Uninstalled Version 1.3 from last Giveaway, Installed newer version 1.4
and registered with no problems, works as stated, BUT PROBLEM is when computer is turned off when not in use, and turned on at various times to use computer, Photo to Sketch when restarted ALWAYS says Unregistered Version!!!!.
So i use supplied Registration Code each time and Software Says REGISTERED VERSION every time, SO WHAT HAPPENS Once giveaways 24hrs is up!!! as online Activation will most likely not work anymore since Software Registration is for GOTD Time Period ONLY (24hrs).

I have no other problem with any of my other Installed Software and My Computer Runs Like a Dream, Just This one Software plays up.

Win7 Pro 64Bit AMD FX 8350 8 Core.
Mark - Australia.

I found Sketch Drawer effective and useful. Plain black and white conversions worked best on the photos that I tried. A great improvement would be an option to make foreground lines wider and background lines narrower.

Installed and ran OK on Vista Premium.
Have an earlier version and this seems exactly the same. All the options work fine, with some results looking better than others. What the program lacks is enough Presets. With a few more it could begin to challenge its only rival which is Fotosketcher, which I also use a lot to make images for small books I write.
It is heading in the right direction and I look forward to seeing future versions.

Downloaded and installed. Compared results with Fotosketcher. Got better results with Fotosketcher, so will stay with this one.

I would love to download and try this giveaway, but unfortunately their server seems to be down as all my attempts to get the registration key have been unsuccessful.
I am getting the following message from my browsers:

"could not connect to www.softorbits.com"

My internet is fine and I have no problem connecting to other sites.

Would the developer be kind enough to shed some light on this issue.

Cheers,


consuella

Today's giveaway looks fun (haven't had time to play with it yet) but wanted to share how to disable the update check:
Open Windows Registry Editor and browse to the following key (searching for "SketchDrawer" would probably work as well):
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\softorbits\SketchDrawer
Right-click on "disableUpdates" and choose "Modify" and then change the "Value data" from a "0" to a "1"
It worked for me at least...
Caution: Do not change ANYTHING else while you're there in the registry! You can do some serious damage if you don't know what you're doing!!!

Hi, until I downloaded, installed and registered today's Giveaway of SoftOrbits Sketch Drawer 1.4 - I had two previous Versions of this Program, that is 1.3. Yes, I didn't realize (at first) I already had exactly the same Program given by GOTD when I obtained it later, so my mistake, BUT - until today they were both REGISTERED (I checked) and after installing ver 1.4 - both became UNREGISTERED (I checked again) and only ver 1.4 with latest License Key seems to be OK.

I would like to know what gives SoftOrbits rights to do that. To TAKE AWAY what was once also legally obtained using our time and bother to send for these Licenses, give our addresses, test, write comments a.s.o? I repeat what I said many times before - Certain people who either purchase or get Software for free MAY WANT to KEEP as many versions of the same Program as they wish to because NOT EVERY VERSION changes for better! I stand by this principle. Simple as that. Sketch Drawer, as 'nice' as it might be - is not something I'm desperately going to hold on to, or UPGRADE because SoftOrbits wants to force me to do so by REMOVING Licenses and sticking Reminders to check for and buy newer Version. I understand commercial tactics, but such tricks are not going to work on me!!

Downloaded and installed early this morning. Applied for license key and am still waiting. Downloaded and installed a second time this evening. Applied for license key. Still waiting. Delete. It's too bad because I over-wrote the 1.3 version of the program.

@ JackieK (no 18): Thank you for the recommendation of Fotosketcher. I installed it and got wow'ed!

Quick and easy install (Windows 7 home) and easy registration. No problems, irritations, unwanted pop-ups etc.

It is EXTREMELY easy to use, a simple one-click operation at the default settings, but with plenty of style options if wanted.

The results are surprisingly good - better than I expected. I think it's particularly well suited to architectural subjects, which really do look like professional sketches, and to portraiture. Full figure pictures and pictures of groups of people tend to look like what they are: photos that have been digitally manipulated.

