Summary: This review article lists the top 11 AI tools in 2024 to turn photos into line drawings, including their pricing plans and features. And a detailed tutorial about how to use.

Are you tired of trying to hand-draw a line drawing from your favorite photo but not getting the desired result? Do you need a quick and easy solution to convert your photo into a beautiful line drawing? AI-powered photo to line drawing tools are the perfect solution for anyone who wants to create stunning line drawings from their original pictures.

In this review article, we'll explore some of the best AI tools (some are not AI-based) for turning pictures into line drawings by discussing their features and helping you pick the right one to suit your specific needs. These tools are designed to simplify the process of creating line drawings from pictures and give you professional-looking results, as well as bring your creativity to life with ease. Ready to unleash your creativity? Let's get started!

 

Best 10 Tools to Convert Photo to Line Drawing (Updated 2024)

Before we get to know how each one line drawing generator AI performs in turning pictures into line drawings, let's take a quick overview of this list, it will help you choose. All these line art generators allow you to convert pictures to line drawings online for creative work online. This list also contains free tools and non-AI tools.

Product
Name
Processing
Speed
Free or
Paid
AI
Based
User
Friendliness
VansPortrait
★★★★☆
Paid
★★★★☆
Fotor Picture Outliner
★★★★☆
Paid
★★★★☆
Picsart
★★★★☆
Freemium
★★★★☆
Tech-lagoon
★★★☆☆
Paid
★★★★☆
Rapidresizer
★★★★☆
Freemium
×
★★★☆☆
Media.io
★★★★☆
Freemium
★★★★☆
Lunapic
★★★☆☆
Free
×
★★★☆☆
Vectordad
★★★☆☆
Paid
×
★★★☆☆
Super Stencil Maker
★★★★☆
Free
×
★★★☆☆
AI Draw
★★★☆☆
Free
★★★☆☆
Snapstouch
★★★☆☆
Free
×
★★★☆☆

Note: Our top 10 AI tools to convert photos to line drawings reviews are based on our personal experience with each one line drawing generator product. We will try to provide objective and professional ratings, taking into account factors such as ease of use, accuracy of conversion, and value for money.

Now you can get a quick overview of the various useful tools from our Tools Directory.

Top 1 VansPortrait [Our Pick]

  • Price: $4.95/100 images/mo; $6.95/200 images/mo; $11.45/500 images/mo
  • Rating: 5.0/5.0 ★★★★★

VansPortrait

Credit by VansPortrait

VansPortrait is our pick to be the best one line drawing generator tool to turn your photo into line drawing online. It's an AI-powered line art generator that allows you to generate line art in 5 seconds.

Minimalism is a unique feature it has. All you have to do with your image is upload it to the website and let AI do the rest work. With this minimalist line art generator, you can easily convert picture to line drawing online with the effect you want, quickly and effortlessly. Slide down to the very bottom and we'll show you how to use VansPortrait.

Another feature is that VansPotrait provides cartoon filters. You can try Avatar, Character, or Manga and choose your desired result. It's a great way to add a touch of personality and creativity to any space or social media profile. With this tool, you can only process 5 images for free. For more image credits, you need a monthly or yearly subscription. Check the detailed review of VansPortrait on ToptenAI. 

vansportrait before and after  image

before and after

We recently discovered that VansPortrait has updated its AI model and can now more accurately turn picture to line drawing, but we also noticed that the processing is taking longer than before.

Top 2  Fotor Picture Outliner [ Recommanded]

  • Price: Pro  $3.33/mo,  Pro+  $7.5/mo, or $19.9 for 200 credits and more credit plan.   
  • Rating: 4.8/5.0 ★★★★☆

 Fotor Picture Outliner Review

Credit by Fotor 

Fotor Picture Outliner is a powerful and versatile AI-powered tool that can be used to convert pictures into black and white (or single color image) line drawings. It is easy to use and has a user-friendly interface, making it accessible to anyone regardless of their artistic skills.

Fotor Picture Outliner offers a range of features and customization options, allowing users to create custom designs and tailor their results to their desired effect. It also supports a wide variety of photo formats, making it a versatile tool for a variety of creative projects.

