XnSketch transforms photos into paintings, sketches and more

Most photo editors have a few filters which can turn regular photos into instant works of art: an oil painting, say, or a pencil sketch. But if you’d like more – or you just want the arty effects, without the photo editing overhead – then XnSketch is a simple free tool which just might be able to help. The program runs almost everywhere (Windows, OS X, Linux, iOS, Android), and is very easy to use. We tried the Windows build, and it came with no adware or other unwanted extras – just unzip the download and you’re ready to go immediately.
The XnSketch interface is clean and simple. Open an image (there’s support for more than 50 file formats) and it’s displayed in a preview window. You can apply one of 22 effects – pastels and sketches, cartoons, halftones, print and stamp options – by clicking its thumbnail at the bottom of the screen. And as you select each one, the preview is updated to show you the results.

Just about everything you do in XnSketch happens in this clean and straightforward interface

If you’re not quite happy with an effect then you can tune it by adjusting various settings. There are always sliders for brightness, contrast, gamma, exposure and saturation, but some effects provide additional options: edges, colours, opacity, blur and so on.
And when your masterpiece is complete, you can save the results as a JPG or PNG file, or share them via Facebook, TwitPic, Flickr, Picasa, email or a host of storage providers. Click File > Share > Imgur, for example, and XnSketch will upload your current image, then open a web page to display the online version, and all you have to do is share that URL with whoever you like.
There are a few issues here. Some of the effects are a little too minimal, for instance, and there’s not always any real way to tweak their strength. When applying an “Oil Painting” effect, say, we often found the results were too similar to the original image. Other programs will often allow you to amplify the effect, perhaps increasing the brush size, but XnSketch just doesn’t have that level of configurability.
Other effects do deliver excellent results, though, and there’s no doubt that the program is exceptionally easy to use. So while graphics experts will probably stick with photo editor filters, if you’re just looking to quickly apply a few fun effects, and share the results with the world, then XnSketch looks like a great choice.

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