Spherical Font Samplers

thingiverse

Polymaker has shared openSCAD fonts collection containing 586 fonts with over 200 functioning. The openSCAD code generates samples to test font printing. It's designed for easy customization to different fonts. A spherical surface is used as it displays letters in various orientations. The code provides two versions: one without a hole and another creating a container. The image shows a sphere with PT_Sans_Web_Regular font and a container using OpenSans_Regular font. Each version has 62 characters - alphabets, small & capital, and numbers from 0-9. The code can be adapted for various uses like poetry on spheres or using the container to hold objects. It's even suggested that it could make a miniature hampster home. Four SCAD files are needed: two font files, a letter file unique to each font, and an executable specific to each font version. These executables contain parameters adjustable based on font size to fit the sphere perfectly. The stl files provided here scale at 0.8 and take about 2.5 hours to print, while full versions take under 5 hours. STL files show no manifold errors, making it easy to verify the font's correctness. A few fonts were found to have issues - missing parts or not being valid 2-manifolds. Despite some challenges, sampled fonts like Cabin_Regular and GlobinOne are visually appealing when printed. The code aims for simplicity and ease of use but might benefit from further improvements.