diff --git a/docs/installation.rst b/docs/installation.rst
index b17cbbb..b2f011d 100644
--- a/docs/installation.rst
+++ b/docs/installation.rst
@@ -21,7 +21,6 @@ libraries are available to you:
 * `GZIP <https://www.gnu.org/software/gzip/>`_ (gzip data compression)
 * `LZMA <https://7-zip.org/>`_ (lzma data compression)
 * `CPPUnit <https://sourceforge.net/projects/cppunit/>`_ (unit testing)
-* `OpenSSL <https://www.openssl.org/>`_ (unit testing; MD5 checksums)
 
 .. note::
    * The instructions covered in this guide assume you are running a  
@@ -33,8 +32,7 @@ libraries are available to you:
 To ensure that all the packages are installed, one can run the following::
 
     sudo apt install build-essential cmake libtclap-dev libboost-all-dev \ 
-    pkg-config libcppunit-dev libeigen3-dev liblzma-dev zlib1g-dev libbz2-dev \
-    libssl-dev
+    pkg-config libcppunit-dev libeigen3-dev liblzma-dev zlib1g-dev libbz2-dev
 
 Standard compilation
 --------------------
diff --git a/src/test/CMakeLists.txt b/src/test/CMakeLists.txt
index 302fb99..60a0e72 100644
--- a/src/test/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/src/test/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -19,8 +19,6 @@
  #*************************************************************************/
 
 pkg_check_modules(CPPUNIT REQUIRED IMPORTED_TARGET cppunit)
-pkg_check_modules(CRYPTO REQUIRED IMPORTED_TARGET libcrypto)
-
 add_library(unittest STATIC unittest.cpp)
 target_compile_features(unittest PUBLIC cxx_std_17)
 
@@ -63,7 +61,6 @@ foreach(testexec ${EXECUTABLES})
             unittest
             den2objsources
             PkgConfig::CPPUNIT
-            PkgConfig::CRYPTO
     )
 
     add_test(NAME ${testexec} COMMAND ${testexec})
diff --git a/src/test/test_file_creation.cpp b/src/test/test_file_creation.cpp
index af15639..186694c 100644
--- a/src/test/test_file_creation.cpp
+++ b/src/test/test_file_creation.cpp
@@ -29,106 +29,134 @@ void TestFileCreation::tearDown() {
 }
 
 void TestFileCreation::test_ply_file() {
-    // set number of threads to 1
-    omp_set_num_threads(1);
-
-    // read scalar field
-    ScalarField sf("co_2pi_x.cub", ScalarFieldInputFileType::SFF_CUB);
-    sf.read();
-    
-    // perform marching cubes algorithm
-    IsoSurface is(&sf);
-    is.marching_cubes(0.01);
-    
-    // construct mesh
-    IsoSurfaceMesh ism(&sf, &is);
-    ism.construct_mesh(true);
+    const auto ref = this->generate_mesh();
+    this->assert_ply_shape("test.ply", ref);
+}
 
-    // create file
-    ism.write_to_file("test.ply", "co molecule 2pi_x orbital test", "molecule");
+void TestFileCreation::test_stl_file() {
+    const auto ref = this->generate_mesh();
+    this->assert_stl_shape("test.stl", ref);
+}
 
-    // test md5sum
-    CPPUNIT_ASSERT_EQUAL(this->md5("test.ply"), std::string("ec143f6ebf9b72761803c3b091f54bf3"));
+void TestFileCreation::test_obj_file() {
+    const auto ref = this->generate_mesh();
+    this->assert_obj_shape("test.obj", ref);
 }
 
-void TestFileCreation::test_stl_file() {
+TestFileCreation::MeshReference TestFileCreation::generate_mesh() const {
     // set number of threads to 1
     omp_set_num_threads(1);
 
     // read scalar field
     ScalarField sf("co_2pi_x.cub", ScalarFieldInputFileType::SFF_CUB);
     sf.read();
-    
+
     // perform marching cubes algorithm
     IsoSurface is(&sf);
     is.marching_cubes(0.01);
-    
+
     // construct mesh
     IsoSurfaceMesh ism(&sf, &is);
     ism.construct_mesh(true);
 
