Humans are accustomed to drawing in the air. We gesture with our hands when talking and will try to illustrate¹ charade² secrets by "drawing" objects in space. 3D-printing pens takes those gestures, makes them tangible³ and, in the hands of an artists, beautiful. Recent 3D-printing pens have been cool, but clunky affairs. LIX Pen, however, is something different. It's light, small and apparently⁴ needs no more power than you can draw from your run-of-the-mill laptop. Now it's coming to Kickstarter.

在描述一件东西的时候，人们喜欢用手在空气中勾勒一下这个东西的大致形状，然后边说边比划，有时候为了尽可能的描述相关特征，还会在空气中进行“绘图作业”。不过现在，一款3D打印笔能够收集这些手势动作，并且实实在在地把手势勾画的对象呈现出来，感觉就像是一只灵动的艺术家之手。最近有不少很酷的3D打印笔出现在市面上，但是绝大多数都显得十分笨重，不便操作。不过LIX Pen却是完全不同的一支3D打印笔。这款笔重量轻，体积小，而且用户可以轻而易举地拿起来比划两下，丝毫不会比在普通笔记本电脑上绘画繁琐。现在，它来到了著名的众筹平台Kickstarter。

Measuring 6.45 inches long, 0.55 inch in diameter and weighing just 1.23 ounces, the aluminum⁵ 3D-printing pen (which also comes in black) really is pen sized. You hold it just like a pen, and plug a 3.5mm-like jack⁶ into the base and the other end of your cable into your computer. The juice allows LIX to heat to over 300-degrees Fahrenheit⁷, though the plant-based PLA filament⁸ (it can also use the stronger ABS plastic) only needs to heat to 180-degrees to work. That filament is fed in through a hole in the base and emerges as a super-heated liquid on the tip so you can start doodling in the air.

如果对这支笔做下测量，会发现它有6.45英寸长（约16.38厘米），直径为0.55英寸（约1.40厘米），重量只有1.23盎司（约34.87克）。这款铝制3D打印笔（颜色为黑色）和真笔大小一样，握在手上的感觉就像是握一支钢笔，在笔的末端有一个3.5毫米大小的插孔，用户可以用连接线把它和自己的计算机连接在一起。LIX打印笔使用的“墨水”可以加热到华氏300度，但是他们采用的PLA纤维打印材料只需加热到华氏180度就能正常工作了，另外它也支持使用更强的ABS塑料打印材料。LIX 3D打印笔喷出的纤维丝是通过笔底部的一个孔灌注进去的，然后从笔尖处涌出经过热处理的液体，并迅速在空气中固化，这样用户就可以在空气中涂鸦了。

Unlike 3D printers, there is no program guiding the printing tip. Instead, to create 3D objects, you simply start drawing in the air with the LIX Pen, moving slowly as the melted filament draws out. It cools quickly so that your structure remains⁹ rigid¹⁰. Each filament rod is about 10 centimeters long and should, according to the company, last for about two minutes of air-drawing.

和3D打印机不同，LIX 3D打印笔没有应用程序支持，它就是非常直接地创造出了一个3D物体对象，用户使用LIX Pen在空气中勾勒，当纤维丝融化流出之后开始慢慢移动，就可以进行“绘图作业”了。LIX Pen的“墨水”可以迅速冷却，让你勾勒出的结构图保持刚性。另外根据该公司表示，每个纤维丝棒大约有10厘米长，可以维持两分钟的空气绘图作业。

3D pen printing works for everything from abstract sculpture to fine art and jewelry¹¹ to T-shirt design. The only limit, it appears, is your skill level and ability to hold and move the pen very, very steadily¹².

3D打印笔可以应用在很多领域，比如制作一个抽象雕塑艺术品和珠宝，或是进行T恤衫的设计，等等。但是使用3D打印笔的时候需要用户具有一定的技术水平，比如你必须要能握定这支笔，然后非常稳地移动。

LIX co-founder Anton Suvorov, told Mashable the company's 3D-printing pen "has no concurrence¹³ on the market," and it should arrive in Kickstarter sometime around April 14, where the company will be taking pre-orders. The starting price, at least for the campaign, will be $139.95. LIX also sells, for $59.95, a ballpoint pen replica¹⁴ of LIX that is nothing more than a regular pen, but why would anyone want that?

LIX 联合创始人Anton Suvorov表示，该公司的3D打印笔还没有投放上市，但是他们应该会在4月14日左右登陆到众筹平台Kickstarter，并在上面接受预定。LIX Pen的起售价将会是139.95美元，此外，LIX还在Kickstarter上面销售一款3D打印笔的复刻版圆珠笔，不过这支笔就是一支普通的圆珠笔，可售价却高达59,95美元，真想不通会有人想要这支笔吗?