# 3D Printed Lithophanes and Memorial Keepsakes From Photos

> Make a custom lithophane or relief plaque from an old photo: what a 3D printed lithophane costs, which route suits faces, and what file to send us.

Source: https://x3dstudios.com/blog/memorial-and-keepsake-prints  ·  2026-10-28  ·  X3D Studios  ·  9 min read

An old photograph becomes a physical keepsake in three practical ways, and the most reliable is a 3D printed lithophane: the picture printed as a thin panel of varying thickness that turns back into a photograph the moment you light it from behind. A relief plaque raises the same image as a shallow sculpture you can read in ordinary room light. An AI-generated 3D model rebuilds an object from the picture as a full three-dimensional shape you can hold. The first two work on almost any photo, including faded prints from the 1960s; the third works beautifully on objects and unpredictably on faces. Here is how to choose between them, what each one costs at our $0.12 per gram all-in PLA rate, and exactly what to send us.

![Three routes from one scanned photograph: a backlit lithophane panel at $11.13, a front-lit relief plaque at $12.60, and an AI-rebuilt 3D object at $7.68, all printed in PLA at $0.12 per gram](https://x3dstudios.com/blog-images/memorial-and-keepsake-prints/photo-to-keepsake-routes.svg)

*One scan, three routes. They differ in how the image is read, not in how the part is made.*

## A 3D Printed Lithophane Starts With a Better Scan

Everything downstream is a derivative of the file you capture, and a keepsake is not a thing you want to redo. A print, a slide, or an album page is usually the only original left, so spend ten minutes on the capture before you spend anything on plastic. A flatbed scanner at 600 dpi is ideal; a phone held square to the photo is good enough. /docs/studio/image-to-3d explains which photos turn into good models.

1. Take the photo out of the frame. Glass reflects the phone, the ceiling light, and you, and every reflection becomes a bright blob in the panel.
2. Shoot square and overhead. An angled capture makes a trapezoid, and the keystone distortion shows up as a lopsided face in the relief.
3. Use window light, never flash. Flash puts a hot spot in the middle of the picture that a lithophane renders as a blown-out white patch you cannot fix later.
4. Fill the frame at capture, crop afterwards. Cropping throws away pixels; you want all of them.
5. Repair creases and dust before converting. A crease is a change in brightness, and a lithophane renders it as a ridge across a cheek.
6. Archive the raw scan somewhere safe. The 3D file is a copy of a copy; the scan is the thing worth keeping.

One more thing worth saying plainly: if the object in the photograph still exists — a watch, a ring, a tool, a chair — photograph it today. A sharp picture of the real thing gives an AI reconstruction far more to work with than a 40-year-old snapshot.

## Three Routes From a Photograph

| Route | What it is | Works on faces? | Needs a light behind it? | Typical print price |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Lithophane panel | The photo as 0.8–3 mm of variable thickness | Yes, reliably | Yes | $11–14 |
| Relief plaque | The photo as a shallow raised sculpture | Usually | No | $12–17 |
| AI 3D model | An object from the photo rebuilt in three dimensions | Rarely well | No | $6–18 |
| Engraved keepsake | A name, date, or handwriting on a solid object | Not applicable | No | $1–18 |

## Route 1: What Is a Lithophane?

A lithophane is the oldest trick in this guide by about two centuries, and it is still the most reliable. Thin plastic passes light; thick plastic blocks it. Convert a greyscale image to a height map — bright pixels thin, dark pixels thick — and you get a panel that looks like a blank white slab on a shelf and like a photograph the instant a lamp goes behind it. Typical thickness runs from about 0.8 mm in the highlights to about 3 mm in the deepest shadows.