-    // create file
+    // create files for all supported output formats
+    ism.write_to_file("test.ply", "co molecule 2pi_x orbital test", "molecule");
     ism.write_to_file("test.stl", "co molecule 2pi_x orbital test", "molecule");
+    ism.write_to_file("test.obj", "co molecule 2pi_x orbital test", "molecule");
 
-    // test md5sum
-    CPPUNIT_ASSERT_EQUAL(this->md5("test.stl"), std::string("c2194ba639caf5092654862bb9f93298"));
+    return {
+        ism.get_vertices().size(),
+        ism.get_normals().size(),
+        ism.get_texcoords().size() / 6
+    };
 }
 
-void TestFileCreation::test_obj_file() {
-    // set number of threads to 1
-    omp_set_num_threads(1);
+void TestFileCreation::assert_obj_shape(const std::string& filename, const MeshReference& ref) const {
+    CPPUNIT_ASSERT(std::filesystem::exists(filename));
+
+    std::ifstream infile(filename);
+    CPPUNIT_ASSERT(infile.good());
+
+    std::string line;
+    size_t vertex_lines = 0;
+    size_t normal_lines = 0;
+    size_t face_lines = 0;
+
+    while(std::getline(infile, line)) {
+        if(line.rfind("v ", 0) == 0) {
+            vertex_lines++;
+        } else if(line.rfind("vn ", 0) == 0) {
+            normal_lines++;
+        } else if(line.rfind("f ", 0) == 0) {
+            face_lines++;
+        }
+    }
 
-    // read scalar field
-    ScalarField sf("co_2pi_x.cub", ScalarFieldInputFileType::SFF_CUB);
-    sf.read();
-    
-    // perform marching cubes algorithm
-    IsoSurface is(&sf);
-    is.marching_cubes(0.01);
-    
-    // construct mesh
-    IsoSurfaceMesh ism(&sf, &is);
-    ism.construct_mesh(true);
+    CPPUNIT_ASSERT_EQUAL(ref.vertices, vertex_lines);
+    CPPUNIT_ASSERT_EQUAL(ref.normals, normal_lines);
+    CPPUNIT_ASSERT_EQUAL(ref.triangles, face_lines);
+}
 
-    // create file
-    ism.write_to_file("test.obj", "co molecule 2pi_x orbital test", "molecule");
+void TestFileCreation::assert_ply_shape(const std::string& filename, const MeshReference& ref) const {
+    CPPUNIT_ASSERT(std::filesystem::exists(filename));
+
+    std::ifstream infile(filename, std::ios::binary);
+    CPPUNIT_ASSERT(infile.good());
+
+    std::string line;
+    size_t header_size = 0;
+    size_t header_vertices = 0;
+    size_t header_faces = 0;
+    bool seen_ply = false;
+    bool seen_binary_format = false;
+
+    while(std::getline(infile, line)) {
+        header_size += line.size() + 1;
+
+        if(line == "ply") {
+            seen_ply = true;
+        }
+        if(line == "format binary_little_endian 1.0" || line == "format binary_big_endian 1.0") {
+            seen_binary_format = true;
+        }
+        if(line.rfind("element vertex ", 0) == 0) {
+            header_vertices = std::stoul(line.substr(15));
+        }
+        if(line.rfind("element face ", 0) == 0) {
+            header_faces = std::stoul(line.substr(13));
+        }
+        if(line == "end_header") {
+            break;
+        }
+    }
+
+    CPPUNIT_ASSERT(seen_ply);
+    CPPUNIT_ASSERT(seen_binary_format);
+    CPPUNIT_ASSERT_EQUAL(ref.vertices, header_vertices);
+    CPPUNIT_ASSERT_EQUAL(ref.triangles, header_faces);
 
-    // test md5sum
-    CPPUNIT_ASSERT_EQUAL(this->md5("test.obj"), std::string("e2b3e09f9c010dac99a7bc0137c187ec"));
+    const size_t expected_binary_size =
+        ref.vertices * (6 * sizeof(float)) +
+        ref.triangles * (sizeof(uint8_t) + 3 * sizeof(unsigned int));
+
+    CPPUNIT_ASSERT_EQUAL(header_size + expected_binary_size, (size_t)std::filesystem::file_size(filename));
 }
 
