PhotoRiyaHow to turn a photo into a pencil sketch
Drop a photo onto the box above and it's drawn as a pencil sketch straight away. Use Brush or line size for thicker or finer strokes, and Strength for darker shading. Switch the effect to colour pencil, charcoal or ink drawing, add paper grain if you like, and press Download.
Photos with clear shapes and good contrast, like portraits, buildings and objects against a plain background, make the best sketches. Busy scenes, such as forests, turn into dense line work.
How the effects work
Pencil sketch uses the classic colour-dodge method artists and photo editors have used for decades: the photo is turned to grayscale, inverted and blurred, and then divided into the original. Flat areas turn to white paper, and edges and shadows become pencil strokes. The blur size sets the line thickness.
Colour pencil lets some of the photo's colour show through the strokes. Charcoal darkens the shading and adds a coarse grain on warm paper. Ink drawing finds edges with a difference of Gaussians, a method from the computer-graphics research on stylised rendering, and draws them as black lines on white.
Tips for better sketches
Start from a sharp, well-lit photo. Raise Strength for dramatic shading and lower it for a lighter, more delicate drawing. Lower the line size for fine detail in a large photo. For a painted look instead of a drawn one, try photo to oil painting or photo to cartoon.
Questions people ask
How do I turn a photo into a sketch?
Drop your photo onto the converter above. A pencil sketch appears at once. Adjust the line size and strength, or choose another effect, then press Download.
How do I make a pencil drawing from a photo?
Use the Pencil sketch effect, which is selected by default. Lower the line size for fine, light lines and raise it for thicker, softer strokes.
Can I get a colour sketch?
Yes. Choose Colour pencil to keep some of the photo's colours in the drawing.
Which photos work best?
Sharp photos with clear subjects and good lighting, such as portraits and objects. Very dark or very cluttered photos give heavy, busy results.
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 oil painting with adjustable brush sizeTurn a photo into an oil painting with an adjustable brush size.
- Photo to cartoon converter flat colours, bold outlinesTurn a photo into a cartoon with flat colours and bold outlines.
- Image converter to PNG, JPG and WebPConvert TIFF, WebP, BMP, TGA, GIF, ICO, EXR and HDR pictures to PNG, JPG or WebP.