FotoSketcher secrets - tricks you may not know :-)

Dear FotoSketcher users,

Over the years I have added quite a few shortcuts and hidden features in FotoSketcher. Even if you are a regular user, there might be a few that you did not find. 
Since I never really mustered up the courage to write a full fledged manual, this post will help you discover some of the useful little secrets of FotoSketcher.

Interface tricks:

1: this is the zoom indicator. If you click on the percentage (shown here at 100%), you can manually enter the desired value (from 5% to 1000%).

2: if you left click on the left magnifying glass icon, you will zoom out of the image. You can keep your finger on the mouse button and FotoSketcher will zoom out further. Now, the fun bit: you can also RIGHT-CLICK on this icon, for faster zooming out!

3: if you left-click on the middle magnifying glass icon, the zoom level will revert to 100%. However, if you RIGHT-CLICK the icon, the images will be automatically zoomed to best fit their respective panels (pretty useful for large images).

4: yes, you guessed it... you can also RIGHT-CLICK on this icon :-)

5: if you click and drag on the division line, this will resize the two panels. Now the fun part: if you DOUBLE-CLICK on the division line, both panels will automatically resize to their default widths.

6: you probably know that you can click and drag the image around. But did you know that DOUBLE-CLICKING will show you a full screen preview?   


In the drawing parameters window, there are also a few useful tricks.
First of all, if you double-click on the name of a parameter (like "image simplification" as shown below) this will reset its value to the default (10 in this case).

 
Also, for some effects, it is possible to increase the number of iterations. Simply double-click on the value at the right of the trackbar (255 in the example below) and the value will change to MAX. This increases the time taken by the effect (and hopefully the quality of the rendering!).

 So far, this trick works with the following effects: 

•  Painting 7 (brushstrokes) - for the "number of brushstrokes" parameter
•  Emergence - for the "number of iterations" parameter

Another tip is that in Windows explorer you can drag and drop a picture onto the FotoSketcher icon and the program will start with your image loaded. If FotoSketcher is already started, you can simply drag and drop an image onto the first panel (source image) and it will open.


Keyboard shortcuts:

There are quite a few keyboard shortcuts you can use in FotoSketcher. Most of them are listed in the menus, as shown below:

 

If you have a keyboard with a number pad, you can also use the + (plus) and - (minus) keys to respectively zoom in and zoom out.

I hope these tips will help you enjoy playing with FotoSketcher even more!

All the best,

David

Small bug fix - FotoSketcher 2.41 available

Hi all,

Just a quick word to let you know that I've just released version 2.41 of FotoSketcher. This is minor update, due to a bug I found today concerning frames.

As usual, you can download the latest version here: http://www.fotosketcher.com/download-fotosketcher/

To all users who updated to version 2.40 since yesterday, I apologize.
In the hope that you'll find it in your hearts to forgive me, here is a painting of my faithful cat (who is unfortunately not very useful in bug hunting):

  
All the best,

David

FotoSketcher 2.40 now available for download - 100% free, as always :-)

Hi all,

FotoSketcher 2.40 is now officially released.
You can download it here: http://www.fotosketcher.com/download-fotosketcher/

Thank you to everyone who helped me by providing feedback, suggestions, bug reports and translations :-)

Here is a list of new features and improvements in version 2.40:
- new script engine (press F5 to call the script window) to automatically apply multiple effects
- more powerful image merge function (with multiplication of both images)
- improved interface (no third party code, reorganised menus and menu icons)
- DPI support for JPG images
- possibility to save a picture during processing
- better directory management (keeping track of current open, save and manual brushes directories)
- automatic saving of last texture, text and frame parameters used (tip: on some Windows 7 and 8 systems, you might have to run FotoSketcher as administrator for this to work)
- new translated terms (mainly for the script function)
- various bug fixes and improvement
- Windows 8 support

 source image credits  http://www.flickr.com/photos/bcnbits/134741553/

Enjoy :-)

Best regards,

David

FotoSketcher 2.40 Release Candidate available ***updated***

Hi all!

I now have what I believe to be a stable release of FotoSketcher 2.40. It does not have any obvious bugs that I could find and all the new features I wanted to add are now functional.

