AKVIS Sketch is an image editing utility that provides you with a quick way to transform digital photographs into pencil sketches or watercolor paintings. All you need to do is to import your picture, choose a preset profile, and export your new photo.
The program is compatible with a wide variety of input formats. You can import various popular image formats as well as RAW photos, Windows Bitmaps or Adobe Digital Negatives. You have access to a long list of default preset profiles, but you can create your owns by configuring the offered output settings (bars for adjusting the levels of coloration, edge strength, etc.) according to your needs. The created profiles can then be saved to your local directories and used later when editing a photo or batch of pictures.
This utility also enables you to compare the original image with the resulting sketch before exporting it. Sadly, even though it's compatible with a great variety of input formats, the program supports a small amount of output formats: JPG, JPEG, PNG, BMP, TIF, and TIFF.
Another thing that bothered me was that AKVIS Sketch took a while to launch. Furthermore, you can easily find cheaper solutions for turning images into paintings or pencil sketches. However, not many of them provide you with default preset profiles to help you immediately get the results you need.
So, it's up to you, based on your needs and budget, if it's worth buying this utility for your Mac or not.
v20.0 [Feb 26, 2018]
- Updated Texture Library: The Texture Library in the Frame tab has been completely renewed. It offers a whole bunch of new textures and patterns divided into different subject categories: Holidays, Nature, Post Stamps, etc. The Pattern Frame includes two more categories: Stars and Ornaments & Doodles. Play with the settings to get it just right.
- Random Patterns Frame: The Pattern frame comes with the new feature - Random Patterns! Just activate the check-box to mix up to 20 patterns in one frame. Use the Random Seed setting to create multiple frame versions by mouse click.
- Interface Improvements: The user interface has undergone several improvements. The check-boxes in the Frame tab have been replaced with new easily operated icons. The enabled tools in the Toolbar are now marked with color to make it easier to distinguish between the enabled/disabled states.
- Added support for more RAW files in the standalone version.
- Improved the brightness increasing algorithm for patterns and textures.
- Fixed minor bugs.
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