/ˈlaɪt bɒks/

Light box

noun · drawing tool

What it is

A light box — also called a light table or light pad — is a shallow case with a translucent top panel and a light source inside. When a drawing or photograph is placed face-up on the panel and a clean sheet of paper is set over it, the internal light passes through both layers. The lines of the image below then read faintly through the upper sheet, and the artist traces them by hand. Because the copy is direct, no scaling or grid decomposition happens: what you trace is the same size as what lies beneath.

The light box works only with sheets thin enough to let light through, and only at the reference's own size — it cannot enlarge. That is where it differs from the opaque projector and the modern AR tracing approach, both of which can scale an image up to fill a wall. It also differs from the grid method, which copies proportion cell by cell rather than by transmitted light.

Etymology

The compound joins "light" with "box," naming the object plainly: a box that emits light. The tool grew out of the illuminated glass tables long used for retouching negatives, sorting transparencies, and drafting on tracing paper — the same principle a photographer uses at a light table to view film. Early studio units held fluorescent tubes behind frosted glass; contemporary versions are thin LED panels light enough to hold on the lap, sometimes marketed as "light pads."

Examples in use

An animator lays a rough drawing on the light box and traces a clean version on the sheet above, refining the line without redrawing from scratch. An illustrator inks a pencil sketch by placing a fresh sheet over it so the ink stays crisp and the pencil never needs erasing. A calligrapher traces guide rules printed beneath practice paper. The tool copies only at 1:1 size; to enlarge a reference or trace onto a surface too thick to backlight — a canvas, a wall, a panel — artists reach instead for a projector or, today, the AR tracing app, which locks the reference over the real surface through a phone camera.