Font Swatches Tested & Ranked

prusaprinters

<p>The project images show how each font printed at 0.4 mm. The great news is that the best five I have found are all open-source and totally free!</p><h4>Small 3D Font Tier List</h4><figure class="table"><table><thead><tr><th>&nbsp;</th><th>Font</th><th style="text-align:center;">Free</th><th>Quality Notes</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td style="background-color:#40C8E8;" rowspan="4"><strong>S</strong></td><td style="background-color:#40C8E818;"><a href="https://github.com/hikikomori82/osifont">Osifont</a></td><td style="background-color:#40C8E818;padding:0px;text-align:center;">✓</td><td style="background-color:#40C8E818;">purpose-built for CAD (ISO 3098)</td></tr><tr><td style="background-color:#40C8E818;" colspan="3"><figure class="image"><img src="https://media.prusaprinters.org/media/prints/71231/rich_content/db954efa-ee6a-4938-bf68-2e1511f5dbd2/preview_osifont.png#%7B%22uuid%22%3A%2201088813-c813-410b-ae27-e12b0ea0c8bf%22%2C%22w%22%3A2000%2C%22h%22%3A114%7D"></figure></td></tr><tr><td style="background-color:#40C8E818;"><a href="https://overpassfont.org/">Overpass</a></td><td style="background-color:#40C8E818;text-align:center;">✓</td><td style="background-color:#40C8E818;">my fav; stylized &amp; very readable at small size</td></tr><tr><td style="background-color:#40C8E818;" colspan="3"><figure class="image"><img src="https://media.prusaprinters.org/media/prints/71231/rich_content/30ade051-5f49-4aa3-bf31-5e8db5acc77e/preview_overpass.png#%7B%22uuid%22%3A%229ce0bd82-c854-41d2-8cd5-8a317e988720%22%2C%22w%22%3A2000%2C%22h%22%3A114%7D"></figure></td></tr><tr><td style="background-color:#65C900;" rowspan="6"><strong>A</strong></td><td style="background-color:#65C90018;"><a href="https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Varela+Round">Varela Round</a></td><td style="background-color:#65C90018;text-align:center;">✓</td><td style="background-color:#65C90018;">simple &amp; great</td></tr><tr><td style="background-color:#65C90018;" colspan="3"><figure class="image"><img src="https://media.prusaprinters.org/media/prints/71231/rich_content/0561c7ba-bb4b-47a0-8490-3b339c42a092/preview_varela.png#%7B%22uuid%22%3A%22b0391045-d4f7-4dc3-ac16-8b1ed6cd6558%22%2C%22w%22%3A2000%2C%22h%22%3A114%7D"></figure></td></tr><tr><td style="background-color:#65C90018;"><a href="https://design.ubuntu.com/font/">Ubuntu</a></td><td style="background-color:#65C90018;text-align:center;">✓</td><td style="background-color:#65C90018;">modern with a bit of style</td></tr><tr><td style="background-color:#65C90018;" colspan="3"><figure class="image"><img src="https://media.prusaprinters.org/media/prints/71231/rich_content/def0738b-96a4-46d3-8f9f-c1aeaedc82f2/preview_ubuntu.png#%7B%22uuid%22%3A%2280cae925-35a3-47ac-800c-67da0c5a150f%22%2C%22w%22%3A2000%2C%22h%22%3A114%7D"></figure></td></tr><tr><td style="background-color:#65C90018;"><a href="https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Orbitron">Orbitron</a></td><td style="background-color:#65C90018;text-align:center;">✓</td><td style="background-color:#65C90018;">great Eurostile alt</td></tr><tr><td style="background-color:#65C90018;" colspan="3"><figure class="image"><img src="https://media.prusaprinters.org/media/prints/71231/rich_content/ce3c5bd6-fa3a-480c-9659-24a053522adc/preview_orbitron.png#%7B%22uuid%22%3A%222de0c9c0-0381-45c3-a380-cdec3286d3ab%22%2C%22w%22%3A2000%2C%22h%22%3A114%7D"></figure></td></tr><tr><td style="background-color:#f9cd42;" rowspan="6"><strong>B</strong></td><td style="background-color:#f9cd4218;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OCR-B">OCR-B</a></td><td style="background-color:#f9cd4218;text-align:center;">✗</td><td style="background-color:#f9cd4218;">better than OCR-A</td></tr><tr><td style="background-color:#f9cd4218;" colspan="3"><figure class="image"><img