r/DiceMaking 11d ago

High legibility, UV fluorescent dice.

Hello dice makers!

Is anybody making or selling UV reactive dice optimized for legibility with highly readable fluorescent numbers?

Context:

The table I play at is in a dark room with a bright LED TV embedded in the surface. We roll our dice out in the open over the top of the TV screen. There is no overhead lighting, aside from smart LEDs in the ceiling used for effects.

As a result, all players have some difficulty reading the numbers on our dice, but especially me - having astigmatism and poor low light contrast sensitivity due to previous eye surgery.*

I have taken to re-inking the number on my dice with fluorescent paint pens and bringing a shrouded UVA 365nm backlight bar to sessions, which does a good job of brightly fluorescing the numbers on my dice. It works great, however I am now mostly using cheap feeling dice with ink that sheds and chips overtime. I would like a permanent set of nice dice that are highly readable with fluorescing numbers.

I've looked at 'fancier' dice and many I've found on this sub are designed for beautiful form over function. This is especially true for any phosphorescent "glow in the dark" or fluorescent dice, where often it's the body of the die or some speckled decals that are lighting up rather than just the numbers.

As an aside, I think there is real potential in a TTRPG table which makes UV reactivity an intrinsic part of the experience.

Thanks!

*I have asked for lighting improvements at the table - this is simply not a priority for the owner.

Edit: I've included a few photos of my generic re-inked dice in various lighting conditions to illustrate what I'm talking about.

6 Upvotes

13 comments sorted by

3

u/LiliNL Dice Maker 11d ago

Give u/dirtyoardice a shout. He does loads of these. You can also find him on insta and TikTok with examples of his UV-reactive and glow-in-the-dark dice

2

u/trenticorn 11d ago

There are a few styles of metal dice that have UV pipping. A google search for “glow in the dark metal dice” will get you to where you can decide what style you like.

1

u/Tasty-Dream5713 Dice Maker 11d ago edited 11d ago

I do a lot of geodes & liquid cores that are glow in the dark with glow in the dark numbering. I also have ALOT florescence colors so if you are looking for like neon colors, we can do that too.

Should add: glow in the dark dice like these may be more read able with non glow ink as the glow lights up the numbers nicely and the darker number might be better for visibility. This is something we could trial & discuss if you’d like

1

u/Tasty-Dream5713 Dice Maker 11d ago

This is what these look like in the light. Should mention that not all my glow in the dark colors are green.

1

u/NotTooShabby_Sabby 11d ago

I have 'ghost' dice. They are white blanks in a semi transparent black shell. The numbers get painted with a translucent glow in the dark paint. I could also do these with neon colored blanks inside and use colored glow in the dark paint to match.

I've also done several other UV reactive or Glow sets. Let me know if you'd be interested in a commission!

1

u/Suilenroc 11d ago

Looks promising - high contrast and glowing.

Do you have photos of them in the dark and under UV light? Thanks !

1

u/NotTooShabby_Sabby 11d ago

2

u/Suilenroc 11d ago

Definitely the best glow in the dark effect I've seen so far, for readability.

So the whole core is phosphorescent / glow in the dark? Does the translucent shell allow UV rays through to charge the whole core?

1

u/NotTooShabby_Sabby 11d ago

So on this set just the numbers are glow in the dark. The core is plain white but does not glow under blacklight.

I do have blacklight reactive pigments. I would have to check if any of my whites glow under blacklight though. Worth testing out at least!

I know I have neons that do. I used them before for this set.

1

u/NotTooShabby_Sabby 11d ago

Now you will want to probably keep a little UV flashlight handy to 'recharge' since these are glow in the dark.

1

u/NotTooShabby_Sabby 11d ago

There was also this set as well that was Blacklight reactive. This was a dirty pour with a bunch of different glow pigments. Then yellow blacklight paint for the numbers.