When I first saw examples of 3D-printed lithophanes, I thought it was a great development of the technology for uses that may not have been originally intended. Lithophanes have a long history, predating all of our high-tech methods.
https://itslitho.com/itslitho-blog/one-of-the-most-unusual-artworks-from-the-early-19th-century-the-history-of-lithophane/
But some of the articles I read at first said that doing them with PLA via FDM was impractical, and you’d really need SLA for the increased accuracy and complexity available. But then I recently started finding articles that showed examples with quality white PLA, so I tried it. Sure enough, it’s fantastic.
And it’s ridiculously easy to get quality results. Just upload your image to https://3dp.rocks/lithophane/ and it will make an STL for you. Here’s the tutorial I used:
https://sovol3d.com/blogs/news/tutorial-how-to-print-lithophane-on-your-3d-printer