src="https://media.prusaprinters.org/media/prints/71231/rich_content/59f44e8f-e7a7-41dd-b70f-b6be712aaf65/preview_ocr.png#%7B%22uuid%22%3A%2238c903af-13e9-45d2-939b-398607d3a0f4%22%2C%22w%22%3A2000%2C%22h%22%3A114%7D"></figure></td></tr><tr><td style="background-color:#f9cd4218;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comic_Sans">Comic Sans</a></td><td style="background-color:#f9cd4218;text-align:center;">✗</td><td style="background-color:#f9cd4218;">wacky MS default</td></tr><tr><td style="background-color:#f9cd4218;" colspan="3"><figure class="image"><img src="https://media.prusaprinters.org/media/prints/71231/rich_content/00181974-f232-42a3-8de1-4d1191d854b4/preview_comic.png#%7B%22uuid%22%3A%228a71effa-6d0d-40b2-a70c-5b6f8eafce68%22%2C%22w%22%3A2000%2C%22h%22%3A114%7D"></figure></td></tr><tr><td style="background-color:#f9cd4218;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futura_(typeface)">Futura</a></td><td style="background-color:#f9cd4218;text-align:center;">✗</td><td style="background-color:#f9cd4218;">some characters not connected</td></tr><tr><td style="background-color:#f9cd4218;" colspan="3"><figure class="image"><img src="https://media.prusaprinters.org/media/prints/71231/rich_content/bde47517-1e44-4bc6-a90b-ca013919af67/preview_futura.png#%7B%22uuid%22%3A%2293bfa29f-a6ac-4b0c-be7d-ea4e1e67fe8c%22%2C%22w%22%3A2000%2C%22h%22%3A114%7D"></figure></td></tr><tr><td style="background-color:#fa6831;" rowspan="6"><strong>C</strong></td><td style="background-color:#fa683118;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Univers">Univers</a></td><td style="background-color:#fa683118;text-align:center;">✗</td><td style="background-color:#fa683118;">great bold variant, normal is too thin</td></tr><tr><td style="background-color:#fa683118;" colspan="3"><figure class="image"><img src="https://media.prusaprinters.org/media/prints/71231/rich_content/efbe49b8-b449-4f06-bb6d-3ccedef83bc0/preview_univers.png#%7B%22uuid%22%3A%22de5dc277-c4d9-4157-b55c-96997925170e%22%2C%22w%22%3A2000%2C%22h%22%3A114%7D"></figure></td></tr><tr><td style="background-color:#fa683118;"><a href="https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Montserrat">Montserrat</a></td><td style="background-color:#fa683118;text-align:center;">✓</td><td style="background-color:#fa683118;">much worse than expected</td></tr><tr><td style="background-color:#fa683118;" colspan="3"><figure class="image"><img src="https://media.prusaprinters.org/media/prints/71231/rich_content/5ea03c29-fc18-47b3-9d76-5a330afc6392/preview_montserrat.png#%7B%22uuid%22%3A%2292692f25-dcf3-471b-b92d-7f554138949f%22%2C%22w%22%3A2000%2C%22h%22%3A114%7D"></figure></td></tr><tr><td style="background-color:#fa683118;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIN_1451">DIN</a></td><td style="background-color:#fa683118;text-align:center;">✗</td><td style="background-color:#fa683118;">bad; loses fidelity with ½ of characters</td></tr><tr><td style="background-color:#fa683118;" colspan="3"><figure class="image"><img src="https://media.prusaprinters.org/media/prints/71231/rich_content/cbc1f092-5045-4b88-a586-35f6cc2fe149/preview_din.png#%7B%22uuid%22%3A%22d2be1da6-94c0-456d-927e-8b00c13cbddf%22%2C%22w%22%3A2000%2C%22h%22%3A114%7D"></figure></td></tr><tr><td style="background-color:#E84040;" rowspan="2"><strong>F</strong></td><td style="background-color:#E8404018;"><a href="https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Quicksand">Quicksand</a></td><td style="background-color:#E8404018;text-align:center;">✓</td><td style="background-color:#E8404018;">non-manifold shapes!</td></tr><tr><td style="background-color:#E8404018;" colspan="3"><figure class="image"><img src="https://media.prusaprinters.org/media/prints/71231/rich_content/09cd41eb-3754-4a02-b13c-7f446aa054d7/preview_quick.png#%7B%22uuid%22%3A%22a852bfe7-7617-41c8-89d4-baedadd2cc58%22%2C%22w%22%3A2000%2C%22h%22%3A114%7D"></figure></td></tr></tbody></table></figure><p>The examples in this chart have all been scaled for uniform line weight.</p><ul><li><strong>S</strong> tier fonts have perfect representation once printed.</li><li><strong>A</strong> tier fonts have excellent fidelity with slight imperfections.</li><li><strong>B </strong>tier fonts have some noticeable fidelity loss.</li><li><strong>C </strong>tier fonts have very noticeable defects.</li><li><strong>F </strong>tier fonts are not printable.</li></ul><h4>Minimum Print Size &amp; Scale</h4><p><i>Size </i>in this table is a factor of the primary stem weight. Think of it as a uniform thickness of the “l” character. If you were switching between fonts this keeps a uniform lineweight. <i>Size</i> isn't correct for some programs (like blender) that don't seem to use baseline height correctly. &nbsp;This lookup table may be useful:</p><figure class="table"><table><thead><tr><th>&nbsp;</th><th>&nbsp;</th><th style="text-align:center;" colspan="3">Absolute 0.6 mm Stem Size</th><th style="text-align:center;">Relative</th></tr><tr><th>Tier</th><th>Font</th><th style="text-align:center;">pt</th><th style="text-align:center;">mm</th><th>Blender <i>Size</i></th><th>EM<i> Scale</i></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td style="background-color:#40C8E8;text-align:center;" rowspan="2"><strong>S</strong></td><td style="background-color:#40C8E818;">Osifont</td><td style="background-color:#40C8E818;text-align:center;">23.68</td><td style="background-color:#40C8E818;text-align:center;">8.36</td><td style="background-color:#40C8E818;text-align:center;">14.055</td><td style="background-color:#40C8E818;text-align:center;">1.0000</td></tr><tr><td style="background-color:#40C8E818;">Overpass</td><td style="background-color:#40C8E818;text-align:center;">16.38</td><td style="background-color:#40C8E818;text-align:center;">5.78</td><td style="background-color:#40C8E818;text-align:center;">7.240</td><td style="background-color:#40C8E818;text-align:center;">0.6916</td></tr><tr><td style="background-color:#65C900;text-align:center;" rowspan="3"><strong>A</strong></td><td style="background-color:#65C90018;">Varela Round</td><td style="background-color:#65C90018;text-align:center;">18.75</td><td style="background-color:#65C90018;text-align:center;">6.62</td><td style="background-color:#65C90018;text-align:center;">8.670</td><td style="background-color:#65C90018;text-align:center;">0.7916</td></tr><tr><td style="background-color:#65C90018;">Ubuntu</td><td style="background-color:#65C90018;text-align:center;">18.23</td><td style="background-color:#65C90018;text-align:center;">6.44</td><td style="background-color:#65C90018;text-align:center;">7.430</td><td style="background-color:#65C90018;text-align:center;">0.7700</td></tr><tr><td style="background-color:#65C90018;">Orbitron</td><td style="background-color:#65C90018;text-align:center;">20.69</td><td style="background-color:#65C90018;text-align:center;">7.3</td><td style="background-color:#65C90018;text-align:center;">9.110</td><td style="background-color:#65C90018;text-align:center;">0.8732</td></tr><tr><td style="background-color:#f9cd42;text-align:center;" rowspan="3"><strong>B</strong></td><td style="background-color:#f9cd4218;">OCR-B</td><td style="background-color:#f9cd4218;text-align:center;">16.50</td><td style="background-color:#f9cd4218;text-align:center;">5.82</td><td style="background-color:#f9cd4218;text-align:center;">6.310</td><td style="background-color:#f9cd4218;text-align:center;">0.6962</td></tr><tr><td style="background-color:#f9cd4218;">Comic Sans</td><td style="background-color:#f9cd4218;text-align:center;">17.68</td><td style="background-color:#f9cd4218;text-align:center;">6.24</td><td style="background-color:#f9cd4218;text-align:center;">8.870</td><td style="background-color:#f9cd4218;text-align:center;">0.7467</td></tr><tr><td style="background-color:#f9cd4218;">Futura</td><td style="background-color:#f9cd4218;text-align:center;">21.26</td><td