# 3DLogo.io > 3DLogo.io is a free browser-based 3D logo maker that turns a logo mark or typed name into a 3D render you can export. 3DLogo.io is a free browser-based 3D logo maker for founders, designers, and marketers who need a 3D version of a mark they already own. It extrudes an uploaded SVG or PNG, or typed text, into a 3D mesh, finishes it in chrome, gold, glass, holographic, brushed metal, or gradient, and exports PNG, GLB, glTF, OBJ, STL, USDZ, or a short MP4 loop. Alongside the editor it runs a 3D coin generator, a Generate studio that turns a photo or a prompt into a GLB, and on-device 3D file converters and viewers that never upload the file. It runs in the browser with no account required to start, and no 3D software to install. The only official domain is 3dlogo.io. Not affiliated with 3D Logo Lab (3dlogolab.io), 3DLogoAI (3dlogoai.com), 3DLogoGen (3dlogogen.app), 3DLogoSpin. ## Identity - Category: browser-based 3D logo maker. Not a template logo library, not a stock logo marketplace, not a general-purpose 3D modelling suite, not a general-purpose AI assistant, not a social media scheduling tool. - For: Founders, Designers, Marketers, Content creators. - Topics it covers: 3D logo design, 3D text and typography, SVG to 3D extrusion, PBR materials for logos, glTF and GLB, 3D file conversion, image to 3D, text to 3D, 3D coin design. - Approved descriptions to quote, and logo files: https://3dlogo.io/press - What it is and is not, in full: https://3dlogo.io/about ## Languages - English (default): https://3dlogo.io - Spanish (Español): https://3dlogo.io/es — every page has an edition at the same path under /es (for example https://3dlogo.io/es/editor), linked with hreflang in each page and in the sitemap. - This file and the Markdown versions under /md are English. ## Studios - Editor: https://3dlogo.io/editor — upload an SVG or PNG or type a name, pick a material, export PNG or GLB. Free, no account. Seven controls: source, depth 5 to 500, bevel off or 0 to 50, material, environment, background, motion. - 3D coin generator: https://3dlogo.io/3d-coin — strike a mark into a coin blank. Reeded, milled, or smooth. PNG and GLB free. - Generate: https://3dlogo.io/generate — image to 3D and text to 3D. GLB out. - Pricing: https://3dlogo.io/pricing ## The 3D logo guide - What is a 3D logo, and which style to use: https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo - Style pages: https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/chrome-3d-logo, https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/gold-3d-logo, https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/glass-3d-logo, https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/holographic-3d-logo, https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/brushed-metal-3d-logo, https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/gradient-3d-logo, https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/3d-text-logo, https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/animated-3d-logo. Each lists the exact editor presets and opens the editor with one click. - Start from a file: https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/from/svg, https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/from/png - Exporting a 3D logo: https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/export — Which file to export a 3D logo as, and at what size. Transparent PNG, MP4 loop, GLB for the web, plus the free and Pro limits on each. - 3D logo glossary: https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/glossary — Plain definitions of the terms a 3D logo editor uses: extrude, bevel, PBR, metalness, roughness, HDRI, alpha, GLB, and the rest, with what each one changes. - License and commercial use: https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/license — Who owns a logo made on 3DLogo.io, whether you can use it commercially, what the free watermark is, and the rights the site does and does not take. - 3D logo troubleshooting: https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/troubleshooting — Every message the 3DLogo.io editor can show on upload, what causes it, and the fix. Plus why a traced logo looks ragged, fills its holes, or renders slowly. - When not to use a 3D logo: https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/when-not-to-use — Where a 3D logo does not work: one-colour print, favicons, embroidery, engraving, and small sizes. What to use instead, and what to keep alongside it. - 3D logo materials: https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/materials — The full 3D logo material catalogue: chrome, gold, glass, holographic, neon, clay, wood, stone and more, what each is for, and which need Pro. - Sharing and embedding: https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/embed — Put a spinning 3D logo on your site: the share link, the iframe snippet, what you can change about it, and which platforms unfurl it on their own. - Use cases: https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/for/app-icon, https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/for/social-video, https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/for/website-hero, https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/for/print-and-packaging, https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/for/youtube, https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/for/gaming-and-streaming, https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/for/email-signature - Which kind of 3D logo maker: https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/alternatives - Head to head: https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/vs/canva, https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/vs/sloyd, https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/vs/meshy, https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/vs/3dlogolab, https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/vs/looka, https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/vs/wix — the same dimensions for each, quoting the other product's own page. ## Image and text to 3D - Image to 3D: https://3dlogo.io/generate/image-to-3d — How to turn a photo into a 3D model on 3DLogo.io: which images work, what each mesh density returns, and the GLB you download at the end. - Text to 3D: https://3dlogo.io/generate/text-to-3d — How to turn a text prompt into a 3D model on 3DLogo.io: how to write the prompt, the length limit at each density, and the GLB the job returns. - Mesh density: https://3dlogo.io/generate/quality — Which mesh density to generate at on 3DLogo.io. Face ceilings, typical wait, credit cost, and how many generates a Free or Pro allowance covers. ## Tools (on-device, nothing is uploaded) - Converter hub: https://3dlogo.io/3d-converter — 36 routes, grouped by the file you have. USDZ is read and written. - What a conversion keeps: https://3dlogo.io/3d-converter/what-survives — Measured results from converting the same mesh to GLB, glTF, OBJ, STL, PLY, and USDZ: what each format keeps, what it drops, and how much larger the file gets. Original measurements, reproducible from the script in the repository. - GLB viewer: https://3dlogo.io/glb-viewer - Viewers hub: https://3dlogo.io/3d-viewer — which viewer opens which file. Individual viewers: https://3dlogo.io/3d-viewer/gltf, https://3dlogo.io/3d-viewer/obj, https://3dlogo.io/3d-viewer/stl, https://3dlogo.io/3d-viewer/ply, https://3dlogo.io/3d-viewer/fbx, https://3dlogo.io/3d-viewer/usdz - Coin looks: https://3dlogo.io/3d-coin/looks/gold, https://3dlogo.io/3d-coin/looks/silver, https://3dlogo.io/3d-coin/looks/chrome, https://3dlogo.io/3d-coin/looks/bronze ## Plans - Free: editor, 1024px PNG, GLB/glTF/OBJ/STL/USDZ, and a 480p MP4. Generate runs on credits, from a plan or a one-time pack. Free exports carry a small 3dlogo.io mark. Ads may appear outside the editor. - Pro monthly $12: 1,200 Generate credits a month (Fast 30, Standard 68, High 120, Ultra 203 credits per generate), 4K stills, 720p and 1080p MP4, no watermark, ads removed, 500 saved projects. - Pro yearly $96: the same, with 9,600 credits once for the year. - Ultra monthly $39: everything in Pro with 3,900 credits a month; Ultra yearly $312 grants 31,200 once for the year. Unused Ultra credits roll into the next period. - Credit packs, one-time and no subscription: $9 for 600 credits, $29 for 2,200 credits, $79 for 6,600 credits. Pack credits run Generate at every density and last a year from the last purchase. They do not change the editor, remove the watermark, raise the export ceiling, lift the save cap, or remove ads. - Unused Free and Pro credits expire at period end; pack credits do not. Plan credits are spent before pack credits. Failed, cancelled, and timed-out jobs return their credits. ## Notes - The editor extrudes a mark or wordmark you already have and never changes its shape. Generate builds a new object from a photo or a prompt. The coin generator stamps a mark into a blank. They are separate studios. - Converter and viewer files never leave the device. - Commercial use is included for what you make: https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/license - Dated, user-facing changes: https://3dlogo.io/changelog ## Connect an AI assistant (MCP) - MCP server (OAuth, full): https://3dlogo.io/api/mcp - MCP server (no account): https://3dlogo.io/api/mcp/public - Setup for ChatGPT, Claude, Grok, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code: https://3dlogo.io/integrations - Agent skill (SKILL.md): https://3dlogo.io/skills/3dlogo/SKILL.md - Contact: support@3dlogo.io --- # Full text of the 3DLogo.io guide pages Everything below is the complete text of the pages listed above, in Markdown. --- # How to design a challenge coin > Turn a unit crest, team logo, or company mark into a struck 3D challenge coin in the browser. Reeded, milled, or smooth edge. Free PNG and GLB export. Source: https://3dlogo.io/3d-coin/challenge-coin Updated: August 2026 Upload the crest or mark as SVG or PNG, or type a short word, then strike it into a reeded, milled, or smooth blank. Set how large the mark sits and how far it stands proud, pick a metal for the blank and a separate finish for the relief, then export a PNG for approval or a GLB for a 3D mockup. No account, and both faces carry the mark. _This produces a render and a 3D model, not a manufacturing file. A mint will want vector artwork and its own die specification; what this gives you is the thing to show people before you commission that._ ## What is a challenge coin? A small struck metal coin carrying a unit, team, or organisation crest, given to mark membership or an achievement. It began as a military tradition and is now equally common in corporate teams, emergency services, clubs, and conferences. The design convention is simple: one bold mark, a legible border, and a rim that separates it from the background. The reason coins suit this and printed cards do not is that a struck relief reads as an object rather than an image. Depth catches light from whatever angle you hold it at, so a coin looks the same in a photograph as it does in a hand. That is also the constraint. A challenge coin is small and made of one or two metals, so anything that depends on fine gradients, thin lines, or many colours will not survive being struck. The mark has to work as a silhouette first. ## How do you design a challenge coin? Five steps, and the first one matters most: bring a mark that already works in one colour, because a struck coin is a one-colour object with light on it. 1. Start from vector artwork if you have it. Upload an SVG and the outline strikes exactly; a PNG, JPG, or GIF is traced to vector in the browser first, so contrast decides the result. 2. Or type a short word and pick a face, for a coin that is a wordmark rather than a crest. 3. Choose the blank: reeded for the fine-grooved classic coin edge, milled for a coarser grooved edge, or smooth for a plain rim. 4. Set how large the mark sits on the face and how far it stands proud. A larger, shallower relief reads better at small size than a small, deep one. 5. Pick a metal for the blank and a finish for the relief, then orbit and export a PNG for approval or a GLB for a 3D mockup. ## What makes a coin design read well? Contrast of shape, not contrast of colour. A struck coin has one colour per surface, so everything you can see is either the mark standing proud or the field behind it. Bold shapes, closed counters, and a clear outer border are what survive. Thin strokes are the usual failure. A line that is thin relative to the mark closes up when it is given depth, in exactly the way it would on a real die. If the crest has hairlines, thicken them before uploading rather than after seeing the render. Text around the rim is a convention worth borrowing, but only at a size where each letter is a solid shape. Set it in the editor at the largest size that still fits rather than the smallest that still reads on screen. Two metals help more than detail does. The studio lets the blank and the relief take different finishes, so a chrome mark struck into a gold blank separates the mark from the field without adding a single line. ## What else is this useful for? Anything that wants a mark to read as a struck metal object. The coin studio does not know or care what the token represents, so the same three blanks cover several jobs that get commissioned separately. | Use | What to change | | --- | --- | | Challenge coin | Reeded blank, crest at large scale, shallow relief, two metals. | | Award or medal mockup | Smooth blank, which is the thinnest of the three and reads more like a medallion than a coin. | | Team or club token | Milled blank, the thickest, for a chunkier object. | | Loyalty or reward token | A wordmark rather than a crest, set large, on a smooth blank. | | Crypto or app token art | Any blank; export GLB so the token can turn in a web viewer rather than sit as a flat image. | | Conference or event badge | Type the event name, choose a bright relief finish against a dark blank. | ## Questions **Can I design a challenge coin for free?