A 3d-Printed Business Card Embosser

Posted4 months agoActive3 months ago

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3d PrintingDesignBusiness Cards

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3d Printing

Design

Business Cards

A user shared a 3D-printed business card embosser, sparking discussion on its design, potential applications, and the possibilities of 3D printing in creating customized business cards.

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01Story posted
Sep 17, 2025 at 12:24 PM EDT
4 months ago
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Sep 17, 2025 at 12:25 PM EDT
2m after posting
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24 comments in 60-66h
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Sep 20, 2025 at 7:12 PM EDT
3 months ago
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Discussion (41 comments)

Showing 41 comments

majorchord

4 months ago

1 reply

But can it do watermarks?

timnetworks

3 months ago

sure, just dip it in water first

notpushkin

3 months ago

2 replies

For some inexplicable reason, this site does not load properly for me. It also has apparently eaten all my memory.

Edit: it works if you put it through archive.ph: https://archive.ph/ruSeX

And here’s the model collection: https://makerworld.com/en/collections/453534-business-card-e...

zbrozek

3 months ago

1 reply

Same problem for me on Firefox.

spragl

3 months ago

1 reply

Same. But disable JavaScript and you can see it.

emsign

3 months ago

JS code like that should be made illegal lol

emsign

3 months ago

Same issue for me on Android + Firefox. It times out connections in other apps too and brings my phone to a halt.

mikepurvis

3 months ago

2 replies

It would be interesting to try to have actual registration so that the embossed design can interact with the printed copy rather that just being an arbitrary background decoration.

ugh123

3 months ago

1 reply

The way I understand your comment is you could have a scene or objects printed on a card, then line up an embossed design over the print to create depth or imprint specific areas of the print creating various effects. That would be interesting

em-bee

3 months ago

2 replies

also a tool that generates the emboss pattern based on the design of the card. so that for example a logo on the card gets embossed.

cm2187

3 months ago

2 replies

or the text in 3d, like credit cards used to be

spwa4

3 months ago

4 replies

I think that was not done by embossing but by "3d printing" on the business card directly.

krisoft

3 months ago

1 reply

I don’t know what you mean. The technique of stamping the numbers on credit cards was literally called embossing.

Here is a video of a desktop scale embosser used for just that purpose: https://youtu.be/5ZQHSsFnACs?si=DWwgTScwl5HXkwGP

The part where the embossing daisy wheel is shown is at 18:10.

Here are machines used at an industrial scale: https://www.maticagroup.com/technologies/embossers/

They are nevertheless called “embossers”.

gerdesj

3 months ago

The embossed numbers were used to transfer the details quickly and reliably. A roller would apply pressure to press special paper onto upraised letters and numbers. The seller would hand write the amount and the buyer would sign. Two copies were made simultaneously (carbon impregnated paper) and separated and a copy kept by each party.

Its a far cry from paying by bonk and your phone beeping a few seconds later to indicate your bank has already registered the transaction!

xx_ns

3 months ago

1 reply

I'm in Estonia, and my bank issues debit and credit cards that are definitely embossed.

em-bee

3 months ago

1 reply

unrelated, but that's almost surprising. austrian banks stopped issuing embossed cards years ago. is anyone in estonia still using that feature?

xx_ns

3 months ago

1 reply

Not that I know of. We're a pretty tech-forward country, so it's hard to imagine anyone making physical carbon copies these days.

em-bee

3 months ago

exactly, that's what i thought. must be one of those: it was always done that way, or maybe just, the banks bought machines to print the cards from the US or where they still do that (do they actually?) or simply those machines were cheaper, or who cares, its not like there is a downside to embossing the numbers. it could also be estonians who fled to the US in the previous century returning and bringing back their idea of how it should be done.

i was visiting the baltics in the early 90s and i head that people were desperate to get anything from the west after being cut of for so long.

