If you can print in 2D, can you print in 3D? Well, the technology is already here. You can print out 3-dimensional objects based on a working template, and they aren’t just for show. They actually work! Manufacturers can provide you with a template where you can print a broken part of a machinery, let’s say, a screw, rather than order then wait for a replacement to come in.

Alternatively, you can make a model replica of an expensive car, like a 1960 Aston Martin DB5 in a 1:3 scale then crash and burn it for entertainment, like how the makers of the James Bond flick, Skyfall did.

(Image Source: The Register)

3D printing is made possible by fusing layers upon layers of materials made from durable plastics and metals based on a template, designed with a 3D Computer Aided Design (CAD) software. Each layer is about 0.1 mm thick and consist of liquid, powder and sheet materials.

With this technology, and a 3D printer, you can create designs or print 3D models of just about anything under the sun, provided you have the templates. Just to give you a taste of what 3D printing can do, here are 20 amazing masterpieces made from 3D printing.

Recommended Reading: 10 Upcoming Technology That May Change The World

1. A Working Gun

In the past, 3D printed firearms easily break after firing a few rounds. However today, non-profit corporation Defense Distributed offers users to download the necessary files to print your own firearms provided you have a 3D printer at home.

Here’s a video of one of their creations firing at semi-auto and full-auto modes.

2. 3D Printed Acoustic Guitar

Scott Summi created the world’s first 3D printed acoustic guitar, which means the rest of us now know it can be done.

With 3D printing, guitars can be made with plastic, complete with the metal soundhole cover and heel joint. Apart from making working musical instruments, avid guitarists can also make a 3D replica of the guitars of their favorite musicians or idols.

3. Hand-made Camera Lens

A camera lens is complex to create, but with 3D printing you can make your own lens and even stumble upon some creative and unique results.

The creator of this camera lens used acrylic to replace the glass on the lens and other tools and machines to combine the many small parts together. And best of all, the lens works! Check out these few pictures taken with 3D printed lens.

4. Shakuhachi Flute

This is a beautiful Japanese flute made out of stainless steel, 3D printed. It comes with a few different finishes such as gold plated matte or glossy and antique bronze matte (pictured below). The flute is 9.4 inches long and has a tiny dragon design if you look closely enough.

You can buy this beautiful music instrument for $239.95. Can you imagine what this means for fans of fantasy movies?

5. Rigid Heddle Loom

If you’re into weaving fabric then you could create this rigid heddle loom with a 3D printer and some raw plastic material; the whole thing held together by screws. The creator used a 3D modeller program called openSCAD to design this.

History class would be a whole lot more interesting when you can see actual tools of the trades from a period in time.

6. 3D Figurines From Children’s Drawings

Ever wanted to turn one of your child’s drawings into something ‘real’, from a drawing to maybe a sculpture? Well now you can, for 99 Euros. Your child’s colorful drawing can be turned into a work of art thanks to 3D printing.

The object is about 4 inches in length and can be used to decorate your work desk or home or be used as a trophy for your kid’s artistic talents.

7. 3D Fetus

"3D scans" of your unborn child is taking on a whole new meaning. Instead of a picture of your ultrasound, a Japanese company is now giving you a ‘Shape of an Angel’, a 3D print of your foetus for $1275. The 3D model is created by 3D processed image data with BioTexture.

8. 3D Printed Medical Models

When it comes to tech, science has to have a dab in it. With 3D printing, doctors would have a cheaper alternative to learn about the human anatomy and also be able to inject realism into surgery practice without the use of cadavers.

Since the printing of these medical models is so accurate, surgeons can also plan a surgery on a printed model like this before the real patient goes under the knife.

9. Electric Light Shoe

This shoe filled with intricate detail and lights is 1 meter long and not a pair of shoes you can wear. It was used as an Onitsuka Tiger commercial and created with a 3D printer. The link says you can purchase it for 5879.83 Euros and keep it as a modern sculpture in your home.

You can check out the amazing making-of of this shoe in this video.

10. iPhone 5 Case & Card Holder

This creation by Janne Kyttanen might look like a well designed iPhone 5 case, but it’s really more functional than that. It can also hold two cards too.

It’s named the Mondriaan Case which is derived from the painter, Piet Mondrian, who liked the design of multiple horizontal and vertical lines. There are 3 colors to choose from for a price of $34.99.

11. Gear Wraps

If you like to bring your gear around with you and want it to be organized neatly, then you could buy this 3D printed Gear Wraps that can save you the hassle and time of untangling your many cables.

It can be printed in a wide variety of different colors and ranges from a price of 10 to 20 Euros depending on the color you choose.

12. Infinite Sisu – iPad Stand

This stand is inspired by a Finnish concept of determination; the little muscular ‘man’ holding up the iPad is pretty hard to miss. This is definitely a work of art which you can purchase at a price of $161.

