Jernej LeticaPhotography Tools & Stories
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Photo to Sketch: A Pencil Drawing From Your Photo

Make a pencil sketch from a photo, with soft grey shading instead of outlines. Adjust the strength and the shading, then save the drawing at the full size of your photo.

Built and written by Jernej Letica

Local browser processing No image upload No account required No watermark

How to turn a photo into a pencil sketch

  1. Choose a photo. It opens on this page and is not uploaded.
  2. Read the preview. Strength sets how dark the shading gets; start at 60.
  3. Set Shading to say how far the soft grey spreads. Start at 40 and go higher for broad, smooth tones.
  4. Press Download PNG for the sketch at your photo's full size, or choose A4 or Letter and press Download PDF.

Why the sketch uses shading, not outlines

A pencil drawing does not outline things. It shades them: the darker side of a face, the shadow under a bench and the hollow of a doorway get a tone of grey, and the light parts stay the colour of the paper. An outline drawing is a different job, and it has its own page.

So this sketch does not draw lines at all. It works on the grey of every pixel and blends it with a soft, blurred copy of the photo. Where the photo is flat, the sketch goes white, like unshaded paper. Where it changes from light to dark, the sketch shows a grey band that follows the form. The two settings, Strength and Shading, are the two things a hand changes when it draws: how hard the pencil presses and how wide the strokes of shade reach.

Three of my photos at the sketch starting values

Grey pencil-style sketch of a painted clay figure: soft shading on the coat, the face and the knees, with the background in light grey
Works. The shading follows the coat, the face and the knees, and most of the background stays light.
Grey sketch of a small red bicycle in front of a textured wall: the bicycle has clear shading, and the wall is a fine grey texture
Works in part. The bicycle has clear shading, but the texture of the wall turns into grey that competes with it.
Pale grey sketch of a mountain lake: mostly white paper, with light shading on the ridges and the reflection
Does not work well. The lake and the sky are flat, so the sketch is mostly white and has little shading to show.
PhotoDark, 0 to 63Mid grey, 64 to 191Near white, 192 to 255Suits a sketch?
Clay figure in front of a painted building10.6 %19.1 %70.4 %Yes
Red bicycle against a painted wall6.6 %20.2 %73.3 %Partly
Lake Jasna, mountains and forest3.1 %13.1 %83.8 %No

Shares of the full-size sketch at Strength 60 and Shading 40, by grey value. A small share of mid grey means the sketch has few tones to show.

Which photos suit a pencil sketch

Portraits, still lifes and architecture with light falling across them suit a sketch best, because the light and shadow carry the drawing. Pick a photo where the light comes from one side, so that the shading has a direction. A photo taken in flat, grey light gives a sketch with little shading, and a photo with a very bright sky loses its detail in white.

The figures above show the two ways a photo goes wrong: a busy wall that turns grey, and a flat lake that stays white.

Strength and shading

Strength controls the darkness. The sketch starts at 60, which keeps the shadows clear without making them black. Lower it for a light pencil drawing, where the paper shows through; raise it toward 100 when the shadows should be heavy, as in a charcoal study. At 50 the shading is at its neutral value, and above or below that the shadows are darker or lighter than the photo's own tones.

Shading is the width of the grey. It starts at 40. Low values give fine, close shading that follows small details, such as the edge of a sleeve or the nose of a face. High values give broad tones that cover a whole area, which looks more like a sketch made with the side of a soft pencil.

Saving the sketch

The PNG is the sketch at the full pixel size of your photo, one pixel for each pixel of the original, so a large photo gives a large file. The PDF puts the sketch on one A4 or Letter page, centred with a small margin, and turns the page to landscape when the photo is wider than it is tall. Greys are kept as greys: the sketch is never reduced to black and white.

Tips for a better pencil sketch

  • Start at Strength 60 and Shading 40, and change one control at a time, so you can see what each one does.
  • Choose a photo with the light coming from one side. The shading follows that light, and a flat, evenly lit photo gives a sketch that is mostly white.
  • Crop close to the subject when a busy background turns grey. A textured wall competes with the shading of the subject, so a tighter frame keeps the focus.
  • Check the greys in the preview at full screen before you download. A soft tone that looks clear on a phone can fade on paper.
  • Print the PDF at 100 % so the grey tones are not rescaled; a printer that fits the page to its own size changes every grey.

Privacy

Your photo never leaves your device. The preview, the drawing and the PNG or PDF you save are all made in your browser, and the files carry none of the camera data from the original photo.

Frequently asked questions

How do I make a sketch from a photo?

Choose the photo above and read the preview. Move Strength to set how dark the shading gets and Shading to set how wide the soft grey reaches, then press Download PNG for the full-size sketch or Download PDF to print it. The work happens in your browser.

Can I make a sketch from a photo for free?

Yes. The tool is free and needs no account, no email address and no credits. The sketch you save has no watermark, and you can make as many as you like from as many photos as you like.

Does the sketch look like a pencil drawing?

It looks like a pencil study in grey, because the shading follows the light and shadow of the photo rather than drawing outlines. Strength and Shading change the look, so try a few values on the same photo and keep the one that suits your subject best.

Is my photo uploaded when I make a sketch?

No. The photo is opened, converted and saved in your browser, and no part of it is sent to a server. The PNG and PDF you download carry none of the camera data from the original file, such as its date or its location.

Can I print the sketch on A4 or Letter paper?

Yes. Choose A4 or Letter next to the download button and press Download PDF. The PDF has one page, the sketch is centred with a small margin, and any PDF viewer prints it without a special driver.

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