FotoSketcher Studio - Version 4.70
==================================

Thank you for installing FotoSketcher Studio!

FotoSketcher is a free application that transforms your digital photos 
into works of art. With various artistic effects and a manual brush tool, 
you can turn any photograph into a painting, sketch, or drawing in seconds.


What's new in version 4.70
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- New Classic Painters category: twelve painters who repaint your photo in brush strokes the way they worked (Classic oil, Van Gogh, Monet, Cezanne, Seurat, Rembrandt, Sargent, Turner, Gauguin, Renoir, Hopper and Canaletto), with a paint relief taken from real canvases
- Four FotoSketcher 3.98 paintings are back as exact recreations, several times faster: Palette knife, Impressionist, Watercolor 3 and Brushstrokes 3
- New effects: Crosshatch 2 (Sketch & Drawing), Line halftone, Abstract and Modern art (Stylize), Palette transfer (Photo lab)
- Smart eraser in the manual brush: paint over a thing and it is gone, the surroundings filled in. An optional small neural network add-on improves the fill; everything runs on your computer
- New Advanced settings window (main menu, or the A key): JPEG / WebP quality (now 90 by default), dpi, file name suffix, batch format, SVG options, processor cores and add-ons
- Built-in help: F1, the Help menu and the toolbar open a local guide
- Clear the canvas: replaces the result with a plain colour of your choice, the source is kept (Ctrl+N)
- Screen pipette beside every colour picker: pick a colour from anywhere on the screen
- Recentre the picture with a click of the mouse wheel on it or the Home key
- Escape now pauses an effect and asks whether to interrupt, save the current image or resume; a Pause button in the top bar does the same
- Random seed: effects that use chance can give the same result every time (right-click PARAMETERS, or SEED in scripts)
- Watermark and text: rotation handle, opacity bar on the box, check mark to apply and cross to remove, arrow keys to move, and the last watermark comes back on "Load watermark..."
- Rotate left and right are now buttons in the Rotation window
- Affinity brush sets (.afbrushes) and brush sets inside ZIP files can be loaded
- AVIF pictures can be opened, and HEIC photos on Windows (with a small free add-on, offered the first time)
- Batch mode: choose the folder for the results
- "Do not erase background" now also works with Pencil Sketch 1 to 3, Crosshatch 2, Black & White, Stippling and Comic print
- Vectorize: the preview now matches the final result
- Much faster manual brush, and the stroke follows the pointer without lag on Windows
- 17 new embedded example scripts built on the new effects
- Translations completed in all 14 languages
- Bug fixes: pictures were very slightly blurred after opening, previews not refreshed after the source changed, batch mode handling of pictures that cannot be opened or saved in their own format, an effect that cannot be completed now says so and puts the picture back, saving errors are reported, decimal numbers in scripts read with a point or a comma, plus other corrections

What's new in version 4.60
---------------------------
- New Vectorize effect (Stylize category): turns your picture into flat-coloured shapes with smooth curved outlines, and saves it as a true SVG vector file
- Vector results stay razor sharp when zoomed in, and keep their SVG export through resize, fine rotation, undo and redo
- "Contours only" Vectorize mode: outlines without fills, for cutting, plotting and animation software. Combine a contours run with a filled run (gallery drag and drop or the BLEND script command) and the result is still a single SVG
- SVG files can now be opened in FotoSketcher
- New Ballpoint pen effect (Pen & Ink category): a sketch built entirely from short pen strokes, with shading and traced contours
- Stippling: new dot size and colour settings, from classic black and white to vivid coloured dots
- Fine rotation reworked: an on-canvas dial, instant live preview on any picture size, and angles in hundredths of a degree
- Parameter undo/redo: two toolbar icons step back and forth through your effect settings
- Combine images: blend mode and strength are remembered during the session, and framed images are aligned on the picture and no longer cropped
- Photoshop .abr brush sets can now be loaded directly (previously brushes had to be PNG files): a new window shows every brush tip so you can choose which ones to keep, or save them as PNG files
- New embedded example scripts, including Ballpoint pen and Vector with contours
- Batch mode saves SVG files when a script ends with a vector result
- Much faster Smooth Painting, Gouache Painting and Vectorize
- Smoother zooming: fine patterns no longer show moire when the picture is reduced, and the view stays fluid on large pictures
- Sliders stay responsive while a preview is being computed
- Main menu icons are now clickable and highlight with their menu item
- Translations completed in all 14 languages
- macOS: fixes for display freezes on Apple Silicon, lower CPU use when idle, and the Save dialog now offers the file format
- Bug fixes: saved JPEG files no longer appear as a 1-pixel-wide vertical strip in the Windows image viewer, pasting text no longer erases the image, panning no longer continues after the mouse is released outside the picture, print dialog scaling options translated, Vectorize colour and outline fixes, plus other corrections

What's new in version 4.50
---------------------------
- New Gouache Painting effect (Painting category)
- Watermark and logo tool: load any image file and place it over your picture with drag-to-move, corner-resize and adjustable opacity
- New WATERMARK script command for stamping logos and watermarks in scripts
- 2 new embedded scripts using the new Gouache Painting effect
- Crosshatch effect now supports the "do not erase background" toggle, so you can draw crosshatch lines over any existing painting or drawing
- Keyboard navigation: Tab/Shift+Tab cycle through controls, Enter activates, arrow keys browse effects inside a category
- Significant Watercolour speed improvement
- Reworked before/after divider: no longer drifts off the image, stays in place when zooming and scrolling
- Light theme refined for better contrast and legibility
- Backwards compatibility for parameters files saved with older versions
- Bug fixes: Escape and Enter not working in some in-app windows, Script Editor crash at zoom levels below 100%, history gallery right-click menu at non-default zoom, taskbar flickering at fractional zoom, Script Editor background colour split, plus other corrections
- macOS build updated with interface layout improvements

