Turn a photo into a pencil sketch

How the sketch is made

This is a long-standing digital recipe done with ordinary image arithmetic, not a model. The photo is turned to grayscale. A copy is inverted and blurred. The two are then combined with a color-dodge blend, which brightens everything except the places where tones change sharply. What is left looks like pencil lines along edges, with light shading in between.

Because it follows edges and tones in the photo, the result reflects your picture faithfully. It does not reinterpret the scene or add strokes that were not suggested by the photo.

The controls

Each control previews live on a screen-sized copy.

A good starting point for portraits is moderate Line strength with low Smoothness, which keeps hair and eyelashes. For buildings, higher Smoothness gives clean planes and crisp edges.

• Line strength sets how dark and heavy the lines are. Raise it for a bold, graphic look; lower it for a light, airy drawing.
• Smoothness sets how soft the shading is. Lower values show more fine texture, like hair and fabric. Higher values give broader, cleaner tones.
• Paper tone puts the drawing on white or cream. Cream feels warmer and more like a sketchbook.
• Keep colour adds a tint from the original photo for a colored-pencil feel.

Photos that make good sketches

Clear edges and good contrast give the best drawings. Portraits with side light, buildings, animals with defined fur, and objects against plain backgrounds all work well. Very busy scenes, like a crowded market, turn into a tangle of lines; crop to one subject first with Smart crop. Very dark or flat photos come out faint. Run Photo enhancer or Low-light enhancer first, then come back, and the improved version carries over.

Backgrounds can distract from the drawing. A neat trick is to replace a cluttered background with plain white using Background colour, then make the sketch, so only the subject is drawn.

Light matters too. Side light creates shadows that turn into shading in the sketch, while flat front light gives a drawing that is mostly outline.

Saving the drawing

Press Apply to make the sketch at full resolution and add it to History. PNG keeps fine lines crisp, which matters if you plan to print. JPEG at a high quality setting gives a smaller file for sharing.

Because the sketch is a new version, you can step back to the color photo at any time, or try a second sketch with different settings and compare the two. Cream paper with Keep colour gives a soft, old-fashioned look for cards; white keeps a poster crisp.

What it will not do

• It follows edges in the photo, so busy scenes become cluttered and flat photos come out faint.
• It is a conventional effect, not a hand-drawn style; it does not add artistic strokes of its own.
• Noise in dark photos can show up as speckled shading.
• The paper tone is a flat color, not a paper texture.

Devices and downloads

No download — ordinary image arithmetic. The sketch uses no model, so WebGPU and WebAssembly are not involved. The preview runs on a screen-sized copy, and Apply renders the full-resolution drawing in this tab.

Instant edit: Ordinary image arithmetic. No model, no download, works in any modern browser. See what is stored on this device.

Step by step

1. Open a photo. Pick an image with clear edges and good contrast.
2. Set the lines. Adjust Line strength and Smoothness until the drawing looks right.
3. Choose paper and color. Pick white or cream paper, and turn on Keep colour for a tint.
4. Apply and save. Render at full resolution and export as PNG or JPEG.

Questions about photo to sketch