I really like lithopanes and when I made my first the available programs and websites to give you the STL were far from perfect.
Today though we are free from limitations, can crop and resize, adjust the colour and brightness and even print them in many different shapes.
Upload your images and a few clicks later you get printing…
We like to think lithopanes require a 0.2mm or smaller nozzle to get good results…
But did you know that this isn’t actually the case?
It comes down to balance and knowing the limitations of the machine.
Pixel size VS printer capabilities…
If you want a family picture of 8 by 6cm you will have a bloody hard time getting the detail level you want, even with a 0.2mm nozzle.
Pick your favourite lithopane size and use a testimage to check resolution 
That low resolution that still looks clear enough as a lithopane is what you need consider for images.
Of course it also matter how badly brightness levels are scattered around your image…
Dark means more elevation, bright means less and thin.
Did you know that there is more than the Bambu way of doing colour lithopanes?
The official way only allows for a few select filaments.
And the maker site is doing the magic based on the known colour codes and properties of the supported filaments.
For obvious reasons they won’t give you an option to define your own filament colours…
Imagine Bambu is (again) out of stock for the CMYW bundles…
And the other alternatives are either too costly or not even available where you live.
You might be surprised to see how well option 4 can work with generic filaments IF you adjust the colour values of the image you want to print
Mainly the blue and red values need some playing around, the rest can be done through red, green and blue filter layers and adjusting their brightness and saturation levels.
Like when calibrating a scanner or screen - but by adjusting the input image in order to make the print match as good as possible.
If you tried the Bambu way you obviously had more or less success and kept going…
After all, those things look nice, especially if waste a whole day using a 0.2mm nozzle…
Did you ever check the layers though ?
You will realise two things:
a) In lithography you really only need three layers of colour.
b) If printed we end up with only a few layers in order to deliver all colours we are after - it won’t work…
Adjusting the pixel size and such can help but does not really fix the bad matching colours.
And if you want something WITHOUT a lightbox made by Bambu, for a custom lamp or to just hang on the window…
Then of course you use a different service and create a cylinder, sphere or star instead…
What about colour though ?
It’s Litho offers a lot of variations and customisation options.
And unlike in the distant past we can now just upload our image, set what we need and download not just the STL file but also a CMYK image - with the saturation already removed as this comes from our thickness of the print.
Print out the image, preferably on transparent foil or as clear sticker foil and stick it on the back of the print.
See the magic happen and that in a fraction of the time it would take to 3D print with 4 rolls…
Also allows for far more colours than the Bambu way - just saying…
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Ok, enough said, show the world you best lithopanes!
If you did anything special to make it happen feel free to share how you did it.
No offense, but that’s quite a bit of generalities, most of which are already known by those who are into it. I, for one, would appreciate it if you’d go more into specifics, providing details, color schemes and layering , types of filaments transparency, the works.
For example, this was done the Bambu way.
0.4mm nozzle and Siddament filament.
Red values were lowered by about 20, blue increased by 50 to offeset the filament differences.
Profile 4 for full CMYK processing was used.
Rest all as per Bambu standard.
The crappy colour bleeding in the lower text was my going too low on the flush volumes.
The next one was done the traditional way and printed just in matte white.
Was a test, the large one with darker background is currently printing.
Did not want to waste a lot of time testing considering the print is going to be 18.5 by 10.5cm.
As you can see the colours are almost natural and vivid.
In the large format the areas around the image will be black not white.
Here I just printed a CMYK image as provided by It’s Litho.
Bit of a pain to add the black background manually but usually I don’t do images with a black background.
This is the image used for the print:
There will be a bit of bleeding left in the final version but think it won’t matter too much.
Not sure if I am still awake when the print completes, otherwise I upload tomorrow.
Any questions in regards to details I shall add ?
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The big one is done…
And with the lights on it looks like this:
Last one with the brightness turned down a bit as the image is mostly dark anyway.
Standard 0.4mm nozzle, 0.1mm layers, 100% infill.
