Turn a Photo Into a Cartoon Free: 6 Styles at Full Res

Six ways to turn a photo into a cartoon, compared

Each style button simply loads a set of slider values, so you can click through all six in under a minute and then fine-tune the one you like. Nothing is re-uploaded between tries.

• Cartoon (6 color levels, edge 45, smoothness 1.5): soft flat color with medium outlines, the friendliest look for faces, kids and pets.
• Comic (4 levels, edge 70, smoothness 1): fewer tones and bolder ink, like a printed comic panel.
• Pop art (Comic plus 7-pixel halftone dots): a pale base covered in round dots on a 45 degree grid, with bigger dots in darker areas, the classic Roy Lichtenstein-style newsprint look.
• Poster (3 levels, edge 20, smoothness 2): broad flat tones and very few lines, the screen-printed flyer feel.
• Duotone (5 levels in navy and cream): every tone is remapped to steps between two colors; switch the pair to pink and yellow, noir red, teal and orange, forest and mint, or your own two colors.
• Sketch (10 levels, edge 90, smoothness 0.5): lots of tonal detail with thin, crisp outlines, closer to an inked illustration.

A useful rule of thumb: fewer color levels and bolder edges read better small, while more levels and lighter edges look better printed large. Try every style once before touching a slider; a moody portrait often shines in Duotone, and a bright beach snapshot suits Poster because its colors are already simple.

Picking a source image that cartoons well

The filter can only simplify what is already in the frame, so the input decides most of the result.

• Use the original camera file. A picture forwarded through WhatsApp or iMessage is often squeezed to about 1,600 pixels and full of compression blocks, which turn into mushy blobs.
• Soft, even light from a window beats harsh overhead light, which leaves dark patches that become heavy ink under the eyes.
• Plain or softly blurred backgrounds keep attention on the subject. A busy street becomes a tangle of lines, so remove or blur the background first if you can.
• Face the camera or turn three quarters, with eyes open and clearly visible.
• Crop close before converting so the subject fills most of the frame and the full-resolution export is spent on the face, not on empty wall.

Pets are forgiving subjects: fur edges turn into lively ink strokes, and a dog with high-contrast markings looks great in Comic. Scanned prints work too, but dust specks become tiny black dots, so wipe the scanner glass, scan at 600 dpi and crop off the white border first.

Keeping the likeness: slider settings for faces

Likeness lives in the eyes, the mouth and the outline of the face, so protect those areas when you tune the sliders.

• Smoothness (0 to 5) blurs before inking. Raise it only until skin texture disappears; above about 3 it starts erasing eyelids and lip lines.
• Edge strength (0 to 120) is a threshold, so a lower number draws more lines. If eyes turn into dark holes or pores become freckles, raise it toward 60 or 70.
• Color levels (2 to 12): keep portraits at 5 or 6. Very low values can merge hair into the background and flatten warm or deep skin tones into one muddy block.
• Ink color replaces pure black outlines. A dark brown or navy ink looks gentler on children's portraits than stark black.
• Hold the compare button to flash the original, and check the result at thumbnail size too, since avatars are mostly seen tiny.

Your last image and settings are remembered in the browser, so if the tab closes you can restore the edit when you come back. Save two or three variants and pick one later with fresh eyes; the differences are clearer after a short break.

Sizes and formats for avatars, stickers and prints

The preview works on a 1,100-pixel copy so the sliders respond instantly, but the download re-renders the effect from your original at up to 4,000 pixels on the long side. Dot size and blur are scaled up to match, so the file looks like the preview, only sharper. Smaller photos are kept at their own size rather than blown up. The file name records the size, for example beach-comic-4000x3000.jpg.

• Profile pictures for Slack, Discord or LinkedIn: JPG is fine; crop square or circular afterward and leave space above the head.
• Vinyl stickers and labels: PNG keeps the flat color edges crisp, which cutting machines and print shops prefer.
• Mugs, T-shirts and cards: an 8 by 10 inch print at 300 dpi needs 2,400 by 3,000 pixels, which a modern phone photo now covers without upscaling.
• Team or classroom sets: keep every portrait on identical slider values and the same ink color so the set looks deliberate.
• Social posts: the 92 percent quality JPG is several times smaller than the PNG and uploads faster.

On older phones a 4,000-pixel render can be too large for the browser's memory; if you see a warning, crop the photo tighter first. Everything happens on your device, and the download carries no watermark.

To turn the result into a sticker, cut out the subject with the Remove Image Background tool, and use the Compress Image tool if the file is too large for an app.

Step-by-step

Common mistakes to avoid

Pro tips

Frequently asked questions