Design for 3D-Printing

> There is no excuse to not add text to a printed part.

Super off-topic, but I've always kind of been let down by the appearance of 3d printed text. As noted, engraved seems to be better than embossed, but it still just looks kind of weird. I envy the clean, crisp labels that seem to be commonplace on commercial injection-molded plastic parts.

The toner transfer technique seems kind of promising. I think I've also seen people spray painting 3d-printed parts, and then lasering away the paint to draw text, which is interesting (if somewhat more materials- and equipment-intensive).

Really cool article though.

Another option is water slide decal. It can give a really seamless look, but is time consuming and expensive.

I've heard people have had pretty good luck laser engraving text onto 3d prints with fiber lasers, though it is pretty steep price bump just to get some text on a 3d print