One of the biggest advantages of Fotor Picture Outliner is its accessibility. It is available as a free web outlining pictures app, making it easy to use on any device with an internet connection. This makes it a great option for users who are looking for a convenient and affordable way to create line drawings.

fotor before and after

before and after

As you can see, the Fotor one line drawing generator does translate the pictures well into line drawing, the style is great. But I think it's probably better suited for those who need picture material to practice sketching. It may differ from person to person to say it looks good or not.

Top 3  Picsart 

  • Price: yearly plan: $5/mo for the plus plan, $7/mo for the pro plan, the monthly plan will be $13-15/mo
  • Rating: 4.8/5.0 ★★★★☆

picsart Photo To Sketch

Credit by Picsart

PicsArt is another popular one line drawing generator mobile app that lets you transform your photos into beautiful line drawings in just a few clicks. This app makes it easy for anyone to convert your pictures into line drawings without any prior drawing experience.

This outlining pictures app offers a wide range of customization options, allowing you to adjust the line thickness, color, and style to suit your preferences. You can also add text and other design elements to your drawings to truly make them your own. Whether you're looking to create unique social media posts or artistic pieces, PicsArt line drawing maker is an excellent tool to have at your disposal.

However, during our use of this tool, we found that the sketch model in the picture above can only be used on PicsArt's mobile app. Its one line drawing generator is more like a pure pencil drawing filter.

If you are interested in other line drawing generators, you can refer to Top 10 Photo to Sketch Converter Free.

picsart Photo To Sketch before and after

before and after

When we tested it, we found that turning images into line drawings is just the smallest of picsart's features, and it works just fine and is much more enjoyable than the last fotor's effect. However, when testing, we found that the speed of this tool could be improved.  

Top 4 Tech-lagoon

  • Price: Free
  • Rating: 4.6/5.0 ★★★★☆

Tech-lagoon 

Credit by Tech-lagoon

Tech-lagoon's Image to Edge is an easy-to-use online tool that allows users to transform their favorite images into line art or stencil-like designs.

With the option to adjust line thickness and add text overlays, users can create personalized and unique designs. Image to Edge supports various file formats, making it easy to download and share the final result. Whether for personal or professional use, Image to Edge offers a fun and creative way to bring images to life. It also provides different models, such as Fine pen, Pencil, and Smooth pen.

If you don't want to lose any details of your photo when you convert an image to line art online, you may choose a one line drawing generator that could process photo to line art online with thinner lines to make the drawing vivid. Convert Image is the one that can meet your requirements. However, one limitation of this photo to line drawing conversion tool is its dependency on strong and well-defined edges in the original image.

turn picture to line drawing with image chief

before and after

After several trials, we think this tool is very simple, with only one page, but that page alone is much more powerful than many other products. We think this product outputs one of the best-looking line drawings, at least the Top 3. The details of the eyes are well preserved. In addition, you can set a lot of parameters, we recommend that you use the fine pen, and the pen pressure can be set to 2.

Top 5  Rapidresizer 

  • Price: $39 for basic, $59 for Designer, $119 for Po
  • Rating: 4.8/5.0 ★★★★☆

repidresizer

Credit by Rapidresizer

RapidResizer is also a powerful online tool that allows you to easily convert your images into high-quality line art.

Whether you want to create custom designs or turn your favorite photos into black-and-white line drawings, this software offers a range of features and customization options to help you achieve your desired results. It provides 4 different styles including Edges, Thin, Threshold, and Adaptive.

With its intuitive interface and user-friendly design, RapidResizer makes it easy for anyone to create stunning line artwork in just a few simple steps. Whether you're an artist, designer, or hobbyist, this tool is perfect for adding a unique touch to your creative projects. The only drawback of this tool is that when it's making a sketch from a human portrait, it may result in rough edges, especially on hair.

RapidResizer

before and after

RapidResizer's line draw function, after several trials, we think it is more suitable for children's drawing book production, for the simple lines of the picture can achieve better results. But like the image we tested, the processing effect is not suitable for sharing on social media as a good-looking image.

Top 6  Media.io

  • Price: Free; $3.95/mo; $6.66/mo
  • Rating: 4.8/5.0 ★★★★☆

media.io

Credit by Media.io

Media.io Photo to Sketch allows you to convert photos into beautiful sketches. Using advanced algorithms, the tool creates a hand-drawn effect by converting the image into lines and shades.

