Printing small text
I am having trouble printing small text on a name plaque for a model. The modeler says his print fine and his pictures seem to show that. He suggest my settings are not correct but offered no suggestions.
I've never printed text and I'm not sure what I need to search for to get the settings to work.
My text is not making complete letters. The shape is there but part of the letter will not be there. For instance the D may drop the bottom part of the circle and the vertical line may be very thin. An S may be ok at the top but not at the bottom or maybe the middle will be missing. It's just like there are gaps throughout the letters.
Is it best to print the part flat or at an angle? I'm just not sure. I would appreciate any assistance you may offer.
A pic of the part is included below. Sorry if this is not allowed.
RE: Printing small text
The letters are probably smaller than your extrusion width in the parts that aren't being sliced. You can tweak those are things like arachne settings if using arachne.
The best way to diagnose these things is for you to attach a prusa slicer project file. Just use File>Save As from Prusa Slicer and that will save a PS .3mf file. The 3mf saved from PS contains not only the model but all the settings you are using which is just as if not more important.
However to attach to the forum you MUST zip the file up. The forum only allows a very small number of file types, stls and 3mf etc are not allowed.
With the project people can examine all the settings, tweak etc and post back a project with settings that differ.
Extrapolating from your picture that's about 10.5pt text - with very careful alignment and a careful choice of fount it is *just* possible to slice text a single extrusion wide (with a 0.4mm nozzle) at that size. Merely moving the object around the plate or rotating it in the Z plane are enough to break the extrusion in places.
The smallest text for 0.4mm nozzle extrusion preserving the readability of the fount is around 30pt or 1cm tall.
You might get an acceptable print at this size with a 0.25mm nozzle.
Cheerio,
OK, I downloaded it and it does, barely, slice - but it's a messy design and I would expect the print to be very fragile.
How critical is the size of the part? It would be trivial to design a larger part or, if the size matters, to design with abbreviated text that would fit at a larger size.
Cheerio,
RE: Printing small text
The size is very important. There is a cutout on the model that this part fits into. The person that created the model and this part says he gets very good prints on his Prusa Mk3s an Mk4 using Prusaslicer. I have a MK3s and using latest version of Prusaslicer.
I don't get very good prints. You can read it but it's not pretty.
RE:
Hi Ricks04
the model you sent seems to have some issues... in addition to the text you also have some odd artefacts Yours is the label at the bottom of the image below
before you offered your Project file, I created a similar name tag which is the top one in the image above
My Project file NamePlate JT
when you are choosing Fonts for labels it's a good idea to select plain letters (Like you did.) Letters with serif's like times roman can be very difficult to print. the thin sections tend to disappear especially with small text as per this tag.
It's often a good idea to use a 'Bold' font, because this gives more 'Body' for the slicer to get it's teeth into...
BUT Bold text tends to be wider than standard text so I Also selected a 'Condensed' font this means the characters are narrower than standard characters for that type font.
So, in this case, my text uses two perimeters, and a tiny bit of infill at the tops of the 'A' which should print quite well...
however as the font size changes different issues show up
the image below, is the same name tag at 2x and 3x size
the 2X version looks disjointed, the 3X version looks better
what I do, is to use a height modifier, to make the top couple of layers have only 1 perimeter, 
AS you can see in the image above, one perimeter leaves more space for the infill, which makes the text look much better
I think this works well for lots of sizes of text.
I will attach a .3mf file showing how I did the single perimeter, using height modifiers
NamePlate JT Single Perimeter
Another option for the small name tag, is to use a smaller nozzle to get better definition.
which would look like this
The smaller nozzle seems to have improved your name tag as well.
NamePlate JT Single Perimeter small nozzle (3mf file for the small nozzle )
I hope this helps.
regards Joan
I try to make safe suggestions,You should understand the context and ensure you are happy that they are safe before attempting to apply my suggestions, what you do, is YOUR responsibility. Location Halifax UK
RE: Printing small text
Hi Ricks04
I was playing with your file a little more and I tried changing the layer height.
o.2mm gives a nasty print
0.15 layer height seems to give a much nicer slice, so probably a nicer print
NamePlate Odd change of layer height try this option
Joan
I try to make safe suggestions,You should understand the context and ensure you are happy that they are safe before attempting to apply my suggestions, what you do, is YOUR responsibility. Location Halifax UK
RE: Printing small text
Joan,
Thanks so much for your help. I tried the last project you uploaded. It printed great. I really need to learn how to do design/modeling. I've tried a few times but get frustrated. Anyway I greatly appreciate the help.
RE: Printing small text
Hi Ricks,
that's the first time I have noticed such a great improvement just by changing the print layer height,
I am pleased that it printed well for you
regards Joan
I try to make safe suggestions,You should understand the context and ensure you are happy that they are safe before attempting to apply my suggestions, what you do, is YOUR responsibility. Location Halifax UK