PhotoRiyaHow to turn a photo into a cartoon
Drop your photo onto the box above and it becomes a cartoon at once. Brush or line size sets how much the colours are smoothed and how thick the outlines are, and Strength sets how many colour levels remain and how dark the outlines are. Press Download when you like it.
Photos with bold shapes and clear lighting, such as portraits, pets, buildings and street scenes, give the best results.
How the cartoon effect works
It's built in three steps. First the photo is smoothed with an oil-paint style filter that flattens small detail but keeps edges sharp. Then the colours are posterized, meaning each colour channel is reduced to a few levels, which makes the flat areas of colour typical of cartoons. Finally the outlines are found with a difference of Gaussians, an edge detector from computer-graphics research on stylised rendering, and drawn in black.
There's no AI involved, so the result follows your photo closely, and it's instant.
Tips for a better cartoon
Brighter, evenly lit photos work best, since shadows and dark textures make the outlines busy. Lower the strength for softer lines and more colour levels. For a hand-drawn black-and-white look, try photo to sketch, and for visible brush dabs try photo to oil painting.
Questions people ask
How do I turn a photo into a cartoon?
Drop your photo onto the converter above. The cartoon effect is applied at once, and you can adjust the line size and strength before downloading.
Is this AI cartoonizing?
No. It's a classic image-processing effect made of smoothing, posterized colours and edge lines. It follows your photo closely and doesn't redraw faces the way AI apps do.
Why are my outlines too heavy?
Busy or dark photos give many edges. Lower the strength, or increase the line size, for fewer and softer outlines.
Can I keep a transparent background?
No. The effect works on the whole picture and saves it with a solid background. To work with transparency, edit the photo in PhotoRiya first.
Is my photo uploaded to a server?
No. The effect is made inside your browser tab, on your own device, and nothing is sent anywhere. That also makes it instant: there's no waiting for an upload or a queue.
Is this AI?
No. It uses classic image-processing techniques, so the result is predictable, private and made in seconds on your device. It does not generate new content or restyle faces the way AI apps do.
What size is the result?
The picture is processed at up to 2,200 pixels on its long side, which is plenty for sharing and for A4 prints at about 200 DPI. Smaller photos keep their size.
Is it free?
Yes. There is no limit, no watermark and no account. PhotoRiya is open source under the MIT and Apache 2.0 licenses.
More free tools
- Photo to sketch converter pencil, charcoal and inkTurn a photo into a pencil sketch, colour pencil, charcoal or ink drawing.
- Photo to oil painting with adjustable brush sizeTurn a photo into an oil painting with an adjustable brush size.
- Image converter to PNG, JPG and WebPConvert TIFF, WebP, BMP, TGA, GIF, ICO, EXR and HDR pictures to PNG, JPG or WebP.