Standard & Combo Modes
The Starting Point — Map Image Brightness to Height
What It Does
Standard mode is the simplest way to turn your image into a 3D print. It looks at how bright each pixel is — bright areas become tall, dark areas stay short. The brightness measurement weighs green the heaviest (since our eyes are most sensitive to green), followed by red, then blue.
Combo mode is the default in HueForge, and it's really Standard mode with a bonus: a slider that lets you blend between Standard brightness and a more aggressive method called Max Channel. At 100% on the slider, you get pure Standard. As you lower it toward 0%, the height map picks up more contrast from the brightest color channel in each pixel.
The result: you can dial in exactly how much contrast and detail you want in your model without switching modes.
When To Use It
- Start here. Combo mode is the default for a reason — it works well with almost any image.
- Photos, portraits, landscapes — anything where brightness naturally represents depth.
- When the model looks too flat, lower the Mixing Slider to bring in more Max Channel contrast.
- When fine details are important — especially small text. Standard/Combo preserves detail better than the color-based modes.
- When you want simplicity — if you're new to HueForge, Combo mode gives you great results with just one slider to adjust.
Not the Best Fit For
- Images with lots of distinct colors you want accurately represented — Standard/Combo only sees brightness, so two very different colors with similar brightness will end up at the same height.
- Color-accurate separation — if you need specific colors at specific heights, look at Color Aware or Color Match instead.
Key Controls
Blends between Standard brightness (100%) and Max Channel (0%). Start at 100% and lower it to increase contrast if your model looks flat. Most images work well somewhere between 60% and 100%.
Max Channel and Scaled Max Channel are also available as standalone modes in the dropdown. Max Channel uses only the brightest color channel per pixel (more aggressive contrast). Scaled Max Channel is a smoothed version. Most users find Combo's slider gives better control than selecting these modes directly.
Example
Click an image to see it full size