August 30, 2006
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AKVIS Sketch: Convert a Photo into Pencil, Coal or Watercolor Drawing

 

AKVIS LLC announces the release of AKVIS Sketch plug-in v.1.1 for Windows and Macintosh. The revolutionary algorithm allows converting a photo into a pencil sketch in a few mouse clicks and with an astounding result.

 

AKVIS Sketch 1.1 is a plugin for conversion of photos into pencil sketches and watercolor drawings.

Photo-to-sketch conversion can be a lot of fun and open for you new ways of creativity. If you have always been wondering how to draw or paint, now you can embody your ideas with AKVIS Sketch.

You can make any photo look like B&W or color drawing, imitate the technique of graphite or color pencil, charcoal or watercolor painting.

Surprise your friends and relatives by presenting them their pencil portraits. Make a watercolor drawing out of a photo from your last nature shooting to decorate your room. Convert your own photo into a color sketch to print on a T-shirt.

Home users will be delighted by the neat result of the photo-to-sketch conversion. Now you do not need to handle a pencil to feel like an artist. All you need to create your original work of art is good taste and AKVIS Sketch.

The program can be helpful to designers who need to quickly bring images to one style for a web-site or an advertisement booklet.

In contrast to the similar standard filters (like the built-in filters in Photoshop or PSP) that offer an approximate sketch, AKVIS Sketch provides a convincing result that comes very close to hand-drawn works of a human artist.

Getting a similar result with the standard tools would require expertise in image editing and extensive manipulation with layers, masks, brushes and applying filters. AKVIS Sketch has a simple interface with a few sliders. At first you can process the image with the default settings and then touch up the photo adding color, or trying different techniques - from pencil to charcoal or watercolor. You can make the hatching denser or finer and change the pitch angle of strokes.

Demonstrations of the plugin's features are available in AKVIS online Tutorial.

AKVIS Sketch plugin is compatible with Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Elements, Corel Painter, Corel Photo-Paint, and Paint Shop Pro, ACD FotoCanvas, and Ulead PhotoImpact. AKVIS Sketch runs on Microsoft Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/NT and on Macintosh Mac OS X 10.4, PowerPC G3 and above.

AKVIS Sketch sells for $72 USD, downloadble from akvis.com. Home users can enjoy the full line of AKVIS plugins in the AKVIS Alchemy bundle (Enhancer, Chameleon, Stamp, Retoucher, Coloriage, Noise Buster, Sketch) for USD $280 USD, a savings of $212 over purchasing each separately. For business licenses consult the official web-site. One license key allows activating the software on two computers, for example, on a desktop and a laptop.

For a free trial, AKVIS offers 10 days of fully functional use. Details are available at http://akvis.com/en/sketch/

 

More information about Sketch
http://akvis.com/en/sketch/

Direct evaluation download URL
For Windows:
http://akvis.com/download/akvis-sketch-setup.exe
For Macintosh:
http://akvis.com/download/akvis-sketch-setup.dmg

Screenshot URL:
http://akvis.com/en/sketch/screenshots-pencil-drawing.php