You can upload your photos and choose from various sketch styles such as pencil, pen, charcoal, and more. Additionally, they can adjust settings such as line thickness, brightness, and contrast to customize the final output. This one line drawing generator tool generates a sketch in a matter of seconds and provides you with the option to download the final result as a high-resolution PNG or JPG file.

Media.io

before and after

However, after several trials, we think one thing you need to know is that although it produces high-quality sketches, it does crop your image automatically and inevitably.

Top 7  Lunapic

  • Price: Free
  • Rating: 4.6/5.0 ★★★★☆

7 lunapic

Credit by Lunapic

Lunapic allows you to adjust the outlining effect of your photo to line art online. Note that as the line of the output photo is not significant, the final effect is more like a black-and-white photo instead of a line drawing.

One of the great features of this picture outline maker is that it offers a wide choice of filters, as you can see in the image. And you can create different styles and moods for their pencil sketches by adjusting the pencil width. A thinner pencil width might be suitable for creating delicate and detailed portraits, while a thicker pencil width could be used for a more dramatic and bold effect.

This feature allows you to have greater control over the final output of your pencil sketches and helps you achieve the desired style for your images. From the picture below, you can see that Lunapic's photo to line drawing tool may use the same AI model as Media.io.

Lunapic sketch maker

before and after

Top 8  Vectordad

  • Price: Free
  • Rating: 4.6/5.0 ★★★★☆

vectordesign

Credit by Vectordad

Vectordad is an exceptional one line drawing generator that effortlessly converts photos into stunning line drawings. Its unique feature lies in its ability to produce highly detailed and intricate line art, capturing the essence of the original image with precision.

This product solves the problem of manually creating line drawings by providing an automated and efficient photo-to-line-drawing conversion tool. It is suitable for artists, designers, and anyone seeking to transform their photos into captivating line art.

Our experience of using Vectordad is remarkable, as it delivers impressive results in a matter of seconds. However, one limitation is that the tool may struggle with complex or low-resolution images, resulting in less accurate line conversions.

vectordesign line drawing converter

before and after

Top 9  Super Stencil Maker

  • Price: Free & Paid
  • Rating: 4.6/5.0 ★★★★☆

Super Stencil Maker

Credit by Super Stencil Maker

Super Stencil Maker line art generator mainly focuses on your requirements for art, painting, signs, T-shirts, and more. You can choose from various stencil styles, including graffiti, military, and street art, and adjust settings such as contrast and brightness to further customize the output. The effect it provides is more like watercolor printing.

You can also select the size and format of the stencil, making it suitable for a wide range of applications. This one line drawing generator tool also provides you with the option to download the final result as a high-resolution PNG or PDF file.

However, this tool can not perform like the line art generator mentioned above.

Try watching this video, it is very clearly described and he will show you how to use Super Stencil Maker:

Top 10  AI Draw

  • Price: Free
  • Rating: 4.6/5.0 ★★★★☆

ai draw

Credit by AI Draw

AI Draw is another online photo to line drawing app that allows you to change the colors of the photo to line art online. The effect it can achieve is creative and unique with a curved line. It is very easy to use and only requires three steps. Click Get Started, upload an image, and wait for the AI drawing to begin.

The most amazing feature of this one line drawing generator tool is that you can see the whole process of the AI converting your image into a line drawing. If you want to see what will happen after you upload an image, try this interesting tool now.

From our experience with AI drawing, we have to tell you that this is not a picture to line drawing art converter but a conceptual line art creator instead, It means the tool will analyze your original photo and draw it with lines.

Top 11  Snapstouch

  • Price: Free
  • Rating: 4.6/5.0 ★★★★☆

line-drawing-snapstouch (1)

Credit by Snapstouch

Snapstouch is an online one line drawing generator that allows you to convert your photos into artistic line drawings. This tool uses advanced image processing algorithms to identify the edges and contours of an image and then converts them into a black-and-white line drawing with various shading options.

You can upload your photos and adjust settings such as line thickness, darkness, and contrast to customize the final output. The tool generates the line drawing in a matter of seconds and provides users with the option to download the final result as a high-resolution PNG or PDF file. Snapstouch is a free and easy-to-use tool for creating stunning line drawings from your favorite photos.