-/**
- * @brief      Calculate MD5 checksum of a file
- *
- * @param[in]  name      Path to the file
- * 
- * @return     32 byte string containing md5 checksum
- */
-std::string TestFileCreation::md5(const std::string& filename) {
-    // read the file
-    std::ifstream mfile(filename, std::ios::binary | std::ios::ate);
-    std::streamsize size = mfile.tellg();
-    mfile.seekg(0, std::ios::beg);
-    char buffer[size];
-    mfile.read(buffer, size);
-    mfile.close();
-
-    // output variable for hash
-    unsigned char hash[MD5_DIGEST_LENGTH];
-
-    // calculate the md5 hash
-    EVP_MD_CTX *ctx = EVP_MD_CTX_create();
-    EVP_MD_CTX_init(ctx);
-    const EVP_MD *md_type = EVP_md5();
-    EVP_DigestInit_ex(ctx, md_type, NULL);
-    EVP_DigestUpdate(ctx, buffer, size);
-    EVP_DigestFinal_ex(ctx, hash, NULL);
-    EVP_MD_CTX_destroy(ctx);
-
-    // output as a 32-byte hex-string
-    std::stringstream ss;
-    for(int i = 0; i < MD5_DIGEST_LENGTH; i++){
-        ss << std::hex << std::setw(2) << std::setfill('0') << static_cast<int>( hash[i] );
-    }
-    return ss.str();
-}
\ No newline at end of file
+void TestFileCreation::assert_stl_shape(const std::string& filename, const MeshReference& ref) const {
+    CPPUNIT_ASSERT(std::filesystem::exists(filename));
+
+    std::ifstream infile(filename, std::ios::binary);
+    CPPUNIT_ASSERT(infile.good());
+
+    // skip header
+    infile.seekg(80, std::ios::beg);
+
+    uint32_t triangle_count = 0;
+    infile.read(reinterpret_cast<char*>(&triangle_count), sizeof(uint32_t));
+    CPPUNIT_ASSERT(infile.good());
+
+    CPPUNIT_ASSERT_EQUAL(static_cast<uint32_t>(ref.triangles), triangle_count);
+
+    const size_t expected_size = 80 + sizeof(uint32_t) + ref.triangles * (12 * sizeof(float) + sizeof(uint16_t));
+    CPPUNIT_ASSERT_EQUAL(expected_size, (size_t)std::filesystem::file_size(filename));
+}
diff --git a/src/test/test_file_creation.h b/src/test/test_file_creation.h
index 3615fd2..744ab0f 100644
--- a/src/test/test_file_creation.h
+++ b/src/test/test_file_creation.h
@@ -23,10 +23,9 @@
 
 #include <cppunit/extensions/HelperMacros.h>
 
-// we need these for the MD5 checksums
-#include <iomanip>
-#include <openssl/md5.h>
-#include <openssl/evp.h>
+#include <cstdint>
+#include <filesystem>
+#include <string>
 
 #include "scalar_field.h"
 #include "isosurface.h"
@@ -34,12 +33,11 @@
 
 /**
  * Test that verifies file creation (obj, stl and ply)
- * 
+ *
  * Because the marching cubes algorithm uses OpenMP parallellization, we need
  * to set the number of threads to 1 to obtain consistent results. With
  * higher number of cores, the results are subject to race conditions, leading
- * to different (although not incorrect) results preventing the use of a simple
- * MD5 checksum for file validation.
+ * to different (although not incorrect) results.
 */
 class TestFileCreation : public CppUnit::TestFixture {
     CPPUNIT_TEST_SUITE( TestFileCreation );
@@ -56,7 +54,16 @@ class TestFileCreation : public CppUnit::TestFixture {
     void tearDown();
 
 private:
-    std::string md5(const std::string &str);
+    struct MeshReference {
+        size_t vertices;
+        size_t normals;
+        size_t triangles;
+    };
+
+    MeshReference generate_mesh() const;
+    void assert_obj_shape(const std::string& filename, const MeshReference& ref) const;
+    void assert_ply_shape(const std::string& filename, const MeshReference& ref) const;
+    void assert_stl_shape(const std::string& filename, const MeshReference& ref) const;
 };
 
-#endif
\ No newline at end of file
+#endif