2.5D Printing

Introduction

What is 2.5D printing? And what is the half‐a‐dimensional quality that we are attempting to describe? Does it address surface, relief, texture, material? Or about perception, appearance, illusion? Or terms‐of reference or taxonomy, or methods of capturing, measuring and modelling material appearance? Or is it about trends and new technologies? The simple answer is that it is all of the above and more. The primary objective of this book is to scope and identify the essential 2.5D qualities and benchmarks. The challenge is how to arrive at definitions and exemplars that – in this rapidly developing and changing technology – effectively reflects the current state of the art of 2.5D printing, and to provide insights into the future of printing and additive manufacturing.

As the title of the book suggests, there are two primary aspects to this enquiry: the dimensional – the need to gain insights and understanding of a surface that is neither 2D nor 3D, but is somewhere in between, and yet can effectively describe the micro and macro textures; the print – how an object, a scene or an image can then be captured, measured, recorded and printed as a physical reproduction. Furthermore, there is also an extra element, which could be considered as the illusive ‘x’ or an extra half dimension that is much harder to describe. For the purposes of this enquiry, and because it is highly significant for us, it relates to, firstly, the printing processes, materials and colours ...