Lithophanes Have Never Been Easier Thanks To This Online Tool

Lithophanes have been super popular this fall. We’ve been seeing examples of this clever 3d printing trick popping up all over social media.

For those who are unfamiliar, a lithophane is a neat way of making a picture by creating a block of material that has varying thickness and shining a light through it. Thick areas are darker and thin areas are lighter. Over the years we’ve seen this done with cnc machines but now 3d printers are taking over and creating some fantastic results.

Jordin Andriessen wrote in to share this free online tool for creating lithophanes that he and Dennis Dane have created. Itslitho.com is a fully featured system for creating your own cool pictures, complete with tools for editing the image before generating the 3d file.

They’ve also outlined an approach to generating full color lithophanes without a multi color 3d printer!

I tried it out and was pleasantly surprised with how much control you have over the whole thing. Go check it out!