cm2187

3 months ago

You mean business or credit card? Credit Cards I believe was embossing, you had the negative of the numbers on the back. They did that because before you had electronic card readers, merchant were taking credit card payments by making a carbon copy of the credit card number on the invoice: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_card_imprinter

richrichardsson

3 months ago

I don't think I'm misremembering, but the back side of the card had recesses of the characters, so it was in fact embossed (in the UK at least).

em-bee

3 months ago

i thought about that, but i think doing that to cardboard is more likely to cut the letters. you can't really make the patterns to narrow to think. although you could emboss an outline of the text

ginko

3 months ago

I think it should be relatively straightforward to set up something like that with build123d[1]. You can load the emboss pattern from an SVG and project it on the surface of a cylinder with `project_faces()`[2]. Some positive/negative extrusion and some added keyholes and you're done.

[1] https://build123d.readthedocs.io/en/latest/index.html

[2] https://build123d.readthedocs.io/en/latest/direct_api_refere...

mikestaas

3 months ago

You could have a detent on the edge of the platen for a consistent starting position.

tempeler

3 months ago

1 reply

Eventually, I’ll have a fancy business card like Paul Allen’s!

tibbon

3 months ago

Oh you’re also into M&A?

spragl

3 months ago

2 replies

Or you could just print the business cards themselves with your 3D-printer.

2muchcoffeeman

3 months ago

That would be really slow and not as versatile as an embosser.

aleph_minus_one

3 months ago

Or (considering the creativity of the 3D printing scene) make your business card a kit card from which one can build one's own working 3D printer. :-)

adenta

3 months ago

1 reply

I wish it was easy for a CAD n00b to create templates for this. Like I want my business card to be the emboss

omnimus

3 months ago

Make two blocks sized as business card. Extrude your graphic in one and make inverse hole of the graphic with some tolerance in the other. You will get better results that's easy to model, print and align.

Just pushing two blocks by hand and adding your weight will most likely be enough to make nice impression. The reason is that you have the inverted side - normally you would have just one plate pushing against some softer rubber so the paper has nowhere to go and you need a lot more force.

Tbh this roller design is needlesly complicated for business cards. Printing the rolls with overhangs will require supports. Roller press for graphics has some advantages like consistency of force and pressing of different sized/long pieces. None of which are useful here. Besides you wouldn't have emboss on the roll (unless you were printing infinite patterns) - you would press plate and paper through smooth roller press.

tehdely

3 months ago

1 reply

My card is die-cut. My card is foil-stamped. My card is embossed.

aleph_minus_one

3 months ago

Is this the relevant reference?

https://x.com/goldman/status/1377437553830203395

(longer quote: "My card is die cut, my card is foil stamped, my card is embossed. It doesn’t fit in a Rolodex because it doesn’t belong in a Rolodex.").

amelius

3 months ago

1 reply

Cool, but I was more impressed by:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36176198

nomel

3 months ago

With the itty bitty oled displays now available [1], Doom should now have a chance!

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7ztqNAVVsY

ricardobeat

3 months ago

Great design. Printing without supports is faster and gives better quality surfaces.

Supports are one of the main drawbacks of FDM 3D printing, it takes a lot of effort and limits your designs. Can’t wait until 4/5-axis printers become the norm.

differtoname

4 months ago

cool

Jemm

3 months ago

Cool. I remember seeing designs like this in the early RepRap hobby 3d Printer days .

gmoore

3 months ago

pretty cool

derkades

3 months ago

Cool idea and well designed model. Nice!

Jemm

3 months ago

Braille version

https://pinshape.com/items/34568-3d-printed-braille-business...

btbuildem

3 months ago

I like how they kept it simple and minimal. If you look into embossers, their form factor is quite different (more akin to a construction stapler).

I've been tinkering with a variation on the theme -- something that can emboss paper / cardboard / thin sheet metal. 3D printed dies work great, but it's some rabbit hole! Lots and lots to learn.

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ID: 45277900Type: storyLast synced: 11/20/2025, 6:12:35 PM

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