A Complete 3D-Printed Lithophane Workflow
When I saw my first 3D-printed lithophane, I knew I had to master this process. If you don't know what a lithophane is, check out the history here. With the advent of cheap 3D printers and software that takes photos and converts them into the required format, lithophanes have become "easy" to produce.
Since I acquired my own 3D printers I've printed many examples with both FDM (filament) and DLP (resin) 3D printers.
This is my workflow for creating lithophanes with either FDM or DLP printers. The first step in creating a lithophane is to select a good photo. In general, you should keep to something with a clear subject and high contrast. For this example, we're going with a nice landscape. When preparing your image you should keep in mind that the lithophane is going to be in grayscale.
In the lower part of this image, the tree and vegetation will likely look muddled in grayscale so we'll crop those out. We'll also increase the overall contrast.
Now we need to convert the image to an stl file that can be printed. There are several online websites that do this for free. I like to use 3DRocks however I just learned that it's a dead site so it could disappear at any time and is no longer being developed. Other alternative are Lithophane Generator and Best Lithophane Maker. All of the settings are familiar and I'll be moving my work over to the alternative sites in the future.
Load your image and select the Model Settings.
Set the "Maximum Size" to fit your desired size within the capabilities of your printer. The bigger the size, the longer the print takes. Typical times could be anywhere from a couple of hours for small prints to 1 or 2 days for larger ones. For FDM printers, you need to set a "Border" of 3mm. That gives the print a nice thick outline to build upon and provide vertical stability during the print. The "Thickness" defaults to 3mm, but you can play with going thicker to get more contrast. The thickness also depends upon the brightness of the light you're planning on using for your lithophane. These are going in the window for me so I'm bumping the thickness up to 4mm.
Go back to the image panel and check the results. Zoom into your image and make sure that the dark parts of the image are thicker and the bright parts of the image are thin. Download your file.
The downloaded file is your image in a stl format. Now open it with 3DBuilder in Windows 10. Go ahead and accept the default file units as mm.
You'll get a warning in the lower right saying that the file needs to be repaired. After the repair, the model will be "water tight" and easier to slice.
If you're printing on a FDM printer, you're ready to save the file back as a stl to get it ready to slice.
DLP printers are better with organic shapes, so I like to change the border to be rounded. I use 3D Builder to create a couple of cylinders to remove the corners and then add a new 3mm or 4mm border. If you don't know how to do that in 3D Builder, watch some videos and get to know 3D Builder or whatever 3D modeling program you want. It's a good idea to know how to do basic 3D editing.
For my FDM printer, I use the slicer Ultimaker Cura. You need to rotate the model to be vertically printed with a raft and no supports. Save g-code to your printer.
For my DPL printer, I use the slicer Chitubox. As before, I print vertically but this time with supports. I remove any supports that are automatically added to support the side of the lithophane and add additional supports to the bottom to make sure the model has a solid base. Save the resulting file to your printer.
The lithophane on the FDM printer is almost 10 inches wide. It's going to take 36 hours.
The lithophane on the DLP printer is just over 3 inches wide. It's going to take 6 hours.
One advantage of the DLP printer is that if you want to load up the print area with as many lithophanes as you can fit it doesn't increase the print time. The only thing that affects the print time is the number of layers.
With FDM printers, the more lithos you print the longer it takes. In my experience, the more items you try to print at once increases the risk of failure exponentially. Additionally you'll introduce issues with stringing between multiple lithophanes, which will affect quality. Stick to one litho at a time for FDM printers.
If you follow these simple steps in this workflow, the results are pretty good.
Going small and detailed with a DLP printer.
Going big with a FDM printer. This was a 36 hours print.
Final results look nice in my window of lithos.
What's your favorite online lithophane website? Let us know in the comments.
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