Fold the Entire Solar System: Free Printable Paper Globes
Folding Paper Globes
FoldingGlobes.com offers a stunning collection of free, printable paper globes. From the Sun and Moon to Mars, Jupiter, and even Pluto, you can download, print, and fold your own 3D models of celestial bodies. The site also features Earth from space views like the Blue Marble and Earth at Night, plus data globes showing earthquakes, volcanoes, and more. Every globe is built from openly licensed data, and you can customize them with the custom globe builder.
Every globe is built from openly licensed data — sources credited on each theme page.
- tln
They could get 10% bigger globes out of the same sheet of paper by rotating the icosahedron a bit (14º)
- rgovostes
Flexify (http://www.flamingpear.com/flexify-2.html) is an incredible decades-old Photoshop plugin for making these. I made a mobile for a grade school math project using Flexify and NASA's equirectangular planetary maps, turning Mercury into a tetrahedron, Venus a pentahedron, etc.
The gallery of output projections is neat: http://www.flamingpear.com/flexify-output-modes.html
- blululu
Neat. For folks who are more comfortable with using the terminal than paying for things, I have used this python libraries to make isospheres from 360 photographs:
- fwipsy
Neat! There's a notable omission though--none of the earth globes look like earth does from space, with true color* AND clouds. A while ago I got really into making paper globes because I wanted one like that and I couldn't find one I liked. I asked Claude to write a script to generate a net out of this: https://web.archive.org/web/20250316112538/https://visibleea... Instead of an isocahedron, I used gores like a real globe. This approximates a sphere using intersecting cylindrical surfaces (not sure what the term for that solid is!) I made a bunch but usually they came out pretty lumpy, here's the best one: https://imgur.com/a/eikGrTW
*Edit: I also couldn't find a good point of reference for what "true color Earth" even looks like. Different photos/satellites seem to have notably different color calibration, just google "blue marble" and you'll see. And this isn't even getting into the weeds about atmospheric effects, which appear strongest near the limb... obviously there's no way to replicate that on a globe!
- jsherer
Maybe I'm overlooking, but would love if this had an accurate political globe (e.g., countries and capitals) for my young kids.