text: As DNA printing and DNA assembly methods have allowed commercial gene synthesis to become progressively and exponentially cheaper over the past years, artificial gene synthesis represents a powerful and flexible engineering tool for creating and designing new DNA sequences and protein functions. Besides synthetic biology, various research areas like those involving heterologous gene expression, vaccine development, gene therapy and molecular engineering, would benefit greatly from having fast and cheap methods to synthesise DNA to code for proteins and peptides. The methods used for DNA printing and assembly have even enabled the use of DNA as an information storage medium.