Truly offline
Your backup data is processed locally, and recovery works offline. Your backup is paper you can hold.
Offline-first backups
Your data, printed to survive.
BinaryPaper turns any file into error-corrected pages you can print on plain paper. Keep them in a drawer, a safe, or a book — then recover everything later with your camera.
Local processing. Offline recovery. No lock-in.
Features
Backups that outlast hard drives
Paper doesn't need power, firmware, or a cloud service in ten years.
Built-in error correction
Every backup prints repair data alongside your content, on top of each code's own QR correction, so smudged, creased, or missing pages can still be recovered. Reed–Solomon covers ordinary backups; multi-megabyte ones switch to a code built for that scale.
Recover with a camera
Scan the printed pages with your phone to reconstruct the original file, byte for byte.
Any printer, any paper
Plain black-and-white printing on standard paper. Archive it however you like.
Open, documented format
No BinaryPaper build may print a format version until its specification, conformance vectors, and an independent recovery tool are published. Your pages do not depend on us still being here.
binarypaper-recovery on GitHub →Create and restore on Android
The Android app runs the whole loop — choose your content, print the pages, and scan them back when you need them. Desktop apps are on the way.
How it works
From file to paper and back
Three steps. The hard part — splitting, error-correcting, and reassembling — happens for you.
- 01
Encode
Choose a file. BinaryPaper splits it into chunks, adds error-correction data, and lays out scannable pages.
- 02
Print
Print the pages on any printer with plain paper. Store them anywhere — a binder, a safe, an envelope.
- 03
Recover
Point your camera at the pages. BinaryPaper reads the codes, uses the printed repair data to cover what is damaged or missing, and rebuilds the original file.
FAQ
Questions, answered
How much data fits on a page?
Between about 2 KB and 170 KB on an A4 sheet. 2 KB is the out-of-the-box figure; running the built-in density test to calibrate your own printer and camera is worth roughly 20×. There is no fixed total-size limit — BinaryPaper plans the real page count from your paper, your calibration, and your reliability answers, and shows it before you print.
What if a page gets damaged?
Repair data is spread across the whole backup, not just within a page. Each printed code carries its own QR error correction for stains, folds, and small tears, and the repair data on top of that covers codes lost outright. The summary shows the tolerated loss — how many printed codes can go missing — before you commit the backup to paper.
Do I need a special printer or scanner?
No. Any black-and-white printer and a phone camera work, on plain paper. Running the built-in density test on your own printer is what unlocks the higher capacities, and it costs one printed test sheet.
What costs money?
Restoring never does. Every recovery method is free and works offline, including for backups created with PRO. Creating is free for one file or text note up to 32 KB after compression, with the same encryption, redundancy, calibration, and verification PRO gets. PRO is a one-time lifetime purchase that lifts the size limit and adds multi-file and folder backups, manual controls, extra paper sizes, and multiple saved calibration profiles.
Is my data locked into BinaryPaper?
No. The printed format is published with conformance vectors and a recovery tool that is not this app, so anyone can rebuild a BinaryPaper page without us. Recovery stays free and offline, and never requires a purchase or an account — including for backups created with PRO.
Get BinaryPaper
Print a backup you can trust
Create, print, and restore backups on Android. Free up to 32 KB per backup; PRO is a one-time purchase.
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