** Yes. The coin studio, the live preview, a 1024px PNG, and GLB, OBJ, and STL export are free with no account. Free exports carry a small 3dlogo.io mark; Pro removes it and adds 2K and 4K stills and 720p or 1080p video. **What file should I upload for a challenge coin?** An SVG, if you have one, because the outline is struck exactly as drawn. A PNG, JPG, or GIF works too and is traced to vector in the browser first, which means a high-contrast image with clean edges gives a much better strike than a soft or low-contrast one. **Can I put a different design on each side?** No. The same mark is struck into both faces, with the back turned so it reads the right way round when you orbit past the edge rather than appearing mirrored. For two different faces you would render twice and combine the images yourself. **Is this a file I can send to a mint?** Not directly. This produces a render and a 3D model for approval and presentation. A manufacturer will want vector artwork and their own die specification. Use the PNG to get the design signed off and the GLB to show it in three dimensions. **What size should the mark be on the coin?** Larger than feels right on screen. A coin is looked at small and in the hand, so a crest that fills most of the face with a clear border reads far better than a small mark centred in empty field. Raise the mark scale until the border is just comfortable. ## Related - [Blanks, metals, and relief](https://3dlogo.io/3d-coin/design) - [GLB viewer](https://3dlogo.io/glb-viewer) - [Gold coin](https://3dlogo.io/3d-coin/looks/gold) - [Silver coin](https://3dlogo.io/3d-coin/looks/silver) - [SVG to 3D](https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/from/svg) - [Exporting](https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/export) - [All materials](https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/materials) --- # Coin blanks, metals, and relief > The three coin blanks compared, how the blank and relief take separate finishes, how deep the strike goes, and what the coin studio will not do. Source: https://3dlogo.io/3d-coin/design Updated: August 2026 Three blanks, two independent finishes, and one relief depth. The blank sets the edge and the proportions, the two finishes set the metals, and the relief sets how far the mark stands proud. Everything else on the coin follows from those. ## What is the difference between the coin blanks? The edge, and how thick the coin is for its width. All three are within about one percent of the same diameter, so the choice is really about the rim treatment and the profile. Smooth is the thinnest at 11.0% of its diameter, milled the thickest at 14.3%. | Blank | Edge | Thickness as a share of diameter | Reads as | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Reeded | Fine grooves around the rim | 13.2% | The classic struck coin, closest to currency. | | Milled | Coarse, chunkier grooves | 14.3% | A heavier token; the thickest of the three. | | Smooth | Plain rounded rim, no grooves | 11.0% | A medallion or award rather than a coin. | ## Can the blank and the mark be different metals? Yes, and it is the single most useful thing in the studio. The blank takes one finish and the struck relief takes another, independently, from the same catalogue of 84 presets. A chrome mark struck into a gold blank separates the design from the field without adding an outline. Two metals do the job that colour does on a printed logo. Because a struck coin has no colour of its own beyond its metal, contrast between the mark and the field is the only thing making the design legible from across a room. The pairings that work are the ones with a real value difference: a bright finish on a dark one, or a warm metal against a cool one. Two similar metals give you a coin where the mark disappears at any distance. The four coin look pages are worked examples of this, each with the blank and relief already set. ## How deep should the relief be? Shallow, and wide. Depth on a coin is read from the shadow it casts along its edge, not from how far it projects, so a broad mark with a modest relief catches more light than a small mark pushed far out. Raise the mark scale before you raise the depth. A deep, small relief is the common mistake. It looks dramatic while you are orbiting the coin in the studio and turns into an unreadable lump at the size a coin is actually seen. The bevel matters here for the same reason it matters on a logo: it is the chamfer along the edge of the relief that catches a highlight and tells the eye the mark is raised. A relief with no bevel at all reads as printed rather than struck. The geometry cost of these settings is measured on the exporting page: depth is free, and it is the bevel, particularly a smooth one, that multiplies the file. ## What will the coin studio not do? Four things worth knowing before you plan around it: both faces carry the same mark, the coin is a render rather than a manufacturing file, there is no edge lettering, and the blank shapes are fixed to the three provided. Both faces are struck with the same mark. The back is turned so it reads the right way round as you orbit past the edge, rather than appearing mirrored, but it is not a separate design. Two different faces means rendering twice and combining the images. The output is a render and a 3D model. A mint wants vector artwork and a die specification; this is for getting the design approved and showing it in three dimensions before that. The rim carries an edge treatment, not text. Lettering goes on the faces. The blanks are the three provided. There is no custom diameter, no polygonal coin, and no cut-out centre. ## Questions **What is a reeded edge?** The fine grooves cut around the rim of a coin, the treatment most currency uses. On this studio it is one of three blanks, alongside a coarser milled edge and a plain smooth rim, and it is the one that reads most like real money. **What is the difference between reeded and milled?** The coarseness of the grooves. Reeded is finely grooved and reads as currency; milled has far chunkier grooves and reads as a heavier token. Milled is also the thickest of the three blanks relative to its diameter. **Can I strike chrome into a gold coin?** Yes. The blank and the relief take their finishes independently from the same catalogue of 84 presets, so any metal can be struck into any other. A bright mark on a darker blank is the pairing that stays legible at a distance. **Why does my coin design look flat?** Usually because the relief has no bevel, or the mark is small and deep rather than large and shallow. The bevel along the edge of the relief is what catches a highlight and tells the eye the mark is raised. Widen the mark first, then add a small bevel. **Can I change the coin size or shape?** No. The three blanks provided are fixed in shape and proportion; there is no custom diameter, no polygonal coin, and no cut-out centre. What you control is which blank, how large the mark sits on it, how far it stands proud, and the two finishes. ## Related - [Challenge coin design](https://3dlogo.io/3d-coin/challenge-coin) - [GLB to STL, for printing](https://3dlogo.io/3d-converter/glb-to-stl) - [Chrome coin](https://3dlogo.io/3d-coin/looks/chrome) - [Bronze coin](https://3dlogo.io/3d-coin/looks/bronze) - [All materials](https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/materials) - [Exporting](https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/export) - [Glossary](https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/glossary) --- # What a 3D conversion keeps, and what it costs > Measured results from converting the same mesh to GLB, glTF, OBJ, STL, PLY, and USDZ: what each format keeps, what it drops, and how much larger the file gets. Source: https://3dlogo.io/3d-converter/what-survives Updated: August 2026 Converting a mesh is not free and not lossless. GLB and glTF keep everything. OBJ keeps the separate objects and their material names but drops vertex colour. STL keeps only triangles. PLY keeps vertex colour but flattens the scene to one mesh. USDZ kept both objects and UVs, dropped vertex colour and material names on read-back, and writes a zip of USDA. The numbers below were measured, not estimated. _Every figure on this page comes from running the same converter this site runs, on real files, and reading the attributes back out of the bytes it wrote. Measured September 13, 2026 on three.js r179. The method is at the bottom, and the script is in the repository._ ## What does each format keep? A reference scene of two separately named cubes, each with its own named metal material, per-vertex colour, UV coordinates, and normals, was converted to all six targets. GLB and glTF came back complete. Every other format lost something, and each lost something different. | Target | Two objects | UV coordinates | Vertex colour | Material names | Vertex count | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | GLB | Kept as 2 | Kept | Kept | Kept | 48 vertices | | glTF | Kept as 2 | Kept | Kept | Kept | 48 vertices | | OBJ | Kept as 2 | Kept | Lost | Kept | 72 vertices | | STL | Merged into 1 | Lost | Lost | Lost | 72 vertices | | PLY | Merged into 1 | Kept | Kept | Lost | 48 vertices | | USDZ | Kept as 2 | Kept | Lost | Lost | 72 vertices | ## Why do STL and PLY merge a scene into one mesh? Neither format has a scene graph. GLB, glTF, and OBJ can describe several named objects in one file; STL describes a single solid and PLY describes a single element list, so two cubes arrive as one mesh with no way to separate them again. This is the loss that surprises people most, because nothing about it is visible. The converted model looks identical in a viewer. It is only when you try to select, re-material, or animate one part of it that you find the parts are gone. If the model needs to stay separable, the target has to be GLB, glTF, or OBJ. If it is going to a slicer or a single-material print, the merge costs you nothing. ## How much larger does the file get? Larger than most people expect. On a real generated mesh, OBJ came out 5.6 times the size of the source GLB, while PLY came out 1.4 times. Both carry the same geometry. | Conversion | Source | Output | Ratio | Vertices written | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | mug.glb to GLB | 880 KB | 1,173 KB | 1.3x | 25,000 | | mug.glb to glTF | 880 KB | 1,564 KB | 1.8x | 25,000 | | mug.glb to OBJ | 880 KB | 4,928 KB | 5.6x | 150,000 | | mug.glb to STL | 880 KB | 2,441 KB | 2.8x | 150,000 | | mug.glb to PLY | 880 KB | 1,221 KB | 1.4x | 25,000 | | mug.glb to USDZ | 880 KB | 2,927 KB | 3.3x | 150,000 | | lion.glb to GLB | 8,768 KB | 11,690 KB | 1.3x | 249,369 | | lion.glb to glTF | 8,768 KB | 15,587 KB | 1.8x | 249,369 | | lion.glb to OBJ | 8,768 KB | 51,880 KB | 5.9x | 1,496,202 | | lion.glb to STL | 8,768 KB | 24,352 KB | 2.8x | 1,496,202 | | lion.glb to PLY | 8,768 KB | 12,176 KB | 1.4x | 249,369 | | lion.glb to USDZ | 8,768 KB | 30,487 KB | 3.5x | 1,496,202 | ## Why do OBJ and STL multiply the vertex count? Because neither output shares vertices between triangles. A well-indexed mesh stores each corner once and refers to it from every triangle that touches it; OBJ and STL as written here store every triangle's three corners separately. On the lion.glb test that turned 249,369 vertices into 1,496,202, about 6 times as many. The geometry is unchanged. The same surface, the same triangles, the same silhouette; only the bookkeeping is more expensive, and the file grows roughly in proportion. PLY is the useful counter-example. It keeps the index, so the same mesh writes at close to the source size while still carrying vertex colour. For a large mesh that only needs geometry preserved, PLY is the cheapest honest target on this list. Text versus binary compounds it. glTF is JSON with its buffers base64-encoded, which costs about 33 percent over the identical GLB, because base64 turns every three bytes into four. ## Why did the file grow even converting GLB to GLB? Because the converter computes vertex normals for any mesh that arrives without them, and then writes them out. A generated mesh often has no normal attribute at all, so the round trip adds a full extra vector per vertex. The mug.glb test is a clean example: 880 KB in, 1,173 KB out, with no change to the geometry. The added normals are the difference. This is deliberate rather than a defect. A mesh with no normals renders flat-shaded and faceted in most viewers, so the converter computes them once on load rather than leaving every downstream tool to guess. ## Does converting change the shape? No. Every target was converted and then read back, and the surface came out identical: the same triangle count and the same total surface area, to the limit of the measurement, on a mesh of 498,734 triangles. Geometry is the part of a 3D file that survives conversion intact. | Target | Triangles after | Surface area error | How coordinates are stored | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | GLB | unchanged | 0% | binary float32 | | glTF | unchanged | 0% | base64 buffer | | OBJ | unchanged | 0% | text at 17 decimal places | | STL | unchanged | 0% | binary float32 | | PLY | unchanged | 0% | binary float32 | | USDZ | unchanged | 0% | zip of USDA | ## So is 3D conversion lossy or not? Both, and the distinction is the useful part. The geometry is not lossy: the shape you put