Portraits, pets and landscapes with strong contrast work best.
Your photo
Backlit lithophane
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What is a lithophane?
A lithophane is a thin panel printed in white plastic where the thickness of the material follows the darkness of your photo. Held up to a lamp, Christmas-tree lights or a window, thin areas glow bright and thick areas stay dark — so the image appears as if magic. Flat in daylight; a photograph in the light.
How the preview works
The preview simulates exactly what a printed lithophane does: it converts your photo to grayscale, maps brightness to material thickness (bright = thin, dark = thick), then renders the light that would shine through those thicknesses. The result closely matches what a real backlit print looks like — the same physical process, computed in your browser in under a second.
Tips for the best result
Strong contrast is everything. Close-up portraits, pet photos and landscapes with a clear bright/dark split translate best. Very dark, busy or low-contrast photos lose detail when printed — the preview will show you this before you spend anything. Faces work best against a simpler background; a photo of your dog against a bright wall beats one taken in a dim room.
Why people order lithophanes
A photo you can hold and light up makes an unusual, personal gift — a pet portrait, a wedding photo, a child's drawing, a memorial picture. Hung on a Christmas tree in front of the tree's own lights, a lithophane bauble glows with no electronics of its own. If your preview looks good, that is essentially what the printed version will do.