I 3D printed one book mark the other day, and realized how much potential there is in the design of these little things. They’re kinda like letter openers in that they’re almost useless because you can use just about anything to mark your place in a book, so they have to look pretty cool before they feel like a good investment. Since making this realization, I have printed far too many of them. Here are some of my favorite designs that I’ve found so far.

Basic – This is a basic bookmark that can easily be expanded upon. It clips onto a page instead of just sitting in the book too, so you’ll never risk it falling out. Nice.

The Witcher – This one is a wolf’s head medallion bookmark from the witcher. For a real witcher, it’s supposed to ring when monsters are nearby, but somehow I don’t imagine my 3D printer can imbue that kind of enchantment. The sharp angles and awkwardly tight overhangs under the fangs make this one a nice test for your printer’s precision. I only cried twice before I got mine how wanted it.

Feet – A pair of feet sticking out from under your book is just funny. It also has the distinction of being the only bookmark I could find that was designed to stick out of the bottom of the book. It’s probably so annoying that I would only have it stick out of the top, but still. It gets some points for imagination.

Harry Potter Houses – For the harry potter fans, these are just that basic design with a crest on top. I think this one would do better with a multi-color print, but I haven’t been able to pull that off yet. My printer isn’t really designed for switching colors mid-print, and doing it manually is a huge pain in the butt that is liable to leave the print with some nasty flaws. Still a nice set of bookmarks if I had the skills to make them shine though.

Pen Holder – I think the idea on this one is really neat, although I think the risk of a pen getting ink all over one of my books is enough to make me shy away from this one. It makes the top list because I think a bookmark with some added functionality would be cool, though maybe not this particular function.

And finally, we have this Buster Sword design that works so well. I was never a big Final Fantasy fan, but the sword is pretty iconic, so if this is your thing, look no further. I just think the cut out flap looks epic.

Anyway, just needed to get the printed bookmarks obsession off my chest before they filled my shelves. (I’ll probably still print a few more though.)

Thank you for reading,

Benjamin Hawley