Lithophane layer height: what to use and why thin layers matter

Print a filament (FDM) lithophane at 0.10 to 0.12 mm layers, and go no coarser than about 0.2 mm. Use 100% infill and white PLA, and stand the panel upright if your printer can hold a tall, thin part steady.

What layer height should you use for a lithophane?

Use 0.10 to 0.12 mm layers for an FDM lithophane. ItsLitho prints at 0.12 mm and calls roughly 0.2 mm the coarsest before the image looks bad. QIDI recommends 0.1 or 0.12 mm on an upright panel, and UltiMaker points to its 0.1 mm Visual Fine profile. Thinner layers add detail and print time.

Source	Layer height	Orientation
ItsLitho (lithophane generator)	0.12 mm; about 0.2 mm at the coarsest	Upright
QIDI (printer maker)	0.1 or 0.12 mm	Upright
UltiMaker (Cura image import)	Visual Fine (0.1 mm) or Extra Fine (0.06 mm) profile	Flat
Bambu Lab (CMYK lithophane guide)	0.2 mm nozzle, where Bambu Studio’s default profile is 0.10 mm	Not stated

The 0.06 mm profile exists only on selected UltiMaker printers. With a 0.4 mm nozzle it also falls under 0.08 mm, the 20%-of-nozzle floor below which OrcaSlicer warns of flow inconsistencies.

Set the layer height under Process > Quality > Layer height in Bambu Studio and OrcaSlicer, Print Settings > Layers and perimeters in PrusaSlicer, or Quality > Layer Height in UltiMaker Cura.

Why ItsLitho uses 0.12 mm rather than 0.10 mm

ItsLitho prints on a Creality Ender 3, whose Z axis moves in 0.04 mm increments. 0.12 mm is exactly 3 of them, while 0.10 mm is 2.5 and falls between steps. Find your own Z axis’s full-step heights with the layer height calculator, then pick the one between 0.10 and 0.12 mm or the closest to that range.

How layer height shows in upright and flat lithophanes

Layer height matters in both orientations, but it shapes different parts of the image. A lithophane draws its picture in thickness: thin areas pass the most light and show as the brightest pixels, thick areas as the darkest.

• Flat on the bed: the thickness builds up in whole layers, so it changes in layer-height steps. ItsLitho says these show as contours and lost detail. With 3dp.rocks’s defaults of 0.8 mm at the thinnest and 3 mm at the thickest, 0.10 mm layers give (3.0 − 0.8) ÷ 0.10 = 22 thickness steps from white to black. 0.20 mm layers give 11.
• Upright: the nozzle draws the thickness across X and Y, where ItsLitho says the printer’s resolution is much finer. Layer height then sets the vertical detail, and QIDI says it, not the nozzle diameter, sets the effective resolution.

ItsLitho and QIDI print upright for that reason, with the panel running along the Y axis. On most printers the bed moves in Y, ItsLitho explains, and a panel set along X wobbles. UltiMaker’s Cura import builds a flat model instead, because that “gives the highest chance of a successful print”. UltiMaker agrees upright shows more detail but calls the model unstable.

Lithophane settings to use with that layer height

Setting	Use	Source
Nozzle	0.4 mm; 0.25 or 0.2 mm for more detail. 0.6 and 0.8 mm only for large, low-detail images	UltiMaker, Bambu Lab
Infill	100%, Rectilinear in Bambu Studio (Cura switches to a solid pattern such as zigzag)	UltiMaker, Bambu Lab, QIDI
Walls	Default walls with 100% infill, or 99 walls and 0% infill so the panel is all wall lines. Turn off thin wall detection	ItsLitho, QIDI
Top and bottom shells	3 top and 3 bottom shell layers; for a flat Cura print, a top/bottom thickness of at least half the print height instead of 100% infill	Bambu Lab, UltiMaker
Orientation	Upright along the Y axis; flat is the more reliable option	ItsLitho, QIDI, UltiMaker
Thickness	0.8 mm thinnest, 3 mm thickest (3dp.rocks defaults); 0.8 to 3.2 mm (QIDI). Cura: 2 to 3 mm over 1 to 2 solid base layers	3dp.rocks, QIDI, UltiMaker
First layer	0.1 to 0.2 mm; 0.15 mm with a 0.2 mm nozzle	UltiMaker, Bambu Lab
Speed	30 mm/s; 30 to 45 mm/s to clear banding on tall panels	ItsLitho, QIDI
Filament	White PLA; silver, grey and pearl-white also work	ItsLitho, UltiMaker
Adhesion	Brim	UltiMaker, ItsLitho

• 99% or 100% infill. ItsLitho suggests trying 99% because 100% “can increase the printing time significantly”. QIDI says 99% leaves small internal gaps that show as a striped moiré pattern when lit. For a solid panel, UltiMaker’s advice is to check the slicer preview before printing and make sure no infill pattern appears.
• Thickness depends on the filament. ItsLitho says each filament has its own minimum and maximum thickness and suggests printing a calibration test first. UltiMaker warns that translucent filament can weaken the effect.
• Make My Lithophane presets the settings. Bambu Lab’s generator exports a 3MF project file with them built in, and the wiki recommends choosing the 0.2 mm nozzle there.

Print time at 0.10, 0.12 and 0.20 mm

Expect 0.10 mm layers to take close to twice as long as 0.20 mm, because the layer count doubles. Layers = height ÷ layer height, where the height is the panel’s height when upright and its thickness when flat.

Lithophane	0.10 mm	0.12 mm	0.20 mm
100 mm tall, upright	1,000 layers	833 layers	500 layers
150 mm tall, upright	1,500 layers	1,250 layers	750 layers
3 mm thick, flat	30 layers	25 layers	15 layers

Time grows slightly slower than the layer count. Bambu Lab’s wiki printed one model at 0.08 mm and 0.20 mm: 2.5 times the layers took 1 h 19 min against 36 min 14 s, or 2.2 times as long. At 0.12 mm you print 1.67 times the layers of 0.20 mm.

For your own printer, enter the slicer’s grams in the print time calculator and run it at 0.10, 0.12 and 0.20 mm.