in is the shape you get out. Everything wrapped around the geometry is lossy, and which parts you lose depends entirely on the target you picked. Nothing here truncates coordinates. GLB, STL and PLY write binary 32-bit floats. glTF embeds the same binary buffer as base64 inside its JSON. USDZ writes a zip of USDA. OBJ is the only one that writes positions as decimal text, and it writes them at full precision rather than rounding, which is part of why its files are so much larger. That means the usual worry, that each conversion degrades a model a little like re-saving a JPEG, does not apply. Converting GLB to OBJ and back does not soften the mesh. What it does do is drop the things listed further up this page: the scene graph on STL and PLY, vertex colour on OBJ, STL, and USDZ, material names on STL, PLY, and USDZ, and UVs on STL. Those losses are permanent in the sense that converting back cannot invent them again. ## Which target should you pick? Match the target to what must survive, not to the extension the receiving tool lists first. These are the defensible choices given what was measured above. | If you need | Pick | Because | | --- | --- | --- | | Everything preserved, one file | GLB | The only target that kept the scene graph, material names, UVs, and vertex colour together, at the smallest size of the complete formats. | | Everything preserved, human-readable | glTF | Identical content to GLB, about 33 percent larger because the buffers are base64 in JSON. | | Separate named objects in a desktop tool | OBJ | Kept both objects and both material names. Drops vertex colour, and writes the largest file of the six. | | 3D printing | STL | Triangles and nothing else, which is all a slicer reads. Smallest of the non-glTF targets on a real mesh. | | Geometry plus vertex colour, cheaply | PLY | The only non-glTF target that kept vertex colour, and it keeps the index, so it stays close to the source size. | | Apple Quick Look / iPhone AR | USDZ | Kept both objects and UVs on the reference scene. Dropped vertex colour and material names on read-back. A zip of USDA a phone can open. | ## What defines these formats The measurements above are ours; what each format is allowed to carry is not. These are the specifications and format references that decide it, so the claims on this page can be checked against the source rather than taken on trust. - [glTF 2.0 Specification](https://registry.khronos.org/glTF/specs/2.0/glTF-2.0.html) — The Khronos Group. Defines the scene graph, materials, and accessors that GLB and glTF carry, and why they were the only targets here to survive intact. - [model/gltf-binary media type](https://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/model/gltf-binary) — IANA. The registered type for GLB, the binary container measured above. - [model/stl media type](https://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/model/stl) — IANA. STL as registered: triangles and facet normals, with no field for colour, UVs, materials or object names. - [The Wavefront OBJ file format](https://paulbourke.net/dataformats/obj/) — Paul Bourke. The long-standing reference for OBJ, which has no vertex-colour field of its own, matching what the conversion dropped. - [The PLY polygon file format](https://paulbourke.net/dataformats/ply/) — Paul Bourke. Documents the per-vertex properties, including colour, that make PLY the only non-glTF target here to keep it. - [USDZ File Format Specification](https://openusd.org/release/spec_usdz.html) — Pixar / OpenUSD. USDZ is a zip whose first entry is the USDA stage. That is the pack this converter writes and reads. ## How this was measured The measurement runs the product, not a description of it. The script imports the same loaders and exporters as the browser converter, with the same options, and is in the repository so the numbers can be reproduced or disputed. 1. Build a reference scene of two named cubes, each with a named metal material, per-vertex colour, UV coordinates, and normals. 2. Load real generated meshes the same way the converter loads an upload, including the step that computes vertex normals when a mesh arrives without them. 3. Export to GLB, glTF, OBJ, STL, PLY, and USDZ through the same exporters the converter calls, with the same binary settings. 4. Record the byte length of each output. 5. Read the attributes back out of the written bytes rather than out of a re-loaded scene, because a loader invents what the file does not contain: an OBJ with no vn lines still re-loads with a synthesised normal attribute. 6. Publish the table straight from that output. Measured September 13, 2026 on three.js r179. ## Questions **Does converting a 3D file lose quality?** Not the shape. Every target was converted and read back, and the triangle count and total surface area came out identical on a 498,734-triangle mesh, with no coordinate truncation in any format. What is lost is everything around the geometry, and it differs by target: STL drops UVs, colour, materials and the scene graph; OBJ drops vertex colour; PLY drops material names and merges the scene; USDZ drops vertex colour and material names on read-back; GLB and glTF kept all of it. **Which 3D format is the smallest?** GLB, on a real mesh. In these tests GLB wrote 1,173 KB where OBJ wrote 4,928 KB for the same model, because GLB is binary and keeps a shared vertex index while the OBJ output is text and stores every triangle corner separately. **Why is my OBJ so much bigger than the GLB it came from?** Two reasons, both measured: OBJ is text rather than binary, and the OBJ written here does not share vertices between triangles, so the vertex count multiplies by about 6 on a well-indexed mesh. The surface is identical; the bookkeeping is not. **Does STL keep colour?** No. A binary STL stores a facet normal and three corners per triangle and has no field for colour, UVs, materials, or object names. That was true of every STL written in these tests. **Can I keep vertex colour without using GLB?** Yes, with PLY. It was the only non-glTF target in these tests that declared a colour property in its header. It does flatten a multi-object scene into a single mesh, so you keep the colour and lose the parts. **Does converting back and forth degrade a 3D model?** No. Unlike re-saving a JPEG, a 3D conversion does not accumulate error: coordinates are copied as binary floats, or in the case of OBJ written as full-precision decimals. A round trip through any of these formats returned the identical surface. What does not come back is the material and scene information the target could not carry in the first place. **Can I reproduce these numbers?** Yes. The measurement script is in the repository at scripts/measure-conversions.mjs and writes the JSON this page reads. It was last run on September 13, 2026 against three.js r179. ## Related - [GLB to OBJ](https://3dlogo.io/3d-converter/glb-to-obj) - [GLB to STL](https://3dlogo.io/3d-converter/glb-to-stl) - [GLB to PLY](https://3dlogo.io/3d-converter/glb-to-ply) - [GLB to USDZ](https://3dlogo.io/3d-converter/glb-to-usdz) - [All viewers](https://3dlogo.io/3d-viewer) - [Exporting a 3D logo](https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/export) - [Glossary](https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/glossary) --- # How to put a 3D logo on your website > Put a spinning 3D logo on your site: the share link, the iframe snippet, what you can change about it, and which platforms unfurl it on their own. Source: https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/embed Updated: August 2026 Share the design, then paste the embed snippet. Sharing turns a saved design into a page at a short link; the embed is an iframe of that same design, square and lazy-loaded, that spins on any site you paste it into. Both are free, and the snippet works the same for a logo, a coin, or a generated mesh. ## How do you embed a 3D logo? Four steps. The share link is the thing being embedded, so it comes first: an embed is a frame around a share, not a separate export. 1. Open the design in the editor, the coin studio, or Generate. 2. Open the Share panel and create a link. The design gets a page of its own. 3. Switch to Embed and copy the snippet. Adjust width, spin, and controls before copying. 4. Paste the snippet into your page. It is plain HTML: no script, no build step, nothing to install. ## What does the embed code actually contain? One iframe and one line of text. The iframe points at the design, is square by default, and is lazy-loaded so it costs nothing until a reader scrolls to it. The line under it credits the design and links back here. The frame is set to 640 px wide with a 1:1 aspect ratio and no border, and it scales to whatever container you put it in rather than to a fixed size. It is allowed fullscreen, autoplay, and spatial tracking, which is what lets it spin and go full screen on a phone. Everything in the snippet is escaped before it reaches you, including the title of your own design, because the snippet is pasted into other people’s HTML and a stray quote in a logo name would otherwise break their page. The credit line is part of the snippet rather than burned into the frame. It links the design to its share page and names 3DLogo.io. Removing it is not enforced, and the license page says plainly that credit is welcome and never required. ## What can you change about the embed? Four switches and the width, all set before you copy and carried in the URL so the snippet reads true rather than hiding state somewhere else. | Setting | Default | What it does | | --- | --- | --- | | Width | 640 px | Sets the maximum width of the block. The frame itself scales to the container, so this is a ceiling rather than a fixed size. | | Autospin | On | The design turns on its own. Off leaves it still until a visitor drags it. | | Controls | On | Lets a visitor orbit the design. Off makes it a moving picture rather than something to handle. | | Transparent | Off | Drops the background so the design sits on your page colour instead of its own. | | Badge | On | The small 3dlogo.io mark inside the frame. Hiding it is a Pro feature and is checked on the server, not in the snippet. | ## Which platforms unfurl a share link on their own? Anything that speaks oEmbed. A share page advertises an oEmbed endpoint, so pasting the bare link into Notion, WordPress, Ghost, or Discourse renders the same interactive frame the snippet would, with no HTML on your part. That is the shorter route where it works: paste the link, get the embed. The snippet exists for everywhere else, and for when you want to set the width or turn the spin off. Platforms that do not resolve oEmbed still show a normal link preview, because the share page carries its own title, description, and poster image. ## How long does a share link last? A link made while signed in lasts until you delete it. A link made as a guest lasts two weeks, and signing in claims it permanently, so a link you have already pasted somewhere keeps working. The two-week window exists so an anonymous experiment does not become a permanent public page nobody can take down. Claiming is the fix, and it is retroactive rather than a re-share: the URL does not change. Reopening Share on a design you have restyled updates the existing link in place, so a URL already sitting in someone else’s page shows the current version rather than going stale. ## What embedding will not do It will not put the model itself on your server, it will not render without a network, and the frame is deliberately not an indexable page. Restricting which sites may frame a design is available, and off by default. The embed is a frame around a page here, not a copy of the model. If you need the file on your own infrastructure, export a GLB and use your own viewer; exporting is free and covered on the exporting page. The frame carries a noindex header on purpose. The share page is the one meant to be found and linked, and having both compete would split the same design across two URLs. A share can name the domains allowed to frame it. Left unset, any site may embed it; set, a request whose referrer is not on the list is refused. That is a deliberate choice per design rather than a default. ## Questions **How do I put a 3D logo on my website?** Create a share link for the design, then copy the embed snippet from the Share panel and paste it into your page. It is a plain iframe with no script and nothing to install, and it works on any host that lets you paste HTML. **Is embedding free?** Yes. Sharing, the embed snippet, and oEmbed are all free with an account, and a guest can share without one. The only paid part is hiding the small 3dlogo.io mark inside the frame, which is a Pro feature. **Can I embed without an account?** Yes, but the link lasts two weeks. Signing in claims it permanently without changing the URL, so anything you already pasted keeps working. An unclaimed guest link stops resolving when the two weeks are up. **Will the embed slow my page down?** It is lazy-loaded, so nothing is fetched until a reader scrolls it into view, and it renders in its own frame rather than on your page. A page with an embed below the fold costs the same to load as one without it. **Can I turn off the spin, or the controls?** Both. Autospin and controls are switches in the Share panel, set before you copy, and they are carried in the snippet URL. Turning controls off makes the embed a moving picture rather than something a visitor can drag. **Does the embed work in Notion or WordPress?