About this tool

Normal Map Generator is a focused browser utility for texture artists, game developers, and 3D hobbyists who need a quick way to test a height image as a tangent-space normal map.

Why it exists

A small conversion task should not require an account, an upload queue, or a full 3D package. This tool puts the essential workflow in one place: add an image, tune its slopes, verify orientation and seams, inspect it under light, and export a PNG.

How it works

The browser converts image luminance into a height field, applies a Sobel or Scharr gradient filter, normalizes the resulting vectors, and encodes them as RGB. Image decoding, processing, preview, and export all happen locally. The current working edge is limited to 1200 pixels to keep interaction responsive.

How the public service is run

Normal Map Bench is a free production tool hosted at normalmapbench.com. It has no analytics, advertising, account, payment, AI model, or remote image API. The service is operated by Little Wins Lab.