style="background-color:#f9cd4218;text-align:center;">7.5</td><td style="background-color:#f9cd4218;text-align:center;">8.530</td><td style="background-color:#f9cd4218;text-align:center;">0.8976</td></tr><tr><td style="background-color:#fa6831;text-align:center;" rowspan="3"><strong>C</strong></td><td style="background-color:#fa683118;">Univers</td><td style="background-color:#fa683118;text-align:center;">23.68</td><td style="background-color:#fa683118;text-align:center;">8.36</td><td style="background-color:#fa683118;text-align:center;">7.540</td><td style="background-color:#fa683118;text-align:center;">1.0000</td></tr><tr><td style="background-color:#fa683118;">Montserrat</td><td style="background-color:#fa683118;text-align:center;">23.68</td><td style="background-color:#fa683118;text-align:center;">8.36</td><td style="background-color:#fa683118;text-align:center;">11.000</td><td style="background-color:#fa683118;text-align:center;">1.0000</td></tr><tr><td style="background-color:#fa683118;">DIN</td><td style="background-color:#fa683118;text-align:center;">23.68</td><td style="background-color:#fa683118;text-align:center;">8.36</td><td style="background-color:#fa683118;text-align:center;">9.630</td><td style="background-color:#fa683118;text-align:center;">1.0000</td></tr></tbody></table></figure><p>For example in a normal program Osifont at 36pt would be nearly equivalent to Comic Sans 26pt. <code>36 * 0.7467 ≈ 26</code>.</p><figure class="image"><img src="https://media.prusaprinters.org/media/prints/71231/rich_content/b51ae70e-9dff-4790-8eab-1b4504e49c9e/stem.webp#%7B%22uuid%22%3A%22e8156f72-d238-46fb-8e24-600d5f95012d%22%2C%22w%22%3A1137%2C%22h%22%3A380%7D"></figure><h4>Factors Considered</h4><ul><li>Wall Thickness. I've found the minimum wall thickness for text to be about 1.5x the nozzle diameter. The smallest I typically design is for 0.6 mm font line (stem) width which looks okay on 0.4 mm nozzles and sharp on 0.25 mm nozzles.</li><li>Letter spacing. This is really the equivalent of wall thickness for negative text.</li><li>MInimum resolvable details. Things like the dot in the “i” character.</li><li>Round terminators. Sharp edges are going to get rounded by your slicer anyway.</li><li>Positive vs Negative. All these fonts printed nicely in negative, but quality in positive varied a lot.</li></ul><h4>Why these fonts?</h4><p>If you search these fonts are commonly suggested around the web for FDM or FFF printing. There are of course other good fonts, but many if not all do not have an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIL_Open_Font_License">open font license</a> and are therefore encumbered by various companies. If you have a suggestion for another let me know in the comments!</p><h5>Note on Quicksand</h5><p>I came across this font after I saw it suggested and it looks great in inkscape but if you render it with a 3d program you can see it has loops and shapes that result in non-manifold objects so just DO NOT USE this one.</p><figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75%;"><img src="https://media.prusaprinters.org/media/prints/71231/rich_content/f8cc0e11-a51e-4a99-a581-15c785ebdae1/quickavoid.webp#%7B%22uuid%22%3A%228d3aa978-8443-47d6-a190-8b3af9ae1ce4%22%2C%22w%22%3A1627%2C%22h%22%3A1025%7D"></figure><h4>Design</h4><p>I used the <a href="https://10print.org/">10print </a>texture in some places. This was created in python, exported to SVG, then wrapped around my object in blender. If people are interested I can post a gist.</p><h4>Printing</h4><p>The files are designed to be printed with a 0.4 mm nozzle or smaller. The <code>.3mf</code> file has the color changes built-in. I did spaghettify the swatch stand once so I recommend printing with a brim (also in the <code>.3mf</code>). If you want to print the swatches similar to the photos then insert a pause at 0.4 mm and 0.50 mm to switch colors.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>