3D Printing is exciting and it is the future. But currently, very few can afford printing machines and expensive materials, not to mention the fact it is very complex to design and printing high quality products. New Matter could be the company that brings 3D printing the masses.

New Matter, a a year old startup backed by Idealab, has teamed up with the people from the legendary Frog Design studio to create a 3D printer for the masses. The result is a beautiful machine named Mod T, a 16-inch by 12-inch by 15-inch tall elegant 3D printer.

The MOD-t printer is not like other printers were an extruder that moves in X (left-right), Y (top-bottom parallel to the build platform) and Z axes (up-down). In MOD-T, the the build plate moves along both the X and Y axis and thereby only moving. This design change which is patent pending, reduced the number of part required, and made the printer more affordable, with a price of $249.

Low cost does not mean cheap, as the specs for MOD-t look impressive too. With a built-in WiFi, print speeds of 80mm per second, layer resolution range of 0.2 to 0.4mm, and a print dimension of four-by-six-by-five-inches, it prints out of Polylactic Acid (PLA) plastic and a fused deposition modeling technology.

New Matter is working on its software platform too. The company has a vision to create a community of designers, and also setup an online marketplace that will feature a library of custom designs that users can print directly to their machine.

The company launched an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign – with the goal of raising $375,000 over 35 days. The first units are expected to ship in Q1 2015, with full commercial availability.

With a lowest priced printer that boasts of high quality and a long term vision on the software side, MOD-T sure has a lot of competitors to engage with!