Artistic filters

The Colored Pencil filter redraws an image using colored pencils on a solid background. This filter retains important edges and gives them a rough crosshatch appearance; the solid background color shows through the smoother areas. You can set the pencil width, stroke pressure, and paper brightness.

Cutout

The Cutout filter portrays an image as though it were made from roughly cut-out pieces of colored paper. High-contrast images appear as if in silhouette, while colored images are built up from several layers of colored paper. You can set the number of levels, edge simplicity, and edge fidelity.

Dry Brush

The Dry Brush filter paints an image using a dry brush technique (between oil and watercolor). The filter simplifies an image by reducing its range of colors to areas of common color. You can set the brush size, brush detail, and texture.

Film Grain

The Film Grain filter applies an even, grainy pattern to an image. It adds a smoother, more saturated pattern to the image’s lighter areas. This filter is useful for eliminating banding in blends and visually unifying elements from various sources. You can set the grain, highlight area, and intensity.

Fresco

The Fresco filter paints a layer in a coarse style using short, rounded, and hastily applied dabs. You can set the brush size, brush detail, and texture.

Neon Glow

The Neon Glow filter uses the foreground color, background color, and glow color to colorize an image while softening its look. You can set the glow size, glow brightness, and glow color. Lower glow size values restrict the glow color to the shadow areas, and higher values move the glow color to the midtones and highlight areas of a layer. To select a glow color, click the Glow Color box, and select a color in the Color Picker.

Paint Daubs

The Paint Daubs filter makes an image appear painted. You can set the brush size, sharpness, and brush types.

Palette Knife

The Palette Knife filter reduces detail in an image to give the effect of a thinly painted canvas that reveals the texture underneath. You can set the stroke size, stroke detail, and softness.

Plastic Wrap

The Plastic Wrap filter renders a layer as if it were coated in shiny plastic, accentuating the surface detail. You can set the highlight strength, detail, and smoothness.

Poster Edges

The Poster Edges filter reduces the number of colors in an image according to the posterization option you set, finds the edges of the image, and draws black lines on them. Large broad areas of the image receive simple shading, while fine dark details are distributed throughout the image. You can set the edge thickness, edge intensity, and posterization.

Rough Pastels

The Rough Pastels filter makes an image appear as if it were made with rough strokes of pastel chalk on a textured background. In areas of bright color, the chalk appears thick with little texture; in darker areas, the chalk appears scraped off to reveal the texture. You can set the stroke length, stroke detail, and texture. Texture options make images appear as if they were painted onto textures, such as canvas, brick, burlap, or sandstone.

Smudge Stick

The Smudge Stick filter softens an image using short diagonal strokes to smudge or smear the darker areas of the images. Lighter areas become brighter and lose detail. You can set the stroke length, highlight area, and intensity.

Sponge

The Sponge filter paints a layer with highly textured areas of contrasting color. You can set the brush size, definition, and smoothness.

Underpainting

The Underpainting filter paints a layer as if it were on a textured background. You can set the brush size, texture coverage area, and texture options. Texture options make images appear as if they were painted onto textures, such as canvas, brick, burlap, or standstone.

Watercolor

The Watercolor filter paints an image in a watercolor style, simplifying details in an image by using a medium brush loaded with water and color. Where significant tonal changes occur at edges, the filter saturates colors. You can set the brush detail, shadow intensity, and texture.