You can download the release candidate here: http://www.fotosketcher.com/FotoSketcher_240_RC4.exe

Here is a summary of all changes and additions in this version:
- script engine (press F5 to call the script window)
- more powerful image merge function (with multiplication of both images)
- improved interface (no third party code, reorganised menu and menu icons)
- DPI support for JPG images
- possibility to save a picture during processing
- better directory management (keeping track of current open, save and manual brushes directories)
- automatic saving of last texture, text and frame parameters used
- new translated terms (mainly for the script function)
- small bug fixes and improvements

If you would like to test the new script feature, you can download an example script here (right click and choose "Save link as..."): http://www.fotosketcher.com/Sketch_and_Emergence.fss

Here is an example using this script on a photo I took in Neath (Wales) last year:

Source photo:

Result:

Here is a second script you can download to give a comic book effect (right click and choose "Save link as..."): http://www.fotosketcher.com/Comic_book.fss

Here is the result on the same source image:

Should you find bugs in this Release Candidate, I would be grateful if you could let me know so that I can correct them before going live :-)

All the best,

David

Still adding new features in FotoSketcher

Hi,

I am still adding new features to FotoSketcher 2.40. There will now be a new way to combine effects, plus various improvements to the interface.

Here is an example of the new combination of effects, which will be quite useful with scripts (the two effects used here are 'colored dots' and 'pen & ink sketch 2':

I will write a new post when I have a stable beta available, so stay tuned :-)

All the best,

David

Update on upcoming version 2.40

Hi all,

Here is a new screenshot of FotoSketcher 2.40 with a lighter theme I've just added (click on the image to view full size):

Apart from working on the user interface, I have ironed out some small bugs and added support for more languages in the script engine.

Once I've added all the new translated terms I will make a release candidate available.

Stay tuned!

Regards,

David

FotoSketcher 2.40 beta available (updated)

Hi all,

I have just finished a beta version of FotoSketcher 2.40. You can download it here: http://www.fotosketcher.com/FotoSketcher_beta_240b.exe

Here are some of the new features:
- new script engine to automatically apply and merge multiple effects
- new interface (rewritten from scratch to try and avoid bugs)
- support for dpi setting in jpg images
- possibility to save a picture during processing
- better directory management (keeping track of current open, save and manual brushes directories)

In order to try the new script function, you can download a test script here (right-click on link and choose "save target as"): http://www.fotosketcher.com/script_1.fss

You can of course create your own scripts and save them. I have tried to make the interface self explanatory, but don't hesitate to let me know if it is confusing. When I find the courage time, I will post a tutorial on how to use the script engine.

As usual, I welcome your feedback and would be interested in knowing if you find any bugs.

All the best,

David

Happy New Year and upcoming FotoSketcher 2.40

First of all, let me wish you the very best for 2013!

I have been busy rewriting quite a lot of code in FotoSketcher, mainly to recreate the user interface without using any third party code.
Hopefully this will make it easier for me to maintain and debug.

Here is a screenshot of the future release (2.40):

I have ironed out most of the bugs and I am now working on some new functions. The first one I've added is DPI support for JPG images (for the technically oriented, I now read and write the JFIF header).
I am also planning on adding quite a few more features and will let you know when a beta version is ready for testing.

In the meantime, have fun!

All the best,

David

将您的照片变成艺术，是免费的！

FotoSketcher is now available in simplified Chinese!


FotoSketcher是简体中文。

自动将您的数码照片转成素描，油画和漫画。而且它是完全免费的。

 

 FotoSketcher是一个100％免费的Windows程序，只需点击几下鼠标自动转换您的数码照片变成艺术。超过20种不同的风格可以从铅笔素描，水彩或油画，钢笔和墨水画和漫画等。

您还可以改善您的原始照片，用简单的工具（增强对比度，锐化，简化形象，增加亮度，色彩饱和度等）和添加简单的或现实的框架和文本。

FotoSketcher是完全免费的（甚至用于商业用途，如果你想出售你的照片），不包含任何广告软件，间谍软件或病毒。它可以运行在微软Windows XP，Vista和7（对不起，暂时没有Mac版本）。

Translation by Google Translate.

FotoSketcher 2.35 officially released

Hi all,

FotoSketcher 2.35 is now officially released. As usual, you can download the new version here: http://www.fotosketcher.com/download-fotosketcher/

Apart from the new Pencil sketch 5 effect and the addition of simplified Chinese to the list of supported languages (thank you Hebeijianke), I have also slightly tweaked the Emergence effect. If you double-click on the value to the right of the "number of iterations" slidebar (see screenshot below) the number will become MAX. This will actually treble the number of polygons. It will take a long time processing, but the result might be worth it.

By the way, this trick also works for the Painting 7 effect:

Have fun with the new version!

Here is an example (merged effects):

original photo credit: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/856005

All the best,

David