Flat Image to STL

Detailed Instructions

Choosing your image

This tool works best with images that have clean, distinct color regions — think logos, simple graphics, or flat-color artwork rather than photos or gradients. A few tips:

• PNG with transparency works best. If your image has a transparent background, the tool detects it automatically and skips the background-removal step entirely.
• Fewer, more distinct colors = cleaner results. 2–8 well-separated colors (like a logo with solid red, blue, and white) detect and separate far more reliably than a busy photo or gradient.
• Avoid heavy anti-aliasing or blurry edges where possible — sharp color boundaries make for cleaner STL geometry.
• Higher resolution source images give you more room to work with — you can always scale detail down in the tool, but you can’t add detail that isn’t in the original.

Adjusting the tool — panel by panel

Detail

Controls how many pixels make up the image internally — think of it like sharpness, not physical size. 500px is a solid default. Push it to 800–1000px for fine detail, or lower it for a quick test render. This does not change your final print size — that’s set separately in Export.

Background Removal

If your image doesn’t already have transparency, this removes a solid background color. Adjust the Tolerance slider if fringe/edge artifacts remain — raise it if background bits are left behind, lower it if too much of your actual image is getting removed.

Cut Interior Regions

For enclosed gaps the background removal can’t reach (like the hole in a letter “O” or “A”). Turn on the cut tool, then click directly on the gap in the Original image to punch a real hole through it. Click a cut again to undo it.

Color Detection

Set how many distinct colors to detect (2–10), matching the actual number of colors in your design, then click Detect Colors. Each detected color becomes its own swatch — click any swatch to fine-tune that exact color, or uncheck a color to exclude it from the final export.

Export Settings

• Base thickness — the solid base plate thickness in mm (the “body” of the piece). Set to 0 for flat tiles with no base.
• Image (top) — thickness of the color layer sitting on top of the base, in mm.
• Base color — which detected color forms the solid base (defaults to your most dominant color).
• Min detail — removes tiny specks/noise below this size (helpful for cleaning up JPEG artifacts).
• Min line width — thickens any design line thinner than this value so delicate strokes actually survive printing.
• Print size — the longest side of your finished print, in mm. This is your actual final size — import into your slicer at 100%, don’t resize there.

Click Generate & Download when you’re ready — you’ll get either a single STL, or a ZIP with one STL per color if multiple colors are enabled.