Custom PRD Build: Photo-to-Maze Tips and Common Mistakes
Reviewed by the FreeOnline.fyi team · Updated 2026-09-14
We built [Custom PRD Build](https://freeonline.fyi/custom-prd-1789410276196/) as
We built Custom PRD Build as a quick way to turn any photo into a printable maze shaped like the picture. Drop an image, tweak a few sliders, and download a 300 DPI PNG or a ready-to-print Letter/A4 PDF. It runs entirely in your browser, so the photo never leaves your device. If you are new to it, start with a clear, high-contrast photo and the default detail of 24 cells across.
The single biggest factor in a good maze is the source photo. The tool flattens transparent PNGs onto a white background and downscales images to 1200 pixels on the longest edge, so small or blurry input gets worse. Choose a subject with a strong silhouette: a person against a plain wall, a pet against the floor, a simple object on a table. Busy backgrounds create noisy silhouettes that turn into confusing mazes. When we tested with a photo of a dog on a patterned rug, the maze looked more like static than a dog; cropping to just the head fixed it.
The detail slider sets the number of cells across the maze, from 12 to 48.
The detail slider sets the number of cells across the maze, from 12 to 48. Default 24 works for most letter-size prints, but here is the trade-off. Lower detail (12–16) makes a simpler, easier maze that kids can solve in under a minute. Higher detail (36–48) produces a more faithful silhouette but adds many narrow corridors and dead ends. On A4 paper, anything above 36 often becomes too fine for pencils unless you increase wall weight. We use 24 for classroom handouts and 32 for party favors.
Two controls catch people out: invert and wall weight. Invert swaps dark and light, so the maze is carved from dark areas instead of light ones. If your photo has a light subject on dark background, leave invert off. If it is a dark subject on light background, turn invert on. Wall weight controls the thickness of maze walls in millimeters, from 0.6 to 3.0. Thicker walls (2.0–3.0 mm) are easier for young children to trace and make the print more forgiving; thinner walls (0.6–1.0 mm) look elegant but tear easily with erasing. We default to 1.2 mm for a balanced look.
The export bar gives you a 300 DPI PNG sized to your selected paper (Letter 2550
The export bar gives you a 300 DPI PNG sized to your selected paper (Letter 2550×3300 pixels) or a single-page PDF with an optional second solution page. If you choose PDF and enable the solution page, you get the maze on page one and the solved path on page two. That is handy for teachers who want an answer key. Keep in mind the PDF page matches your paper selection, so if you plan to print on A4 (standardized by ISO 216), switch the paper dropdown before downloading. The PNG is always the selected paper size at 300 DPI, so it is ready for any print shop.
Common mistakes we see: uploading a photo over 8 MB (the tool rejects it, so resize first), expecting a perfect portrait from a photo with multiple faces, and leaving wall weight at default for toddlers. Also remember that the maze is generated from image luminance, not from a traditional maze generation algorithm. It cannot know which person is the main subject, so group photos produce a maze shaped like the whole crowd. For best results, crop the photo tightly to the subject before uploading. If you want a related image transformation, our Image to ASCII Art tool uses similar contrast logic for text-based images. Explore more FreeOnline.fyi free online tools if you need other print-ready generators.