Three details decide whether it looks like a photograph or like a smudge. Print it standing up rather than flat, so the layer lines run horizontally across the image and the panel needs no supports. Print it in white or natural PLA, because the filament is the paper — any colour in the plastic tints the whole picture and any dark filament kills the contrast the effect depends on. And print it at 0.1 mm layers, because on a lithophane the layer height literally is the vertical resolution of the image. That premium quality bills at 1.75× the standard rate, which is the one place in this guide where paying more genuinely buys a better keepsake; our full breakdown of the tradeoff is in /blog/layer-height-explained.

> **TIP** — Pick the source photo for contrast, not for sentiment. A well-lit portrait with a clear separation between face and background reads instantly; a dim group shot at a picnic table becomes grey mush no matter how good the printer is.

Plan the light before you plan the size. An LED photo panel, a shadow box, or a north-facing window all work for a 100 × 140 mm panel; a 250 mm one usually needs a purpose-built frame with an LED strip in it.

## Route 2: The Relief Plaque

A relief plaque uses the same height-map idea and inverts the lighting problem. Instead of a thin translucent panel read from behind, you get a thicker, solid plaque where the image is raised a few millimetres from the surface and read by ordinary light falling across it from the side. It works on a wall, on a mantel, on a desk, and in a room with no free outlet.

Reliefs forgive a mediocre scan better than lithophanes do, because a shadow cast by real geometry is stronger than a difference in translucency. They forgive fine detail less: eyelashes and hair that a lithophane resolves as tonal gradient disappear at a few millimetres of relief depth. Reliefs also read at a distance, which makes them the better pick for a wall.

## Route 3: AI Photo-to-3D, and What It Is Honestly Good For

The generator at /design takes a single image and returns a full 3D mesh in about a minute, inferring the geometry the camera never saw. The mechanics are covered in /blog/image-to-3d-model-photo-to-print and the underlying method in /blog/how-text-to-3d-ai-works. For keepsakes, the useful summary is this: the AI is guessing at the half of the object it cannot see, and how much that guess matters depends entirely on the subject.

For objects, the guess is usually fine and often excellent. A grandfather's fishing reel, a first car, a childhood house, a dog's chewed-up toy, the sign from a family shop — these are shapes where a plausible back is a good back, and where holding a small copy carries real weight. For a specific person's face, the guess is unforgiving. You know that face better than any model does, and a version that is 90% right reads as wrong. Take faces down the lithophane or relief route, where the photograph is reproduced rather than reinterpreted, and save the AI for the objects that person owned.

> **INFO** — Handwriting is an underrated keepsake. A signature, a recipe card line, or a note traced from a letter converts cleanly into a raised relief on a coaster, a bookmark, or a small plaque — and unlike a face, it is exactly right or obviously wrong.

## What a Keepsake Actually Costs

Our pricing is one all-in number per gram covering filament and normal machine time: $0.12/g for PLA, with a $1.00 minimum per part and billable weight rounded up to the whole gram. Premium 0.1 mm layers bill at 1.75× that rate. Here are realistic weights for the pieces described above, at 20% infill unless the part is a solid panel.

| Piece | Size | Layer height | Weight | Print price |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Photo ornament | 60 × 60 × 3 mm | 0.2 mm | 7 g | $1.00 (minimum applies) |
| Lithophane stand with LED slot | 110 × 40 × 60 mm | 0.2 mm | 45 g | $5.40 |
| AI-rebuilt keepsake object | ≈90 mm tall | 0.2 mm | 64 g | $7.68 |
| Lithophane panel | 100 × 140 × 3 mm | 0.1 mm premium | 53 g | $11.13 |
| Relief plaque | 120 × 90 × 8 mm | 0.1 mm premium | 60 g | $12.60 |
| Keepsake box with lid | 120 × 80 × 50 mm | 0.2 mm | 145 g | $17.40 |

![Bar chart of six keepsake print prices in PLA: photo ornament $1.00 at the minimum, lithophane stand $5.40, AI keepsake object $7.68, lithophane panel $11.13, relief plaque $12.60, keepsake box $17.40](https://x3dstudios.com/blog-images/memorial-and-keepsake-prints/keepsake-cost-bars.svg)

*The two pieces printed at 0.1 mm carry the 1.75× premium rate. Everything else is straight weight.*

A complete backlit set — the 53 g panel at premium quality plus its 45 g stand at standard — comes to $16.53 of printing, $23.53 delivered with our $7 flat US shipping. Orders over $49.50 ship free, which is roughly where a set of four plaques for four siblings lands. The full rate card for every material lives at /pricing.