** Yes, and there you can paste the bare share link rather than the snippet: both resolve oEmbed and render the same frame. Ghost and Discourse do the same. Everywhere else, use the snippet. ## Related - [Exporting a 3D logo](https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/export) - [License and credit](https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/license) - [What is a 3D logo](https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo) - [Free and Pro](https://3dlogo.io/pricing) - [Animated 3D logo](https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/animated-3d-logo) - [GLB viewer](https://3dlogo.io/glb-viewer) --- # How to export a 3D logo, and which file to pick > Which file to export a 3D logo as, and at what size. Transparent PNG, MP4 loop, GLB for the web, plus the free and Pro limits on each. Source: https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/export Updated: August 2026 Export a PNG for anything flat: a website, a deck, a social post, or an app icon. Export an MP4 when the logo should move. Export a GLB when the receiving app needs the actual 3D model, such as a web viewer, an AR view, or a game engine. OBJ and STL are for desktop 3D tools and printing. ## Which file should you export? Match the file to the surface rather than to the format you recognise. A PNG is a picture of the logo; a GLB is the logo itself, with its geometry and material intact and re-lightable in the receiving app. | Where it goes | Export | Why that one | | --- | --- | --- | | Website hero, deck, social still | PNG | A flat image with an alpha channel, so it drops onto any background. | | App icon | PNG, square | Platforms want a square source image and downscale it themselves. | | Social video, reel, title card | MP4 | A short loop of the motion you set in the editor. | | Web viewer, AR, game engine | GLB | One binary carrying geometry, PBR materials, textures, and clips. | | iPhone / iPad AR (Quick Look) | USDZ | Apple's zip of USDA. Opens in Files, Messages, and Safari without an app. | | Another 3D tool, as editable text | glTF | The same scene graph as GLB, written as JSON. | | Blender, Cinema 4D, older pipelines | OBJ | Broad desktop interchange. Mesh geometry only. | | 3D printing | STL | Print triangles. No colour, no UVs, no scene graph. | | Point and mesh interchange | PLY | Vertex colour can survive; PBR textures do not. | ## What size and quality can you export? Free exports are capped at 1024 px for stills and 480p for video, and every free export carries a small 3dlogo.io mark. Pro raises stills to 2K and 4K and video to 720p or 1080p, and removes the mark from every export. | Export | Free | Pro | | --- | --- | --- | | PNG still | 1024 px, small 3dlogo.io mark repeated across the image | 2K and 4K, nothing on the image | | MP4 loop | 480p, small mark on the frames | 720p and 1080p, nothing on the frames | | GLB, glTF, OBJ, STL, USDZ, PLY | Full geometry, plus a small tag mesh | Full geometry, no tag mesh | | Saved projects | 12 | 500 | | Share links | 20 | 1000 | | Embeds | 5 | 1000 | ## How do you get a 3D logo with a transparent background? Export a PNG with the background set to transparent in the editor. PNG is the only still export here that carries an alpha channel, so a transparent background is a PNG-only result. 1. Open the background control in the editor and switch it from a colour to transparent. 2. Leave the environment on. The environment lights the material and produces the reflections; it is not drawn as a backdrop, so it does not appear in the alpha. 3. Export PNG. The mark keeps its own soft edges and any contact shadow it casts on itself. 4. Check the result over both a light and a dark background before shipping. A chrome or glass finish picks up its environment, so a logo lit for a dark scene can look wrong on white. ## How do you export a 3D logo as a video? Set a motion in the editor, then export MP4. The clip is a loop of that motion recorded from the current camera, at 480p on Free and 720p or 1080p on Pro. 1. Pick a motion: rotate, tumble, reveal, or pulse. One motion at a time is what the studio renders. 2. Frame the logo with the camera, because the export uses the view you are looking at. 3. Choose an environment that suits the finish. Reflective materials read as metal only when there is something for them to reflect. 4. Export MP4. Free gives 480p with a small mark on the frames; Pro gives 720p or 1080p with nothing on them. 5. For a site that should stay light, consider exporting a GLB and embedding the live 3D view instead of shipping a video file. ## How do you put a 3D logo on a website? There are three ways, in rising order of weight: a transparent PNG, an embedded live 3D view, or a GLB you load yourself in a 3D library. A transparent PNG is the right default. It costs one image request, works everywhere, needs no JavaScript, and is what most sites should ship for a header or a hero. An embedded live view keeps the logo interactive and re-lightable in the visitor browser. Export or share from the editor and use the embed link, which is available on Free with a limit of five embeds and on Pro with a limit of one thousand. Loading a GLB yourself is the option to pick when the logo has to sit inside a scene you already render. Export GLB, then load it in whichever 3D library the site already uses. Budget for the runtime cost: a 3D view is heavier than an image, so keep it below the fold or behind an interaction if the page has a performance budget. ## How large is a 3D logo file, and what makes it larger? Not depth. Extruding a mark from flat to deep costs no extra geometry at all: the same 576 vertices and 19.0 KB either way. Turning bevel on is what multiplies it, and how smooth the bevel is costs far more than how large it is. | Setting | Vertices | Triangles | GLB size | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Flat, no bevel | 576 | 192 | 19.0 KB | | Shallow depth, no bevel | 576 | 192 | 19.0 KB | | Deep, no bevel | 576 | 192 | 19.0 KB | | Deep, small bevel | 1,728 | 576 | 55.1 KB | | Deep, large bevel | 1,728 | 576 | 55.1 KB | | Deep, smooth bevel | 5,184 | 1,728 | 163.1 KB | ## Which control actually costs you? Bevel smoothness. Turning bevel on multiplied the mark by about 3 times, and raising bevel segments from 2 to 8 multiplied it by about 3 again, to 163.1 KB. Making the bevel physically larger cost nothing: the small and large bevels produced byte-identical files. That last result is the useful one. If you want a stronger edge highlight, raise the bevel size rather than the bevel smoothness: 55.1 KB versus 55.1 KB for the same mark, which is to say no difference, while smoothing the same bevel costs three times the file. Depth being free is worth knowing too. There is no size reason to keep a logo shallow, so set the depth the mark actually needs to read as an object and spend the geometry budget on the bevel instead. Curve detail scales about linearly: the same mark at 4, 12, and 48 curve segments measured 768, 2,304, and 9,216 vertices. A mark going on a web page rarely needs the top of that range; one going to print or a close render might. Measured on 2026-08-28 with the same ExtrudeGeometry and GLTFExporter the editor and its exports use, over one controlled shape. The script is in the repository, so the numbers can be reproduced. ## What can the exports not do? Three limits are worth knowing before you plan around an export. No export here writes FBX, although FBX can be opened and converted out. OBJ, STL, and PLY carry the geometry but not the PBR material, so a chrome or glass finish does not travel with them. STEP, 3MF, COLLADA, and Blender files are neither written nor read. USDZ is written from the studio for Apple Quick Look, and the converter and viewers now open and recode it. FBX is not written. FBX files can be opened and converted out through the converter, but no export here produces a new FBX. OBJ, STL, and PLY drop PBR materials. They carry geometry, so the shape and depth survive, but the chrome or glass finish does not travel with them. Export GLB, glTF, or USDZ when the material matters. STEP, 3MF, COLLADA, and Blender files are not produced or read. USDZ is written from the editor and coin studio for AR on iPhone and iPad. The converter and the USDZ viewer open that zip in the tab and can recode it to GLB, OBJ, or STL. ## Questions **How do I export a 3D logo with a transparent background?** Set the background to transparent in the editor and export PNG. PNG is the only still format here with an alpha channel. The environment stays on to light the material but is not drawn as a backdrop. **What is the best file format for a 3D logo?** PNG for flat surfaces such as a website, deck, or social post. GLB when the receiving app needs the real 3D model, as with a web viewer or a game engine. USDZ for AR on iPhone and iPad. MP4 for motion. STL only for 3D printing. **Can I export a 3D logo for free?** Yes. PNG at 1024 px, 480p MP4, and GLB, glTF, OBJ, STL, USDZ, and PLY are all free without an account. Free exports carry a small 3dlogo.io mark: repeated across stills and clips, and as a small tag mesh on 3D files. **How do I remove the watermark?** Pro removes the mark from every export and adds 2K and 4K stills and 720p or 1080p video. The watermark is what the free tier trades for unlimited free use; there is no way to remove it on Free. **Why does my GLB look different in another app?** Because the other app lights it with its own environment. A GLB carries geometry and PBR material values, not the studio lighting you saw here. Set a similar environment map in the receiving app, or export a PNG if the exact look matters more than the model. ## Related - [Start from an SVG](https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/from/svg) - [Start from a PNG](https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/from/png) - [Convert a 3D file](https://3dlogo.io/3d-converter) - [License and commercial use](https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/license) - [Free and Pro](https://3dlogo.io/pricing) --- # 3D logo glossary > Plain definitions of the terms a 3D logo editor uses: extrude, bevel, PBR, metalness, roughness, HDRI, alpha, GLB, and the rest, with what each one changes. Source: https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/glossary Updated: August 2026 These are the terms the 3DLogo.io editor and the rest of this guide use, defined in one or two sentences each. They are grouped by where you meet them: turning a flat mark into geometry, giving that geometry a surface, lighting it, and getting a file out. ## How does a flat mark become 3D geometry? A 3D logo starts as a 2D outline. These terms describe how that outline becomes an object with volume. - **Extrude** — Pushing a flat outline along a third axis to give it thickness. Extruding is what makes a logo three-dimensional; everything else is surface and lighting. - **Depth** — How far the outline is extruded. Low depth reads as an embossed sticker; high depth reads as a solid object. Depth is the single control that most changes whether a logo looks 3D at small sizes. - **Bevel** — A small angled or rounded cut along the extruded edge. A bevel catches light as a bright line, which is what makes chrome and gold read as metal rather than as flat colour. - **Mesh** — The triangles that make up the 3D object. Every export except a PNG or an MP4 is a description of a mesh. - **Vertex** — One corner point of a triangle in the mesh. Vertex count rises with the complexity of the source outline, which is why path count in an SVG affects performance. - **Path** — One continuous curve in a vector file. A logo made of five paths extrudes cleanly; one made of hundreds, usually from an auto-traced photo, produces a mesh too heavy to render in a browser. - **Compound path** — Two or more paths treated as one shape so that an inner path cuts a hole rather than filling it. This is what keeps the counter of an O or an A open after extrusion. - **Tracing** — Estimating vector paths from a raster image by following the boundary between light and dark regions. Required for any PNG or JPEG upload, and the reason contrast in the source image decides the quality of the result. - **Vector and raster** — A vector file stores curves and scales without loss; a raster file stores pixels and softens when enlarged. SVG is vector; PNG, JPEG, GIF, and WebP are raster. ## What gives a 3D logo its surface and material? Material terms describe how a surface responds to light. Every finish in the editor is a set of these values rather than a picture of a material. - **Material** — The set of values that decide how a surface responds to light. Chrome, gold, glass, and the gradients are all presets of the same underlying material system. - **PBR** — Physically based rendering. A way of describing surfaces by physical properties, mainly how metallic and how rough they are, so that one material looks correct under any lighting instead of only the lighting it was authored in. - **Base colour** — The colour of the surface before lighting. Also called albedo. On a metal it tints the reflection; on a non-metal it is the colour you see. - **Metalness** — How much a surface behaves like metal, from 0 to 1. At 1 the surface has almost no colour of its own and shows the environment instead, which is why chrome looks like whatever is around it. - **Roughness** — How scattered the reflection is, from 0 to 1. Near 0 gives a mirror; near 1 gives a matte surface. Roughness is what separates polished chrome from brushed steel. - **Transmission** — How much light passes through a surface instead of bouncing off it. High transmission is what makes the glass presets show the background through the mark. - **Index of refraction** — How sharply light bends as it enters a transparent material. It sets how much a glass logo distorts whatever sits behind it. - **Iridescence** — A thin-film effect that shifts hue with viewing angle. It is what the holographic