Creating lithophanes is a fun way to bring new life to your photos. While these 3D prints may look a bit bland on their own, they take on a new life when a light is placed behind them, giving the image shading and contrast. What if you could take this effect to the next level?

You can add color to any 3D-printed lithophane, and all it takes to achieve excellent results is an inkjet printer. Let’s take a look at the steps you need to take.

Step 1: Create Your Lithophane

3D Printed lithophane
Image Credit: Sebastian Heuser/Flickr

It’s never been easier to create a lithophane with your 3D printer. Most slicer tools have built-in lithophane functions, making it a simple matter of providing a photo and some settings to get the results you want.

You can take a look at our lithophane 3D printing guide to get started with your own image. It’s crucial that you choose a starting image that has plenty of vivid colors to ensure that the colored lithophane pops. Most lithophanes take less than a couple of hours to print.

Step 2: Find the Lithophane’s Dimensions

You need to know the exact size of your lithophane before you proceed to print the colored element. This should be easy to find, as the STL file that you have produced for your lithophane should contain its precise dimensions.

Alternatively, you can measure your lithophane once it has finished printing. This method is less accurate, but it might be easier to achieve depending on your circumstances.

Step 3: Prepare the Image for Printing

free image resizing tool

The color in a colored lithophane is achieved by adding a paper image between the lithophane and its light source. This means that the lithophane and the printed image must match each other’s dimensions for this to work properly.

You can find free online image resizers such as ImResizer. You just need to make sure that the one you choose lets you use millimeters or inches to resize your image. It will be very hard to get the correct size with pixels.

Step 4: Print and Cut Out Your Image

With your image inside your image editor, you are ready to print it out. Make sure that you choose color settings when you start your print. It’s best to use regular printer paper for this, as photo paper will block too much light thanks to its thickness.

Once printed, carefully cut your image out using a pair of scissors or a craft knife. The edges need to be as smooth and level as possible to sit flush with the edges of the lithophane.

Step 5: Attach the Color Image to Your Lithophane

lithophane and color image

Finally, it’s time to attach your colored print to your lithophane. This step is nice and easy, though you need to be careful to make sure that the glue or tape you use to attach your lithophane will be invisible in the finished product.

PVA glue is a good choice if you have a reliable application tool, but you can also use double-sided tape or a stick of glue to attach your image. Try your best to make sure that the image has a firm grip before continuing.

Step 6: Add Some Light

Light is essential to the function of a lithophane, and the same goes when you add some color to your image. Place a light behind your lithophane to see what it looks like with its new color. You can play with the distance between your light source and the lithophane to find the sweet spot, and you can also change the color of the light itself.

Creating Colorful Lithophanes

Colored lithophanes are bold and create a strong impact on those who see them, but they are also surprisingly easy to make. Creating the lithophane itself is the hardest part of this process, but those with a 3D printer will be able to have some fun with it.