<p>On several occasions I've wanted lettering/numbering printed as part of a design, but with the ability to make it stand out more effectively in the printed object without having to do detailed manual finishing. Is there a good material which can catch in and fill sunken (depth 0.4&nbsp;mm, width 0.6-1.0&nbsp;mm) lines/strokes of alphanumeric characters without sticking to the surface (including fine layer ridges) of the print? My best result so far has been with crayon wax, but I wonder if there are more suitable materials. (Polymer clay, perhaps?)</p>

<p>Results with crayons:</p>

<p><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/xLmJ6.jpg" alt="3D printed D20s with numbering filled with crayon wax"></p>

<p>Durability is nice (and essential for some applications), but for many uses I have in mind it's not such a big deal. For example another place I've wanted clear text is on test panels to check nut/bolt thread sizes, in which case the text is unlikely to receive harsh treatment but any heat-based curing processes might effect the dimensional accuracy negatively. So both durable and non-durable solutions are interesting to me.</p>

[{'answer_id': 10866, 'author': 'R.. GitHub STOP HELPING ICE', 'author_id': 11157, 'author_profile': 'https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/users/11157', 'pm_score': 3, 'selected': True, 'text': "<p>The great pics really help with the answerability of this question. From how catastrophic the failure is, and how it's clearly independent of any specialty needs for the particular print such as tiny bed-adhesion contacts, sharp overhangs, bridges, etc. this is definitely not a problem with temperature. Different people recommend different temperatures for PLA, but I find that 210°C works well for me, and if you go much lower you'll hit problems getting the needed extrusion rate for anything but slow print speeds.</p>\n\n<p>I've seen nearly this exact phenomenon before, so I knew it was probably a matter of the bed being too high, blocking extrusion of the first layer and forcing what little material can escape out to the sides of the nozzle, then tearing into it when the next adjacent line is laid out.</p>\n\n<p>If I didn't know that, though, I'd still start looking for a source of the problem that's related to extrusion rate. Something was clearly wrong with getting the right amount of material in the right space, which indicates to me that there's either too much material (overextrusion/wrong filament diameter selected) or too little space (bed to high).</p>\n"}, {'answer_id': 19478, 'author': 'Nico Smit', 'author_id': 34324, 'author_profile': 'https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/users/34324', 'pm_score': 0, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>I found the solution to be the exact opposite. My bed was too low (as in too far from the hotend). All the above mentioned aside, I did also drop the flow rate on the brim and initial layer by roughly 2-3\xa0%. Now it prints perfectly again. (your mileage may vary)</p>\n'}]
['https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/10868', 'https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com', 'https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/users/11157/']