Instant Photo Sketch Pro

If you go to a carnival, you will probably see a photo booth which "draws" your portrait like a pencil sketch. Before throwing your money away, you should know that this effect is quite simple. You can do something similar or even better with most image processors. Turning a picture into a sketch, with standard editors, requires going through a number of steps, but you can perform this task instantly with Instant Photo Sketch Pro. It features four different sketching effects, which are fully automated and you can adjust them with easy to use tools.

The software can be installed on both Windows and Mac platforms, using different setup kits. The package for the Windows operating system is roughly 5 and a half Mb large and the installation process is straightforward. You can run the application right away, without making additional configurations and it will not affect your computer's performance.

After loading your picture on the application's interface, you can turn it into a sketch right away. There are different ways of converting photos into sketches and all of them involve moving a few sliders and clicking a button. You can bring up adjustment options for a pen, pencil or color sketch or options for a poster, by clicking a series of buttons, next to the picture's preview.

Regardless of which method you select, you will need to set the black and white levels separately and click a Create button to convert. The application will turn a picture into a sketch instantly. Once it is converted, you can make further adjustments by moving the black and white sliders. As you move them, you will see the effects, in real time, on the picture's preview.

Additional options are available for each sketching mode. When using the pen sketch feature, you may select different colors for the picture's foreground and background. The pencil sketch method includes two more sliders, which you can use to set the black and white levels for the contour. Turning your picture into a poster involves using a single slider, to reduce the number of colors and setting the same black and white levels for the contour, which is optional.

The color sketch mode will imitate brushstrokes, to make images look like oil paintings. Instead of black and white levels, you will need to set the color threshold and the size of the brushstroke. This method works a bit slower and you will have to click the Create button each time you make an adjustment. You can zoom in or out by clicking the buttons in the lower right corner of the interface, where you will also find an option for resetting the photo to its original state.