Design Your Own 3D Printed Signs

Personalised signs are one of those 3D printing projects that look simple until you actually try to make one.

You need to choose a font, create the text, add a backing, make sure every letter connects properly and check that the finished model will either stand on a desk or mount securely to a wall.

You can build them manually in CAD software, convert text into an SVG or try using the basic text tools inside a slicer.

All of those methods work, but none of them are particularly quick when you just want to create a clean name sign.

That is why I built 3DPrint Name.

It is a browser-based tool that lets you design personalised 3D printable signs, plaques, desk names and keyrings without needing to use CAD software.

You create the design visually, adjust the size and colours, then export a file ready to open in your slicer.

Design your sign with 3DPrint Name

Why I built 3DPrint Name

I had been making this style of sign for customers, friends and other people who wanted something personalised.

The finished products are fairly simple, but creating each one manually becomes repetitive.

People have found several different ways to produce them. Some use text inside Bambu Studio, while others convert names into SVG files and then turn those into printable models.

There are also image-to-STL converters, but they are not really designed around making a finished sign.

I wanted something that handled the entire process.

The tool needed to let people create a design, preview it in 3D and download a usable model without needing to learn another piece of complicated software.

It also needed to work for people making a single gift as well as sellers creating personalised products for customers.

What can you make?

3DPrint Name is not limited to one type of sign.

You can use it to create:

• Desk name signs
• Children’s bedroom signs
• Teacher nameplates
• Gamer tags
• Door signs
• Wall-mounted names
• Plaques
• Keyrings
• Storage labels
• Business signs
• Personalised gifts

The same basic tools can be used for almost any short piece of text.

A customer might want their child’s name for a bedroom, a teacher might want something for a desk or a seller might need to generate dozens of personalised keyrings.

The goal is to make each of those jobs quick enough that producing a custom design does not become the slowest part of the order.

Starting from a template

You can begin with a blank project or choose one of the included templates.

The templates are designed around common uses such as:

• Teacher desk signs
• Bedroom names
• Gamer tags
• General nameplates

They provide a useful starting point without locking you into a particular design.

Once the template opens, you can change the text, size, position, font, colour and physical dimensions.

Everything can still be adjusted, so the templates are there to save time rather than limit what you can make.

Working with text layers

Each piece of text is added as its own layer.

For example, a teacher sign could have “Mr” on the top line and “Parry” underneath. Both parts can use different sizes, positions and colours.

Layers can also be placed next to each other on the same line.

That makes it possible to design a logo-style sign where separate words or letters need different colours, even though they appear to be part of the same sentence.

You can move each layer horizontally and vertically, change its scale and choose how far the text sits above the backing.

The order of the layers also determines how they are displayed in the editor.

It is designed to feel closer to a basic graphics editor than a CAD program.

Making sure the sign stands up

One of the main problems with name signs is that not every word naturally has a flat bottom.

A name written in capital letters will usually stand more easily than one using lowercase letters. Letters such as lowercase “y”, “g” and “p” can extend below the baseline and make the sign unstable.

There are two ways to solve this.

The first is to use capital letters and choose a font that gives the design a reasonably flat base.

The second is to enable the generated stand.

When the stand is enabled, the tool adds a supporting base underneath the design. You can then adjust its height, thickness and depth.

This allows almost any piece of text to stand on a desk, regardless of the letters used.

You can still move the text after enabling the base, so it does not have to sit directly against the bottom.

Wall-mounted signs

The wall-mount mode automatically adds mounting points to the back of the design.

These are shaped so that the finished sign can slide over the heads of screws and sit against the wall.

You can design the front in the same way as a normal name sign, then switch to wall mode before exporting.

This is useful for:

• Bedroom doors
• Office signs
• Business names
• Workshop labels
• Decorative wall text

The generated mounts remove the need to manually create holes or brackets in separate CAD software.

You will still need to choose suitable fixings for the weight of the finished print and the type of wall it is being attached to.

Plaques and labels

The plaque mode places the text onto a complete backing shape.

This is useful when you want something that can be attached using double-sided tape rather than standing freely or hanging from screws.

The plaque can also have a separate border colour, creating a three-part design with:

• The text
• The plaque
• The outer border

Plaques work well for storage boxes, filament containers, bins, drawers and workshop equipment.

They can also be used for business labels, warning signs or simple information cards.

Creating personalised keyrings

Keyring mode automatically adds a loop to the design.

You can choose the position of the loop, including:

• Top-left
• Top-centre
• Top-right
• Left
• Right
• Centre positions

You can also adjust the diameter and thickness of the hole.

This makes it easy to turn almost any name or short word into a printable keyring without manually adding a ring in another program.

For sellers, the bulk generation tools can create several names from the same design.

Instead of editing and exporting each name individually, you can supply a list and generate them together.

That can save a significant amount of time when preparing larger personalised orders.

Checking whether it fits your printer

The editor includes common printer bed sizes.

You can select your machine or choose a generic size, and the tool will show whether the current design fits within the available space.

This is mainly a guide.

You can still scale the finished model inside your slicer, but it helps to know whether the design is already close to the right size before exporting.

