Disclaimer

This is a writeup of my workflow on how to create minimalist city map lamps like the ones below. The workflow can also be used to turn any image into a cylindrical lithophane lamp. Skip to “Creating Lithophanes” if you already have an image.

Due to the overwhelming demand to create specific cities for people (which I cannot fulfill), I decided to publish everything required to create your own city map lamp. I will however not provide any support to this workflow. If you cannot make it work, you're on your own!

All of my settings (especially the map rendering settings) are mere recommendations and reflect my personal preferences. Feel free to experiment with the design as you deem fitting. Only keep in mind that if you change the image aspect ratios, you'll also have to adapt lithophane settings and the thread design (F3D files are available!).

What I am sharing here is only a workflow. More specifically, the one I found to work well for my needs. I am completely new to map rendering and learned how to do it just for this project. A lot of what I am showing here can perhaps be done better, faster and more efficient. And I am by now means an expert on any of the following topics. If you find improvements, feel free to share them as a comment!

All screenshots show the mentioned software at their most up to date version (as of 03.2025). There may be updates in the future, making my screenshots wrong or obsolete. 

 

Licensing

Everything published here is public domain. You're free to use your own works in any way you like. No need to credit me, no need to publish it as a remix. You're free to choose your own license and sell your own designs. You may also include the bases (provided here) with your upload.

I still suggest that if you're uploading your design, that you do so as a remix of my collection: https://www.printables.com/model/1203176-minimalist-city-map-lithophane-lamps. This will make it easier for people to find your model and both, my upload and your upload can profit from each other's popularity. If you upload it as a remix, please do not upload it as a remix of this tutorial but as a remix of the collection. But again, this is only a suggestion and you're free to do whatever you prefer!

 

Prerequisites

There is quite a bit of software required to create a map lamp. Thankfully, all of the software required is free! The following list assumes you are running a windows computer. In addition to the software linked below, you'll need a minimum of 8GB of RAM. The software requirements are:

• Python - if you're not familiar with python, I recommend simply installing Anaconda under the following link: https://www.anaconda.com/download. No need to sign up on this page. There's a Skip registration button. 
• GDAL - The following instruction assumes that you installed Anaconda! For other installation instructions, see https://gdal.org/en/stable/. Launch Anaconda Prompt. If you're on a windows machine, simply type in Anaconda Prompt in the start menu. In the prompt popping up, type in:

conda install -c conda-forge gdal

• QGIS - excellent map rendering software, available here: https://qgis.org/download/ 
• Blender - download and install Blender: https://www.blender.org/download/ 
• PrusaSlicer - If you're not already using PrusaSlicer, download and install it: https://www.prusa3d.com/page/prusaslicer_424/. Other slicers may work too. We only require an stl repair algorithm.
• Inkscape or GIMP - if you want to do some image editing or add texts/labels to your maps. Inkscape: https://inkscape.org/release/ GIMP: https://www.gimp.org/downloads/ 

 

Creating Maps

The first step to create your own map is, to obtain OpenStreetMap data of the region you want to create a lamp for. You may obtain them from websites such as Geofabrik ( https://download.geofabrik.de/ ) or Openstreetmap.fr ( https://download.openstreetmap.fr/extracts/ ). On both websites, you can download extracts rather than a complete dataset for a continent or country. It's usually best to download the smallest dataset available that contains your city.

In some cases, you may also need to download sea map data. You can find it here: https://osmdata.openstreetmap.de/data/water-polygons.html. Pick the second download option: Shapefile format, Mercator projection and Large polygons are split. Only download this file if necessary. More details below.

Assuming you found the correct dataset, you should be left with a file ending on .osm.pbf. This is a compressed file format! I highly recommend to convert to a uncompressed format to avoid very long rendering times. To do so, you'll need GDAL. To use GDAL, again launch Anaconda Prompt and type in the following command:

ogr2ogr -f sqlite -dsco spatialite=yes " .sqlite" " .osm.pbf"

<path> is to be replaced by the path where your file is located and <filename> by the filename. For example:

ogr2ogr -f sqlite -dsco spatialite=yes "C:\Users\FritzPeppone\Downloads\barcelona.sqlite" "C:\Users\FritzPeppone\Downloads\barcelona.osm.pbf"

The above example converts an .osm.pbf file to a .sqlite file. Both are located in my Downloads folder.

If you successfully created your .sqlite file, it's time to start QGIS. Create a new project (1). Then click on Layer (2) → Add Layer (3) → Add Vector Layer… (4).

In the menu popping up, click on … (1) and pick your .sqlite file. Make sure to not accidentally pick the .osm.pbf file. Finally, click on Add (2).

Another menu pops up where you can choose which layers to add. Choose lines and multipolygons (1), (2). Finish by clicking on Add Layers (3) and close the first menu by clicking Close (4).

