Print a photo puzzle
- Add a photo — or try the sample.
- Pick the pieces — 6 to 150.
- Print it flat — it comes off in pieces.
This free tool turns a photo into a jigsaw puzzle you print in one go. Each piece is cut out with a small gap round it, so the puzzle comes off the bed already in pieces. Choose how the picture gets onto it — printed in colour, as a lithophane you hold to the light, or as a sticker you put on afterwards — pick 6 to 150 pieces and download the files.
New — 9 November 2026: first version. Written by Ned Walsch.
| Colour | Lithophane | Plain + sticker | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Printer | Any (filament changes) or AMS / MMU | Any, white filament | Any |
| Picture | 2–4 flat colours | Full tones, with a light behind it | Full colour (paper print) |
| Best for | Drawings, cartoons, logos, kids' art | Photos of people and places | Any photo |
| Extra work | A few filament swaps | None | Stick on, cut along the gaps |
To cut a 3D model — a figure, a bust, a globe — into interlocking pieces, open the splitter with jigsaw seams. It puts puzzle knobs along every cut, so the pieces hook together.
Every piece is cut out with a small gap round it (0.3 mm by default), so the pieces sit next to each other on the bed without touching. The first layer is also pulled in a little to make up for squish ("elephant foot"). They come off separate; if a couple hold on, flex the sheet gently. If they fuse on your printer, make the gap 0.4 mm.
Three ways. Colour: the photo is reduced to 2–4 colours and each colour is printed one step higher, so a single-nozzle printer only needs a few filament changes (they are already in the 3MF), and an AMS or MMU prints it on its own. Lithophane: printed in white, the thickness makes the picture, and you see it with a light behind it. Plain: print the pieces, then print the included sticker sheet at 100 %, stick it on and cut along the gaps.
Anything from 6 to 150. What matters is the size of each piece: under about 12 mm across the knobs get fragile and fiddly to pick up. A 150 mm wide puzzle suits 24–48 pieces; for 100 or more pieces make it 200 mm or wider.
Colour: 0.2 mm layers with a 0.2 mm first layer — the colour changes are placed on those layers. Lithophane: white PLA, 100 % infill and 0.12–0.16 mm layers, relief side up. Plain: anything. Keep elephant-foot compensation on in the slicer, and use a clean, flat bed so the thin gaps print cleanly.
Yes — use the splitter with jigsaw seams: it cuts a model into pieces with interlocking puzzle knobs along each cut, and you choose how many pieces in each direction.
The puzzle shapes are yours to print, give and sell. The picture is a different matter: use your own photos, or pictures you have the rights to.