Install

1. Download the zip for your system: windows_x64, macos_arm64 (Apple Silicon), macos_x64 (Intel Mac) or linux_x64. Do not unzip it.
2. In the app: Edit › Preferences › Get Extensions, open the ⌄ menu at the top right, Install from Disk…, pick the zip. (Or drag the zip into the window.)
3. Open the 3D Viewport sidebar (N) and click the Text Flip tab.

Requires 4.2 or newer. The add-on ships its own geometry and text-shaping libraries (manifold3d, HarfBuzz); nothing else to install. If the panel says Missing uharfbuzz / manifold3d, you installed the zip for another platform.

Quick start

1. Choose a style (top dropdown) or a preset (the icon next to it).
2. Type your words. Labels show where each word reads from (Left / Right, Front / Side…).
3. Pick a font. Heavy fonts read best (Archivo Black is the default).
4. Watch the readability lines at the bottom: each view should show 90 %+ of its word.
5. Click a view button (e.g. Left) to look from that side.
6. STL or 3MF to export. Sizes are in millimetres; 1 unit = 1 mm.

Styles

Panel reference

• Font: bundled fonts (SIL OFL), fonts found on your computer, or Other font file…. The 🔍 button lists installed fonts that contain every letter of your words: use it for Thai, Arabic, Hindi, CJK, etc.
• Font Weight: weight axis of variable fonts (e.g. Noto Sans Thai).
• Stroke Weight: thickens every stroke by this many mm (negative thins). Helps thin fonts print and read.
• Vertical Scale / Letter Spacing / Sink Letters (Left + Right): letter proportions, gap between columns, how deep letters sit in the plate.
• Filler: what fills a column where the shorter word has no letter: bar, heart, or nothing (the lone letter becomes a thin fin).
• Fin Thickness: thickness of parts with no partner at the same height (accents, tone marks).
• Support Posts: connects floating parts (dots, marks) down to what is below them. Leave on for printing.
• Live: rebuild while you edit (about 0.01–0.3 s per rebuild). Turn off for very long words on slow machines and use Generate.
• Readability: per view, how much of the word is visible (readable) and how much unrelated shape it adds (extra). Under 90 % shows a tip.

Export

• STL: the whole model as one body. With Colour Parts as Separate Files the relief styles also save name_plate.stl, name_front.stl, name_back.stl… to load as parts of one object in your slicer.
• 3MF: one object made of one named part per colour, colours embedded. In Bambu Studio / Orca / PrusaSlicer, select each part and give it its filament. Single-colour styles export one part.
• File names default to your words (e.g. I_LOVE_MY_JOB_JUST_KIDDING.3mf).

Batch from CSV (for shops)

1. Set up one model the way you want it (style, font, sizes).
2. Make a CSV or TXT: one order per line, word1,word2 (Three Views: word1,word2,word3), optional 4th column = file name. Commas, semicolons or tabs all work; a first line starting with word is skipped as a header, # lines are comments.
3. Batch CSV, pick the file, choose 3MF / STL / both and an output folder (empty = a folder next to the CSV). Rows with a missing word are skipped and listed in the report; repeated words get _2, _3… so nothing is overwritten.

word1,word2
MIA,LEO
EMMA,NOAH
I LOVE MY JOB,JUST KIDDING,,office_gift_17

Product shots

Shots renders one PNG per word (from the side it reads, orthographic) plus a 3/4 hero shot, in a temporary studio scene with lights that follow the camera. Your scene is not changed. Choose the folder, width and samples.

Keeping a result

The model is ordinary mesh geometry in the Text Flip Illusion collection (no modifiers, nothing to apply). Each Generate replaces the objects named TextFlip and TextFlip_ plus a part name. To keep one and make another, rename its objects (e.g. TextFlip → Gift_Mia); the next Generate makes new ones.

Printing tips

• Silhouette styles: print standing up as modelled, 0.2 mm layers, 15 % infill is plenty. Letters at least ~20 mm tall read best.
• Left + Right: keep Plate Thickness ≥ 2 mm; brim helps tall thin letters.
• Keychain / stand / ridged: assign colours per part; or pause at the layer where the letters start for single-nozzle printers.
• Engraving lamp: print with a light filament (white / natural PLA) and put a warm LED strip behind it.

Troubleshooting

• "has no letters this font can draw": the font lacks your script. Click 🔍 to find one that has it.
• "This font has no glyph for …": some characters are missing (e.g. an emoji); the model is built without them.
• A view is under 90 %: try a bolder font, more Stroke Weight, a smaller Angle Between Views (Left + Right) or a smaller Top Letter Size (Three Views).
• Updating the add-on on Windows while it is enabled may print "Permission denied" for its libraries: restart the app after updating.

Fonts and licences

• Bundled fonts (SIL Open Font License 1.1: commercial use and selling prints allowed): Anton, Archivo Black, Bebas Neue, Chakra Petch, Kanit, Lilita One, Mitr, Noto Sans Thai, Prompt, Sarabun. Licence texts: fonts/OFL_*.txt (one per font) in the add-on folder.
• Fonts installed on your computer (found with 🔍 or picked as Other font file…) are not part of this add-on and carry their own licences. Check that a font allows your use (e.g. selling prints) before using it.

The full guide also ships inside every zip as README.md.

What it installs, and uninstalling

• Everything lives in the extension's own folder: the add-on, its bundled fonts and its Python libraries (manifold3d, uharfbuzz/HarfBuzz, fonttools, brotli), installed from the wheels inside the zip. Nothing is downloaded and the add-on makes no network connections.
• It writes files only where you tell it to: STL / 3MF exports, batch output and product-shot PNGs. Product shots use a temporary scene that is removed afterwards.
• No system settings, PATH, registry or other add-ons are changed.
• Uninstall: Preferences › Get Extensions › Text Flip Illusion › Uninstall. This removes the add-on and its libraries. Files you exported stay where you saved them.
• Third-party licences: THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.txt in the add-on folder (wheels: MIT / Apache-2.0; fonts: SIL OFL 1.1).

Changelog

1.0.0 — first release

• Nine styles: Left + Right, Front + Side, Front + Top, Front + Back (desk), Three Views, Two-Sided Keychain, Desk Stand (relief), Deep Engraving (wall or cut-through LED lamp), Ridged Two-Colour Sign
• Real text shaping (HarfBuzz) for any script your font has — tested with Latin, Thai, Arabic, Hindi, Japanese, Greek, Cyrillic
• 10 bundled OFL fonts + "Find fonts for these words" scans your installed fonts
• Live update, readability report per view with tips
• 8 presets (desk sign, name cube, desk gift, three words, keychain, desk stand, LED lamp, plaque)
• Export STL (plus one STL per colour) and multi-colour 3MF; batch export from a CSV of names
• Render Product Shots: one image per word + a 3/4 hero, in a temporary studio scene
• Blender 4.2 → 5.2, Windows / macOS (Apple Silicon + Intel) / Linux