How to 3D‑print high‑quality lithophanes with white resin

Lithophanes are 3D‑printed images that reveal their full detail when illuminated from behind. With modern MSLA printers and an opaque white resin such as Liqcreate Premium White, lithophanes can be produced in extremely high resolution. This guide explains how to design, slice and 3D‑print lithophanes with consistent quality on any resin printer.

Everyone owning a 3D-printing must have heard about Lithophanes by now. 3D-printed images that will turn into beautiful pictures when placing in front of a lamp or light. From the earlier days, FDM 3D-printer owners could only benefit from this amazing form of art. Since the desktop SLA / MSLA printers are getting more affordable, basically everybody can make a lithophane in high detail / high resolution. All3DP media has published a great article on making your own lithophane here.

Image: a collection of 3D-printed lithophanes by a Reddit user.

A lithophane looks very strange when not placed in front of a light. After placing back-light behind the lithophane, it clearly shows the image. Originally lithophanes were made with white PLA with FDM technology. The sharpness was missing due to the low resolution of FDM 3D-printing technology. With the availability of accurate SLA, DLP and MSLA 3D-printers, a high quality lithophane can be manufactured. An opaque white resin, like Liqcreate Premium White is preferred.

Photo 3D-printer

The first step when you are looking for a Photo 3D-printer or lithophane printer, is to choose the technology to produce your lithophane. The two main technologies used as a photo 3d-printer are FDM and resin 3D-printing. Initially a lot of consumers chose FDM technology due to the low prices and clean post-processing. However, often a higher quality lithophane is wanted and resin 3D-printing is one of the few other options. Resin 3D-printers have dropped in price, only the post-processing is more excessive compared to FDM.

Image: Lithophane design by Design Make Teach, printed with FDM technology.

Best lithophane generators and software tools

To turn your 2D image to a lithophane, you have to run it through lithophane software. There are plenty of lithophane software packages online. Lithophanes can easily be created with the online lithophane maker tool by Lithophanemaker.com. For lithophanemaker.com, the standard thickness settings work pretty good in combination with Liqcreate Premium White resin. Next to lithophanemaker.com there are several other open source lithophane software packages available:

• – 3DP Rocks
• – ItsLitho

Some lithophane software runs online while for others you have to download the lithophane maker software. After generating the software, send the stl file to your slicing program. Lithophane 3D-printing settings are available on our website for a wide range of 3D-printers. Find the settings for your 3D-printer here or an e-mail to info@liqcreate.com if your lithophane 3D-printer is not listed.

How to create a lithophane lamp or lightbox

When adding several 3D lithophanes together, one can create a lithophane box or 3D-printed lithophane lamp share. Several options (with your own images) are available via etsy.com. If you want to make your own in resin or filament, a good read is this article by instructables.com or visit lithophane maker website Lithophanemaker.com. by mounting three of four lithophanes together, a lithophane box or lithophane lamp shade is created. With the lamp as a center point, the 3D-printed lithophanes in the lamp share are visible from every side.

How to 3D‑print lithophanes with resin

Several articles are available online for instructions on 3D-printing lithophanes in thermoplastic filament on an FDM 3D-printer. As lithophanes are more difficult to print in filament,  lithophane infill and lithophane settings are very crucial. For resin 3D-printing, lithophanes are very easy to print. Just place the lithophane on the platform on a flat side, and search your 3D-printing settings here here. After post-processing your lithophane is ready to be used.

3D-printed Lithophane, printed with Liqcreate Premium White Resin

3D-printing colored lithophanes

Lithophane are usually 3D-printed with PLA filament or white resin. This results in a 3D Lithophane that is always white in color. When a light is put behind the lithophane a monochromic image will come out of the 3D printed plastic lithophane. The thickness different in the 3D-printed lithophane is responsible how different intensities will show up, always in white-grey tones. According to ItsLitho” To add color in the lithophane, the light of the light source must be colored to the image as well. This can be done by printing the image on a piece of paper, or transparent paper. However, your original picture will not work. The lithophane has intensity (brightness) information in it, due to the varying thickness of the lithophane. Therefore, if you were to use the original picture, then the lithophane will look weird. ItsLitho will automatically convert your image to a tailor-made image you can put behind your lithophane. The intensity levels in the picture are removed, which does look very different on paper. But looks amazing when you put it behind your lithophane!”. More information about colored lithophanes can be fond on the ItsLitho website.

Recommended resin settings for lithophanes

When printing lithophanes with white resin, the goal is to achieve stable curing in thin wall sections while maintaining maximum detail. These baseline settings work well on most MSLA printers:

• – Layer height: 50 microns
• – Normal exposure time: 2–7 seconds (depending on printer power)
• – Bottom exposure time: 20–30 seconds
• – Bottom layers: 2
• – Lift speed: 40–60 mm/min
• – Retract speed: 80–120 mm/min
• – Wait time before lift: 0.5–1.0 seconds

White resin requires slightly higher exposure than standard grey resins due to its opacity. Thin lithophane walls benefit from stable curing and controlled peel forces to prevent warping or layer shift. Consistent results depend on using the correct exposure and movement parameters for your printer, which you can find in our complete resin parameter database.

Common lithophane printing issues

Lithophanes are thin, detailed models, which makes them sensitive to exposure stability and peel forces. These are the most common issues and how to solve them:

Washed‑out image

• – Under‑exposure or too low contrast in the original image
• – Increase normal exposure by 10–15 percent
• – Re‑export the lithophane with higher contrast

Banding or horizontal lines

• – Lift speed too high or insufficient wait time
• – Reduce lift speed and increase wait time before lift

Warping or bending

• – Lithophane printed too thin or unsupported
• – Increase minimum wall thickness in the generator
• – Print directly on the build plate for maximum stability

Detail loss in bright areas

• – Over‑exposure causing thin regions to merge
• – Reduce normal exposure by 5–10 percent

Surface roughness

• – Resin temperature too low or insufficient curing
• – Keep resin at room temperature (20–25°C)
• – Increase exposure slightly if needed

Advanced: 4D lithophanes and custom designs

Next to personal use, 3D-printing lithophanes can also be used as marketing tools or for design prototyping. Find some examples of cans/bottles with custom labeling below.

With background light it looks even more spectacular.

Of course we couldn’t stay behind with designing our own 4D-lithophane bottle of Premium White resin. For higher quality designs, a stronger processer is necessary, as the 4D lithophanes take a while to process and are eventually over 350MB in size.

Team Liqcreate wish you happy printing. If you need help with lithophane settings or resin optimization, contact our technical team at info@liqcreate.com.