this fully 3D-printed book turns its own G-code into raised lettering

Manual is a fully 3D-printed book whose pages, binding, and raised marks are produced in one printing sequence. The object is fabricated without separate assembly or later binding, and no applied graphic layer is used. An XY-for-Z 3D-printing method prints the book sideways so it materializes in a fully bound state directly from the machine. The raised text across the pages is partial G-code, the printer’s instruction language. The book treats each page as both a readable surface and a construction record, allowing fabrication to be accessed through touch as well as sight. The work connects to self-replication ambitions associated with RepRap.

"Its pages, binding, and raised marks are produced in one printing sequence, so the book comes off the print bed already formed. There is no separate assembly stage, no later binding process, no applied graphic layer. The marks belong to the same material logic as the pages themselves."

"Developed by Studio Darius Ou with Benson Chong, Manual is a fully 3D-printed book that carries part of the machine code used to fabricate its own body. The raised text printed across its pages is partial G-code, the instruction language used by the printer. In this sense, Manual carries a fragment of its own making within its body."

"Darius Ou and Benson Chong use an XY-for-Z 3D-printing method, allowing to materialize in a fully bound state directly from the machine. This means that instead of printing a model layer-by-layer from bottom to top, the printhead moves vertically and horizontally to print the object sideways. Thus, it's built up as a sequence of layers, yet it behaves as a familiar artifact: a book that can be held, opened, and read through its surfaces."

"This 3D-printed book reaches back to the RepRap project, the open-source 3D printer initiative founded in 2005 by Adrian Bowyer with collaborators including Michael S. Hart. In 2008, a RepRap machine successfully printed 48 percent of its own components, covering the rapid-prototyped parts of the machine. The remaining parts depended on electronics and materials beyond the printer's reach."

Read at designboom | architecture & design magazine