Hi all,
The first beta of FotoSketcher Studio 4.60 is now available for download. Since the alpha released a few weeks ago, the focus has been on polish and stability, but there is also one big addition worth highlighting.
- New Vectorize effect
A new Vectorize effect has been added to the Stylize category, and I am quite excited about this one. It analyses your photo and turns it into clean, flat-colour regions with smooth contours, and can export the result as an SVG file - giving you a true vector output that scales to any size without losing quality. You can control the number of colours, the level of smoothing, the minimum detail size, contour simplification and curvature, so there is a good range between a highly simplified poster look and a more detailed illustration. It works particularly well on portraits, animals and subjects with strong colour contrast.
- Alpha improvements
Various fixes and refinements have been made to the features introduced in the alpha, based on early feedback.
A quick recap of what was new in the alpha
For anyone who did not follow the alpha, here is what version 4.60 introduced over 4.50:
- Truchet Tiles effect (Stylize category) - square tiles with simple patterns placed in random orientations to produce intricate geometric compositions from your photos, with the option to save custom tilesets. More on Truchet tiles on Wikipedia.
- Denoise effect (Photo Lab) - powerful noise reduction that cleans up grainy skies and high-ISO noise whilst preserving fine details.
- Fine rotation - precise rotation to correct the horizontality of photos, with an auto-rotate option.
- High quality full screen preview - eliminates Moiré artefacts on detailed images and regular patterns.
- Faster zoom and smoother panning - navigating large images is now much more responsive.
- Improved Batch mode - you can now add entire folders to the processing queue, not just individual files.
- Bug fixes and performance enhancements throughout the application.
You can download Beta 1 (for Windows) here:
https://fotosketcher.com/beta/FotoSketcher_4.60_beta1.zip
A macOS build will follow.
As always, any feedback is very welcome - bugs, oddities, or anything that does not feel right on your particular setup. The Vectorize effect is brand new, so I am especially keen to hear how it works on different types of photos. Please leave a comment below or send me an email at contact@fotosketcher.com.
Happy testing!
David
4 comments:
Hi, David! I've been playing with the vectorize filter for a while and I have a comment that could be extended to other filters. I set, for example, "smoothing" to 0 and I apply the effect, then I set "smoothing" to 100 and I apply the effect. If I click on 'undo', it might be useful for the settings to revert to the values that were used to create the previous image, the one I'm "undoing" to (same thing if I click on 'redo'). I understand this behaviour might be controversial, as somebody might not like the values to change automatically.
Also, I wonder what happens if I accumulate the application of effects. If I pick up an image and I apply "smoothing 100" and then "smoothing 0", as far as I can see the result is the same as if I had directly applied "smoothing 0", but I was wondering if there was a general rule for this. My question extends to the accumulation of applied filters. I understand that if I apply one filter and then a different one, the image that results is the same as if I had directly applied the second filter on the original image. I’ve done some tests: I’ve picked up an image, applied ‘mosaic’ and saved it. I’ve undone the filter, applied ‘cartoon’ and then ‘mosaic’, and the images aren’t identical but very similar.
Two more little comments. The first one is that the ‘undo’ and ‘redo’ buttons are clickable even if there’s nothing to undo or redo.
As for the second and last one, it’s a bit frustrating that I can’t see the ‘apply effect’ button on the screen and I have to scroll down. I wonder if playing with sizes and margins could make the button fit on the screen. My resolution is 1920x1080 and my screen is rescaled to 125%, which I think is pretty standard.
Thanks for your time!
Hi David,
Thank you for your detailed comment. First of all, regarding the parameters, it would be too confusing to link the main undo/redo to the slider values. But I could add a kind of rewind button next to the parameters save and lod icons that would revert to the previous values for the selected effect. As for the accumulation of effects, the rule is that you alwys start over from the source when applying a new effect (or parameters). This is by design. But if you want to apply an effect and then use that new image as source, there are many ways to do that: F12 swaps source and result. Or in the history gallery you can right-click on the thumbnail of the newly drawn image and select Set as source. You can also chain effects using scripts, but this is more advanced and requires some time to master. Finally, regarding the undo/redo buttons being enabled even when not useful, I'll chnage that, thanks for the suggestion. And your issue with the "Apply effect" button being out of sight can be solved by changing the scale in the menu (keyboad shortcut Z).
Thank you for another great update! The new Vectorize effect and SVG export look fantastic. Really appreciate all the hard work. Looking forward to testing it!
Thank you, Jack!
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