Flashforge launched the CJ270 on September 14, a $3,999 desktop 3D printer that builds full-color parts directly, without a separate painting step. The company is calling it the world’s first desktop full-color 3D printer, and unlike anything else Flashforge currently sells, it doesn’t touch filament at all.
How it gets color into the print itself
Full-color 3D prints have traditionally meant multiple stages: print the part, then paint and finish it by hand, a workflow that gets slower and harder to repeat consistently as soon as a model needs gradients or fine color transitions. The CJ270 folds color into the printing step itself, using material jetting combined with UV curing, the same broad category of technology behind industrial full-color systems from companies like Stratasys, scaled down to fit a desk. Instead of loading a single-color spool, the printer draws on cyan, magenta, yellow and black materials plus separate white and transparent materials, mixing them the way an inkjet printer mixes ink rather than the way an FDM printer melts plastic. Flashforge says the combination produces more than 10 million colors, with layers as thin as 7 microns for smooth gradients and fine surface detail. A dedicated water-soluble support material is meant to make cleanup easier in recessed areas and internal channels that a scraper or pick normally can’t reach.
Not an upgrade to the AD5X
This is a different product line, not a new version of the AD5X, Flashforge’s existing multicolor printer. The AD5X gets to four colors by swapping filament through its IFS system, purging plastic through a single nozzle every time the color changes, the same basic approach used by Bambu’s AMS or Creality’s CFS. The CJ270 is built around jetting technology instead, and Flashforge isn’t positioning it as an FDM printer at all. Anyone who already owns an AD5X shouldn’t expect a firmware update or an add-on module. It’s a separate machine aimed at a separate job.
Built for prototypes and figures, not everyday printing
Flashforge is pitching the CJ270 at three kinds of buyers: design teams who want to check how a product looks and reads in color before it goes to manufacturing, people making figurines and collectibles with detail baked directly into the print instead of painted on afterward, and schools building models where color carries information, like an architectural elevation or a labeled diagram. At 697 x 410 x 405mm, the machine is sized for a studio desk or a classroom table rather than a garage workbench, which fits that framing better than a typical hobbyist purchase.
Price, shipping, and what’s still unknown
Orders opened September 9 through Flashforge.com, and the company says shipments begin October 15. The US price is $3,999, with regional pricing to follow through Flashforge’s local sales channels. The announcement leaves real gaps, too: no stated print speed, no word on what the CMYK, white and transparent materials cost to keep stocked, and no independent hands-on review yet to check those 10-million-color and 7-micron claims against a printed part rather than a press photo. If you want proven multicolor options you can buy and test today, our multicolor 3D printer buying guide covers the AMS, CFS and toolchanger systems that solve the same problem a different way, through filament instead of jetted materials.