As you can see in the picture below, this tool can't handle the hair well either when processing human portraits.

snapstouch photo to sketch converter

before and after

How to Turn Picture Into Line Drawing Online Free with VansPortrait

There are many tools above, but they have different applications. If you simply want a line drawing effect, let's take a good look at the AI one line drawing generator VansPortrait. If you like, you can try to turn photos into line drawings online for free. And you will find that those line drawing photos generated are quite impressive.

How does AI turn photos into line drawings?

Based on deep learning, an AI line art generator like VansPortrait would have been trained on millions of images to generate accurate and satisfactory results before it got access to the market. Once you upload an image to VansPortrait, AI will smartly analyze the original image and automatically convert the photo into a line drawing, which is a user-friendly AI line art generator.

How to turn a photo into a line drawing online with VansPortrait?

  • Step 1:  Just open the official page and upload an image.

upload an image

  • Step 2: Choose the effects you want and convert. When you are at the step, you'll need to decide what output you want it to be like, prefer cartoon effect or sketch effect. If you choose to sketch and there are 2 presets available, pick the one you need. 

Step-2

  • Step 3: Download the image. As you can see here, the first output is made by the default mode, while the second one is created by sketch mode, you can turn photo into line drawing online free with this tool, and now there is a questionnaire to get free points. Give it a try.

download image

Impressive Line Art from Photo

Having used these tools, we would like to show you the results of image manipulation by users using these tools.

1. Cat line drawing photos

Can you imagine this cat line drawing was made in just about 30 seconds? Though it's not perfect, let's say, the cat's whisker and left ear are not perfectly handled. But look at the beautiful eyes. AI portrait online has enhanced the overall effects automatically.

Cat line drawing photos

The next cat line drawing is more impressive. You can look at the shape which is clearly outlined.

Cat line drawing photos

2. Rose line drawing

rose-line-drawing

3. Butterfly line drawing

butterfly-line-drawing

4. Sunflower line drawing

sunflower-line-drawing

Final Thought

In conclusion, the rise of AI portrait generators has made it easier than ever to convert photos into stunning line drawings. Whether you're an artist looking to add a unique touch to your work or someone who simply wants to turn a favorite photo into a piece of art, there is a variety of free photo-to-sketch converters available online.

We've discussed one such one line drawing generator in this article, AI Portraits' online tool, which offers impressive results with just a few clicks. But don't forget to check out other options like VansPortrait and a one-line portrait generator for even more possibilities. Our goal is to provide you with a thorough understanding of each software's capabilities to help you choose the best tool for your needs.

Overall, these tools provide a great opportunity for anyone to experiment with converting photos to line drawings, regardless of their artistic abilities. So go ahead and give it a try, and see how AI technology can transform your ordinary photos into beautiful works of art.

If you are interested in 60 fps videos, check another article: AI Frame Interpolation Can Convert Videos to 60fps.

FAQs

1.  What can you do with AI-generated line drawings and sketches?

With the black-and-white line drawing, you can share the AI-generated line drawing on Facebook or Twitter to impress your audience. Besides, you can also colorize them using the AI colorization tools I introduced previously before using them for clothes, fabrics, stainless glass, T-shirt designs, or printing.

2.  Is there any online free software to turn photos into line drawings?

AKVIS Draw offers you a software solution to convert images to line art online which looks realistic. You have to download and install this one line drawing generator before use. By using this line art portrait generator, you can apply various colors to the drawing.

Harley Wayne
Senior Editor

Harley Wayne is a Senior Editor at TopTen.AI. He received his bachelor's degree in Artificial Intelligence and Human-Computer Interaction from Carnegie Mellon University in 2008, and has worked in software development and software promotion for years. In 2017, he started his own blog posting AI and tech-related articles and joined TopTen.AI. He has amassed 6 years of experience crafting articles within the technological realm. He knows a lot about photo, audio, and video products, and he always knows what attracts users the most and what users want to know about software. With his professional education, keen interest in technology, and extensive work experience, Harley Wayne has written many articles with over 100K+ views. As a leading writer for TopTen.AI, Harley Wayne will continue to be keenly attuned to experiencing new technology products and is committed to providing readers with the most valuable information.