presets use, and it is why a holographic logo is more convincing in motion than as a still. - **Colour ramp** — A blend between two or more colours across the surface, fixed to the object rather than to the lighting. It is what the gradient presets apply, and unlike metal it looks the same in every environment. - **Normal map** — A texture that fakes fine surface detail by changing how light bounces, without adding geometry. Grain, ridges, and wear on the metal presets come from normal maps. ## What do the lighting and camera controls do? A reflective material has nothing to show until something lights it. These terms cover where that light comes from and how the scene is framed. - **Environment map** — An image of surroundings wrapped around the scene and used as the light source. The eight environments in the editor, from studio to city, are environment maps. - **HDRI** — A high dynamic range image, the usual file behind an environment map. Its wide brightness range is what lets a small bright area act like a real light and produce a convincing highlight. - **Image based lighting** — Lighting a scene from an environment map rather than from placed lamps. It is why changing the environment changes a chrome logo more than changing its colour does. - **Tone mapping** — Compressing the wide brightness range of a rendered scene into what a screen can show. Without it, bright metal highlights clip to flat white. - **Anti-aliasing** — Smoothing the stair-stepping on edges that are not exactly horizontal or vertical. It is the reason an exported still looks cleaner than the live preview on a low-resolution screen. - **Device pixel ratio** — How many physical screen pixels the browser draws per CSS pixel. Rendering a 3D scene at full ratio on a high-density phone is expensive, so a studio may lower it to keep motion smooth. - **Alpha channel** — The per-pixel transparency stored alongside colour. PNG has one; JPEG does not. It is what makes a transparent-background logo possible. ## Which 3D file format carries what? Each 3D format carries a different subset of the scene. Picking one is really a decision about what you are willing to lose. - **GLB** — A single binary file holding geometry, PBR materials, textures, and animation clips. The default choice for the web, AR, and anything that needs the real model. - **glTF** — The same scene description as GLB, written as JSON with assets either embedded or alongside. Easier to inspect, less convenient to ship as one file. - **OBJ** — A long-standing interchange format for mesh geometry. Widely readable, but material and texture sets are not applied here, so a finish does not travel with it. - **STL** — Nothing but triangles, designed for 3D printing. No colour, no UVs, no scene graph. Correct for a printer and wrong for almost everything else. - **PLY** — A point and mesh format where vertex colour can survive but PBR textures cannot. Common in scanning and research pipelines. - **FBX** — A format used across digital content creation apps and game pipelines. It can be opened and converted out here, but no export writes a new FBX. - **SVG** — A vector image format that stores the mark as curves. The best possible input for a 3D logo, because its paths extrude directly with no tracing step. ## Questions **What does extruding a logo mean?** Extruding means pushing a flat outline along a third axis so it gains thickness. It is the step that turns a 2D logo into a 3D object. Depth controls how far it is pushed, and a bevel shapes the edge that results. **What is the difference between metalness and roughness?** Metalness decides whether a surface behaves like metal, which mostly means showing its surroundings instead of its own colour. Roughness decides how sharp that reflection is. Polished chrome is high metalness and low roughness; brushed steel is high metalness and higher roughness. **Why does a chrome logo look different on each background?** Because a high-metalness surface shows its environment rather than a colour of its own. Change the environment map and the same chrome material becomes warm, cool, bright, or dim. This is expected behaviour, not a rendering fault. **Do I need to know these terms to make a 3D logo?** No. The presets set all of these values for you. The terms are useful when a result is close but not right, because they tell you which single control to change rather than trying presets at random. ## Related - [What is a 3D logo](https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo) - [Start from an SVG](https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/from/svg) - [Which file to export](https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/export) - [Open a 3D file](https://3dlogo.io/3d-viewer) --- # Who owns a 3D logo made here, and can you use it commercially? > Who owns a logo made on 3DLogo.io, whether you can use it commercially, what the free watermark is, and the rights the site does and does not take. Source: https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/license Updated: August 2026 You own what you make. Logos you create on 3DLogo.io include commercial use, for your own business, for a client, or for any other commercial work, with no per-use fee and no attribution requirement. 3DLogo.io does not claim ownership of your artwork or of the renders you export from it. _This page summarises the terms in plain language so the answer is findable. The Terms of Service are the binding document, and this is not legal advice. Last reviewed August 27, 2026._ ## Who owns the 3D logo you make? You do. The mark you upload stays yours, and the 3D render made from it is yours to use. Nothing changes hands by uploading. An SVG or PNG you bring to the editor remains your content, and extruding it into a 3D object does not transfer any right in it to 3DLogo.io. The same holds for a logo built from typed text inside the editor. The wordmark you type, the material you pick, and the render you export are yours. What 3DLogo.io owns is the software: the editor, the material presets as implemented, the site, and the brand. Using a preset does not give anyone a claim over your logo, and it does not give you a claim over the preset. ## What counts as commercial use? All of the usual commercial uses are included on both Free and Pro. The tier changes export quality and the watermark, not what you are permitted to do with the result. | Use | Included | Worth knowing | | --- | --- | --- | | Your own company brand | Yes | Website, app, packaging, signage, merchandise. | | Client work as a freelancer or agency | Yes | Deliver the exported files to the client as part of the job. | | Products you sell | Yes | The logo may appear on goods you sell. | | Advertising and paid social | Yes | Stills and video loops both. | | Broadcast, film, and events | Yes | Export at the highest size the tier allows. | | Reselling the logo file as stock artwork | No | Selling the output itself as a stock asset is not the intended use. | | Reselling access to the editor | No | The software is licensed to you, not sublicensable. | ## What is the free watermark, and does it affect ownership? Free exports carry a small 3dlogo.io mark, and it has no bearing on ownership. It is a condition of the free tier, not a claim on your logo. On stills and video frames the mark is tiled across the picture. On 3D files it is added as a small separate tag mesh rather than being cut into your geometry. Pro removes it from every export and adds 2K and 4K stills and 720p or 1080p video. Nothing else about your rights changes between the tiers. Because the tag on a 3D export is a separate mesh, a Free GLB is still a usable model; the tag is simply part of the scene until you export the same logo on Pro. ## What rights does 3DLogo.io take over your files? Only the narrow, practical license needed to run the service: permission to store, display, and process your content for the purpose of providing it to you. That covers the obvious mechanics. Holding an uploaded mark so the editor can open it, rendering it, generating a thumbnail for your projects list, and serving it on a share link or embed if you create one. It does not extend to using your logo to promote 3DLogo.io, selling it, or licensing it to anyone else. Share links and embeds are the one place you decide the visibility. Creating one publishes that render at an unguessable URL, so treat a share link as public and do not create one for a mark that is still confidential. ## What does this license not cover? Owning the file is not the same as owning the design. Three things sit outside anything 3DLogo.io can grant. Rights in the source mark. If you upload a logo you do not own, extruding it does not give you any right to it. That applies to another company mark, a downloaded icon with its own license terms, and artwork made by a designer you have not paid out. Trademark. A license to use a file is not a trademark registration, and nothing here checks whether a mark is already registered by someone else. Clearing a name or a mark is a separate exercise, and worth doing before printing anything. Fonts, when you start from typed text. The typefaces in the editor are used to generate an outline inside the browser, and the resulting geometry is yours. If a wordmark is going to become a registered trademark, confirm the license of the typeface it is based on before filing. ## Questions **Can I use a 3D logo from 3DLogo.io commercially?** Yes. Logos made on 3DLogo.io include commercial use for your business, for clients, and for other commercial work, on both Free and Pro. There is no per-use fee and no attribution requirement. **Do I own the logo I make on 3DLogo.io?** Yes. The mark you upload stays yours, and the 3D render made from it is yours. 3DLogo.io owns the software and the material presets as implemented, not your artwork or your exports. **Do I have to credit 3DLogo.io?** No. Attribution is not required on either tier. Free exports carry a small 3dlogo.io mark as a condition of the free tier, but you are not asked to add a credit anywhere else. **Can I sell products with the 3D logo on them?** Yes. The logo may appear on goods you sell. What is not intended is selling the exported file itself as stock artwork, or reselling access to the editor. **Can I trademark a logo made here?** Owning the file and holding a trademark are different things. Nothing here checks whether a mark is already registered, so run a proper clearance search before you file or print. If the logo is based on typed text, also confirm the license of the typeface. **Is a share link private?** Treat it as public. A share link and an embed live at an unguessable URL, but anyone holding the URL can open it. Do not create one for a mark that is still confidential. ## Related - [Free and Pro](https://3dlogo.io/pricing) - [Which file to export](https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/export) - [Privacy](https://3dlogo.io/privacy) - [About 3DLogo.io](https://3dlogo.io/about) --- # 3D logo materials, and when to use each > The full 3D logo material catalogue: chrome, gold, glass, holographic, neon, clay, wood, stone and more, what each is for, and which need Pro. Source: https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/materials Updated: August 2026 The editor ships 84 material presets in 16 families, and 78 of them are on the free plan. They divide into metals that take their colour from the environment, transparent finishes that need something behind them, and solid finishes that carry their own colour. Which family you pick matters far more than which preset inside it. ## What materials can a 3D logo use? Sixteen families. The counts below are the catalogue as it stands, and every preset is a real entry in the editor's picker rather than a category the interface only implies. | Family | Presets | Plan | What it is for | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Forged Chrome | 8 | Free | A neutral mirror. The default choice, and the one that survives being made small. | | Solar Gold | 5 | Free | Warm metal that separates from a dark ground without an outline. | | Cosmic Gradient | 6 | Pro | A colour ramp across the face. Reads as brand colour rather than as material. | | Galactic Patterns | 5 | Free | Patterned surfaces for a mark that is carrying the whole composition. | | Holo Iridescent | 4 | Free | Shifting iridescence. Needs size and motion; it disappears below about 60px. | | Precious Metals | 10 | Free | Silver, copper, and the other precious finishes, for when chrome is too cold. | | Anodized Metal | 4 | Free | Dyed aluminium. The colour is the metal, with a satin highlight rather than a mirror. | | Crystal Glass | 8 | Free | Transparent and refractive. Needs something behind it or there is nothing to see. | | Glossy Plastic | 7 | Free | Solid colour with a clean highlight. The closest thing to a flat logo with depth. | | Hard Enamel | 5 | Free | Opaque glazed colour, the finish of a coin or a badge. Not metal, not glass. | | Soft Clay | 5 | Free | Matte, unlit-looking surfaces. Good when the shape matters more than the finish. | | Neon Glow | 4 | Free | Emissive colour that glows against dark. Built for dark UI and video. | | Velvet | 3 | Free | Velvet and other sheen surfaces, soft edge falloff instead of a hard highlight. | | Carbon | 2 | Free | Carbon weave. Reads as engineered rather than precious. | | Natural Wood | 3 | Free | Natural grain, for marks that want warmth rather than shine. | | Stone & Marble | 5 | Free | Marble and stone, heavy and matte, at home on packaging. | ## What actually makes a material look like metal? Two numbers, metalness and roughness, and the environment they sit in. Metalness decides whether the surface reflects its surroundings or its own