What’s Everyone 3D Printing With? We Surveyed 46 Filament Companies to Find Out

Even if you’re not printing for the fun of it, chances are there’s a material brand, type, and color that you’re fond of more than others. But what’s the preferred filament of the collective “us”? Of all who print? That’s a question that can only be answered with cold hard data. And the answer might not surprise you.

We asked 46 filament manufacturers for stats and trends so we could place a specific pin on the colors and types that are sold the most. Of all manufacturers asked, approximately half of them replied. For some, the answers were sensitive enough to be deemed confidential and not something that could simply be shared. Others threw their arms wide open and embraced our request, sharing their insights and perspectives on a predictable market with ever-shifting fringes.

Back to the question. What is the most popular filament color?

It’s black. Black is the most popular color of filament; utilitarian, often cheaper, but a little boring? Perhaps. Whatever your opinion, oh boy is this one the winner and then some. Of the 21 manufacturers to respond, 17 said that black is their most sold color, with a couple specifying that all other colors (white, gray, clear) trailed a long way behind.

The responses we received varied in the detail given, with some manufacturers giving only curt single-item answers to our questions, and others listing a few options to each. In the interest of making this at least somewhat clean as a survey with representative data, we’ve counted only the leading response to each question. The graph above shows the percentage of where black is the top selling filament, not the volume by which it is the top seller. That graph would be even more extreme.

The folks at Polar Filament even shared a joke that bounces around its team. They say “if we discontinued every single product we make except for Black PLA 1.75mm, we’d still have more than 50% of our business.” And they’re not alone.

This trend isn’t limited to PLA, too. Flexible filaments specialists Recreus note that even for them, where increasing specialization in its customer base sees demand for softer end-use materials, black is still the dominant color.

The next most common color sold is white, followed by natural and clear. Where second answers were given for the question, it was invariably one of the remaining three, showing a complete and total domination of neutrality in color popularity in filament.

The one outlier to not return black, white, or something close, was Cookiecad, which specializes in custom and fanciful glitter and silk filaments. For them, “unicorn” gradient is the top seller. Shine on, Cookiecad. Elsewhere, colorFabb has indicated it’s shrewdness by making any color a possibility through its Color on Demand service, which can color match filament to your liking. Demand is increasing, they say, with particular interest coming from users looking to colormatch against Lego, presumably to accessorize or reproduce the bricks.