Now, you should already see a basic rendering of the map you just downloaded. It should look similar to this:

Your rendering now contains two different types of renderings: lines and polygons. Both without any formatting. We need the lines to render streets, paths or railway lines and the multipolygons to render buildings, water bodies or rivers. Now, we have to pick aedequate rendering settings.

First, I recommend to switch to a Mercator map projection. Since we're usually confronted with maps from google maps or similar, we're used to their Mercator projection. To do so, click on EPSG:4326 in the bottom right corner (1). Next, in the Filter console, type in EPSG:3857 (2). Now, in the filtered list of projections, pick WGS 84 / Pseudo-Mercator (3). You may have to navigate there by clicking on Projected → Mercator first. Finally, click on Apply (4).

Now we start by rendering streets correctly. I suggest you to first disable the multipolygons by removing the respective tick (1). There are multiple different types of streets, ordered by their size:

1. motorway
2. trunk
3. primary
4. secondary
5. tertiary
6. residential
7. footpath

For my minimalist map representations, I chose to render them in different line widths in descending order. This can be achieved by selecting the lines layer (2), right click and select Properties… (3) or simply double click it.

To filter for different street types, first select Source (1), the Query Builder (2).

In the next window, type in a filter expression (1) to pick a specific line type. Here are some examples to show the syntax:

If you want to get lines for both, motorway AND trunk:

"highway" = 'motorway' OR "highway" = 'trunk'

If you want to filter for primary streets:

"highway" = 'primary'

If you want to obtain all lines from a specific group, e.g. every railway related lines, type:

"railway" IS NOT NULL

more sophisticated search queris are possible. The following for example searches other_tags for strings containing the word coastline and thus extracts said coastline:

"other_tags" LIKE '%coastline%'

I think, you get the idea how this works. If you want to render something specific, google or LLM AI such as Gemini or ChatGPT are good sources to find out which query will output the exact thing you need. For my maps, I used at most 6 or seven different queries. These queries are a really powerful tool and I am using at most a percent of what can be done. If you want to learn more, you'll have to do your own research though (as I am no expert on QGIS).

After defining our Filter, we can test if it works by clicking Test (2). The filter works if it contains more than one element. Finally, click OK (3) if your filter works.

Now, we have filtered the lines layer. In our example, I have filtered out motorways and trunk streets. Next, we pick rendering settings. To do so, click on Symbology (1). In my example, I am using a Simple Line (2). You may also choose more complex line or path designs (3). First, I set the width units to Meters at Scale (4).

Next, we pick a different color (1), confirm by clicking OK (2) and set the line width (3). My default settings are displayed in the table below. Keep in mind that for a regular lithophane, only greyscale colors are relevant. Finally, confirm by clicking OK (4).

Your result should look something like the following image. Now, you still need to render further lines. To do so, right click on your lines layer (1) and click Duplicate Layer (2). For proper organisation, also consider renaming your layers appropriately.

By default, my renders contain the following layers with these filters and settings:

• motorway and trunk      < “highway” = ‘motorway’ OR “highway” = ‘trunk’ >, Width: 80 Meters at Scale, color: black, Opacity: 100%
• primary      < “highway” = ‘primary’ >, Width: 60 Meters at Scale, color: black, Opacity: 100%
• secondary      < “highway” = ‘secondary’ >, Width: 40 Meters at Scale, color: black, Opacity: 100%
• tertiary and residential      < “highway” = ‘tertiary’ OR “highway” = ‘residential’ >, Width: 20 Meters at Scale, color: black, Opacity: 50%

These are only recommendations though. Be creative and design your own maps as you find fitting. You can also check out the example project files (ending on .qgz) I uploaded.

Next, we want to render water bodies This works similarly to the line rendering. First, we filter the multipolygon layer. The easiest filter should output almost all water bodies such as rivers, ponds and sea:

"natural" = 'water'

If you want to obtain exclusively rivers or exclusively the sea, you may find the following queries helpful:

"natural" = 'water' AND "other_tags" LIKE '%river%' "natural" = 'water' AND "other_tags" LIKE '%sea%'

The multipolygons are sometimes not as well ordered as you'd like and different water bodies may be stored at different positions. Bays for example may be found by the following query:

"boundary" IS NULL AND "natural" = 'bay'

In our example, the sea is located under “natural” = ‘bay’. If you cannot find water bodies or the sea, they may not be part of the data set you downloaded. Then you may need to download a complete set of water polygons. You can find them here: https://osmdata.openstreetmap.de/data/water-polygons.html. Pick the second download option: Shapefile format, Mercator projection and Large polygons are split. Import in the same way as the .sqlite files and add multipolygons. Filter with the queries above. The settings I used to render water bodies are:

• water bodies      < “natural” = ‘water’ >, color: grey (#808080), Opacity: 100%, no surrounding line

Finally, save your project (1) and export it as an image (2).

