The disclosed embodiments provide a system that images a tissue sample. During operation, the system receives the tissue sample, which has been stained using absorbing and fluorescently emitting stains. Next, the system illuminates the tissue sample with excitation light having a wavelength or wavelengths in a range that covers a portion of an absorption spectrum for both fluorescently emitting and absorbing stains, whereby the excitation light interacts with stained tissue located inside the tissue sample to both limit penetration depth and generate emitted dye fluorescence and tissue autofluorescence that provides a backlight, which is absorbed by features in stained tissue located on or near the surface of the tissue sample. Next, the system uses an imaging device to capture an image of emitted fluorescence that emanates from the surface of the tissue sample.