It is especially useful when designing longer names or signs that need to fit a smaller printer such as the Bambu Lab A1 Mini.

Exporting the finished sign

Free users can export printable STL files without a limit on the number of projects.

I did not want the basic function of the site to be locked behind a subscription. You should be able to make a design and download it without paying.

An STL can be imported into Bambu Studio, OrcaSlicer, PrusaSlicer or most other modern slicers.

From there, you can assign colours using normal painting tools or perform a filament change at a specific layer height.

Even a single-colour printer can produce a multicolour sign by pausing the print when the raised letters begin and swapping the filament.

Premium export options are available for people who want a faster workflow.

These include:

• Coloured 3MF files
• STL files split by colour
• Custom colour palettes
• Uploaded fonts
• Bulk name generation
• Cloud project saving

These features mainly save time or require additional server resources. The actual ability to design and export a sign remains available for free.

Coloured 3MF files

A coloured 3MF export keeps the different design sections separated and assigns their selected colours.

When the file is opened in a compatible slicer, much of the colour setup is already complete.

This is useful for people using printers with systems such as the Bambu Lab AMS.

Instead of manually painting the front letters, backing and border, the project can arrive with those colours already assigned.

You should still check the file before printing, particularly if the slicer has matched the project colours to different filaments than expected.

Split files for printers without an AMS

The split-by-colour option exports separate STL files for the different parts of the design.

This can be useful when printing each colour separately and assembling the finished sign afterwards.

It can also make it easier to use different materials or prepare individual parts for separate print jobs.

However, this is a convenience feature rather than a requirement.

A standard STL can still be coloured manually in the slicer or printed using layer-based filament changes.

Saving projects locally or in the cloud

Projects can be saved locally as JSON files.

The file contains the text, sizes, colours, positions and other design settings. It can later be loaded back into the editor and changed.

This is available without a premium account and lets you build your own collection of reusable templates.

Cloud saving is available for premium users.

That allows designs to be accessed from another device without needing to keep track of separate project files.

For sellers producing repeat orders, saving templates can make it much quicker to return to a previous design and replace only the customer’s name.

Current limitations

The site is still being developed, and there are areas I plan to improve.

The current material and print-time estimate is not accurate enough to use for pricing.

The estimate is generated using a simplified process and may assume a slower printer or denser model than you will actually use.

For example, one test design was estimated very differently by the website compared with the final sliced result in Bambu Studio.

Always use the figures from your actual slicer when checking:

• Print time
• Filament weight
• Material changes
• Waste
• Support use

The bevel and chamfer options are also still being refined.

They work, but some combinations can look inconsistent depending on the font and design.

New shapes, sign formats and controls will be added as people use the site and provide feedback.

Pricing the finished signs

Once you have created a sign, you still need to work out what to charge for it.

It is easy to look only at the cost of the filament.

A 90g sign might use only a small amount of plastic, but that does not mean it costs only a few pounds to produce.

You also need to account for:

• Printer time
• Electricity
• Machine wear
• Failed prints
• Labour
• Packaging
• Marketplace fees
• Payment processing
• Design time
• Profit

I built 3D PriceTag to make this easier.

You enter the print details, material, labour and selling platform, and it calculates a suggested price based on the real costs involved.

It can also create a breakdown that can be shared with a customer, which is useful when somebody does not understand why a custom print costs more than the raw filament.

The calculator is free to use through the web and Android app.

Calculate your print prices with 3D PriceTag

Managing a larger print farm

Creating and pricing a product are only parts of the process.

Once orders begin arriving from several different marketplaces, it becomes harder to see what needs printing and which machines are available.

That is why I am also building 3DPrint Farm.

It is a print farm management platform designed to combine printers, stores and production tasks in one place.

The current beta includes integrations for platforms such as:

• Shopify
• eBay
• WooCommerce
• Squarespace
• TikTok Shop
• Etsy
• Wix
• SeekMake

It also supports or is being built to support printer systems including:

• Bambu Lab
• Prusa
• OctoPrint
• Klipper and Moonraker
• Elegoo
• Creality

The dashboard shows your printer fleet, active jobs, available machines and store information.

Workshop mode provides a full-screen overview that can be displayed on a television or monitor, making it easier for several people to see which machines are running and when they will finish.

3DPrint Farm is still in beta, so some features will change and there will be bugs.

It is being built around the problems I experience running my own print business, but feedback from other makers and print farms will shape how it develops.

Try the 3DPrint Farm beta

Tools for the full process

These three tools are intended to work at different stages of the same workflow.

3DPrint Name helps you create the product.

3D PriceTag helps you work out what it should cost.

3DPrint Farm helps you manage the printers and orders once people begin buying it.

You do not need to run a large business to use any of them.

Someone making a single bedroom sign can use 3DPrint Name for free, export the STL and print it at home.

A small Etsy seller can use 3D PriceTag to make sure they are not losing money.

A growing print farm can use 3DPrint Farm to bring printers and marketplaces into one system.

They are all tools I originally wanted for my own business.

Rather than continuing to make every sign manually, guess what a print should cost or check each printer separately, I decided to build them.

Start designing your own personalised sign at 3DPrint Name.