You can choose the extend of your export by simply positioning the map accordingly on your screen. Choose at least 300 dpi as a resolution (1) and hit Save (2).

CONGRATULATIONS! You just created your own map rendering!

Something did not work or you ran into problems? I uploaded a few example projects you can open and check how I set up my renderings.

 

Creating Lithophanes

Now, you have a map rendering or another type of greyscale image you want to turn into a Lithophane. First, we change the aspect ratio of the image to 2:1 (width x height). You can do this with software such as GIMP ( https://www.gimp.org/ ) or Photoshop. I'll not detail here, how to achieve this. If you need help, there should be plenty of good tutorials on Youtube or Google. Another thing you may consider is, to invert your image. This is also possible in GIMP or Photoshop. See how this can turn out:

Additionally, you may also add a label like I did. You can do this using GIMP, Photoshop, Illustrator, Inkscape or similar software. In my case, I used Adobe Illustrator. Again, I am not providing details on how to do this. There should be plenty of documentation on this online.

Attention: you may choose any aspect ratio you like. However, if you use a different aspect ratio, the following Lithophane Settings and the stl file containing the threads will not match with your file anymore. If you change it, proceed with caution and be aware that you'll have to modify my CAD files!

Assuming you have an image with a 2:1 aspect ratio, head to lithophanemaker: https://lithophanemaker.com/Curved%20Lithophane.html. Upload your image (one image only) and use the following settings:

 

If everything works out, both X Span and Y Span should read 105.0 mm. Verify this!

Next, click on Create .stl and download the stl file. And that's it. You just created an STL from an image.

 

Adding a thread

Now to the last part: adding a M100 thread to use the bases I designed. To do so, first we want to fix any issues that may be present in our mesh. Lithophanemaker sometimes creates meshes with holes, border edges, inverse face orientations or multiple shells. But no worries, usually this can be fixed easily.

My personal workflow for fixing meshes includes Autodesk Netfabb. But since this is proprietary and paid software, I am proposing a free-software approach using your slicer. The example shows Prusa Slicer but other Slicers (Bambu Studio, Orca, Slic3r, …) may have the same feature. 

Open your slicer and load your mesh file. Change the position of your file to [0, 0, 0] (1). This is very important for the boolean operations in Blender to work! 

Next, we check the mesh quality (2) and use the Windows Repair Algorithm by right clicking the mesh and clicking Fix by Windows repair algorithm (3). This will obviously not work on Mac or Linux systems. Finally, we export the fixed model, again by right clicking on the mesh, then selecting Export as STL/OBJ… (4).

Once we have an error free mesh, we open up Blender and import the mesh. Additionally, we import the thread file map_lamp_thread_M100.stl (File → Import → Stl. (stl.) ). If you positioned your mesh at [0, 0, 0] in the previous step, the result should look like this:

Hint: when opening blender, there is usually an initial cube placed in your environment. Delete it by clicking it and hitting DEL.

Now we finally combine lithophane and mesh by performing an intersect boolean operation. This step is very time and memory consuming. If Blender crashes, a likely reason is that you ran out of memory. I recommend at least 8GB of RAM!

Select the lithophane mesh (1). In the Modifiers Tab (2) Click on Add Modifier (3) and select the Boolean modifier (4). Depending on your Blender version, you may have to select the boolean modifier from a large list or navigate to Generate → Boolean. 

Select the Intersect operation (1) and click in the Object field and select the map_lamp_thread_M100 mesh (2). Depending on your Blender version, there may also be additional solver options (Self Intersection, Hole Tolerant). If the boolean operation does not provide you the expected result, first check Self Intersection and check the new result. If it still does not work, you may also try checking Holes Tolerant and if this doesn't work either, Choose the Fast solver. I've had some meshes in the past, where Blender was simply not able to create a boolean operation. This is rare but may happen. I do not have any solution for such cases.

Your result should look like follows. Make sure to disable rendering of the map_lamp_thread_M100 mesh to check results by toggling the eye symbol next to it (1). Otherwise you will always see an overlay of the two. If you are happy with the result, click the arrow on the Boolean modifier tab (2) and click Apply (3).

Finally, we can export the new mesh. First, either delete the map_lamp_thread_M100 mesh or make sure to select the lithophane mesh! (1) If you miss this, you may export both meshes in a single file. Next, click File -→ Export -→ STL (2). 

In the window popping up, tick Selection Only (1). This is necessary to prevent exporting both meshes. If you deleted the map_lamp_thread_M100 mesh, you may also skip this step. Pick a location and filename and click Export STL (2).

CONGRATULATIONS! You just created your lithophane map lamp! 
Print it, upload it and share it with the Community!

 

Final Remarks

I hope you find this tutorial useful. If you run into issues or have suggestions on how to improve it, please leave a comment. 

 

Changelog

• 04.03.2025: initial upload of the tutorial