Image → lithophane

novel input: photo as geometry

Photo → grayscale heightmap → 3D-printable translucent panel.

What it is

A lithophane is a thin translucent panel whose local wall thickness encodes an image: dark pixels become thick walls (block more light), bright pixels become thin walls (let more light through). When you backlight the printed panel, the image reappears as a tonal play of light. The example ships with a van-Gogh-style portrait baked in; a one-line script swaps in your own.

Why visual feedback matters

This is the first example in the repo where the input is not code — it’s an image. Claude reads the photo natively, the preprocessor downsamples it to a grayscale heightmap, and the .jscad file builds one polyhedron with one vertex per grid corner. It’s also a perception-loop subtlety: a real-thickness lithophane renders as a nearly featureless white card because the image is meant to be read by transmitted light. The hero shot temporarily exaggerates the relief ~5×; the grazing-angle profile shows the real geometry.

Screenshots

Hero shot uses `maxThickness: 15` so diffuse shading reveals the image; the printable default `maxThickness: 3` produces the subtle profile on the right.

Hero (relief 5× exaggerated)

Real-thickness profile (grazing angle)

Parameters

Parameters 3 +

Name	Default	Description
pixelSize	— mm	Physical size per source pixel. At 120 px wide and 1 mm/px the panel is 120 mm wide.
minThickness	— mm	Wall thickness at the brightest pixels. Below ~0.6 mm the panel won’t print reliably.
maxThickness	— mm	Wall thickness at the darkest pixels. Real lithophanes top out around 3 mm.

Caveat. Print flat with the textured face up in white PLA, 0.1 mm layer height, no supports. Backlight from behind — the rendered preview looks nearly blank without transmitted light.

Try it

• Open in your browser → openjscad.xyz, bundled single-file
• Source on GitHub →
• Full walkthrough on GitHub →