Free HueForge Alternatives (2026): Filament Painting Tools

The best free HueForge alternatives are MakerLab Chroma Canvas if you print on a Bambu Lab machine, Kromacut if you want open source, and the PrintPal Filament Painter if you want a colored OBJ file with no sign-up. HueForge itself is paid, $30 for a lifetime personal license (often on sale), and still gives the most control.

Filament painting is one of the most striking things a hobby printer can make: a flat print, a few millimeters thick, that looks like a painting or a photo. HueForge made the technique popular, and since then several free tools have appeared that do something similar in the browser.

Quick answer

• Most powerful: HueForge. The desktop app that started it all, with the most control. $30 lifetime for personal use, often on sale.
• Best free option for Bambu Lab users: MakerLab Chroma Canvas, free in the browser with a MakerWorld account, exports a ready 3MF.
• Best free and open source: Kromacut, with auto-paint and 3MF export.
• Free with a colored OBJ export: the PrintPal Filament Painter, which runs in the browser with no sign-up and exports an OBJ with the colors.
• Simplest free browser tool: Filament Painter, free for non-commercial use.
• Free automatic color plan: AutoForge, open source, picks the filaments and swap layers for you.

How filament painting works

Thin layers of filament let some light through. Print a dark base, then lighter layers on top, and the thickness at each spot decides how much of each color you see. The software turns your image into a height map and tells you at which layer to switch filament. Every color you add gives more tones, but also more swaps.

HueForge: the paid original

HueForge is worth the money if you plan to make many filament paintings, or sell them.

HueForge is a desktop app (Windows, Mac and Linux) and the reference for this technique. It has the deepest control over filament choice, layer heights and blending, a large community sharing settings, and it exports an STL with a swap plan (3MF through a plugin). The Personal Use license is a one-time payment and selling prints needs a commercial license. When we checked in October 2026, every license was on sale: Personal Use was $24 (list $30) and Limited Commercial $60 a year (list $75). The license terms add that a commercial license does not give you the rights to someone else’s intellectual property, such as a character or logo.

MakerLab Chroma Canvas: free for Bambu Lab users

If you print on a Bambu Lab machine, Chroma Canvas is the easiest free alternative, because it downloads a 3MF that already contains the color-change plan.

It is Bambu Lab’s own take on the idea, running inside MakerWorld’s MakerLab. Upload an image, pick a color palette the way you would pick a photo filter, and download the 3MF. Its AI can split the picture into regions, such as subject and background, with a different palette for each. You need a free MakerWorld account.

More free HueForge alternatives

Kromacut, the PrintPal Filament Painter, Filament Painter and ColorStack all work in the browser for free, each with its own limits.

Kromacut is free and open source, with an auto-paint mode that picks colors for you and 3MF export.

The PrintPal Filament Painter is free, needs no sign-up and runs entirely in your browser. You set up to 8 filament color layers or let it pick them from the main tones in your image, then preview the blend. The download is a ZIP with an OBJ and its MTL color file, or a plain STL without colors, and a separate print guide lists the heights at which to swap filament. Filaments are set by color only, without the transmission (TD) values HueForge uses to predict the blend. It sits alongside PrintPal’s AI generator.

Filament Painter runs in the browser, is free for non-commercial use, and exports STL. A commercial license costs $20.

AutoForge takes the guesswork out of the color plan. You give it a picture and your filament library (a CSV exported from HueForge, or a JSON file), and its optimizer decides which filament goes on which layer, then writes out the model and the swap list. It is free and open source, and it runs in the browser or on your own computer.

Tinting Voxel also works from measured filaments, but it mixes them in a different way. You give each filament a hex color and a TD value, and it picks the stack of thin layers at each spot that comes closest to the picture, then shows the original, the grouped colors and a simulated print side by side. A Compare settings button ranks other settings by how close they get, and a batch tab takes up to 20 images. The 3MF has one colored part per filament, so it suits an AMS or a toolchanger. It is free, open source and needs no account, but your image is processed on its server and we found no privacy page.

ColorStack has a free tier with STL export, up to 8 color layers and daily export limits; 3MF export is part of the paid Pro plan. It also makes flat multicolor prints and simple image-to-STL conversions.

