Hi everyone,
After months of development, a public Release Candidate, plenty of bug reports (thank you!), and a fair amount of late-night debugging, I'm happy to announce that FotoSketcher Studio 4.0 is officially released! 🎉
You may notice the new name. FotoSketcher is now FotoSketcher Studio - a small change to reflect how much the application has grown over the years, from a simple sketch filter to a full creative toolkit.
What's new in 4.0
🖥️ Native macOS support - For the first time, FotoSketcher runs natively on macOS as a universal binary, supporting both Apple Silicon (M1 to M5) and Intel-based Macs in a single download. The macOS version is notarized by Apple, so it installs without security prompts. The Windows version is now digitally signed as well.
🎨 A redesigned interface - The application has been rebuilt from the ground up with a new dark interface. Tools and artistic filters are organised in a clear left panel, with a live preview and parameter sliders on the right.
🖌️ Manual Brush - Rather than applying an effect to the entire image, you can now paint it onto specific areas using the Manual Brush tool. Adjust the brush size, softness, and opacity, then brush the effect exactly where you want it. This opens up possibilities like selectively sketching a portrait background while keeping the face photographic, or adding a painterly texture to just the sky of a landscape.
✨ New and improved effects - Several new effects have been added, including Stochastic Painting, Smooth Painting, and the Felt-tip Pen effect. Existing effects have been refined with better colour handling and performance.
🔲 Alpha channel support - FotoSketcher Studio now fully supports images with transparency. Load a PNG with an alpha channel and the transparent areas are preserved throughout your editing - effects, crop, resize, text, and export (as PNG) all respect the alpha channel. This is a significant addition for anyone working with cutouts, compositing, or preparing assets for graphic design and animation.
🔀 Combine Images - Blend two images together with adjustable blend modes and opacity. Drag and drop a second image onto the canvas from the History Gallery to get started.
🖼️ Textures and Frames - Apply canvas, paper, or custom textures over your image, and choose from a selection of decorative frames - including the Brushstrokes Frame, which paints a textured border around your image as if the painting extends beyond the canvas.
📜 History gallery - A thumbnail strip along the bottom of the screen lets you browse and revisit every step of your editing session. Double-click any thumbnail to jump back to that state, or drag and drop it to combine it with your current image.
📖 Help and documentation
A comprehensive help file is now available at fotosketcher.com/fotosketcher-help/, covering every feature, every effect and its parameters, keyboard shortcuts, and practical tips for getting the best results.
⬇️ Download (100% free)
- Windows: FotoSketcher_Studio_Setup_4.0.exe
- macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel): FotoSketcher-4.0.dmg
A note of thanks 🙏
A sincere thank you to everyone who tested the Release Candidate and took the time to report bugs. Several of the issues you found - the ghost window on Windows 11, the processing deadlock, the multi-monitor positioning - were fixed directly thanks to your feedback. This version is better because of your help.
FotoSketcher Studio is and will remain free. If you enjoy using it and would like to support its development, you can always buy me a coffee ☕ - it is appreciated but never expected.
Happy painting!
David
13 comments:
'm Japanese.
I don't understand English, so I'm using machine translation.
I used to use FotoSketcher v3.98, but when FotoSketcher Studio 4.0 was released, I immediately installed it. thank you.
However, I selected Japanese during installation, but it cannot be translated into Japanese.
thank you.
Hi, thank you for your comment. FotoSketcher 4.0 is in English only for the moment, which is one of the reasons version 3.98 is still available. I intend to translate version 4.0 in as many languages as possible and the code is already compatible for translations.
機械翻訳：
こんにちは、コメントありがとうございます。現在のところ、FotoSketcher 4.0は英語版のみとなっており、これがバージョン3.98を引き続き提供している理由の一つです。バージョン4.0については、できるだけ多くの言語に翻訳する予定であり、コード自体はすでに多言語化に対応済みです。
Congratulations David! You must be relieved and very proud of this release. Can't wait to see what you have planned for v5.0 ;)
Hi Mark,
Thank you very much for your comment and for buying me some delicious coffee (with lots of cookies)!
Yes, I'm happy with this release (and relieved, that's true). It will hopefully be the new foundation for a lot of new effects and features :)
Thank you for your hard work, David! And thank you for leaving the Windows taskbar visible when the programme is in full screen, as I was hoping for.
You're most welcome, David. It was driving me mad too ;)
Congratulations, David! I'll give it a try! The ability to process images in specific sections is also very valuable. Just one question: will you be releasing a portable version of Fotosketcher Studio 4.0?
Hi Lao Ai,
Thanks :) Yes, I will soon provide a .zip file with just the executable and the necessary .dll and .ttf files. Unzipping all the files anywhere in the same directory will allow to run FotoSketcher without having to do a full install.
Hate to say it but I have a 'ghost window' thing on win 10
It starts with the square-ish logo then it just goes to an unusable non-window with an icon on the taskbar.
Task manager shows it as a non responding program than con only be killed through task manager, not the icon
Hi Casey, thanks for the feedback. That's the problem with elusive bugs that I can't reproduce, I'm flying blind. I did add some code that was supposed to avoid this problem, but alas it was not sufficient. If it's no bother, could you send me an email at contact@fotosketcher.com and I'll try to get to the bottom of this?
Hi Casey, I'm told by another user that the version 4.10 beta 1 (see https://fotosketcher.blogspot.com/2026/03/a-quick-update-fotosketcher-410-beta-is.html) solves the 'ghost window' bug :) Hope it works for you too.
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