AKVIS Charcoal

AKVIS Charcoal is a complex yet user-friendly software solution that was developed to provide you with a simple method of customizing your favorite photographs and making them look as if they were drawn with chalk.

The application features and accessible and intuitive user interface, the main window allowing you to easily identify the functions you can work with and customize their effects on the image.

From the ribbon buttons of AKVIS Charcoal, you can load the pictures you wish to edit, while from the right-side tabs (‘Drawing’, ‘Text’, ‘Canvas’) you can adjust the end result and obtain a real-time preview.

The program supports a wide array of popular formats, including JPG, PNG, BMP, TIFF, CRW, PEF, ORF, PEF, DNG, and many others, so you can easily work with almost any image you may want to, without too much trouble.

After adding the file you wish to process, you can start adjust the ‘Simplicity’, ‘Stroke Thickness’, ‘Stroke Length’, ‘Stroke Intensity’, ‘Stroke Density’, ‘Threshold’, ‘Smoothing’ and ‘Chalk Hatching’ levels or load an existing preset. You can also modify the paper and the charcoal color, all from the ‘Drawing’ tab.

Moreover, you can use text in a preferred font, size, stretch and color, selecting any location you like and applying it onto the image. The ‘Canvas’ section enables you to alter the ‘Texture Properties’ as well as the ‘Texture Application Parameters’, namely the ‘Brightness’, ‘Embossing’ and ‘Distortion’, along with the light orientation.

To conclude, AKVIS Charcoal is an interesting and easy to understand utility that can successfully assist you in converting digital pictures into chalk or charcoal drawings, with just a few swift moves of your mouse.