Organ printing or biomedical application of rapid prototyping, also defined as additive layer-by-layer biomanufacturing, is an emerging ‘transforming’ technology, that has potential for ‘surpassing’ traditional solid scaffold-based tissue engineering. The history of technology development strongly indicates that standardization, modularization, and automation are essential characteristics of an economically feasible pathway towards industrial, scalable mass production and effective commercialization. The intrinsic limitations of the solid-scaffold approach in tissue engineering are obvious and it is easy to predict that the leading edge of tissue engineering research will move gradually into the area of directed tissue self-assembly, robotic biofabrication and organ printing. The main practical outcomes of increasing investments in the development of organ printing technology is industrial scalable robotic biofabrication of complex human tissues and organs automated tissue-based in vitro assays for clinical diagnostics, drug discovery and drug toxicity, as well as complex in vitro models of human diseases. This short review describes recent developments in organ printing technology, outlines main technological barriers and challenges, presents a roadmap for short term and long term practical applications, and addresses conditions for the emerging robotic biofabrication industry.