SummaryMany applications in science and engineering require the solution of large linear discrete ill‐posed problems that are obtained by the discretization of a Fredholm integral equation of the first kind in several space dimensions. The matrix that defines these problems is very ill conditioned and generally numerically singular, and the right‐hand side, which represents measured data, is typically contaminated by measurement error. Straightforward solution of these problems is generally not meaningful due to severe error propagation. Tikhonov regularization seeks to alleviate this difficulty by replacing the given linear discrete ill‐posed problem by a penalized least‐squares problem, whose solution is less sensitive to the error in the right‐hand side and to roundoff errors introduced during the computations. This paper discusses the construction of penalty terms that are determined by solving a matrix nearness problem. These penalty terms allow partial transformation to standard form of Tikhonov regularization problems that stem from the discretization of integral equations on a cube in several space dimensions.