Other services allow individuals to upload their own designs and have them printed.

ECONOMIST: 3D printing

The designs are the matte, printed design which makes them highly resistant to scratches and scuffs, unlike the smoother, shinier variety.

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Amsterdam-based Freedom of Creation, renowned for its lighting designs, has 3D-printed fixtures gracing the interiors of luxury hotels around the world.

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Less well known, in part because one of his four original notebooks was until recently believed to have been lost, are the designs he made to be printed in colour on fabric.

ECONOMIST: Henry Moore's fabrics

But for those not yet willing to shell out thousands of dollars for their own home 3D-printer, Shapeways offers another path to bring software models into reality, asking consumers and retailers to upload their designs shipping the results back to them, printed on high-end machines with a level of precision and in materials that no consumer 3D printer can yet achieve.

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Wahler's Hunt Valley, Maryland-based firm uses database and Internet technology to track a company's consumption of printed goods -- such as business cards and stationery -- and designs programs to make these purchases less costly.

FORBES: Wooing the customer