What size printer do I need to print a keyguard? It depends… Isn’t that the way it always is?
But we won’t leave it there. We’ll explain what it actually depends on.
Manufacturers talk about the “size of their printers” in terms of the maximum size of an object that can be printed. They will use the words, “print volume” to describe the size of that object – width, depth, and height, or the length of the x, y, and z dimensions.
You can completely ignore the height (i.e., z dimension) of the print volume because keyguards are all relatively thin. That leaves the x and y dimensions which will be called the size of the “print surface” or “print bed”. The x-size is the distance from the left side of the print surface to the right side, and the y-size is the distance from the front of the print surface to the back. The x- and y-sizes will often be the same or x will be larger than y.
Successfully printing a keyguard will require that the longest side of the keyguard is shorter than the x size of the printer. You may be able to split your keyguard into two parts and print each part separately, but that’s not always possible.
The size of the keyguard will be related to the size of the tablet. If you want to create a keyguard for a larger tablet then you’ll probably need a larger print surface. There’s an additional complication. The tablet will very likely be put in a protective case. The keyguard will be designed to fit in the opening in the case that exposes the tablet. The keyguard may be slightly larger if parts of the keyguard will be inserted under the edge of the case or will extend over the edge of the case but the width the keyguard will be very close to the width of the opening in the case.
As you’d expect, case manufacturers make different size cases for different models/sizes of tablets. Fortunately, the folks at Keygard AT have measured and published the size of these openings for all the iPad models and hundreds of cases. We used that information in the chart below to show the range of case opening widths that you are likely to encounter for each iPad model.
We also got help from ChatGPT to scrape the websites of a large number of 3D-printer manufacturers to capture the sizes of their printers and propose a categorization of those sizes. The chart maps those categories onto the likely case opening sizes for each iPad model. Click on the image to expand it.
The “Mini” category of 3D-printers have print surfaces with an x-dimension of between 100 and 180 milimeters. “Compact” printers have print surfaces with an x-dimension between 100 and 230 milimeters.
Cases for an iPad Mini (the top entry in the chart) will ususally have an opening width between 161 and 194 mm (the extent of the top red line). These cases fall into both the “Mini” and “Compact” categories of printers. You may get lucky and be able to print your keyguguard on a “Mini” 3D-printer or you might not. You’re more likey to be successful with a “Compact” printer. You should still, check the size of your printer (or potential printer purchase) to the size of the specific case or cases that you are going to create.
Consider all the tablet models you will or may be creating keyguards for when deciding what printer to purchase.
ChatGPT was also helpful in compiling a list of “popular” 3D-printers in each of the catagories. Note that “popular” doesn’t mean that they’re the highest quality or that we recommend them. Also, note that what’s “popular” will change frequently as new printers are introduced.
| Category | Top 5 Popular Models |
| Micro | Voxelab Aquila Mini, Monoprice Mini Delta, Creality Ender-2, Anycubic Kobra Mini, Elegoo Neptune Mini |
| Mini | Prusa MINI+, Bambu A1 Mini, Ender-3 V3 SE, Neptune 4 Mini, Anycubic Kobra Go |
| Compact | Creality K1C, Flashforge Adventurer 5M, Flashforge AD5X, Neptune 4, Anycubic Kobra 3 |
| Standard | Prusa MK4S, Bambu P1S/P2S, Ender-3 series, QIDI Q1 Pro, Voxelab Aquila X2 |
| Large | Creality K1 Max, Creality K2 Pro/Plus, Flashforge Creator 3, Anycubic Chiron, QIDI X-PLUS 3 |
| X-Large | Prusa XL, Ender-5 Plus, Mosaic Element/HT, Flashforge Guider 3 Ultra, Mingda MD-400D |
In our experience, a “Large” category printer with a print surface of at least 300 mm wide will be sufficient to print almost all keyguards. A “Standard” printer with a print surface of at least 250 mm wide will be sufficient to print many, many keyguards.
Finally, note that a keyguard for a typical Chromebook will be approximately 275 mm wide.