A lithophane is a photograph that is 3-d printed using only white or ivory plastic. In normal lighting, it doesn’t look like much of anything, but shine a light behind it and the image comes to life, as shown in the gif here (courtesy of the itslitho informational website).
Lithophanes are something I can actually make quite cheaply, too.
This is all obviously pretty awesome, but unless you feel like carrying a piece of plastic around and holding it up in front of convenient light sources to show to people, you’re going to need a special frame to display your amazing lithophane photo as well. Lucky for you, I can make frames for lithophanes too. This is unfortunately where things start to get a little bit more expensive (but still potentially as low as $20).
A frame for a lithophane is rather like a box with a switch on the outside that can be used to turn on or off the led strip lighting that is specially arranged inside so that it lights the image evenly from behind. They usually plug into a usb outlet, but free-standing battery-powered frames are possible as well.
I can make them in a wide variety of colors, including specialty “colors” such as a speckled black and white that gives the impression of being made of stone (this is dependent on the availability of that filament type, or your willingness to pay extra to procure new filament).
I am restricted in size to what can be produced on the 3d-printers in my local makerspace (unless you are willing to pay to have larger 3d-printer files that I create printed commercially), but I am NOT restricted to standard photo aspect ratios or sizes (such at 4×6 or 5×7).
I can also make spherical lithophanes, like my “Venusian Dragons” creation here:
