Edit July 17 2023: Added symbols $ % # € ! ? &

Edit August 6 2023: Added special characters like Ü Ö É Ç Å

At 100%, the letters are roughly 13mm tall (or about ½ inch). I tried scaling down to 65% (8mm letters) and that still worked. Try decreasing horizontal expansion to -0.05 or -0.1 if the hinge doesn't work smoothly at smaller scales.

Printing instructions:

• Layer height: up to 0.24mm for fast prints
• I recommend PETG for longer lasting hinges, but I used PLA and it works fine.
• The stl files are upside down, print them laying flat so you don't need supports.

note: to write HELLO, you only need to print one ‘L’ =)

• (Optional) If you want more strength in the hinge, change the ‘Top/bottom line directions’ (Cura) to all be in line with the hinge. (eg. [0, 0, 0]). For PrusaSlicer: set bottom and top layers to 0 and change infill to 100% with ‘Aligned Rectilinear’. Change ‘Fill Angle’ to 90.

Post processing:

Using a hairdryer, hot water or a heat gun carefully heat up the hinge. As soon as the hinge starts to become malleable, quickly fold the punch in place and let it cool down.

The design:

Originally created these symbol variants for a little Adventure Race (AR) my friend set up for his colleagues. The aim is to orienteer to the checkpoints (CP's) and find these ‘punches’ marked by a little flag. You punch the unique design in your ‘passport’ (a card to keep track of your aquired checkpoints).

In this case it's not a punch but an embosser. I altered the design to have a typefont instead of symbols.