Plaque maker — artwork raised on a plate you can hang
Door signs, name plates, dedication plaques and workshop labels all want the same thing: a flat plate stiff enough to stay flat, with the artwork standing proud of it. This page opens with a 90 mm plate, a 4 mm backing and 2.5 mm of raised artwork, which is the combination that survives being screwed to a wall.
Model
Traces the outline of a logo, icon or text and extrudes it — crisp edges, small files.
Tracing
Nothing showing? Drag Threshold — it decides which pixels count as solid — or switch Invert.
Base & mounting
Tips
- Logos and icons trace best from high-contrast black-on-white artwork — drag Threshold until the preview matches the shape you want.
- Photos belong in Relief mode; tracing a photo produces confetti, not a model.
- Keychains: keep the artwork at least 1.5 mm thick and the tag 2–3 mm so the ring hole doesn’t tear.
- Stamps must be mirrored — the preset does it — and print best with the relief 2–3 mm proud of the base.
- Print flat on the bed; a raised logo on a plate needs no supports.
Capabilities
What makes a plate worth hanging
- A 4 mm backing by default — twenty layers at 0.2 mm — which is where a wide plate stops curling at the corners and stops flexing when it is fastened down.
- Artwork raised 2.5 mm above the plate, deep enough to throw a readable shadow from across a room rather than looking like a printed-on graphic.
- The plate is generated around your artwork with a proportional margin and softened corners, so nothing ends in a knife edge at eye height.
- A rounded rectangle for signage or a round plate for medallion-style markers, both from the same artwork.
- Optional 4 mm mounting hole punched through the plate, positioned clear of the artwork with the plate growing to accommodate it.
- Watertight STL and a matching SVG outline, so the same plate can be laser-cut from acrylic or plywood if you prefer.
Process
How it works
- Drop the sign artworkA name set in a heavy font, a department logo, a house number. Black on white traces cleanest; keep the design inside the frame with a little air around it.
- Size the plateWidth sets the artwork and the plate follows. Ninety millimetres suits a door; a shelf-edge label wants 60, a dedication plaque 150 or more.
- Print and mountPrint face-up with a brim on a wide plate, then hang it with the mounting hole, adhesive strips or tape once it has cooled flat.
Rigidity
How thick does a plaque backing need to be?
Backing thickness is doing two jobs, and the second one catches people out. The obvious job is stiffness in your hand: below about 3 mm, a 90 mm plate bends noticeably between two fingers, and at 150 mm it feels like a lid. The less obvious job is resisting the plate’s own warp. A wide, flat, thin print shrinks as it cools and lifts its corners off the bed; every extra millimetre of backing multiplies the section stiffness that fights that lift, which is why 4 mm plates come off flat where 2 mm plates come off dished. Scale it with the plate: 3 mm up to about 80 mm wide, 4 mm to 120 mm, 5 to 6 mm beyond that — and run a brim on anything large, in PETG or ASA especially.
Mounting
Getting a printed plaque onto a wall
Four ways, in ascending order of permanence. Adhesive foam strips hold a plate of this size on smooth paint and come off without a mark, which is the right answer for a rented door. Double-sided VHB tape is effectively permanent on smooth surfaces and needs no hole at all — the plate stays clean-faced. The mounting hole in the Base & mounting section punches a 4 mm circle through the top of the plate, clearing a number-6 or M4 screw, and the plate grows so the hole never eats into your artwork; countersink it with a hand deburring tool and the screw head sits flush. For heavy or outdoor plaques, print two holes by running the file through a mesh editor, or glue a French cleat to the back. One thing not to do: drill the plate after printing, since a twist bit grabs the layers and cracks a plate that took four hours.
Notes
Good to know
- Keyhole slots, recessed screw counterbores and French cleats are not modelled — the only mounting feature generated is a single 4 mm through-hole.
- Plates wider than about 200 mm exceed a common 220 mm bed once the margin is added; check the plate size in the readout, not the artwork width.
- Artwork and plate are one solid at two heights, so a slicer sees a single part — colour separation comes from a filament change, not from separate objects.
- The plate is flat-backed; standoffs, a wedge foot for a desk or a frame border need to be added in a mesh editor.
FAQ
Questions, answered
How do I make a 3D printed name plate?
Type the name in any image editor with a bold font, export it as a black-on-white PNG and drop it here. The plaque preset traces it onto a rounded plate with the letters raised 2.5 mm; set the width and download the STL.
How thick should the plate be?
Four millimetres at around 90 mm wide, and more as the plate grows — 5 to 6 mm past 120 mm. Thin plates warp on the bed and flex once mounted, which is what cracks them around a screw.
How do I hang the plaque?
Enable the mounting hole for a screw, or skip it and use adhesive foam strips on paint and VHB tape on smooth surfaces. Do not drill the printed plate afterwards; the bit catches between layers.
How high should the lettering stand?
Two to three millimetres. That is enough for the shadow to define each letter under normal room lighting, without the raised edges becoming a dust ledge.
Can the plate and the lettering be different colours?
Yes, and it needs no special printer: the artwork begins exactly where the plate ends, so a colour change at that height in your slicer gives two clean colours from one nozzle.
Does my design leave the browser?
It does not. The plate, the artwork and the STL are all generated locally, so an unreleased sign or a private address stays on your own machine.
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