Lithophane Maker and Image to STL, Free in Your Browser | MiConvert
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Lithophane maker: turn a photo into a printable STL

Pick a photo, set the size and thickness, and download an STL your slicer opens. Dark areas print thick and light areas print thin, so the picture appears when light shines through. Everything is computed in this browser tab: the photo is not uploaded to MiConvert or anywhere else.

The 3D preview appears here. Drag to turn it, scroll or pinch to zoom.

How the photo becomes a model

The photo is drawn onto a grid of points spaced by the detail setting, 0.25 mm by default, and each point's brightness is turned into a height. In lithophane mode black becomes the maximum thickness and white the minimum, which is what makes the picture show when the print is backlit. Relief mode reverses that: light areas stand up and dark areas stay low, for a heightmap you look at from the front.

The model is a closed solid: the picture surface, a flat back and four side walls, with every edge shared by exactly two triangles. That closed, consistently oriented solid is what slicers expect, so there are no holes for them to repair. The optional frame is a solid border at its own thickness, which gives a flat print a stiff edge to stand on.

The curved shape bends the same model around a vertical axis. The arc setting is the angle the picture covers, so 120° gives a gentle curve for a desk stand and 300° gets close to a lamp shade. Bending keeps the width you set as the length along the curve.

The file is a binary STL in millimetres. Every point of the grid is a vertex, so files are large: a 100 mm wide landscape photo at 0.25 mm detail is about 12 MB, a portrait one about 20 MB, and a 300 mm wide print about 100 MB. If the grid would pass 1.5 million points, the page coarsens the detail and says so.

Printing a lithophane

FilamentWhite or natural PLA. Coloured filament blocks most of the light.
OrientationStand a flat lithophane upright on its edge, so the picture is built in layers from bottom to top; the frame helps it stand. Print a curved one standing too.
Infill100%. Any infill pattern shows through as lines when the print is lit.
Layer height0.1 to 0.12 mm keeps the fine thickness steps; it prints slowly, and a 100 mm lithophane takes a few hours.
Thickness0.8 mm minimum and 3 mm maximum suit most printers and PLA. A minimum under 0.6 mm can leave gaps; a maximum over 3.5 mm makes the darkest areas look solid black.
LightLook at it with a white light behind it: a window, an LED strip or a tea light. In front light a lithophane looks like plain grey relief.

After you download

  • STL to 3MF for slicers and print services that prefer 3MF.
  • STL to OBJ to bring the model into Blender or another 3D editor.
  • STEP to STL if you also print CAD parts and need them as meshes.
  • All 3D converters STL, OBJ, 3MF, GLB, FBX, STEP, IGES and more.

Questions

Is my photo uploaded?
No. The photo is read and turned into a model by JavaScript in this tab, and the STL is saved straight from the tab to your device. MiConvert's server receives only a count that a file was saved and its size, not the picture or the model.
Can I convert a PNG or JPG image to STL?
Yes. Choose Relief mode to turn an image into a heightmap STL: light areas stand up and dark areas stay low, on a solid base as thick as the Thinnest setting. Lithophane mode does the opposite, for prints you hold up to the light. A logo or drawing works best with strong black-and-white contrast. To turn an outline into a cut-out shape instead of a height map, trace it in a CAD program first.
Which pictures work best?
Photos with clear contrast and a well-lit face or subject. Very dark photos turn into a thick, dull slab; raise the brightness first. The page opens JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF, BMP and AVIF, whatever your browser can display. For an iPhone HEIC photo, convert it to JPG first with the HEIC to JPG converter.
What is the difference between lithophane and relief mode?
Lithophane mode makes dark areas thick, so the picture appears when light comes from behind. Relief mode makes light areas high, so the picture reads from the front, like a heightmap or embossed tile.
How big can the lithophane be?
From 20 to 300 mm wide. The height follows the photo's proportions. Thickness can be set from 0.2 to 20 mm and the frame up to 20 mm wide.
Why does the preview look less detailed than the file?
Large models are previewed on a coarser grid so the page stays smooth. The Download button rebuilds the model at the detail you chose.
Can I make a lamp shade or a cylinder?
Choose Curved and raise the arc. The largest arc is 300°, which leaves a gap so the shade can stand over a light. A closed 360° cylinder is not offered.