Lithophane Maker: turn a photo into a light panel
Turn a photo into a flat, backlit 3D print. Crop it, set the thickness and download a binary STL in millimetres. Your photo stays in your browser.
Local browser processing · No upload · No account required
JPG, PNG, WebP, HEIC or AVIF. Flat rectangles only. The width includes the frame; frame height is its thickness.
Choose a photo to begin.
Mesh limit: at most 40,000 grid cells and 400 cells on either side. Photos are reduced to a preview up to 1,600 pixels on its longest side; the output uses that preview.
Size, triangles and file size appear here before saving.
How to make a lithophane from a photo
- Choose a JPG, PNG or WebP photo. I start with a clear subject and leave room around the face or object before choosing the crop.
- Pick a rectangle or square, then drag the crop to keep the important part. The height follows this crop when you set the width in millimetres.
- Set the minimum and maximum thickness, frame and sampling resolution. I compare the backlit preview before and after a brightness or contrast change.
- Read the dimensions, triangle count and byte count below the preview. Download the STL, then open it in a slicer using millimetres and inspect the layers before printing.
What I can check before a print
I have not printed these lithophanes. I built this page to make the photo conversion visible: the crop becomes a thickness map, and the map becomes a closed mesh. My checks here concern that file, its dimensions and the direction of its faces. They do not establish how a particular filament will transmit light.
I keep the original photo unchanged. The bright preview is a guide for comparing edits, rather than a photograph of a finished object. For printing advice I refer to the named manufacturers below.
Thickness values from the tool
At the default minimum of 0.8 mm and maximum of 3.0 mm, with brightness and contrast unchanged, the tool uses a linear grayscale map. These values are checked against hand calculations in the mesh test.
| Input tone | Normal thickness | Inverted thickness |
|---|---|---|
| Black | 3.0 mm | 0.8 mm |
| 50% gray | 1.9 mm | 1.9 mm |
| White | 0.8 mm | 3.0 mm |
A photograph made from thickness
A lithophane is a thin print of a photograph. Dark areas contain more material and light areas less. Hold it against a light and the differences form the picture. Without backlighting it may look like a pale relief. This tool makes a flat rectangle with a flat back, a shaped front and closed sides.
I use luminance from the photo rather than its color as the input. Transparent areas are placed over white. The brightness control shifts the tones; contrast spreads them around middle gray. Invert reverses the mapping for special cases. With the normal setting, a white patch always becomes the minimum thickness when no other adjustment changes it.
Size, border and the mesh limit
Width includes the border, and height follows the selected crop. Frame width is measured inward from the outside edge; frame height means thickness from the flat back. It must stay between the minimum and maximum. A frame width of zero removes the border. Maximum thickness is a ceiling: without a dark pixel or a frame at that height, the file can be thinner.
The preview source is limited to 1,600 pixels on its longest side. The mesh is limited to 40,000 grid cells and 400 cells along either edge. Raising the requested pixels per millimetre beyond that limit does not enlarge the file further. I show the actual grid and effective resolution so the reduction is visible before saving. Decoding and STL generation run away from the page controls.
Prepare the STL for a printer
The binary STL contains coordinates in millimetres. STL does not carry a unit tag, so select millimetres when importing. The listed byte count is the complete file size, including its header. The back and sides are included; no separate backing plate is needed to close the model.
UltiMaker’s image printing guide says upright printing can improve detail but is less stable, and recommends light filament and a solid interior without infill patterns. Inspect bed adhesion before choosing that orientation. Its layer advice is to use a fine profile suited to the printer. Prusa’s lithophane guide gives 0.1 mm layers as a starting point. Those are manufacturer suggestions, not results from my own prints.
Tips for better results
- Keep the subject large enough to recognize after the preview becomes monochrome.
- I adjust brightness before adding contrast, watching for blank highlights and blocked shadows.
- Use white filament as a starting choice, and inspect a solid infill preview in the slicer.
- Check the measured size after rotating the panel for printing; changing units or scale also changes thickness.
Privacy
Your photo is processed in your browser and never leaves your device. No upload or account is needed to create the STL.
Frequently asked questions
What is a lithophane?
It is a thin photo print whose thickness controls transmitted light. Dark parts are thick and bright parts thin. When you light it from behind, those differences reveal a monochrome version of the photo.
Does this maker upload my photo?
No. The browser opens the image, calculates the preview and builds the STL locally. The download contains a surface made from your cropped tones; the original image file is not sent to a server.
Why does the resolution stop increasing?
The grid has a fixed mesh limit. When your requested resolution would exceed it, the maker reduces the sampling density and reports the actual value. Width and height in millimetres remain the sizes you chose.
Can I make a curved lithophane?
This page makes flat rectangular panels only. A square is also available as a crop shape. It does not bend the photo around a cylinder or produce a lampshade, stand or light housing.
Related tools and guides
- Image to Lithophane STL: size the download: Make a binary STL from an image with a flat back and closed sides. Check the dimensions, sampling grid, triangle count and download size before saving.
- Lithophane Generator: control the thickness map: Control how a photo becomes plastic thickness. Compare minimum, maximum and frame settings in a backlit preview, then generate the flat panel STL.
- Photo to Lithophane: choose the crop and tones: Prepare a photo for a flat lithophane: keep the subject, compare the tones under simulated light and save a closed STL without uploading the image.
- Work out how large your photo can print: Convert pixels and print dimensions; change JPEG DPI tags.
- Make a contact sheet of your photos: Print a page of thumbnails with captions and EXIF lines as a PDF or page images.
- Make a passport photo at home: Passport and visa photos to official sizes, with a printable 10 x 15 cm sheet.
- Why I built these photography tools: The reason I keep photo processing on your device.