> **TIP** — Order two. The file is already prepared and the second copy costs nothing but its own grams, so a spare for another family member is cheaper now than a reprint in five years.

## Choosing a Material for Something Meant to Last

PLA is the right default for almost every keepsake. It prints the crispest detail, it comes in the whitest white, and along with PETG it is the cheapest at $0.12/g. Its one real weakness matters here: PLA softens around 50°C, which a closed car in a Texas summer clears easily. Anything destined for a dashboard, a car window, a sunny sill, or an outdoor memorial should be PETG at the same $0.12/g, which holds up to roughly 75°C and tolerates UV far better. The full material comparison is in /blog/pla-vs-petg-vs-abs-vs-asa-vs-tpu.

> **WARNING** — Do not leave a PLA lithophane in a parked car or against a south-facing window in summer. It will not melt dramatically; it will sag slowly and permanently, and the image goes with it.

## Sending Us the File

Upload at /print. We accept STL and 3MF, including a plate you sliced yourself as .gcode.3mf; STL up to 100 MB, any 3MF up to 40 MB. We do not accept OBJ, which is worth knowing because several photo-to-3D and lithophane tools export it by default — re-export as STL or 3MF and the upload goes through. Anything up to 340 × 320 × 340 mm fits our Bambu Lab H2S plate, which is far larger than any keepsake in this guide.

The quote you see comes from a real OrcaSlicer slice of your actual model wherever possible, not a volume guess, so the weight in the cart is the weight that comes off the plate. From there the order moves through the stages you can watch on your order page — placed, printed, packed, shipped, delivered — and the farm streams live cameras while it runs. If you send a sliced .gcode.3mf rather than a mesh, its G-code passes our safety validation first, because a hand-edited file that commands a 400°C nozzle should never reach a printer.

We are in Austin, and normal print ships in 4–5 business days, or 1–2 with Priority print (10% of the items, at least $10). If a keepsake is tied to a date — a service, an anniversary — say so in the order notes; we would rather schedule it than explain it.

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## FAQ

### Can you 3D print a photo of a person?

Yes, as a lithophane or a relief. Both reproduce the photograph itself as varying thickness, so the likeness comes from the picture rather than from a model's interpretation of it, and both work on faded or damaged prints. What does not work reliably is asking an AI to rebuild a specific person's head in 3D from one photo: the result is usually close enough to feel wrong.

### How much does a 3D printed lithophane cost?

A 100 × 140 mm lithophane panel at 53 g and premium 0.1 mm layers is $11.13, and its stand adds $5.40. Other memorial pieces land between $1 and $18 of printing; a small photo ornament hits our $1.00 per-part minimum. US shipping is $7 standard and free over $49.50, or $15 express.

### What file format do I need for a keepsake print?

STL or 3MF (a sliced plate as .gcode.3mf). 3MF is the best of these because it carries units and colour assignments with the geometry. OBJ is not accepted — if your lithophane generator or photo-to-3D tool exports OBJ, convert to STL first. STL goes up to 100 MB and any 3MF up to 40 MB.

### What thickness should a lithophane be?

About 0.8 mm at the brightest highlights and about 3 mm at the darkest shadows, printed vertically in white or natural PLA at 0.1 mm layers. Thinner than 0.8 mm and highlights blow out; thicker than about 3 mm and the shadows go solid black no matter how strong the backlight is.

[Turn a photo into a printable model](https://x3dstudios.com/design)