What's new in version 4.40
---------------------------
- New Light mode: a light theme alongside the existing dark one, switchable at any time
- New Crosshatch effect (Pen & Ink category): recreates the pen-and-ink technique of building up tone with overlapping sets of parallel lines
- Settings remembered between sessions: both your interface language and your dark/light mode choice now persist, so FotoSketcher starts up the way you left it
- Embedded example scripts: a set of ready-made scripts included directly in the application to try, learn from, and adapt
- Script Editor now minimizes while a script runs, so you can watch the result build on the main image (the editor returns when the script finishes)
- Keyboard navigation in the menu (F10): open the menu with F10 and move around and select items entirely from the keyboard
- Save and overwrite safeguards: a prompt before exiting with unsaved changes, and a warning before a save would overwrite an existing file
- On Windows: adjustable application zoom level for the interface (from 50% to 150%)
- Improved script performance on both Windows and macOS, so running scripts feels faster and more responsive
- Many macOS corrections to bring the Mac build in line with the Windows version and make it behave properly on Mac hardware
- UI improvements: a wide range of smaller interface refinements throughout the program on both Windows and macOS
- Bug fixes: fixed the Windows taskbar sometimes not appearing, fixed the macOS light style not applying correctly, plus other corrections and stability improvements on both platforms
- Drastically reduced the size of the executable

What's new in version 4.30
---------------------------
- New LUTs effect (Photo Lab category): custom colour grading with 18 built-in presets (live preview) and support for your own .cube files
- New "Stylize" category with 4 new effects: Mosaic, Circles and Triangles (geometric, space-filling) plus Cartoon (clean lines and solid colours, or pure outlines at colour intensity 0)
- New Auto-Enhance feature for an instant clean, natural result (press E)
- New Full Reset to clear everything back to the initial state in one step (Ctrl+Shift+N)
- Script engine updated for the new effects, with new commands and better scripts help
- Added support for opening .webp images
- UI improvements: new colour accents for better readability, plus history gallery tweaks
- Improved performance and various bug fixes

What's new in version 4.20
---------------------------
- 3 new artistic effects: Watercolor 2 and Brushstrokes 2 (ported from the classic Windows 3.98 version), plus a new Comic print effect
- New advanced Script Editor: Write custom scripts to apply specific sequences of effects. Includes a ready-to-use default script combining three watercolor renderings
- Script engine is fully compatible with Batch mode to process entire folders automatically
- New circular magnifying glass preview in the history gallery
- Expanded history gallery options: You can now set any image from a thumbnail in the history gallery as the new source or result image
- Expanded main menu: Added a new "Check for update" function and a "Combine source/result" (F11) option to easily merge or blend images
- Effect improvements: Watercolor 1 now works better when the "Erase background" option is deselected
- UI improvements and bug fixes

What's new in version 4.10
---------------------------
- Batch processing
- 2 new photo effects (Vintage Sepia and Retro Film)
- 14 languages included with automatic system language detection
- New panning feature in manual brush mode (CTRL + left mouse button)
- UI improvements, bug fixes, and better stability

What's new in version 4.0
--------------------------
- First multi-platform release (Windows and MacOS)
- New rendering engine (Skia) for improved quality and performance
- Improved Manual Brush tool for hands-on artistic control
- Completely Redesigned interface
- New effects and improvements

Features
---------
- Pencil sketches, pen & ink drawings, watercolour, oil painting and more
- Classic Painters: your photo repainted in the manner of twelve great painters
- Vector illustrations saved as SVG files
- Manual Brush tool for painting effects by hand, with a Smart eraser to remove things from a picture
- Advanced Scripting Engine to create, save, and run custom sequences of effects
- Batch processing to apply effects or scripts to entire folders of images automatically
- Combine and blend multiple images (Source/Result merging)
- Crop, rotate, and resize
- Add text, frames, and textures
- Split view and circular magnifying glass to compare originals and inspect fine details
- Full undo/redo history gallery with the ability to set any previous state as a new source/result image
- Multilingual support (14 languages) with automatic system detection
- Built-in help (F1)
- Built-in updater to easily check for new versions

System requirements
--------------------
- Windows 10, 11 or later (64-bit) or MacOS (Intel or Apple CPUs)
- 4 GB RAM minimum (8 GB recommended)
- 100 MB free disk space


Getting started
----------------
1. Open a photo using File > Open or drag and drop an image
2. Choose an effect from the Parameters panel on the left
3. Adjust the settings and click Draw on the right panel
4. Save your result using File > Save As

Support and contact
--------------------
Website:  https://www.fotosketcher.com/
Email:    contact@fotosketcher.com
Blog:     https://fotosketcher.blogspot.com/

License
--------
FotoSketcher is freeware. Please see FotoSketcher_License_Notice.txt 
for the full license terms.

Copyright (C) 2026 David THOIRON. All rights reserved.
