FotoSketcher is a free image editing program that can turn any regular photo into an amazing piece of art. Most transformations offered by FotoSketcher would be complicated to achieve using a professional image editor. With this program, the effects are easy to apply, so even a beginner could enjoy incredible results in no time.
Installation & Requirements
The installation of FotoSketcher is one of the easiest we’ve come across so far. Even though it’s not too speedy this is something to be expected from most image editing applications.
According to the official documentation, FotoSketcher runs on all versions of Windows XP, Vista, 7 and 8 with no additional requirements.
Interface
FotoSketcher has a very friendly interface. The clean layout displays the original and modified images side by side. The toolbar offers most frequently used actions from opening a new file to print options.
To begin with, the program includes essential editing tools for the source image, namely resize, crop, rotate, automated contrast & sharpening and a “Modify source image” dialog window where you can manually adjust luminosity, contrast, saturation, blur/sharpen and simplification.
The “Drawing parameters” window is where you can actually add artistic effects to your picture. The process begins with choosing the drawing style. There are plenty of styles available, split mainly between sketch, painting and cartoon types. Any selected style can be tweaked via several handles. Users can also soften the edges of an image, choose a texture and add a frame. A real-time preview is shown in the editing window, so you can see the results of the modifications before applying them. As a result, even if you don’t understand from its name what a certain function is doing you can see its effect in the preview area.
There’s even an option titled “Frame, texture and text only”, very useful for those that want no artistic effect applied onto the picture.
The output image can be saved as JPEG, PNG and BMP file formats. The list is rather short but these are the most popular image formats so most users won’t have problems with this.
Pros
– Free application with a very intuitive interface.
– Editing tools for source and output images are offered in separate menus.
– Includes a large number of artistic effects such as sketches, oil pastel, pen & ink, painting, cartoon, vintage photo and others.
– Text can also be added onto an image.
Cons
– Help is only available as video tutorials. No text documentation is available.
Alternatives
Conclusion
The multitude of effects offered by FotoSketcher, along with their customization options might seem overwhelming for an inexperienced user. Truth is, after fiddling with the settings for a short while, users will realize that the preview window is the best guide into learning this program. FotoSketcher allows anyone to get creative, so feel free to experiment and great results will come.
