Alibaba. They quoted around £2.20 per sticker - but with minimum quantities in the thousands. I'd probably have to pay import duty as well.

Eventually, I found TwenT3. Their costs were a much more reasonable £100 for 100 cards. Also, they were the only place which were willing to sell me a single business card, as a sample. Total cost? A fiver - including postage!

I then used some double-sided tape to stick it to my new Linux laptop.

E-Ink

I did consider Eink - but even small displays are expensive. And frequent refreshes can damage the screen. I wanted to stick this to the back of a laptop, and I couldn't find a thin, battery powered board.

What's the point?

SHUT UP! YOU CAN'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO!


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29 thoughts on “Building a physical <blink> tag!”

  1. says:

    what kind of witchcraft is this? When I blink, it blinks at exactly the same time - Are you releasing the source code?

    Reply
  2. I... you... what... WHY...

    Nevermind. Just... I'm gonna go drink the industrial solvents until I dissolve the memory of this from my brainmeat.

    Reply
  3. 2 of the best things ever, combined. Blink tags and lenticulars. Reeeeally wanted to do lenticulars at Moo. Those were the days. Print: still not dead, shock.

    Reply

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