Photo Sketch

Photo Sketch is a simple application designed to apply a sketch effect to your photos, making them look like they were drawn by an artist in pencil.

It gives you the possibility to adjust the sketch strength and save the new picture to file, so you can upload it on Facebook, for example.

This tool is specially made for desktops, laptops, tablets and notebooks which are running Windows 10, 8.1 and 8.

In fact, it's optimized for touch-supported devices, since the large buttons from the Modern UI are easy to find and tap.

As far as security is concerned, Photo Sketch is trusted by Microsoft, so it can be downloaded and installed from the Windows Store with one click.

At startup, the program shows your Pictures library. If it's empty, it means that you have to copy photos to this special folder of Windows (Pictures, found alongside Documents and Downloads) so they can be recognized by Photo Sketch.

Unfortunately, it doesn't have a button for using a file browser to open any image from your computer, regardless of its location. The images are automatically sorted into different groups by date. Click one to open the category and view a list of all containing images, including their name, thumbnail, format and resolution.

Click a picture to view it in the window in full size, then click and drag the slider to set the sketch strength. After clicking Select the Strength and Click, the application shows a small frame embedded in the main window, where you can preview the result. If you're satisfied with it, click Apply to Main Picture.

This doesn't mean that the modifications are saved to file. You can still change your mind and go back to the original composition. Otherwise, you can create a file with the PNG or JPEG format and save it anywhere on the computer with a preferred file name.

It seems that Photo Sketch memorizes the first strength level you specify (even if you don't apply it to the picture) and cannot forget it when setting a new level.

Instead, it increases the original strength and, on top of that, it does this even when selecting new pictures from the gallery. This means that it's necessary to restart the app between two images if you want to apply different levels of strength.

All things considered, Photo Sketch has the potential of becoming a practical and straightforward sketch converter for users who want to personalize their photos. But it still needs a lot of work.