Matte white PLA with a litho print on the back.
Size 18.5 by 10cm, print time 4.5 hours.
Don’t know but I don’t think doing this the Bambu way would get the colours coming out like this…
Printing things in colour works great with some images, bad with others and if it means to get results like the above I need a 0.2 nozzle and at leas 9 hours for such a print…
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Now you’re talking the talk 
… Care to share the stl file and the pertaining settings? I might be tempted to have a go at it to see how it comes out (thinking of printing first with the 0.4 and then with the 0.2 nozzle, to see whether there will be any notable differences)
Always wanted to make a lamp but never had a use for one LOL
Jokes aside though, they look really nice, I guess I have to look for better lamps around here and give it a try.
As for the Starwars and Yellowstone ones I made, the first a free wallpaper I found, the second a poster on a fan site.
You can use the uploaded image for Starwars, let me check where I have the Yellowstone…
Might give it a go today the traditional way as I am not happy with the colour mixing.
But then again, was done using a 0.4mm nozzle…
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I see, I really have to get a more dense white filament…
Or do these sheets only look so thin in your images?
I have to go around 3.6mm in thickness to get the dark areas come out properly.
Had solid white before and with that I could only go to about 2mm before things got too dark.
Still trying to find a white allowing for about 6 to 8mm in thickness as this would really help with the shades.
mine have a max thickness of 3mm and a min of .06,
Matte white from BL, but I’ve used other bright white.
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A bit more info on how I do those coloured ones using a backing sheet:
As said above, It’s Litho offers and all in one service for this.
When I started with 3D printing and a bit later some lithophanes though there wasn’t much out there for colour.
First I cheated to get around the non existing tools:
Using a little program for engraving needs I created a relief images where the shades of grey were translated into elevation.
From that I created a negative and translated the shading into 0.1mm images to finally convert them into STL slices.
TOTAL PAIN in the behind as the preparation usually took longer than the print and printing was dead slow back then LOL
Needless to say that the results were not really that great either.
Good enough for some 8-bit game characters but not for a photo.
When the first dedicated tools came out things got so much easier.
Most disappeared, some evolved but I still use 3DPRocks for most of my needs.
Easy to use settings and the printed models look good.
No matter what tool or webservice you use though, there is still one lingering issues with the resulting STL file…
There just isn’t anything that is actually made for 3D printing
They all only provide models, NOT LAYERS.
Anyway, back to colour and making magic happen…
Like it or not but the quickest and cheapest lithophane is still a full cheat.
Print just a thin sheet of white plastic or cut one and place the image behind…
Only issue here is that it also looks like cr@p and offers no depth, let alone a sharp image - it is a bad blur.
We fix this by printing the shading as more or less thick plastic.
If you now just slap the printed image on the back it just looks wrong - because your image still contains the brightness levels.
Replacing all black pixels with white is an improvement but not a good one.
You need to convert the image into a fixed pallet first, preferably not more than 3 or 4 colours…
Finding the best matching colours and pattern to create a good image is a pain.
Which is why in lithography we use Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black.
It is literally the reversal of RGB with the benefit of having a full black.
Our black is white filament though and also affects the other colours through the thickness.
It’s Litho provides the image we need and that in a ‘matching’ resolution for our print.
For larger lithophanes though this can sometimes result in a less satisfying experience…
If you want to try a manual approach for the backing image:
Convert the image to CMYK and adjust the output level for black to just full white.
Leaves just C, M and Y…
But since for THEM we want to keep the full saturation we are pretty darn close to having a perfect backing paper.
You just print a few with different print settings to adjust the overall saturation down a bit or do it in Photoshop or whatever app you prefer.
I like this manual approach for images with lots of colours and lots of dark areas, hence the Starwars wallpaper as an example.
In most cases you won’t have to do more than to set the black levels to white to get a really good match on your lithophane.
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The ‘holy grail’ : Embedding the background image into the print…
You might now say "Why would I bother with all this manual nonsense if Bambu lets us print things properly in CMYW ?
