Free Depth & Planes Viewer
A free depth map generator made for painters. It estimates a picture's depth on your device, then shows what an artist wants from it: the form gathered into flat planes under a light you can move, the picture split into foreground, middle ground and background, and a preview of aerial perspective. Your picture is never uploaded. Exports PNG. No sign-up.
Drop an image here, or paste from clipboard
Your image stays on your device. Nothing is uploaded.
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A head, a figure, a still life or a landscape: anything with form or distance in it.
Flat planes.The form gathered into a few flat faces, as on a planes-of-the-head cast.
A light you can move.Turn the light around the form and raise or lower it, and watch the planes change.
Three distances.Foreground, middle ground and background, cut where you choose.
Never uploaded.The depth is worked out in your browser, by a model your browser keeps.
- Free
- No sign-up
- Runs in your browser: your image never leaves your device
What is a depth map?
A depth map is a grey picture in which each pixel's lightness says how near that part of the scene is: white for the nearest, black for the farthest. It can be estimated from an ordinary photograph. A painter can use it to see the planes of a form and the layers of distance in a scene.
How to use the Depth & Planes Viewer
The tool takes 7 steps, all on your device.
Add a picture: a head, a figure, a still life or a landscape.
Press Estimate depth, or add A depth map of my own.
Choose Planes, and set the Detail and the Relief.
Move the light with Light from and Light height.
Choose Bands to see foreground, middle ground and background.
Choose Aerial and set the Haze.
Press Export PNG.
What the Depth & Planes Viewer does
The Depth & Planes Viewer reads depth on your device or from your own map, shows planes at three levels of detail, and adds aerial perspective.
Depth on your device
A 19 MB model estimates depth in the browser. One of our value and tone tools.
Or your own depth map
Use a depth map from a phone or another program, white near or black near.
Three levels of detail
Broad planes for a block-in, fine ones for the turn of a form.
Smooth, to compare
The same light on the surface as it is, beside its planes.
Aerial perspective
The far parts moved towards the colour of the air, by as much as you set.
Compare and save
Split, side by side or flicker against the picture, and a PNG of any view.
How it compares with other depth map generators
On 7 October 2026 we opened three free depth map generators that run in the browser: Zalt's, Serverless Tools' and BrowseryTools'.
| Feature | This page | Zalt | Serverless Tools | BrowseryTools |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Depth estimated on your device | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Form gathered into flat planes | Yes | Not seen | Not seen | Not seen |
| A light you can move over the form | Yes | Not seen | Not seen | Not seen |
| Foreground, middle and background bands | Yes | Not seen | Not seen | Not seen |
| Aerial perspective preview | Yes | Not seen | Not seen | Not seen |
| Colour maps for the depth | No | Not seen | Yes | Yes |
| Choice of output size | No | Not seen | Yes | Not seen |
All three estimate depth in the browser without uploading the picture, as this page does. Serverless Tools offers five colour maps and four output sizes; BrowseryTools offers a colour map and uses a larger model, which it gives as 94 MB. They make depth maps for 3D and video work; this page starts where they stop. Not seen means we did not find it on the page that day.
For painters learning form and distance
Portrait and figure students, landscape painters and still life painters study form and distance in it.
Portrait and figure students
See a head as a few planes before you model it.
Landscape painters
Sort a scene into three distances and test how much to haze the far one.
Still life painters
Try the light from another side before moving the lamp.
From depth to planes
Depth map generators are made for 3D and video work: they give a grey picture and stop. A painter's use for depth is different. Where the depth changes quickly, the surface is turning away; where it stays the same, the surface faces you. From that the page works out which way every bit of surface faces, and then gathers the surfaces that face nearly the same way into one flat plane. The result looks like the plaster casts used to teach the planes of the head: a form made of a few flat faces.
Moving the light
Only the direction of each plane is used. The light casts no shadows from one form on to another and takes no account of the colour or shine of the surface, so it shows how the form turns and nothing else.
Foreground, middle ground and background
Bands cuts the depth in three and tints the picture by band, warm for the foreground and cool for the background, keeping its lights and darks. Two sliders move the cuts, and the page gives each band's share of the picture. A landscape that is nearly all middle ground, or a still life with no background to speak of, shows at once.
Aerial previews aerial perspective: the further away a thing is, the more it is moved towards the colour of the air, a pale blue-grey here, so that it loses contrast and colour and turns lighter and cooler. Haze sets how far the farthest parts go. It is a way to try the effect on your reference before deciding how much of it to paint.
Relief, and what a depth map cannot know
Depth estimated from one picture is relative: it knows that the nose is nearer than the ear, not by how many centimetres. So the page cannot know how steeply a surface really turns, and Relief is yours to set. Raise it until the planes turn as the form does; too high, and every surface looks edge-on. Smoothing removes the fine grain of the estimate before the planes are found.
The model was not trained on your subject and it makes mistakes: hair, glass, mirrors, flat painted pictures and thin things against the sky are often wrong. Everything shown here is a guide to seeing form, to be checked against the subject.
Your picture and the model
Estimate depth downloads Depth Anything V2 Small, 19 MB, once from this site, and your browser keeps it. It runs on your device; the picture is not sent anywhere. If you already have a depth map, from a phone's portrait mode or another program, add it as a picture and no model is fetched at all.
Tips from a working artist
From Sujith Puthran, artist and founder: what I actually do at the easel.
I look at the planes with my eyes half shut, then at the subject the same way. Where they disagree, I trust the subject.
For a head I keep the detail broad. If I can paint it in thirteen planes, I can paint it.
Why your picture stays on your device
The Depth Planes is a program your browser downloads and runs by itself. When you choose a picture, the browser reads it from your files and does the work on your own phone or computer; no copy is sent to this site or to anyone else, and what you export is saved straight from the browser. That is why there is nothing to upload and nothing to sign up for. The privacy page says what the site does collect.
Questions about the Depth & Planes Viewer
The 7 questions below cover depth maps, the planes of the head and aerial perspective, then accuracy, privacy and cost.
Depth and planes
How do I create a depth map from a photo?
Add the photo and press Estimate depth. The model runs in your browser and the Depth view shows the map, white for near and black for far. Export PNG saves it.
What are the planes of the head?
A way of seeing the head as a small number of flat faces, front, sides, top and under-planes, so that light and shadow can be placed simply. The Planes view gathers any form into flat faces in the same spirit.
What is aerial perspective?
Aerial perspective is the effect of air on distant things: they look lighter, cooler, less contrasted and less coloured than near ones. The Aerial view applies it to your picture by depth.
How accurate are the planes?
The planes are a guide, not an accurate measure. Depth from one picture has no real scale and the model makes mistakes, especially on hair, glass and flat artwork. Set the Relief by eye and check against the subject.
The page
Does the Depth & Planes Viewer upload my photo?
No, the Depth & Planes Viewer does not upload your photo. The depth is estimated on your device. Only the model itself is downloaded, once.
Can I use a depth map I already have?
Yes, you can use a depth map you already have. Press A depth map of my own and choose the picture; switch off White is near if yours has black nearest.
Is the depth and planes viewer free?
Yes, the depth and planes viewer is free. There is no account and no watermark.
Depth turned into flat planes, a movable light and three distances.
Free · No sign-up · Runs in your browser