When you see new color printers for sale, do you wonder why anyone would still print anything in 2D when they can print in 3D? It is a valid question. After all, most of what you still do in 2D space ends up staying in 2D space, with no real reason to print it. However, you can combine the features and qualities of 2D color printers with 3D printing to create some really unique custom items. Here is how.

Do Your Graphic Design on Your Computer/Laptop

These new 3D printers cannot print anything without a design to scan or instructions to follow. Therefore, you should do your graphic design of an object on your laptop/desktop computer. Make sure you use all of the exact colors you want, no matter how exotic the color. (This detail becomes important later.) Then print the 2D image of your designed object.

Scan Your Object into the 3D Image Files

There are special scanners you can purchase that connect to your 3D printer to allow you to bypass connecting your computer to the 3D printer. This also makes it a lot easier to take any image at all and scan it into the 3D printing files. Once your image is scanned in, you set the dimension parameters (e.g., height, depth, length, etc.). The machine calculates how much filament is needed. (If you want to be extremely specific about each section of your 3D-printed piece, you will have to connect a laptop after all.)

In order to get the exact same colors you want from your 2D design into your 3D piece, you may have to special order the filament colors by using the specific name of each color. For example, you want red tint #307, but the available red filaments for the 3D printer do not contain that color. It may take longer to complete your project, but it is worth the wait to get your filaments dyed the perfect colors.

Print That 3D Design!

When everything is set up and ready to go, load your filaments and hit "start" on your 3D printer. The printer will copy the colors and the image from your 2D color printer just as you intended, only you will have a 3D project instead. The results are often quite stunning, and it is amazing how well the 2D printer's colors and imaging details are transformed into a 3D piece.

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