Convert GLB to PNG
This is not really a conversion — it is a photograph. Drop a GLB in, turn the model until it looks the way you want, and save the view as a PNG. It is the quickest way to get a picture of a model for a listing, a document or a message.
Drag a 3D file here, or.
This page is set up for GLB files. Other formats we can read work here too.
The file is read on your own computer. It is never uploaded.
Your file is read by your own browser and never sent to a server. There is no upload, no account and no copy of your model anywhere but on your computer.
You choose the angle
Drag to rotate, scroll to zoom. Whatever is on screen is what the PNG will contain, at the size the viewport is on your screen — so a wider browser window gives you a larger picture.
The wireframe and grid buttons work too, and both show up in the saved image. The little coloured axis marker in the corner does not: it belongs to this page rather than to your model, and nobody wants it baked into a picture.
What a picture is and is not good for
Good for: a thumbnail, a product listing, a slide, an email to somebody who cannot open a 3D file, a record of what a part looked like at a particular revision.
Not good for: anything that has to be measured, printed or opened again as a model. A PNG is a flat picture and the shape is gone from it. Keep the GLB.
It works with more than GLB
The page is set up for GLB because that is what most people arrive with, but every format this site reads can be photographed the same way — STL, OBJ, 3MF, FBX, COLLADA, PLY and the rest. Drop one in and the tool reads it, then offers you the picture.
For an STL in particular this is a useful pairing: a slicer will not give you a clean image of a part, and this will.
The background is transparent, which is usually what you want
The PNG is saved with an alpha channel and nothing behind the model, so the picture drops onto a white page, a dark slide or a coloured product listing without a grey rectangle around it. The grid, if you have it switched on, is drawn and does appear — turn it off before taking the picture if you want the model floating on its own.
If you need a solid background instead, put the PNG on one in any image editor, or paste it straight into the document you are writing. Transparency is easy to remove and impossible to add back, which is why it is the default here.
One thing to watch: a model with transparent materials of its own, such as glass, is drawn against nothing rather than against a background, so the glass can look darker or flatter in the picture than it does on screen. Switching the grid on gives it something to refract and usually looks better.
What survives, and what does not
Kept in the PNG file
- Exactly what you see in the 3D view, at the size it is on screen
- The material colours and textures the model arrived with
- Transparency around the model, so it drops onto any background
Lost on the way
- The shape itself: a picture cannot be measured, printed or edited
- Everything else about the model — this is a photograph of it, not a copy
How to convert GLB to PNG
Drop the .glb file in
Or any other format this site reads — STL, OBJ, 3MF, FBX, COLLADA and PLY all work the same way.
Turn the model to the angle you want
Drag to rotate, scroll to zoom. A three-quarter view from slightly above reads best for most objects, because it shows three faces at once.
Decide about the grid and the wireframe
Both appear in the saved picture. The axis marker in the corner does not — it belongs to this page rather than to your model.
Make the window bigger if you need a bigger picture
The image is saved at the size the 3D view is on screen, at your display’s full resolution.
Save the PNG
The 3D view has to be visible on screen when you press the button, because the model stops being drawn when it is scrolled out of sight.
GLB and PNG compared
| Property | GLB.glb | PNG.png |
|---|---|---|
| File contents | One binary file: a small header, the same JSON as glTF, then all the buffers and images. | Binary, losslessly compressed with DEFLATE, in labelled chunks. |
| Geometry | Triangles, with skinning weights and animation channels alongside them. | None. It is a grid of pixels. |
| Units | Metres, fixed by the specification. | Optional pixels-per-metre in a pHYs chunk, usually absent. |
| Colour and texture | Full physically based materials, with the texture images packed inside the file. | Up to 16 bits per channel, with full alpha transparency. |
| Separate objects | A scene graph of named nodes, each with its own position and rotation. | One image. |
| Published by | The Khronos Group, 2015, as the single-file packaging of glTF. | The PNG Development Group, 1996, to replace GIF. Now ISO 15948. |
| Written by | Blender, Sketchfab, Substance Painter, and every tool that ships models to the web. | Every image editor, every screenshot tool, every browser. |
Questions
- How do I change the angle?
- Drag inside the 3D view to turn the model and scroll to zoom. The picture is taken from wherever you leave it, so frame it first and press the button second.
- Can I get a bigger image?
- Make the browser window bigger, then take the picture. The image is saved at the size the 3D view is on your screen, and on a high-resolution display it is saved at that display’s full resolution.
- Nothing happened when I pressed the button.
- The 3D view has to be visible on screen for the picture to be taken — the model stops being drawn when it is scrolled out of sight, to save your battery. Scroll back up so you can see the model, then try again.
- Is my model uploaded to make the image?
- No. It is drawn by your own graphics card inside the browser, and the picture is made from what it drew. Nothing is sent anywhere.
- Can I get a picture with a white background?
- Not directly — the PNG is saved with a transparent background. Paste it into any document or image editor and put it on whatever colour you want. Transparency is easy to remove and impossible to add back afterwards.