Spectrum Forge is built for four filaments and has printer presets for the Snapmaker U1, Bambu X1C and P1S, Prusa XL and Prusa MK4 with MMU3. Its Height mode works like HueForge, with color following the layer stack, so manual swaps work on any printer. A Toolchanger Paint mode changes color within a layer, and a Backlit Litho mode makes color lithophane cards and discs. The 3MF has the colors baked in. Only the first export is free; after that each one costs 40 ink, the site’s credit, with a monthly free allowance. Files can be large: a small test image gave us a 52 MB 3MF.

For a full-color picture that shows when light shines through it, rather than one that sits on a wall, PIXEstL makes color lithophanes and pixel art from a few stacked filament colors. It is a free, MIT-licensed Java program that you run on your own computer, so it takes a little more setup than the browser tools. PixelSculpt does color lithophanes in the browser instead, free and with no account: you stack your own filaments with their TD values, check the backlit preview, and get one STL with a filament change schedule for an AMS or manual swaps. It is a beta and makes flat panels only.

When you want a relief instead

For a raised logo, a sign or a plaque, a relief works better than a filament painting:

• ImageToStl converts PNG or JPG into a heightmap or an extruded STL, for free.
• SVG 2 STL takes a vector logo and extrudes it to the height you choose.
• Bekuto 3D does the same for a logo in several colors: each shape in the SVG gets its own color and height, and the 3MF keeps every color as a separate part on its own filament slot. It is free, open source and needs no account.

For layered wall art with real depth, Shadowbox Maker in MakerLab cuts a picture into stacked cut-out layers and adds a box to hold them. Each layer prints on its own plate in one color, so a colorful result needs no AMS. It is free with a MakerWorld account but still listed as an Experiment, and simple images with clear shapes split best.

How to print your first filament painting

1. Start with 4 colors: black, a dark gray or color, a light color, and white.
2. Keep the base solid. Two or three layers of your darkest color give the picture its contrast.
3. Print at 0.08 to 0.12 mm layers, flat on the bed. It takes longer, but the blends come out smoother.
4. Swap filament at the heights the tool gives you. Without an AMS, add a pause at each height in your slicer and change the filament by hand.
5. Do a back-light test. Hold your first print against a window. If the colors look muddy, add more base layers.
6. Frame it. The HueForge / Chroma Canvas Custom Frame Generator on MakerWorld sizes a press-fit frame to the width and height you measure on your print, with optional wall hooks and clip-on desk stands. It is free with a MakerWorld account, but selling the printed frames needs the designer’s paid commercial membership. Without a MakerWorld account, FrameGen 3D runs in the browser for free. It makes rectangle or hexagon frames (hexagons tile into a honeycomb wall) sized to your print with a clearance gap and a shelf to hold it, cuts keyholes for a nail or hook, and splits large frames into parts for a small bed. It has no terms page, so it does not say whether you may sell the frames.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best free alternative to HueForge?

For Bambu Lab printers, MakerLab Chroma Canvas: it is free with a MakerWorld account and downloads a 3MF with the color changes already set. On any printer, Kromacut is the best free option, open source with auto-paint and 3MF export. AutoForge goes further and works out the colors and swap layers for you from your own filament list.

What is filament painting?

Filament painting prints a picture as a thin, flat model where each layer can be a different color. Because thin layers of filament are slightly see-through, the colors blend and create shading. The result looks like a painted image straight off the build plate.

Do I need a multicolor printer for HueForge-style prints?

No. The color changes happen at set layer heights, so a single-nozzle printer works if you pause and swap filament by hand. A multicolor unit such as an AMS just makes it automatic.

Is HueForge free?

No. HueForge is a desktop app. A Personal Use lifetime license lists at $30 and was on sale for $24 when we checked, and selling prints needs a commercial license, from $60 a year at the same sale (list $75). Free alternatives include MakerLab Chroma Canvas, Kromacut, the PrintPal Filament Painter and Filament Painter (free for non-commercial use).

Which filament works best?

Matte PLA in a wide range of colors works best, starting with black and white. Each filament has a transmission distance, or TD (how see-through it is). HueForge and the auto-paint mode in Kromacut use that value to calculate the blends, while simpler tools such as the PrintPal Filament Painter work from the color alone.