It might seem pricey for an over-glorified smartphone or tablet stand, but it’s the hefty price you pay for any kind of beautiful art.

13. Customizable 3D Printed Bugdroids

Android enthusiasts would love an Android figurine to display on their desks, but what’s awesome about these 3D printed ones is that they have custom themes to describe your personality.

There are 25 designs to choose from for a price of $21.99; if you don’t find something that describes you, there is the option to customize your own Bugdroid at a starting price of $29.99.

14. Hanging Light

From the same person who created the iPhone 5 case above, here is the Palm Lamp. Janne Kyttanen created this eye-catching work of art which comes in a variety of sizes. Use it as part of your decor, as a standing lamp, a table or ceiling light fixture.

15. Kaleidoscope Clock

Here is a two-piece 3D-printed clock, which comes in two parts, Part A and Part B. The clock is split into 2 ‘faces’, the purple numbered face and the design face behind it.

With a few instructions, you can put the two together and have it up and running in no time. The white Kaleidoscope Clock kit is available for a total of $51 or a black one for $61.

16. 3D Anatomica di Revolutis Sculptural

This work of art is the creation of one of the most recognized 3D printing designer Joshua Harker. It’s printed with polyamide, a combination of nylon and glass fused together with a laser. Check the link out for more close-up photos of this fascinating and intricate creation.

17. Coffee Cups

These are espresso coffee cups printed out of Glazed Ceramics. The printing process takes almost a full day, and the One Cup a Day project aims to design and create 30 unique cups in 30 days. You can purchase their creations from this website where prices range from $36 to $77.

18. 3D Printed High Heels

This pair of 3D printed high heels called Morphogenesis was designed by Pauline Van Dongen and made out of laser sintered nylon. She collaborated with Freedom Of Creation on the design which won a ‘Most Creative Collection’ award at the Mittelmoda 2010 event.

It comes in different colors and truly defines the future of 3D printed accessories.

19. 3D-Printed Fabrics

Designer Jiri Evenhuise worked together with Janne Kyttanen to make the needle and thread obsolete by using a software that collects a person’s body data to instantly create perfect fitting clothing.

This type of technology is recyclable, requires less labor, shortens production time and ultimately lowers the carbon footprint for a greener way to create clothing. Plus, you can be sure that clothing you buy online can fit you like a glove.

20. 3D Printed Bikini – N21

This high-tech bikini is made from Nylon 12, a strong, flexible and 0.7 mm thin material that is waterproof. Because of this, the creators said it’s ideal for swimwear and actually becomes more comfortable when exposed to water. This futuristic 3D clothing costs $200-300 and can be ordered from this website.

Building a website from the ground up is very hard. Even some people who are able to code in web languages like JavaScript, HTML and CSS would find difficulties in the process. Fortunately, a few Twitter developers and designers are aware of this situation and had launched a framework called Bootstrap to make life easier for web designers and developers.

And, in this post, we are going to look into Bootstrap and try out a few of the features provided, to see how this framework can speed up our web development process.

Utilizing Bootstrap

Bootstrap is a very powerful framework for front-end development, and is equipped with a bunch of features we need to develop a fully functional website faster and easier without having to build it from scratch. Some of the features included in Bootstrap are:

• CSS grid for creating responsive layout
• CSS base for typography, buttons, forms, tables and images
• User interface components such as navigation, progress bars, alerts, pagination, breadcrumbs, etc. with consistent and modern styles
• jQuery plugins to build an interactive experience on the website

Now, we assume that you have downloaded Bootstrap and have all the assets on set including the JavaScript and the CSS as follows;

  <link rel="stylesheet" href="css/bootstrap.css">  <script src="js/bootstrap.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script>  

We can start trying out some of these features.

CSS Base: Button

Bootstrap has Base CSS that consists of styles for some fundamental HTML elements including the <button> element. Button is a common element found in a website and in Bootstrap the button style is applied with btn class;

  <button type="button" class="btn">Default Button</button>  

This markup results in the following presentation which is the default style for a button;

We can also apply additional classes to define the button’s role;

  <button type="button" class="btn btn-success">Button</button>  <button type="button" class="btn btn-warning">Button</button>  <button type="button" class="btn btn-danger">Button</button>  

Depending on the role, each button will be given a different color:

Recommended Reading: CSS Back To Basics: Terminology Explained

The Bootstrap style is built with LESS. We have actually covered LESS a couple of times before, and if you have familiar with this CSS preprocessor, we suggest you use it instead of using regular CSS; that way the styles will be much more configurable.

