Photo to 3D relief: a plate, lithophane or lamp from a photo or logo
Upload a photo or logo and pick a mode: relief, lithophane or a cylinder lamp. The brightness at a grid of points across the image becomes a height, and the result downloads as STL or 3MF.
Opens without an account, with no daily limit.
- 3 modesrelief, lithophane and lamp
- Gamma 0.3 to 3.0how midtones become height
- 10 to 300 mmplate size or lamp circumference
- STL and 3MFa closed body for the slicer
What a 3D relief from a photo is
Photo to 3D relief is a free online tool from EduFacturing for printing a plate, a lithophane or a lamp. The brightness at a grid of points across the image becomes a height, and the result is a closed body you download as STL or 3MF.
There are three modes: relief for a plate lit from the front, lithophane for a plate with light behind it, and cylinder for a lamp. Transparent areas of a PNG are blended with white before the calculation. The image is processed in your browser and is not uploaded to a server.
Photo to 3D relief: a plate, a lithophane and a cylinder lamp
Turns the brightness of a photo into height
For each grid point it takes the brightness, applies a gamma from 0.3 to 3.0 and turns it into a height above the base.
Three modes: relief, lithophane, lamp
In relief, light is high. In lithophane and cylinder, dark is thick, and the manual Invert flips the value once more.
Builds a closed body for the slicer
A top surface, a flat bottom and four walls, or for the cylinder an outer and an inner wall with rings.
Warns about a thin base
A base under 0.8 mm, the FDM minimum from the EduFacturing rules, gives a warning. The triangle count shows under the preview.
What a 3D relief is for: a sign, a lithophane, a lamp
One photo gives three different things: a plate, a lithophane and a lamp.
A sign, a plaque and a logo on a plate
Relief mode: the light parts of the logo or photo become high, and the plate is lit from the front.
A lithophane for a window or a lamp
Lithophane mode: dark is thick and light is thin. The backlit preview button gives an illustrative preview.
A lamp with an LED inside
Cylinder mode: the image wraps a hollow cylinder with a hole through the middle, and the bottom can be closed.
A lesson on height maps
A student sees how brightness, gamma and mode change the height.
How photo brightness becomes relief height
About 0.35 seconds after your last change, the image is sampled into a grid again and the model is built from it.
Grid
The image is sampled into N points across (from 20 to 300), and the rows follow the proportions of the photo. Transparent pixels are blended with white.
Brightness and gamma
Brightness is weighted by how the eye sees it and raised to the power γ. In lithophane and cylinder, the value is flipped automatically.
Body
The height above the floor is the base plus the value times the maximum height. Relief and lithophane are a square whose side is the size you set, and the cylinder has an inner radius of circumference / 2π.
Writing
STL and 3MF are written from the same geometry you see in the preview.
| Applies to | Formula | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Brightness and gamma | L = (0.299·R + 0.587·G + 0.114·B)^γ | R, G, B from 0 to 1, on a white background where transparent; γ from 0.3 to 3.0 |
| Relief | z = b + L·H | b is the base, H is the maximum height; z is the height above the floor |
| Lithophane and cylinder | z = b + (1 − L)·H | dark is thick; in the cylinder, z is the wall thickness |
| Grid step | p = size / (N − 1) | for relief and lithophane, across; N is the points; at 80 mm and 120 points, p ≈ 0.67 mm |
| Cylinder | r₀ = C / (2π) and h = (R − 1)·C / N | r₀ is the inner radius, C is the circumference, R is the rows; the height is not set |
What is different: three modes, a lamp with no height
Three modes, one grid
Relief, lithophane and cylinder read brightness by one formula and differ in direction and in the shape of the body.
The lamp asks for no height
The inner radius comes from the circumference and the height follows the proportions of the photo, so the picture fits the circumference.
An honest backlit preview
The backlit preview colors linearly by thickness, and the tool says it is not a physically accurate simulation.
The tool does not check the slope of the surface and does not compare the grid step with your nozzle: work it out from the formula. Infill, orientation and layers stay in the slicer.
Relief and lithophane are always square, with a side equal to the size you set, so a non-square photo is stretched. The backlit preview is an illustrative color map only; real contrast depends on the filament, the layer and the light.
Questions about a 3D relief from a photo
How to turn a photo into a 3D relief?
Upload the photo, choose relief mode, set the size, base and height, and download STL or 3MF. In relief, light is high, and transparent areas of a PNG are blended with white.
Can you 3D print from a picture or a logo?
Yes. A logo uploads as a PNG, JPG, SVG or WEBP, and in relief mode its light parts become high.
What is a 3D relief, and how does it differ from a lithophane?
A relief is a plate you look at with light from the front, and a lithophane is looked at with light behind it. In relief, light is high; in a lithophane, dark is thick.
Why does my photo look inverted in lithophane mode?
In relief, light is high, but in lithophane and cylinder, dark is thick, so the tool flips the brightness automatically. The manual Invert flips it once more, so it is meant for negatives.
What base should I set?
Under 0.8 mm a warning appears: that is the FDM minimum wall from the EduFacturing rules, while the field allows down to 0.4 mm. The tool recommends 2 to 3 mm for a relief and 1 to 1.5 mm for a lithophane.
How many points should I set?
80 to 150 points are best for printing, and above 200 gives many triangles. For a lithophane the tool recommends 150 to 250. In relief mode a square photo at 120 points gives 57,596 triangles.
Is the photo to 3D relief tool free?
Yes. It opens free, with no account and no daily limit.
The photo to 3D relief tool is free. Pro opens the rest
Pro costs 15 EUR a month and opens 45 Pro tools.
In the Design group:
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Make a relief from your photo
Opens without an account, with no daily limit.