^[1]Are you a good drawer? I know I’m not! So turning a digital picture I have into a sketch is nearly impossible. However, now I can do this by simply running the digital picture I want turned into a sketch through Sketch Drawer.

WHAT IS IT AND WHAT DOES IT DO

Main Functionality

Sketch Drawer is a simple program that can turn any of your digital photos into sketches. This is achieved in just a few mouse clicks. The process is fast and the results are stunning. If you are looking to give your pictures a “custom” look, Sketch Drawer may be what you need.

Pros

• Turn your digital pictures into sketches easily
• Creates both black and white or color sketches, and has other types you can pick from
• Can batch convert pictures to sketches
• Tons of adjustable options to customize your output sketches
• Can adjust brightness, saturation, and contrast of input images plus rotate, flip, and crop
• Supports JPG/JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP, ICO, TIF, TGA, PCX, and WMF image input formats

Cons

• Price is too high for what this program does
• Program crashed on me multiple times (twice, to be exact; I am on Vista)
• Poor, laggy interface
• Claims to be able to take in PSD inputs but it won’t, as per my tests

Discussion

^[2]The idea behind Sketch Drawer is a fun one. You can take any picture on your computer and easily convert it over to a sketch. However, it is only a good idea when it works. In fact, I tried to convert four pictures. Out of the four, two of them worked. No, it had nothing to do with the program not being able to convert the picture to a sketch, but with a crashing problem.

Now, I am not sure if this crashing problem was just on my computer or not. I would have assumed that it was just my operating system; however, two of my pictures actually completed the transformation, so I knew that the program was at least working. I was never able to understand what caused the crashing, but it did not give me much hope for the program.

That being said, the pictures it did convert came out great. I was able to choose a lot of details before converting the pictures. In particular, your are able to select what type of sketching I want to do: pen, felt-tip pen, simple, light, light brown, schematic, low contrast, high contrast, default, detailed sketch, light colors, color drawing, expressive, pop art, or pastel. I even had an option to batch convert a large number of pictures if I wanted or create my own type of sketch by modifying settings such as the hardness of the pencil lines, the texture, color settings, etc.

So the program works, but possibly only half the time due to crashing issues. Due to that, it is hard for me to recommend paying nearly $50. I mean, let’s face it; $50 is a bit steep to pay for a program that just converts your digital photos to sketches anyway. I mean, it is a neat option, but not really needed.

CONCLUSION AND DOWNLOAD LINK

The program works… except when it doesn’t. However, when it does work it does a fantastic job. Now, maybe the crashing problem was just on my end but I have to assume it wasn’t. So, I cannot recommend someone paying $49.95 for a program that may crash often. Plus, even if the program didn’t crash, I would not recommend anyone spend $50 on Sketch Drawer when FotoSketcher ^[3] can be had for free.

FotoSketcher is an excellent freeware program that does what Sketch Drawer does and more; it allows you to turn your photos into paintings, drawings, or sketches. If you find Sketch Drawer to be even remotely interesting, I’d suggest giving FotoSketcher a go. I promise you will like it.

Price: $49.95

Version reviewed: 1.0

Supported OS: Windows XP / Vista / 7

Download size: 16.9MB

VirusTotal malware scan results: 0/46 ^[4]

Is it portable? No

SoftOrbits Sketch Drawer homepage ^[5]