A 3D-printable tactile map that helps blind people learn geography by touch. Terrain, coastlines and borders are generated from real elevation and border data, and country names are written in braille.
worldbytouch.com — the story behind it, what a blind reader's hands corrected in it, and how to have one made for another region or another language.
It began as a present for a friend of mine who is blind. The maps he could get were either flat printed sheets that tell your fingers almost nothing, or museum pieces you cannot take home. So this code turns real elevation and border data into something a hand can read, and he got the first print.
Working through that print with him found two defects that were invisible on screen, and both shaped the geometry this repository now generates:
| What the first print got wrong | What the code does now |
|---|---|
| Country labels were raised Arabic numerals — legible to me, unreadable to him, so every number had to be read out loud by somebody else | Labels are braille numbers (create_braille_number() in core/generate.py), each with an anchor ridge on its left, so a single cell out on open ground still has a left edge and a baseline |
| Braille dots used the standard dimensions and printed as sharp points rather than domes, so a fingertip caught the tip and neighbouring dots blurred together | Every dot is a smooth dome on a buried skirt (create_braille_dot()): ⌀1.6 mm, 0.8 mm tall, Marburg Medium spacing — 2.5 mm between dots, 6 mm between cells |
The photographs in this README are that first print. The renders are the files as they stand now. The two are not the same object, and the difference is the point.
This project generates STL files for 3D printing a tactile map. The map is designed so a blind person can:
| What | How it feels |
|---|---|
| Country borders | Raised ridge (1.2 mm) that follows the terrain under the finger |
| Terrain | 4 tactile plateaus: sea / lowland / plateau / mountains (0/1/2/3 mm) |
| Sea | Wavy texture |
| Country numbers | Braille number labels (Marburg Medium: ⌀1.6 mm dome dots, 2.5 mm dot pitch) with an anchor ridge that marks the cell frame |
| Legend | Braille country list + texture samples (sea, border, number key) |
| Alphabet cards | Raised Latin letter next to its braille cell, for learning braille |
The map splits into 4 puzzle pieces (200×160 mm each) that lock together with dovetail tabs: lay one card flat, lower its neighbour onto the tab from above — assembled, the map cannot slide apart. Legends and alphabet cards come in two languages: English and Serbian (Gajica braille, 30 letters including Č Ć Dž Đ Lj Nj Š Ž).
9 print-ready STL files in data/output/printready/:
| File | Contents |
|---|---|
tactile_map.stl |
The full 400×320 mm map in one piece |
card_1.stl … card_4.stl |
The same map split into 4 puzzle cards |
card_legend.stl |
Braille numbers → country names in English braille |
card_legend_sr.stl |
Braille numbers → country names in Serbian braille |
card_alphabet.stl |
English braille alphabet learning card (26 letters) |
card_alphabet_sr.stl |
Serbian braille alphabet learning card (30 letters) |
Every output is a single watertight two-manifold, verified by
mesh_diagnostics.py — no inverted normals, internal cavities, or
self-intersections.
Don't want to run any of this? The sliced plates are ready to print on MakerWorld.
Europe, Middle East, North Africa, Caucasus: 5°–70° E, 12°–55° N. 27 countries get a braille number label, placed at the country's pole of inaccessibility. Countries too small to hold a standard braille cell at a readable clearance are left unlabelled — a braille cell is far larger than an embossed digit, so fewer countries can carry one.
python -m venv .venv && source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt# Country borders (automatic, ~80 countries from geoBoundaries)
python core/prepare_data/download_geojson.py
python core/prepare_data/merge_geojson.py
# Elevation data (manual)
# Go to: https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/global/
# Download ETOPO1_Bed_g_gmt4.grd
# Place in: data/input/| Data | What for | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Country borders | Ridges between countries | geoBoundaries |
| Elevation | Terrain (mountains, plains) | NOAA ETOPO1 |
python core/build_all.pyOutput: data/output/printready/ — the 9 STL files listed above.
python core/mesh_diagnostics.pyPrints a print-readiness report (watertight, normals, cavities, self-intersections) for every STL.
| Setting | Value | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Material | PLA | Common, cheap, safe |
| Infill | 15–20% | How solid inside (lower = faster) |
| Layer height | 0.2 mm | Each terrain plateau is exactly 5 layers |
worldbytouch/
├── assets/ # Images for this README
├── core/
│ ├── config.py # Map region (bounding box)
│ ├── constants.py # All tactile/physical parameters
│ ├── generate.py # Mesh building blocks: terrain, water, borders,
│ │ # braille number labels, legend cards
│ ├── countries.py # ISO3 -> country name table (EN/SR) for the labels
│ ├── build_all.py # ENTRY POINT: full print-ready build
│ ├── walls_buffer.py # Border ridges (buffer + manifold extrude)
│ ├── split_cards.py # Boolean split into 4 puzzle cards
│ ├── heal_mesh.py # Solid prep + boolean union helpers
│ ├── clean_mesh.py # Topology cleanup -> watertight manifold
│ ├── text_mesh.py # Raised Latin letters for alphabet cards
│ ├── alphabet_card.py # Braille alphabet learning cards (EN/SR)
│ ├── serbian_braille.py # Serbian Latin (Gajica) braille tables
│ ├── serbian_legend.py # Serbian legend card
│ ├── mesh_diagnostics.py # Print-readiness verification
│ ├── render_previews.py # Preview renders of the print-ready STLs
│ ├── render_site_assets.py # The renders published on worldbytouch.com
│ └── prepare_data/ # Data download & merge scripts
├── site/ # worldbytouch.com – the published site itself
│ ├── index.html # English
│ ├── sr/index.html # Serbian
│ ├── style.css · favicon.svg
│ └── assets/ # Photos and renders used by the pages
├── data/ # Not in repo (too large)
│ ├── input/ # ETOPO1 elevation grid
│ ├── countries/ # Downloaded border GeoJSONs
│ └── output/ # Generated files (printready/, previews/)
├── SITE.md # How worldbytouch.com is edited and deployed
├── MAKERWORLD.md # The MakerWorld listing text
├── requirements.txt
└── README.md
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Full map size | 400×320 mm |
| Single card | 200×160 mm |
| Base thickness | 6 mm |
| Terrain plateaus | 0 / 1 / 2 / 3 mm (sea, lowland, plateau, mountains) |
| Border ridge | +1.2 mm above local terrain, 1.5 mm wide |
| Water waves | 2 mm high, every 4 mm |
| Braille dots | Dome ⌀1.6 mm × 0.8 mm; 2.5 mm dot pitch, 6.0 mm cell pitch (Marburg Medium) |
| Label anchor ridge | 1.0 mm wide, full cell height, 1.4 mm clear of the dots |
| Puzzle connectors | Dovetail tabs 8→13 mm wide × 4 × 3 mm, 0.5 mm clearance, drop-in from above |
Key design decision: the border is a low ridge riding on top of the local terrain, not a tall wall at a fixed height. A finger can trace a border continuously and still read the relief on both sides of it; tall walls used to bury small lowland countries entirely.
The map in this repository is free. Print it, adapt it, give it away.
What you cannot download is a region that does not exist here yet, a city, your language, a classroom set or a museum panel — those I make to order: worldbytouch.com, or write to glebmaksimov@worldbytouch.com with the region, who will read it and how many copies. A price and a timeline come back, usually within two days.
For anything technical — printing problems, build errors, ideas — open an issue.
If you would like to support future work on accessible 3D-printed materials, sponsorship is welcome.
MIT — see LICENSE. The STL files it generates are yours to print, adapt, and give away.