I am interested in using Mathematica to create 3D text for printing. I stumbled upon this answer which works very well in a slightly modified form:

text3D[text_String, mult_] := ListPlot3D[ ClusteringComponents[ ImageRotate@ImagePad[ImageReflect[ ImageCrop@First@ ColorSeparate@ Rasterize@ Graphics[{Text[Style[text, Bold, 60]]}], Left -> Right], 5, White]], Boxed -> False, Mesh -> False, Axes -> False, DataRange -> {{0, mult}, {0, mult}}] 

It seems to work well, except for one peculiar instance:

text3D["Hello",5] 

text3D["I",5] 

text3D["I am",5] 

Something is unusual about printing just the letter "I" and I can't place my finger on it. Adding spaces around the I (" I ") does not have an effect, but printing ".I." does (although I would like to have the letter I by itself).

There are two questions:

1. What is the root problem here and how can it be solved?
2. What are some other strategies for creating 3D text in an efficient manner?