colour; roughness decides whether that reflection is a sharp mirror or a soft sheen. Chrome is metalness 1 with low roughness. Clay is metalness 0 with high roughness. This is why a chrome logo looks different on every page you put it on. At metalness 1 the surface has almost no colour of its own, so what you are seeing is the environment reflected in it. Change the environment and you change the logo. It is also why chrome survives being shrunk and holographic does not. A mirror finish produces a bright edge against a dark body, which is structural contrast that stays legible at any size. Iridescence is fine detail, and fine detail is the first thing lost. The picker gives you presets rather than sliders for these, because the useful combinations are a small subset of the possible ones. The terms themselves are defined in the glossary. ## Can you add a surface texture? Yes. 5 surface treatments sit on top of whichever material you picked, changing how the surface catches light without changing its colour. They are subtle by design: a texture that reads clearly at full size is usually too strong once the logo is placed. | Texture | What it does | | --- | --- | | Smooth | No surface detail. The default, and correct for most marks. | | Scratches | Fine directional wear, so a highlight breaks up instead of running clean. | | Stripes | Regular ridges. Reads as machined or brushed depending on the material under it. | | Grid | A cross-hatched surface, closest to a technical or engineered look. | | Grit | Irregular roughness, which knocks the shine off a metal without making it matte. | ## Can you change the lighting? Yes, and on a metal it is the most consequential control you have. Eight environments are available: Studio, Sunset, Dawn, Night, Shop, Woods, Loft, and City. Two sliders, Light and Shine, set how strong the environment is and how much the highlights bloom. Studio is the neutral one and the right default for anything going on a white page or into an icon. The outdoor and interior environments put real colour into a reflective material, which is useful for a hero render and wrong for an asset that has to sit on an unknown background. If a chrome mark is disappearing against a light page, the fix is usually the environment rather than the material: a darker environment gives the reflection something dark to show, which restores the edge contrast. ## Can you use your own font? Not directly. The Text panel offers 10 display faces chosen because they extrude cleanly: heavy weights, closed counters, and no hairlines. To use a typeface that is not in that list, set the words in your own tool, convert them to outlines, and upload the result as an SVG. That restriction is about extrusion rather than licensing. A thin or high-contrast typeface loses its thin strokes the moment it is given depth and a bevel, so a picker full of them would mostly produce disappointing results. Uploading outlines is the general escape hatch and it has no font restriction at all: once type is outlines it is just paths, and the editor extrudes paths. The SVG page covers what makes a clean upload. ## Which material should you pick? Match it to the background the logo will live on, not to the look you like in the picker. Chrome and the precious metals want a controlled or dark ground. Glass wants something busy behind it. Plastics, clay and gradients carry their own colour and are the safe choice when you do not know where the logo will end up. For an asset that has to work everywhere, pick a solid finish. A material whose appearance depends on its surroundings is a liability in a brand kit that other people will use. For a single hero render where you control the scene, the reflective finishes are the ones that look expensive, and the environment is doing most of that work. Each of the main families has its own page with the exact presets and one-click links into the editor. ## Questions **How many materials does 3DLogo.io have?** 84 presets across 16 families, of which 78 are available on the free plan. They range from chrome and precious metals through glass and holographic to clay, neon, velvet, carbon, wood and stone. **Which 3D logo material is best?** Chrome, for most cases, because it is neutral and it survives being made small: a bright edge against a dark body stays legible at any size. It is the wrong choice when the logo must sit on an unpredictable background, where a solid finish that carries its own colour is safer. **Why does my chrome logo look different on another page?** Because a metal has almost no colour of its own. At metalness 1 what you see is the environment reflected in the surface, so the same preset genuinely looks different against a different background. Use a solid plastic or clay finish if the appearance must be fixed. **Can I upload my own font?** No, but you can upload outlines. The Text panel has 10 display faces picked because they extrude cleanly. For any other typeface, set the words in your own tool, convert them to outlines, and upload the SVG; the editor extrudes paths and does not care where they came from. **Do the best materials require Pro?** No. 78 of the 84 presets are free, including chrome, gold and glass. Pro changes what you can export, not which materials you can use: no watermark, larger stills and HD video. ## Related - [What is a 3D logo](https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo) - [Chrome 3D logo](https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/chrome-3d-logo) - [Glass 3D logo](https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/glass-3d-logo) - [Glossary](https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/glossary) - [When not to use one](https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/when-not-to-use) - [Exporting a 3D logo](https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/export) --- # Fixing a 3D logo that will not upload or does not look right > Every message the 3DLogo.io editor can show on upload, what causes it, and the fix. Plus why a traced logo looks ragged, fills its holes, or renders slowly. Source: https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/troubleshooting Updated: August 2026 Most problems fall into three groups: the file is refused at upload, the file loads but nothing appears, or the logo renders but looks wrong. Find the symptom below and apply the fix. Every refusal message listed here comes from a specific check, so the message tells you exactly which one failed. ## Why was my upload refused? Uploads are checked for type, size, and safety before anything is rendered. Each check has its own message. | What you see | Cause | Fix | | --- | --- | --- | | That is not a PNG, JPEG, GIF, WebP, or SVG image | The file is not an image the editor reads, or a link to a page showing the logo was sent rather than the file itself. | Send the image file. If you copied a URL, open it and save the actual image first. | | SVG files must be under 1 MB | The SVG is over the 1 MB cap, usually because it embeds a raster image or holds thousands of auto-traced points. | Open it and delete embedded images and hidden layers, or re-export the mark on its own. | | Image files must be under 8 MB | The raster file is over the 8 MB cap. | Re-export at roughly 1000 to 2000 px on the long edge as PNG. A logo never needs a photo-sized file. | | The SVG contains a script element | The file has executable or remote content. The same check also refuses foreignObject, XML entities, inline event handlers, javascript: URLs, iframe, object, embed, meta, link, external href values, and remote @import or url() styles. | Export a plain paths-only SVG. In Inkscape use Save As Plain SVG; in Illustrator export with Presentation Attributes styling. | | The SVG references an external resource | The mark points at a file or font that lives somewhere else, so it would not render the same for anyone else. | Embed or outline whatever is referenced, then export again with nothing linked. | | Invalid SVG XML structure | The file is not well-formed XML, often because it was edited by hand or truncated in transit. | Re-export from the design tool rather than repairing it by hand. | | No SVG root element found | The file has an .svg extension but is not an SVG. | Check what it actually is. A renamed PDF or EPS is the usual culprit. | | The artwork is too complex | The mark exceeds roughly 50 paths, above which the mesh would stall the browser. | Merge overlapping shapes, delete hidden layers, and remove effects that were expanded into many paths. Five or fewer paths is optimal and up to 20 performs well. | ## Why does nothing appear after I upload a file? The file passed every check, so the problem is that there is no extrudable shape where the editor is looking. | Symptom | Cause | Fix | | --- | --- | --- | | Empty canvas after an SVG upload | The SVG contains live text rather than outlines. Text has no path to extrude. | Convert type to outlines before exporting: Type > Create Outlines in Illustrator, Flatten in Figma, Path > Object to Path in Inkscape. | | Mark appears tiny or off-centre | The artboard is much larger than the mark, or the viewBox does not match the artwork. | Crop the artboard tight to the mark and export again. | | Only part of the logo shows | Some shapes sit outside the viewBox, or a clipping mask hides them. | Release clipping masks, select all artwork, and fit the artboard to the selection. | | Nothing after a PNG upload | The image is almost entirely one tone, so tracing found no boundary to follow. | Raise contrast. Put a light mark on black or a dark mark on white and upload again. | ## Why does my 3D logo look wrong? These are shape and material problems rather than file problems, and each has a single control that fixes it. | Symptom | Cause | Fix | | --- | --- | --- | | Traced outline is ragged or wobbly | The source image had soft, anti-aliased, or low-contrast edges, so the tracer approximated them. | Re-export the artwork as a solid mark on a plain background at about 1000 px or more, with no drop shadow. | | Holes in letters are filled in | Counters were exported as separate overlapping shapes instead of one compound path. | Select the outer shape and its counters and make a compound path before exporting. | | A second faint silhouette behind the mark | A drop shadow or outer glow in the source image was traced as its own shape. | Remove shadows and glows from the artwork before uploading. | | The logo looks flat, not 3D | Depth is too low, or there is no bevel for light to catch. | Raise depth and add a small bevel. The bright line along a bevel is what reads as an edge. | | Chrome or gold looks grey and dull | The environment gives the material nothing to reflect. | Switch environment. A metal surface shows its surroundings, so a plain scene produces a plain metal. | | The logo disappears on a light background | The material was lit for a dark scene, which is common for chrome and glass. | Change the environment and background together, then check the export over both light and dark before shipping. | | Motion stutters on a phone | The mesh is heavy because the source outline had many paths. | Simplify the artwork to fewer paths. Under 20 is the comfortable range for smooth motion on older devices. | | Exported PNG has a background you did not want | The background was set to a colour rather than transparent. | Set the background to transparent and export PNG, which is the only still format here with an alpha channel. | ## Questions **Why will my SVG not upload?** One of four checks refused it: it is over 1 MB, it is not well-formed XML, it contains executable or externally referenced content such as a script or a remote font, or it has more than about 50 paths. The message names which. Exporting a plain paths-only SVG resolves most cases. **Why is my uploaded logo blank?** The usual cause is live text in the SVG that was never converted to outlines, so the file is valid but has no shape to extrude. Convert type to outlines and re-export. The second cause is artwork sitting outside the viewBox. **Why does my traced PNG look rough?** Tracing follows the boundary between light and dark, so a soft, low-contrast, or small image gives an imprecise edge. Re-export the artwork as a solid high-contrast mark on a plain background at roughly 1000 px or more, with shadows removed. **Why did the holes in my letters fill in?** The counters were separate overlapping shapes rather than one compound path, so the extrusion treated them as solid. Select the outer shape and its counters together and make a compound path before exporting. **Why is my logo slow or stuttering?