A new version of AKVIS Sketch has been released for Windows and Macintosh! AKVIS Sketch converts photos into pencil sketches (black and white or in color) and watercolor paintings. It can also convert a photo into a drawing in charcoal or pastel styles.

Other features include the ability to add text to an image, apply a canvas texture to the background, as well as background effects which can apply the sketch effect to only a selected area of an image or blur selected areas.

Version 10 includes these new features and improvements:

• The new Stroke Direction tool, which can be used to control hatch direction, and a set of parameters that affect the change in hatching when this tool is used (available under Home Deluxe and Business licenses).

• A new parameter in the Edges tab called Edge Strength, which controls how edges are drawn by affecting the intensity of lines and details.

• The Preview Window has been improved. Due to popular demand, the Preview Window now not only displays how the photo will appear as a drawing, it now also shows the effect of applying a canvas, making the selection of just the right texture faster and more efficient.

• Three new presets from AKVIS. Now there are a total of 11 built-in presets available.

• In Preferences it is now possible to choose whether to start the program with the last settings used or to start with the default settings.

• Now compatible with Windows 7 and Snow Leopard (Mac OS X 10.6).

• The Sketch plug-in is now compatible with Photoshop CS 4 64 bit and PhotoShop Elements v. 8.

• A new installation program on Windows. To avoid the problems Win-users must remove previous versions before installing this one.

Attention! Registered users of Version 9 can upgrade to Version 10 for free! If you have an older version you will need to pay for an upgrade to Version 9 first.

Download AKVIS Sketch V. 10 and try all the features within the trial period.