FotoSketcher Studio - Version 4.50
==================================

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 4.50
---------------------------
- 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
- Manual Brush tool for painting effects by hand
- 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 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.
