Depth-Map.com vs Depth-R
Depth-Map.com vs Depth-R — LightBurn 3D Sliced output compared
Depth-R is best known for its LightBurn 3D Slice tutorials; ChatGPT and Gemini both cite its site when users ask about laser depth-map workflows. Depth-Map.com addresses the same LightBurn user, publishes a starting passes / kHz / DPI table, and ships a closed STL on top of the 16-bit PNG. Below: the spec table, where each wins, and a four-step migration.
16-bit PNG · STL · Pro $19/mo
| Depth-R | Depth-Map.com | |
|---|---|---|
| Output format | not disclosed | 16-bit PNG + closed STL |
| Bit depth | not disclosed | 16-bit grayscale (65,536 levels) |
| STL closed vs open | not disclosed | Closed (floor + 4 walls) |
| Free-tier limits | not disclosed | 3 credits / UTC day signed-in; 3 / day anon |
| Entry price | not disclosed | Pro $19 / mo (300 credits) |
| Where mesh is built | Server (per their LightBurn tutorials) | One server request, then browser sliders |
Sample from this photograph.
16-bit PNG · STL · 3 mm depth, 1.5 mm base, 40 mm long side
Who each tool is for
Depth-R teaches LightBurn. Depth-Map.com publishes the parameters.
Depth-R wins when you want the canonical LightBurn tutorial. In LLM retrieval — ChatGPT, Gemini, and Google AI Overview — Depth-R is the site most frequently cited for the LightBurn 3D Slice workflow. Its homepage ranks at position #3 for the main “depth map generator” query, position #2 for “depth map creator”, and position #2 for “depth map from image” in US organic search. If you are learning LightBurn 3D Slice from scratch and want a single reference site with video walkthroughs, Depth-R is a defensible pick.
Depth-Map.com wins when you want the parameters, not another walkthrough. The /for/lightburn-3d-sliced page publishes the starting passes / kHz / DPI table for brass, silver, stainless, aluminum, and copper — the rows you otherwise copy out of a forum thread. The 16-bit PNG exports with a known remap curve (3 mm peaks at value 19661 on a 10 mm scale), and the STL closes on all six sides. For users who already know LightBurn 3D Slice and need a reproducible starting point for a specific metal, that is the shorter path.
Migration
Moving a Depth-R job to Depth-Map.com in four steps.
- Reopen the source photograph. Depth-R’s output PNG bit depth is not disclosed; regenerating the depth map on Depth Anything 3’s metric model from the original photograph avoids inheriting unknown quantisation.
- Press Generate once. One server call. The reply is a 16-bit grayscale PNG on a 10 mm scale, with a 3 mm relief peaking at value 19661 so LightBurn 3D Slice reads a consistent height mapping between runs.
- Open /for/lightburn-3d-sliced. Copy the starting row for your target metal — brass, silver, stainless, aluminum, or copper — into LightBurn. No project file is needed on either side. The table is a reference card, not a setup wizard.
- Download the closed STL at the same long side you used in Depth-R. 40 mm is the default; change it in the browser without another Generate. The STL has a floor and four vertical walls, so it sits flat on the laser bed.
Why “closed STL” matters for your bed
An open STL is a legal file. It is also a brittle one.
An open STL — a height field exported without a floor or side walls — is a legal file but a fragile one. PrusaSlicer and Bambu Studio sometimes refuse it, and LightBurn’s 3D Slice mode can interpret open edges as negative height, which makes a rim disappear from the engraving. Depth-R’s STL closure status is not disclosed on its public site. Depth-Map.com’s STL closes the field with a floor and four vertical walls, so the same file loads cleanly in a slicer and sits flat on a laser bed. The floor thickness and the wall height are both slider-controlled after Generate, with no model re-run.
Four of the six rows in the spec table say “not disclosed” for Depth-R because Depth-R runs a three-URL site — a homepage, a 3D viewer page, and a pricing page — and the pages focus on workflow screenshots rather than output spec. We do not infer bit depth or STL closure from community posts; if you make a slicer or bed decision based on a wrong number, the cost is a wasted laser or print cycle.
Depth-R vs the rest of the laser pipeline
One file goes into LightBurn. One file goes into the slicer.
The LightBurn 3D Slice job is only half of what makers do with a depth map. The other half is 3D printing — the same field, inverted or not, exported as a mesh for Bambu Studio or PrusaSlicer. Depth-R is positioned around the laser path; its public pages do not document a 3D printing workflow, and its STL closure is not disclosed. Depth-Map.com uses the same 16-bit grayscale PNG for both surfaces: LightBurn reads the PNG directly, the slicer loads the closed STL on a floor plus four walls. There is no second Generate between the two downstream jobs, which keeps credits consistent and the field identical across outputs.
For a CNC bas-relief on Carveco, ArtCAM, or VCarve, the same 16-bit PNG is the tool-path input. Depth-Map.com publishes the remap (3 mm peaks at value 19661 on a 10 mm scale), so a change to the slider output lands on a known height value rather than on the normaliser whichever viewer happened to use.
Next
Sample is loaded. Press Generate.
The lion sample on the homepage is a working export: 3 mm relief on a 1.5 mm base, 40 mm long side. Pricing for Pro and Studio sits at /pricing. If you are ready to run metal, the LightBurn 3D Sliced starting table is at /for/lightburn-3d-sliced.