Right on. Simple text/encoded strings weren't really on my mind while imagining the more complicated solution, but you're right that data is probably best preserved with just "printing" rather than 3d printing.
I didn't have an amount in mind, I was just kind of wondering about the hobbyist aspect. Like if I woke up one day and realized I need to archive something and my most readily available tool was a 3d printer, would I have to come up with my own scheme, or has someone already done it?
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30820836
OPTAR: 2016
https://ronja.twibright.com/optar/
That reminds me a lot of a QR code, but extended. At which point, I have to ask: Why not just use QR codes? They have the advantage of being ubiquitous, although I'm very open to the idea that they have disadvantages or leave improvements on the table.
The main advantage is information density. QR codes dedicate a lot of real estate to error correction, but the protocol is really optimized for a few words, not kilobytes at a time.
It's also a problem if you need to segment your datastream onto multiple pages You've got to define a protocol for your stack of QR codes with that new encoding