** Path count drives mesh size. Five paths or fewer is optimal, up to 20 performs well, and 21 to 50 can be slow on older phones. Simplify the artwork by merging overlapping shapes and deleting hidden layers. ## Related - [Start from an SVG](https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/from/svg) - [Start from a PNG](https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/from/png) - [3D logo glossary](https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/glossary) - [Which file to export](https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/export) --- # When not to use a 3D logo, and what to use instead > Where a 3D logo does not work: one-colour print, favicons, embroidery, engraving, and small sizes. What to use instead, and what to keep alongside it. Source: https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/when-not-to-use Updated: August 2026 A 3D logo is a render, not a replacement for your mark. It is the wrong choice anywhere the output is one colour, very small, or reproduced by a process that cannot hold a gradient: favicons, embroidery, engraving, stamps, single-colour print, and most legal or regulatory filings. Keep the flat master as the real logo and treat the 3D version as one more asset. _This page is guidance rather than product documentation. The numeric thresholds in it are measured behaviour of this editor; the judgements are labelled as judgements._ ## When should you not use a 3D logo? Whenever the reproduction method cannot carry what makes it 3D. Depth, highlight, and material are the whole effect, so any surface that flattens them to one colour or a few pixels is a surface where a 3D logo performs worse than the flat mark it came from. | Where | Why it fails | Use instead | | --- | --- | --- | | Favicon, 16 to 32 px | At that size the bevel, the highlight, and the material are two or three pixels each. What survives is a muddy silhouette. | The flat mark, simplified, often just the initial or symbol. | | Embroidery and patches | Thread reproduces flat colour areas with hard edges. A gradient becomes banding and a highlight becomes a stray pale patch. | A one or two colour flat version with thickened strokes. | | Engraving, stamps, letterpress | These are single-depth processes. They carry an outline, not a rendered surface. | A solid one-colour silhouette. | | Single-colour print | Newspaper, invoices, fax-era forms, and one-colour merchandise have no way to express metal or glass. | The one-colour master. | | Legal filings and trademark records | A registration wants an unambiguous mark, and a render introduces detail that is not part of it. | The flat mark as registered. | | Body text and dense UI | A logo beside 14px type is competing with the text, and a shiny one wins the attention you wanted on the words. | A flat monochrome mark. | ## Do 3D logos still look modern? Some do and some read as dated, and the difference is mostly the material rather than the dimension. Extruded chrome with a hard specular highlight and a heavy bevel is a recognisable late-1990s look. A matte or single-colour extrusion with a shallow bevel and soft lighting does not read that way at all. This is a judgement, not a measurement, and it moves. The useful version of the question is narrower: is the 3D treatment carrying meaning, or is it decoration applied because the tool offered it? A 3D render earns its place when it is doing something a flat mark cannot: sitting in a real product shot, turning in a title card, existing as an object in an AR or game scene, or catching light on packaging. It is decoration when it is a flat logo with a bevel on it, shown flat. The safest use is the one where dimension is unavoidable anyway. A logo that has to exist as a physical object, on a coin, a moulded surface, or a 3D scene, is not a stylistic choice at all. ## Does a 3D logo work at small sizes? Down to about an app icon, yes, if the mark is bold and the material is simple. Below that, no. Holographic and gradient finishes lose their effect below roughly 60 pixels, brushed-metal grain disappears entirely, and strokes thinner than about a twentieth of the mark width close up. Those two thresholds are behaviour of this editor rather than general design rules, and they are the same numbers the app icon guidance uses. The practical test is to export at the size you will actually use and look at it there, not at the size you designed it. A mark that reads at 1024 px and dissolves at 48 px is common and tells you nothing until you check. Chrome and single-colour plastics survive downscaling best because their contrast is structural: a bright edge against a dark body stays a bright edge against a dark body. Glass and holographic depend on detail that is the first thing to go. ## Is a 3D logo a problem for accessibility? It can be, in three specific ways: contrast, motion, and text alternatives. None of them is inherent to 3D, and each has a straightforward fix, but a rendered logo makes all three easier to get wrong than a flat one does. Contrast is the common failure. A reflective material takes its colour from the environment, so a chrome mark on a light page can end up as pale grey on white. If the logo carries meaning rather than decoration, check it against the background it will actually sit on, and keep a flat high-contrast version for places where it does not pass. Motion is the second. An animated logo that loops forever next to text is a distraction, and for some readers it is worse than that. Respect the reduced-motion setting: use a still export where a visitor has asked for less motion, rather than a looping MP4. The third is text alternatives, and it applies to any logo. The image needs alt text naming the organisation, not describing the render. A screen reader user needs to know whose logo it is, not that it is chrome. ## What should you keep alongside the 3D version? The flat vector master, a one-colour version, and a small-size version. The 3D render is an output of the mark; it is not the mark, and treating it as the mark is how brands end up unable to print a business card. Keep the source SVG. Everything here is generated from it, and it is the only file that stays sharp at every size and reproduces in any process. Keep a one-colour version, black on transparent. It is what embroidery, engraving, stamps, and single-colour print will ask for, and deriving it later from a render is a redraw rather than an export. Then the 3D exports are additive: a transparent PNG for flat surfaces, an MP4 for motion, a GLB where the logo needs to be an actual object. Exporting a 3D logo says which file to use where. ## Questions **Are 3D logos outdated?** Not as a category, though one particular treatment is: heavy chrome with a strong specular highlight and a thick bevel reads as late 1990s. Matte and single-colour extrusions with shallow bevels do not. The more useful test is whether the dimension is doing work, or is decoration applied because the tool offered it. **Should a 3D logo replace my existing logo?** No. Keep the flat vector as the master and treat the 3D render as an additional asset. Anything reproduced in one colour, at very small sizes, or by embroidery, engraving, or stamping needs the flat mark, and a render cannot be converted back into one without redrawing it. **Can I use a 3D logo as a favicon?** It is a poor fit. At 16 to 32 pixels the bevel, highlight, and material are a couple of pixels each and collapse into a muddy shape. Use a simplified flat mark for the favicon and keep the 3D version for places with room. **Will a 3D logo print correctly?** On full-colour processes, yes: export a high-resolution PNG and place it. On single-colour processes, embroidery, engraving, or letterpress, no, because those reproduce flat areas and outlines rather than rendered surfaces. Those need the one-colour master. **Does a 3D logo cause accessibility problems?** It can, through low contrast on reflective materials, through looping motion beside text, and through missing or unhelpful alt text. All three are fixable: check contrast against the real background, use a still where reduced motion is requested, and write alt text that names the organisation rather than describing the render. ## Related - [What is a 3D logo](https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo) - [3D logo for an app icon](https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/for/app-icon) - [Exporting a 3D logo](https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/export) - [SVG to 3D logo](https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/from/svg) - [Troubleshooting](https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/troubleshooting) - [Glossary](https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/glossary) --- # How to turn an image into a 3D model > How to turn a photo into a 3D model on 3DLogo.io: which images work, what each mesh density returns, and the GLB you download at the end. Source: https://3dlogo.io/generate/image-to-3d Updated: August 2026 Open Generate, drop in a PNG, JPEG, or WebP under 8 MB, pick a mesh density, and run the job. Generate returns a downloadable GLB you can orbit in the studio, open in the free GLB viewer, or convert to OBJ or STL. A photo of one clear object on a plain background gives the best mesh. _Generate builds a new object from your photo. It is a separate studio from the 3D logo editor, which extrudes the exact mark you upload and never changes its shape._ ## Which images work best for image to 3D? One subject, filling most of the frame, lit evenly, on a plain background. The generator infers the sides and back of an object it can only see from the front, so anything that hides the silhouette costs detail: clutter, heavy shadow, motion blur, or a second object competing for the frame. Accepted files are PNG, JPEG, and WebP. A file dropped into the studio is sent as a data URL and must be under 8 MB; a job started through the API or an AI assistant can pass a publicly reachable http or https URL instead. Anything else is refused before the job starts, so a refusal costs no credits. Silhouette matters more than resolution. A 900 px photo of a mug against a white wall produces a cleaner mesh than a 4000 px photo of the same mug on a crowded desk, because the outline is where the shape is read from. Crop to the subject before uploading rather than relying on the generator to find it. Transparency is not a shortcut. A PNG with an alpha channel is accepted, but the generator reads the visible pixels, so a cut-out on a transparent background behaves like a cut-out on a flat one. What it does help with is removing a distracting background you cannot re-shoot. A flat logo is the wrong input here. If you want your existing mark in 3D, extrude it in the editor instead: the editor keeps your exact outline, and Generate would invent a new object that merely resembles it. ## How do you generate a 3D model from a photo? Five steps, from an open studio to a downloaded GLB. The whole run is between about twenty seconds and about four minutes depending on the density you choose. 1. Open Generate and stay on the Image tab. 2. Drop in a PNG, JPEG, or WebP of one clear subject, under 8 MB. 3. Pick a mesh density. Fast is the quick draft; Standard, High, and Ultra return full-detail meshes. 4. Leave Texture on for a coloured mesh, or turn it off for a white clay mesh you will material yourself. 5. Run the job, orbit the result in the viewport, then download the GLB. ## Which mesh density should you run an image at? Run Fast to find out whether the photo works at all, then re-run the same photo at a higher density once you know it does. Fast caps the mesh at 20,000 faces and returns in about twenty seconds; Ultra reaches 1,000,000 faces and takes about four minutes. | Density | Plan | Face ceiling | Typical wait | Cost | What it is for | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Fast | Pro | 20,000 faces | about 20s | 30 credits | Quick textured draft | | Standard | Pro | 500,000 faces | about 2 min | 68 credits | Full-detail mesh | | High | Pro | 500,000 faces | about 2 min | 120 credits | PBR, hard-surface, extra views | | Ultra | Pro | 1,000,000 faces | about 4 min | 203 credits | PBR at 1M faces | ## When do extra views help? Add a back, left, or right photo when the subject is asymmetric and the front view cannot imply the rest of it. Extra views are a Pro feature, and adding one to a Fast or Standard job promotes that job to High, because only the High and Ultra engines read more than the front image. Up to three extra views are accepted: back, left, and right. They are most worth the credits on hard-surface objects whose back is genuinely different from the front, such as a device with ports, a vehicle, or a figure with something on its back. They are worth least on rotationally simple objects. A mug, a bottle, or a ball is already implied by one photo, and the extra views mostly buy a cleaner seam. Shoot the extra views at the same distance and lighting as the front. Views that disagree about the size or colour of the subject make the mesh worse, not better, because the generator has to reconcile them. ## What file do you get back? A GLB: one binary file carrying the geometry, the material, and any texture the job produced. You can orbit it in the studio before downloading, and it opens in the free GLB viewer on this site with nothing to install. A GLB from Generate goes straight into a web viewer, an AR view, or a game engine. If the receiving tool wants something else, the on-device 3D converter recodes it to glTF, OBJ, STL, or PLY in the tab, with no upload. Face counts matter downstream. An Ultra mesh at up to 1,000,000 faces is heavier than most websites should serve directly; for a web page, either generate at a lower density or decimate the mesh in a desktop tool first. Turning Texture off returns a white clay mesh with no colour information. That is the right choice when you plan to apply your own material, and it is the wrong choice when the colour in the photo is the point. ## What image to 3D will not do It will not reproduce your photograph exactly, it will not measure a real object to scale, and it will not preserve a logo outline. Generate makes a plausible 3D object that reads as the thing in the picture, which is a different promise from a scan or an extrusion. Hidden geometry is invented. Anything the camera could not see is a guess, and the guess is confident rather than accurate. That is why extra views exist, and why a scanned part is still the right tool when dimensions matter. Fine text and thin detail do not survive. Lettering on a label, a wire, or a strap thinner than a few percent of the frame is usually smoothed away, most of all at Fast density. Failed, cancelled, and timed-out jobs return their credits to the account, so an experiment that does not work costs time rather than allowance. ## Questions **What image formats does Generate accept?