Lithophane: how a photo turns into light

An image made of thickness

A lithophane is a translucent sheet in which the image is not painted but sculpted in relief. Where the sheet is thinner, more light passes and the area looks bright. Where it is thicker, light is blocked and the area looks dark. With the light off you only see a white relief; switch it on and the thicknesses draw the photo.

It is an old technique. The first lithophanes were made in porcelain in the 19th century and placed in front of candles or windows. Ours follows the same principle with today's materials and light.

This is the screen of Brilla's retro TV

• The screen is a curved lithophane of your photo, in landscape 4:3 framing.
• At its thinnest it is around one millimetre; that is where the light comes through.
• It is lit by an LED under 1 W with warm white light, so the photo appears in sepia tones, not in colour. Colour is chosen for the housing: pink, green, yellow or blue.
• The housing is PLA and the piece measures 14 × 10 × 8.5 cm. It is assembled by hand in our workshop in Gijón.

Which photo suits it

A lithophane has only one tool for drawing: the difference between light and dark. That is why not every photo works equally well.

• Landscape and 4:3. It is the screen's format. A portrait-orientation photo will be heavily cropped.
• Large faces. A portrait of one or two people, or a pet that fills the frame, reads best.
• Contrast and sharpness. Clear highlights and shadows. A backlit or blurry photo turns into a smudge.
• Not too dark a background. A black background becomes a thick area with no information. A mid or light background works better.

Power and consumption

A button on the housing switches it on and off. It runs from the included 2.5 m USB-A cable, connected to any 5 V USB-A charger, a computer or a power bank. The charger is not included. At under 1 W, keeping it on eight hours a day for a year costs less than one euro of electricity.