Lithophanes are a beautiful and unique way to view your favorite images. The thickness of the image either blocks or allows light to pass, thereby creating dark and light areas. It’s an old technique that is being brought back to life with 3D printing.

3D Printed Lithophane with Light behind it

3D Printed Lithophane without Light behind it

What kind of images work best to print?

The general rule is: if an image looks impressive in a photograph then it likely will make a good lithophane. If it doesn’t look good as a standalone photograph, converting it to a lithophane won’t likely make it look any better.

The images that look the best are those with a variety of greys but especially strong lights and darks throughout the image. If everything is too similar, the image will look washed out and generally less impressive than it should. Lithophanes follow the same basic rules of photography since really that is the medium we are working with.

From image to lithophane, what’s your process?

First, I open the image that I’d like to work with and choose the size I want to print. From there, I simply replace the exisiting image in our editing program with the new file and input whatever text the customer ordered as a caption. Lastly, I export the file to the 3D printer. Once the piece is out of the printer, it is cleaned off and we ship it out. If there is a base included, it will be printed and shipped at the same time.

What can people do with these lithophanes?

Lithophanes have been used in a variety of applications over the centuries, from simply a plate backlit with a candle, to lanterns, to even the bottoms of beer steins. WhiteClouds offers lithophanes that are flat plates, standard US photograph sizes, with optional matching stands but will be releasing more options in the near future.