I’m excited to say we are now very close to fulfilling the first batch of Zerowriter Ink. It’s been a long wait, but we are approaching the finish line. Thank you for your patience. Certifications and import took up some some extra time… Here’s the latest on what to expect:

Rough Fulfillment Schedule

So you can plan accordingly, this is what I am aiming for:

• Orders before Sept 15, 2024: expect fulfillment starting in October
• Orders before Oct 15, 2024: expect fulfillment starting in November
• Orders after and including Oct 15, 2024: expect delivery in January, with fulfillment catching up to the newest orders by the end of the month

December tends to be difficult for shipping and fulfillment, so while December isn’t in the schedule, orders that can ship in December will of course be shipped.

Please Make Sure Your Shipping Info Is Up to Date!

Orders will begin shipping soon, so please take some time to check your Crowd Supply account and make sure your shipping address is up to date. By doing so, you will help Crowd Supply avoid delays. Once they have sent your order details to their warehouse team for processing, it may be impossible for them to re-route your shipment. If you have fulfillment-related questions or concerns, please contact Crowd Supply Support.

Tariffs

So, the elephant in the room: there are still tariffs in place that we have to navigate. Specifically, Zerowriter Ink is manufactured in Croatia, for which the US currently has a 15% tariff, which was not the case over a year ago when Zerowriter Ink launched and started taking orders. While there was some initial hope tariffs would go away by the time we were ready to ship, that’s didn’t happen, and I don’t want to delay getting Zerowriter Ink to you all.

Originally, I was going to handle shipping from Croatia and import into the US, but after speaking with the Crowd Supply team, we’ve decided that they are in a much better position to do so. Since Crowd Supply will be handling import, they will be the importer of record and will pay tariffs on the entire shipment. However, as the importer of record, they are also able to get back some of the tariffs paid for orders that are destined for outside of the US. As such, we came up with the following plan.

For Orders Shipping Outside the US

There are no changes. You will not be charged extra fees for tariffs or anything else.

For Orders Shipping to the US

Crowd Supply will contact every US-based backer who placed their order before September 26, 2025 and give them the option to pay an additional $30 + tax, which will help cover the cost of tariffs, or cancel their order and receive a full refund, in which case that Zerowriter Ink unit will be absorbed into Crowd Supply’s inventory for sale in the future. If Crowd Supply hasn’t already contacted you, expect to receive an email from their support ticketing system sometime this week.

US-based backers who placed their orders on or after September 26, 2025 won’t be affected - the price at that time was increased to account for tariffs. The same goes for any future backers.

Why Can’t Zerowriter Cover This?

I want to first thank everyone again and apologize for having to go through this process. The world is a lot different now than it was last September.

I’ll explain my goals with this project: I wanted to prove the market and show there is demand for an open, affordable e-paper word processor with premium components. I wanted to show others it could be done, and how I would do it. Crowd Supply and their wonderful team helped me get there, along with my friends at Soldered in Croatia, and my active community on Discord, YouTube, and Reddit. And of course, all of you.

This isn’t quite a functional business for me yet, but it has proved the concept, and I can now take steps to realize that. I’m really excited about this future, both for me and for us, as a community.

Anyway, because my goal wasn’t about making a profit, the project was costed aggressively with a small buffer to make sure I could handle bumps along the way. Good thing, too, because there were bumps. Everything was manageable and accounted for, in a pre-tariff world.

If I could afford to, I would subsidize the import/tariff cost, but all funds have been allocated, up to and including my small buffer. This has improved the design, the software, the assembly, and because of it, you are getting something really extraordinary.

So, sincerely, I apologize and empathize for anyone experiencing unexpected fees. Again, if you have questions or concerns, the Crowd Supply support team can help.

New Pricing

On that note, you’ll notice the new retail pricing for Zerowriter Ink on Crowd Supply: $269, inclusive of all tariffs and worldwide shipping. The new price has been active since late last month.

Source Code & Files

I’ll be releasing the source code for files and designs with help from Soldered to GitHub. I’ll do an update specifically about it when I start pushing it. I am choosing to delay this until a good chunk of people have their Zerowriter Inks. This is out of respect for everyone involved who purchased and their trust in me with their pre-orders throughout. Basically, I don’t want anyone feeling like other people are getting a Zerowriter going before someone who backed.

That said, I plan on releasing a few things related on GitHub. Here’s a loose timeline on what to expect:

• I am going to provide a bit of a technical walk-through and break down on how the hardware works, the core logic, and my suggestions for what we can build on.
• I'll release the 3D files for people who want to print their own enclosure or modify the design.
• I'll also put the firmware and design files for the keyboard up, initially, so people can start working that logic in to their designs.
• Once we have a good number of units out in the wild, I'll push the main Zerowriter codebase, along with some documentation.

User Guide

Check out our user guide! This is a copy of the printed user guide that will come with your Zerowriter Ink. I’ll make a video version on Youtube as well!

In the Wild…

With some demo units in circulation, you can check out this preview from Pascal Forget. Pascal is in to all things e-typewriter, and he happens to work in French. With his help, we managed to configure a French Canadian layout, and diacritical support for typing common accented characters across many languages. Anyway, check it out! For those whose French isn’t so good, you can run it through Google Translate to get his thoughts.

Next Up

The campaign page is being updated for better representing the product that is headed your way. I also plan on writing a blog or making a video going over various minor changes and why I made them. I’m going to make a "5 Annoying Things About Zerowriter Ink" list, as well, because it’s a clickbaity title, but also because I want to address some shortcomings of the device and why they are there! This device has never been for everyone, so I like getting ahead of that and addressing my ideas with the design of certain features and software.

Talk soon!
Adam