A plano-convex cylindrical lens is used to condense light in one axis.  A positive cylindrical lens is able to create a line image from a point of light, to change the aspect ratio of an image or to focus collimated input light to a line. Plano- convex cylindrical lenses are typically used for illumination of slit and line detector arrays, laser projection, laser line focussing and anamorphic beam shaping.