Well, check the results, especially when it comes to vibrant colours that should match the original…
Sadly those lithopane STL files are far from editing friendly…
So unless you wanna go nuts in Fusion or such, cheating it is once more…
A minimum thickness of around 0.6 to 0.8mm is recommended, so we have room to play with…
What follows is neither for the beginner in 3D printing nor for anyone NOT wanted to risk some frustration to get it right!
Have the lithophane created with just 3 layers minimum thickness, e.g: 0.3mm.
Create a perfectly fitting box in which the lithophane print will fit once the paper is glued in.
Perfectly fitting here means the walls overlap as otherwise only the paper holds things together…
Bottom just 3 layers thick, the walls make the frame for the lithophane, so don’t create it with a frame
Let’s assume your copy paper is about 0.1mm thick and you make things simple by using some spray on adhesive - ON THE PAPER not inside the printer…
Gives us just about or once dried under 0.2mm.
Means we have to place our lithophane STL inside our ‘frame’ with a 0.2mm distance to the bottom.
Adjust those values to your paper and glue after a small test print.
It does help a lot to print on transparent sticker medium but it also can be a pain if it is not tolerating the temperatures, laser rated is usually just enough for PLA - try at your own merit.
You pause the print at the layer where the lithophane is added and glue in the backing sheet.
Let it PROPERLY cure and dry as otherwise the heat from the nozzle will make a mess.
Once fully dry and cured add a thin coat of liquid glue stick or the solid one if you can apply with without making a mess.
Again let it fully dry…
IMHO it still gives the best results but it also a lot of work to make it happen…
Let’s say you want to fully print your colour lithophane but, for whatever reason, you are NOT using any of the supported filaments…
Wouldn’t it be nice to get a preview of how things would look using your filament rather than wasting so many hours printing things ?
Take a look at this nice guide to simulate the lithography process in Photoshop:
Rittostudio
For our needs we can make it a bit simpler…
Get the colour code for your filaments first.
Then follow the guide, only that you remove the black layer - this is our print thickness.
For CMY you set the colour code of your filament
If you then check the image you will see by how much it is off with the colours.
Adjust the three colours to get as close to the original as possible.
You can do this with the black layer enabled to get a better impression but don’t leave the black active when saving the image
Note the changes you made in terms of their values.
Now reload the original image, convert to CMYK and apply the same values added to what the original has.
Looks awful I know, but once printed it should be a far better colour match.
While this works fine for option 4, solid CMYK in the lithopane maker, this profile might not be ideal.
The others provide a better blending in many cases.
You CAN use any of the other options to generate your lithophane and like above apply the colour codes to the original image first.
Then the fun starts.
The lithophane maker of course adjusts things in order to get the best results.
So we simulate this be adjusting our image back so it looks close to original.
Giving us the difference values.
Now we do the same again but use the colour codes for our filaments, giving us a second set of values.
Now all we have to do is to work out the differences and apply them to our image.
That image is then uploaded and shall result in quite well matching colours.
So you see, it really can be far easier to cheat by using a bit of printed paper
Just saying…
10 by 7cm, 0.4mm nozzle, 0.1mm layers.
Glow in the dark Chucky
I did not want to mess around a lot for a glow test and decided on the above model but printed it on transparent PLA instead of black.
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Was asked to do a nice lithophane to remember a much loved cat that passed away.
I decided to go a bit overboard in size and made the main image just over 20cm wide.
Due to the endless amount of retractions I decided to print in silent mode.
Took about 11 hours in 0.08mm layers but I think the result was worth the time.
And here it is in an A4 light frame.
Will have to add a nice laser cut frame to go around the lot but that’s a different story.
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I broke a bunch of LED’s off the board when trying to fit it into the Bambu frame. Does anyone have a version with a little more room for the light board?
No clue as I never used them.
The above is an A4 lightboard for tracing use with a custom frame around it…
Well, in the image it is just the board, I added the frame later.
For the Bambu one you could try to slightly upscale it, like 101 or 102%…
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