** PNG, JPEG, and WebP. A file dropped into the studio must be under 8 MB. A job started through the MCP server or the API can pass a publicly reachable http or https image URL instead of a file. **Can I turn a photo into a 3D model for free?** Generate runs on Pro credits at every density. The 3D logo editor, its exports, and sharing stay free. **How long does an image to 3D job take?** Fast returns in about 20s, Standard and High in about 2 min, and Ultra in about 4 min. Those are queue-inclusive wall-clock times, not engine times. **Does image to 3D keep my logo shape?** No. Generate builds a new object that resembles the picture. To keep an existing mark exactly, upload the SVG or PNG to the 3D logo editor instead, which extrudes the outline you gave it. **What happens to my credits if the job fails?** They return. A job that fails, is cancelled, or times out refunds the credits it reserved. Welcome credits are spent before period credits. **Can I convert the GLB to STL for printing?** Yes. Download the GLB and open the GLB to STL converter, which runs on the device. STL carries print triangles only, so colour and material do not travel with it. ## Related - [All Generate modes](https://3dlogo.io/generate) - [Text to 3D](https://3dlogo.io/generate/text-to-3d) - [Which density to pick](https://3dlogo.io/generate/quality) - [GLB viewer](https://3dlogo.io/glb-viewer) - [GLB to STL](https://3dlogo.io/3d-converter/glb-to-stl) - [PNG to 3D logo](https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/from/png) - [Glossary](https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/glossary) --- # Which mesh density should you generate at? > Which mesh density to generate at on 3DLogo.io. Face ceilings, typical wait, credit cost, and how many generates a Free or Pro allowance covers. Source: https://3dlogo.io/generate/quality Updated: August 2026 Start every new subject at Fast to see whether it reads in 3D at all, then re-run the one that works at a higher density. Fast caps the mesh at 20,000 faces for 30 credits; Ultra reaches 1,000,000 faces for 203. The density you pick changes detail, wait, and cost together. ## What does mesh density actually change? Three things at once: the ceiling on how many faces the mesh may have, how long the job takes, and how many credits it costs. Higher density means the surface can hold finer detail, not that the generator understands the subject better. A face is one flat triangle or quad of the surface. More faces let a curve stay curved and an edge stay sharp; fewer faces force the shape to be approximated with larger flat pieces, which reads as a soft or faceted object. High adds something Standard does not: PBR materials, hard-surface handling, and the ability to read extra views. That is a different kind of improvement from face count, which is why High and Standard share a face ceiling but not a price. Density cannot rescue a bad input. A cluttered photo or a vague prompt returns a confused object at 1,000,000 faces just as surely as at 20,000, only slower and for more credits. ## The four densities compared Fast is the draft rung and the only one on Free. Standard is the cheapest full-detail mesh. High adds PBR materials and extra views. Ultra doubles the face ceiling for the largest jump in cost. | Density | Plan | Face ceiling | Typical wait | Cost | What it is for | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Fast | Pro | 20,000 faces | about 20s | 30 credits | Quick textured draft | | Standard | Pro | 500,000 faces | about 2 min | 68 credits | Full-detail mesh | | High | Pro | 500,000 faces | about 2 min | 120 credits | PBR, hard-surface, extra views | | Ultra | Pro | 1,000,000 faces | about 4 min | 203 credits | PBR at 1M faces | ## How many generates does an allowance cover? Pro includes 1,200 credits a month, or 9,600 once on the yearly plan. Unused credits expire at the end of the period, so a month is a budget rather than a balance. | Density | Cost each | Pro monthly covers | Pro yearly covers | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Fast | 30 credits | about 40 generates | about 320 generates | | Standard | 68 credits | about 17 generates | about 141 generates | | High | 120 credits | about 10 generates | about 80 generates | | Ultra | 203 credits | about 5 generates | about 47 generates | ## When is Fast enough? Fast is enough whenever the mesh is going to be looked at rather than worked on: a thumbnail, a spinning object in a reel, a shape you are testing an idea against, or a first check that a photo or prompt reads at all. At 20,000 faces it holds a silhouette well and fine detail poorly. Treat Fast as the audition. Two or three Fast runs cost less than one High run and tell you which subject deserves the High run, which is the single biggest saving available on this studio. Fast is also the only rung on Free, so it is what a Free account is deciding with. Anything you publish from it will still carry the free export rules that apply elsewhere on the site. ## When is Ultra worth the credits? Ultra earns its 203 credits when the mesh will be seen close up or edited afterwards: a hero render, a print, or a model going into a desktop 3D tool where you will cut, decimate, or re-topologise it. For anything shown small or served on a web page, it is over-specified. A 1,000,000-face mesh is heavy. Serving one directly to a web page is usually the wrong call; either generate lower or reduce the mesh in a desktop tool before publishing. The gap between High and Ultra is face ceiling, not understanding. If the object came back the wrong shape at High, Ultra returns the same wrong shape with more faces. Fix the input instead. ## What happens to credits when a job fails? They return to the account. A generate that fails, is cancelled, or times out refunds the credits it reserved, so an experiment that does not work costs you the wait rather than the allowance. Welcome credits are spent before period credits, so a new account works through its grant first. A refusal is cheaper still. An unsupported file, an over-size image, or a missing prompt is rejected before the job starts and never reserves credits at all. Unused period credits expire at the end of the billing cycle and do not roll over. ## Questions **What is mesh density?** The ceiling on how many faces the generated mesh may have, together with the engine that produces it. On 3DLogo.io the rungs are Fast at 20,000 faces, Standard and High at 500,000, and Ultra at 1,000,000. **How much does one generate cost?** Fast 30, Standard 68, High 120, and Ultra 203 credits. A photo and a prompt cost the same at the same density. **What is the difference between Standard and High?** They share a face ceiling. High adds PBR materials, hard-surface handling, and the ability to read the extra back, left, and right views, which is why it costs more than Standard for the same face count. **Do unused credits roll over?** No. Unused period credits expire at the end of the billing cycle. Credits returned from a failed job go back into the current period and expire with it. **Which density should I use for 3D printing?** Standard or higher, then convert the GLB to STL in the on-device converter. Fast at 20,000 faces prints visibly faceted on anything larger than a small figure. ## Related - [Image to 3D](https://3dlogo.io/generate/image-to-3d) - [Text to 3D](https://3dlogo.io/generate/text-to-3d) - [Free and Pro](https://3dlogo.io/pricing) - [GLB to STL](https://3dlogo.io/3d-converter/glb-to-stl) - [GLB viewer](https://3dlogo.io/glb-viewer) - [Exporting a 3D logo](https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/export) --- # How to turn a text prompt into a 3D model > How to turn a text prompt into a 3D model on 3DLogo.io: how to write the prompt, the length limit at each density, and the GLB the job returns. Source: https://3dlogo.io/generate/text-to-3d Updated: August 2026 Open Generate, switch to the Text tab, describe one object in a sentence, pick a mesh density, and run the job. Generate returns a downloadable GLB. Naming a single concrete object with two or three visual details works far better than a long scene description. _Text to 3D invents an object from your words. It does not set type in 3D. For an extruded wordmark of your own brand name, use the 3D text logo page instead._ ## How do you generate a 3D model from text? Four steps. The prompt does most of the work, so it is worth spending a moment on before you spend credits on a high density. 1. Open Generate and switch to the Text tab. 2. Write a short prompt: the subject first, then two or three visual details. 3. Pick a mesh density, and leave Texture on unless you want a white clay mesh. 4. Run the job, orbit the result, then download the GLB. ## How should you write the prompt? Name the object first, then describe it. The generator needs an object, not a scene: camera angles, lighting notes, and mood words spend prompt length without changing the mesh. These are the five rules the studio shows beside the prompt box, quoted as written. Name the subject first, then two or three visual details. Every density returns a textured mesh. Turn Texture off for a white clay mesh. Standard keeps prompts under 200 characters. Fast, High, and Ultra allow up to 1024. Call out style if it matters: cartoon, clay, chrome, wood. Avoid camera directions and lighting essays. The model needs the object, not the scene. ## How long can a text to 3D prompt be? Standard keeps prompts under 200 characters. Fast, High, and Ultra allow up to 1,024. The cap is a property of the engine behind each rung, not a plan restriction, so a prompt that is too long for Standard is fine at High. | Density | Prompt limit | Cost | Face ceiling | What it returns | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Fast | Up to 1,024 characters | 30 credits | 20,000 faces | Quick textured draft | | Standard | Under 200 characters | 68 credits | 500,000 faces | Full-detail mesh | | High | Up to 1,024 characters | 120 credits | 500,000 faces | PBR, hard-surface, extra views | | Ultra | Up to 1,024 characters | 203 credits | 1,000,000 faces | PBR at 1M faces | ## Image or text: which should you use? Use image to 3D when the object already exists and you can photograph it. Use text to 3D when it does not exist yet, or when you want several variations of an idea before committing. Both return the same kind of GLB and cost the same credits at the same density. Text is the cheaper way to explore. Running the same prompt twice returns two different objects, so a few Fast runs will tell you whether the idea reads in 3D before you spend Ultra credits on it. An image pins down the thing you actually have. If a client sent a product photo, the photo carries proportions and colour that a sentence would only approximate. Neither one replaces the editor. Both build new objects; the 3D logo editor extrudes the mark or the words you already own, without changing their shape. ## What file do you get back? A GLB carrying geometry, material, and any texture the job produced. It opens in the free GLB viewer on this site, and the on-device converter recodes it to glTF, OBJ, STL, or PLY without an upload. Turning Texture off returns a white clay mesh. Clay is the right output when you intend to apply your own material in a 3D tool, and the wrong one when the colour described in the prompt is the point of the object. A prompt is not stored as part of the file. Keep the wording that produced a result you liked; re-running it is the only way to get a sibling of the same object. ## What text to 3D will not do It will not lay out a scene, it will not set typography, and it will not repeat itself exactly. Each run is a fresh object, so treat the prompt as a brief rather than as a file name. Ask for one object. A prompt describing an object on a table beside a lamp usually returns a single fused mesh rather than three separable ones. Lettering is unreliable. Text described inside a prompt tends to come back as texture that resembles writing. When you need real letters in 3D, extrude them in the editor. Failed, cancelled, and timed-out jobs return their credits, so a prompt that misses costs time rather than allowance. ## Questions **How long can a text to 3D prompt be?** Standard keeps prompts under 200 characters. Fast, High, and Ultra allow up to 1,024 characters. The limit belongs to the engine behind each density rung, not to the plan. **Is text to 3D free?** Generate runs on Pro credits at every density, prompts included. The 3D logo editor and its exports stay free. **Why did the same prompt give me a different object?** Every run generates a new object rather than retrieving a stored one, so two runs of one prompt return siblings, not copies. Use that to explore, and download the run you want to keep. **Can text to 3D make a 3D wordmark of my brand name?** Not reliably. Letters described in a prompt come back as texture that resembles writing. Type the name into the 3D logo editor instead, which extrudes real letterforms you can set in chrome, gold, or glass. **What file does a text to 3D job return?** A GLB with geometry, material, and any texture from the run. Open it in the free GLB viewer, or convert it to glTF, OBJ, STL, or PLY in the on-device 3D converter. ## Related - [All Generate modes](https://3dlogo.io/generate) - [Image to 3D](https://3dlogo.io/generate/image-to-3d) - [Which density to pick](https://3dlogo.io/generate/quality) - [3D text logo](https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/3d-text-logo) - [GLB viewer](https://3dlogo.io/glb-viewer) - [3D logo makers compared](https://3dlogo.io/3d-logo/alternatives) - [Free and Pro](https://3dlogo.io/pricing)