Hi all,
The Release Candidate for FotoSketcher Studio 4.60 is now ready for download. This build is feature-complete: everything planned for 4.60 is in place, and the focus from here is on weeding out any remaining bugs before the final release. If the RC holds up well across different systems, it will become version 4.60 with little or no change.
For anyone who did not follow the alpha and beta builds, here is the full rundown of what is new in 4.60 compared to 4.50.
New Vectorize effect 🎨
The headline addition in this release. Vectorize turns your photo into flat-coloured shapes with smooth, curved outlines, producing a true vector illustration rather than a posterised bitmap. You can control the number of colours, smoothing, minimum detail size, contour simplification and curvature, so there is a good range between a bold, simplified poster look and a more detailed illustration.
The result can be saved as an SVG file (choose the SVG filter in the Save dialog), with every shape kept as an editable curve that you can open and refine in Inkscape, Illustrator or any other vector editor. Above 100% zoom the shapes are drawn from their geometry, so the result stays razor sharp instead of showing enlarged pixels. Resizing redraws the shapes at the new size rather than resampling, and the SVG export survives undo, redo and resize. The fine rotation tool turns the shapes themselves, so a rotated result can still be exported as SVG. The manual brush can paint Vectorize onto part of a picture, and while a full render runs you can watch the image building up on screen: the smoothing settling, the colours resolving, then the shapes filling in largest first.
Fine rotation, reworked
The fine rotation tool has been significantly reworked. A dial is now drawn directly on the picture, centred on the rotation pivot, with a handle you drag around the circle to set the angle. The angle box accepts hundredths of a degree for precise corrections, and the live preview is instantaneous on any picture size: the canvas turns a light copy of the image in real time, then the full-quality rotation follows in the background once you stop moving. The interface never freezes while it renders, and split view shows both halves turning during the preview.
Stippling: dot size and colour
The Stippling effect has gained two new parameters. A dot size slider renders the stipple with round dots up to eight pixels wide instead of single pixels, giving a bolder, more textured look. A colour slider lets you go from the classic black-and-white stipple to a full-colour version where dots take on the hues of your photo, with an option to push the saturation further for a vivid result.
Parameter undo / redo
The effect parameters now remember their previous settings. Two new toolbar icons let you step back and forth through your slider history, making it easy to compare adjustments and return to an earlier look.
Two new example scripts
Two new ready-made scripts are included in the application for you to try out or adapt.
Truchet Tiles effect
A Truchet Tiles effect has been added to the Stylize category. Truchet tiles are square tiles decorated with a simple pattern that, when placed on a grid in random orientations, produce surprisingly intricate and organic-looking designs. FotoSketcher uses the colours from your source photo to fill the tiles. You can also save and load your own custom tilesets.
Denoise effect
A Denoise effect has been added to the Photo Lab category, powerful enough to clean up noisy skies and high-ISO grain whilst preserving fine details elsewhere.
Improved Batch mode
The Batch mode window now lets you add entire folders to the processing queue, not just individual files.
Speed improvements
Several effects have received significant speed improvements in this release. Smooth Painting is now several times faster thanks to a reworked compositing pipeline that runs on all cores. Gouache Painting's stroke rendering also runs in parallel now. Vectorize's internal merge passes have been optimised to avoid rescanning the image.
Other improvements
- Zooming below 100% no longer shows moiré on fine patterns (dithers, stipples, roof tiles, fabric). The reduced view is built on a background thread, so zooming and panning stay fluid on large pictures.
- Slider responsiveness: dragging a slider while a preview is rendering no longer lags. Pointer input now takes priority, so sliders follow the mouse whatever is being computed behind them.
- Interface text has been cleaned up across all languages, with previously untranslated strings tracked down and added.
- Undo and redo toolbar icons now reflect whether there is anything to undo or redo.
- On macOS, the script editor's decorative animation pauses when the editor is not the active window, and the Save dialog offers the file format choice.
Bug fixes
- Fixed colour artefacts in Vectorize at low colour counts.
- Fixed pasting text erasing the image.
- Fixed the fine rotation slider continuing to follow the mouse after the button was released.
- Rotating a Vectorize result now keeps the geometry in step with the picture.
- Various smaller fixes and stability improvements.
You can download the Release Candidate (for Windows) here: https://fotosketcher.com/beta/FotoSketcher_4.60_RC.zip
A macOS build will follow shortly.
As always, any feedback is very welcome, especially on the new Vectorize effect and SVG export. Please leave a comment below or send me an email at contact@fotosketcher.com.
Happy testing!
David
