How to turn a photo into a sketch
- Drop a photo on the box above. Portraits, pets, buildings and still lifes with clear edges work best.
- Choose a style: Pencil, Charcoal, Colored pencil or high-contrast Ink.
- Adjust Line detail (higher picks up broader shading), Darkness and the Paper texture grain.
- Hold the compare button to see the original, then download the sketch at up to 3000 pixels.
How the pencil effect works
This is the classic photo-to-sketch technique digital artists use in Photoshop: convert the photo to grayscale, make an inverted and blurred copy, and blend the two with color dodge. Flat areas cancel out to white paper, while edges and shading, where the blurred copy differs from the original, remain as soft graphite-like lines. The blur radius controls how wide the strokes are, and a darkness curve deepens the lines. Charcoal adds rough noise, ink turns the sketch into pure black and white lines, and colored pencil keeps a pale version of the original colors.
For the best result, start with a sharp photo with good lighting and a simple background. Busy backgrounds become busy sketches, so crop first if needed. Unlike many "AI sketch" sites, this tool needs no upload, no account and adds no watermark: everything runs in your browser.
Can I print the sketch?
Yes. Downloads are up to 3000 pixels on the long side, enough for a sharp A4 or letter print.
Why is my sketch too light?
Raise Darkness, or increase Line detail for broader shading. Low-contrast photos produce faint sketches.
Is my photo uploaded?
No. The effect is computed on your device with the Canvas API.