For example, let’s say the color of the “success button” above doesn’t fit quite well with our design; we can simply change the variables provided in variables.less file, like so;

  @btnSuccessBackground:              #bce895; //#62c462;  @btnSuccessBackgroundHighlight:     #a0cd78; //#51a351;  

Since the other arguments such as the shadows and gradients have been pre-configured, the styles will be automatically adjusted and will result in the following presentation;

Recommended Reading: Working Effectively With LESS: Tips And Tools

User Interface Components

Bootstrap also provides some reusable UI components for navigation, pagination, progress bars, buttons and many more. Adding these components are also as easy as styling the buttons in previous sections and, in this example, we will enhance those buttons and put them into a group of buttons, like so;

  <div class="btn-group">  <button type="button" class="btn btn-success">Button</button>  <button type="button" class="btn btn-warning">Button</button>  <button type="button" class="btn btn-danger">Button</button>  </div>  

Notice our buttons are now wrapped inside a <div> with btn-group class, this will result in the following presentation;

We can also add this an extra class, btn-group-vertical to flow the button vertically;

  <div class="btn-group btn-group-vertical">  <button type="button" class="btn btn-success">Button</button>  <button type="button" class="btn btn-warning">Button</button>  <button type="button" class="btn btn-danger">Button</button>  </div>  

jQuery Plugins

I still remember when I first created a static website and have to jump around from one website to another to find a suitable plugin to apply an interactive feature on the website. You need not experience the same roundaround with Bootstrap as it comes with several jQuery plugins like Accordion, Modal, Tooltip, Popup, Tab and many more.

In the following example, we are going to apply Tooltip Plugin from Bootstrap.

  <p id="container">Jujubes icing oat cake   <a href="#" rel="tooltip" title="a Lolipop Tiramissu?">lollipop tiramisu</a>.   Tiramisu sesame snaps croissant chupa chups chupa chups chocolate cake candy sugar plum   jelly beans. Lollipop pudding jelly sweet jujubes cookie pudding. Oat cake topping gummi   bears oat cake. Muffin jelly-o cake sesame snaps ice cream cotton candy.</p>	  

Notice that we have added a link with rel and title attribute on it. This is the link that will show a tooltip when we hover over it. To activate the tooltip we can simply add the following script;

  $('#container').tooltip({      selector: "a[rel=tooltip]"  });  

This script will target every link under #container with rel=tooltip;

As we can see, adding Tooltip with Bootstrap plugins are fairly straightforward and unlike the olden days (where sometimes we can run into conflict and errors when applying several different plugins), these plugins – Tooltip, Popup, Tabs, etc – can work flawlessly all together.

Customization

Bootstrap is a huge framework; in certain circumstances this could be just too much. For that reason, Bootstrap also provides a dedicated page for customization. There are a few things we can customize in this page starting from the color variables to the plugins that we need.

Conclusion

There are actually many other features in Bootstrap, way more than what we can accommodate in this post. But in the next post we will walk you through to these features and build a real thing with Bootstrap. Below we have put together ten very well-designed websites that used Bootstrap as their foundation, to inspire you.

The Studio Dreams

Madeira Cloud

Open Cooks

Leanix

BreweryDB

Kippt

8020 Select

Appster

WS Interactive

Percentage Calculator

Isn’t this wallpaper a beauty? The creator illustrated a full weather scene, complete with a person holding an umbrella, made completely with characters, symbols and punctuation marks.

It’s simple, it’s elegant and it’s a sight for sore eyes; perfect as a wallpaper, don’t you think?

(Image Source: Vladstudio)

We have been fascinated with what stories the combination of words and art can deliver to us. Let’s take that a notch higher by morphing both text and art into the same thing. In this week’s Wallpaper Wednesday, we bring to you 15 Creative and Inspiring Typography Wallpapers that embody that challenge.

Recommended Reading: 70 Wonderful 3D Typography That Truly Inspires

Bad Decisions Make Great Stories. Available in the following size: 1600×1200.

Art Of Typography. Available in the following size: 1920×1200.

Playin’ With Type. Available in the following size: 1920×1200.

Pretty Colors. Available in the following size(s): 2560×1440, 1920×1200, 1680×1050, 1440×900, 1280×1024, 1280×800, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 640×960.

Amo La Vita. Available in the following size(s): 2560×1440, 1920×1200, 1680×1050, 1440×900, 1280×1024, 1280×800, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 640×960.

Modern Way of Life. Available in the following size: 1680×1050.

Typographic Rain. Available in various sizes.

Emigre. Available in the following size: 1920×1200.

Feliciano Type Foundry. Available in the following size: 1920×1200.

Time. Available in the following size: 1920×1080.

Take It. Available in the following size(s): 2560×1440, 1920×1200, 1680×1050, 1600×1200, 1440×900, 1280×1024, 1280×800, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 640×960.

The Book Of Abduzeedo. Available in the following size(s): 2560×1440, 1920×1200, 1680×1050, 1440×900, 1280×1024, 1280×800, 1024×768, 1024×1024, 640×960.

Arcade. Available in the following size: 2056×1600.

Type. Available in the following size: 1920×1200.

Rolet 2 Typeface. Available in the following size: 1920×1200.