Image to STL
A photo becomes a printable STL in about 5 minutes
Choose 3D print, add a photo, and HI3D.cc builds a high-resolution mesh of up to 300,000 triangles, closes its holes and hands you STL and 3MF files at the height you choose in millimetres. The print mesh in our test took 298 seconds to generate; the repair took 2.2 seconds and changed 10 of its 299,753 triangles.
| Stage | What happens |
|---|---|
| Mesh | 4K geometry without textures, up to 300,000 triangles, in the pose of your photo |
| Repair | Welds duplicate vertices, removes triangles on non-manifold edges, caps every open boundary, repeats. Kept only if it changes less than 1% of the mesh. |
| Export | Binary STL and 3MF in millimetres, standing upright on the bed at 100 mm tall; any height from 10 to 2,000 mm in your browser |
| Check | Watertight or not, open edges, non-manifold edges, size, volume and grams of solid PLA, shown before you download |
Why the repair step exists: none of the raw meshes in our tests were strictly watertight. Most slicers patch small gaps on import, but a mesh with open edges can still slice with missing walls, and you only find out halfway through a print.
Test print file
The corgi figurine, in numbers
The corgi sample above is our print-preset test, measured with our own mesh tools and checked independently with trimesh.
| Generation time | 298 s |
| Triangles | 299,753 |
| Open edges, before → after repair | 11 → 0 |
| Non-manifold edges, before → after | 2 → 0 |
| Repair | 2.2 s · 10 triangles removed · 5 holes capped |
| Size at 90 mm tall | 61.1 × 90.0 × 92.4 mm |
| Volume (solid) | 128.7 cm³ ≈ 160 g of PLA |
| Largest files | OBJ 29 MB · STL 15 MB |
The grams are for a solid part. With normal walls and 10–15% infill your slicer will estimate far less. For comparison, a full-colour 4K portrait (41,262 triangles, 49 separate parts) had 73 open and 85 non-manifold edges; fixing it would have removed 1.9% of the mesh, so the repair declined and the check says so. That is why printing has its own preset.
Not the same thing
Image to STL is not PNG to STL
Many “PNG to STL” tools extrude a flat picture: a logo raised a few millimetres, a lithophane, a cookie cutter. HI3D.cc does something different. It reads a photo of an object and builds the whole object, with depth, sides and a back it infers. Use it for figurines, busts, pets, toys, product replicas and replacement shapes; use an extrusion tool for flat artwork.
Busts
Printing a bust from a photo of a person
- Use a head-and-shoulders photo, face towards the camera, eyes open, even light from the front.
- Keep hair off the face. Loose strands come out as thin ribbons that print poorly.
- Crop out other people and busy backgrounds before uploading.
- Set the height before exporting: 60–120 mm suits a desk bust. Below about 60 mm, a resin printer holds a face far better than a 0.4 mm FDM nozzle.
- On FDM, print faces at 0.12–0.16 mm layers, and add supports under the chin and shoulders.
- Only make busts of people who agree to it; selling one needs their consent.
Our full-body portrait test (full-colour preset) kept the face, hair and clothing details. The print preset uses the same geometry engine without textures, at a higher triangle count.
Slicer checklist
From the download to the first layer
- Import the 3MF in Bambu Studio, OrcaSlicer, PrusaSlicer or Cura. With the STL, confirm the height matches what you set.
- Leave it standing. Models are exported upright with the base at Z = 0, centred on the bed.
- Add supports under chins, arms, tails and overhangs past 45°. Tree or organic supports leave fewer marks on figurines.
- Use 3 or more walls and 10–15% infill. Figurines need a strong shell more than a dense core.
- Pick your layer height by the smallest detail: 0.12–0.16 mm for faces and fur on a 0.4 mm nozzle, 0.2 mm for blocky parts.
- Add a brim if the model stands on small feet or a thin base.
The full guide to printing from a photo covers taking the photo, fixing common failures and sizing parts.
Questions
Image to STL, answered
Is the STL watertight?
The print preset closes holes automatically, as long as the repair changes less than 1% of the mesh; otherwise it keeps the original and tells you what's left. The print check shows the result before you download. Our corgi test mesh came out fully watertight: 11 open edges and 2 non-manifold edges went to zero, changing 10 of its 299,753 triangles.
What size is the STL?
100 mm tall unless you set another height. Type any height from 10 to 2,000 mm in the download panel and the width and depth follow in proportion; the file is rescaled in your browser, and the 3MF carries the units so your slicer reads millimetres.
Should I download STL or 3MF?
3MF if your slicer opens it (Bambu Studio, OrcaSlicer, PrusaSlicer and Cura do): it stores millimetres, so the size can't be misread. STL if you need the most widely accepted format; check the size after importing.
Can I print the model in colour?
The print preset makes single-colour geometry. For colour, generate a full-colour model and paint it in your slicer, or use its textured OBJ or GLB with a colour-capable workflow. We don't export multi-colour 3MF files yet.
How much does image to STL cost?
40 credits per print mesh, about $1.60 with the Starter pack ($12 for 300 credits, 7 print meshes). The repair, the print check and the STL and 3MF exports are included; changing the height costs nothing.
Can I make an STL of a logo or text from a PNG?
HI3D.cc builds whole objects: it gives a photo depth, sides and a back. For a flat raised logo, lettering, a lithophane or a cookie cutter you want an extrusion tool instead; PrusaSlicer and Bambu Studio can both import an SVG and extrude it.
Want colour and textures instead? Try image to 3D model. Every measured number: facts.