For me this is a keeper.

Hi Everyone,
Well installed Sketch Drawer 1.4 on my Windows 7 64bit PC and the installation went just as always from GOTD! Perfect!
I followed the link to SoftOrbits WEB Site and filled out the registration and got the activation code in my E-Mail in seconds! Great So far! (o;
I ran the program and found out first! That this is IS the PRO Version, (It does not say that in the listing?) I Tested a few photos out of one of my working photos folders and it came out Very Good! I was impressed! and Pleased! Sketch Drawer 1.4 is very easy to use and the results are very good! its definitely a keeper!
I had the version 1.3 from January? (I think?) And Version 1.4 Does have some quality improvements! But, Looks very much the same as Ver. 1.3! It lets you save the modified file as a new file name and keeps the original untouched! As long as you change the file name! (o;

I only had one problem! and that was after closing Sketch Drawer 1.4 and doing some other things and then reopening Sketch Drawer 1.4 I was surprised to see it was ("UN-Registered Version!") Again! Whats up with that? I went back to my E-mail and Re-Registered Sketch Drawer 1.4 and now everything is fine! I hope? I tried closing and reopening several times and it seems to have kept the registration now? If its gone tomorrow? I most Certainly Will NOT Pay for the program! If is stays registered for at least a few months? I may Buy it? But, Not For $50.00! That's just WAY to much!
Fotosketcher (www.fotosketcher.com) IS a much better Program and its FREE!
Sketch Drawer 1.4 IS a great little program for Fast! On the fly, Or on site locations to make cool affects for customers that my be buying photos at an event? Or, What ever, Of course I would buy the full Registered Program for Business Use! If I where going to use it for that! But, For the home user that just wants some neat customized photos for there photo book? Or, To shear with friends? Sketch Drawer 1.4 is a Great addition to your photo tools and being So easy to use! Any amateur could use it and make great custom photos in seconds!

For Me, Sketch Drawer 1.4 Gets 2 Thumbs Up! (As Long as it says registered!) Thank you! To SoftOrbits for making Sketch Drawer 1.4 available on GOTD for us Geeks to download and play with! As Always a BIG Thank You! TO everyone at GOTD for all you do! Making Applications like Sketch Drawer 1.4 Available everyday for all of us to enjoy, Test, Revue, and Play with for as long as we like for FREE! THANK YOU!
That's it from me, Take Care Everyone, Always Have FUN!!! Rick D.

Thanks for comments pointing to Fotosketcher which looks quite good considering extra features & no email contact needed. SO does like their pushy emails so use a throwaway if that's a bother.

I had same prob as #3 - now it seems to be fine - we'll see tomorrow.
Great time trying this - will try again later. Thank you Giveawayoftheday and Thank you Soft Orbits.

I'm an artist (amateur mind you). I've tried today's giveaway a little while back. It's interesting, but a bit too limited for what I intend to do with such a tool.

A few years back, I found Fotosketcher (www.fotosketcher.com) by a French programmer who lives in France. You take any picture and transform it into a pencil drawing, B&W or color, oil painting, pastel, watercolor, etc.

The results are simply amazing! I don't know this guy, but I wrote to him a few times to give him some suggestions. 90% of the time he implemented them. Talk about customer service!

I have no relation with him, just an avid amateur artist!

I suggest you give a try to today's giveaway, and then compare it to Fotosketcher, which is free by the way, and lots of improvements coming along in the near future (according to the author.)

Love how this software works. Just load the picture and press Run and it does it all for you. I turned a transparent PNG into a sketch and it saved it as a PNG with the transparent background. Registration code came in email right away.

Installed on XP very easy. Getting the softkey for registration was easy and took maybe 10 minutes turn around. I tested a couple of photos using the multiple templates and it worked very well. I think the degree of success with the conversion will depend highly upon the photo you choose to start with, but as for the program itself, it's a keeper. Thank you, I've been looking for a sketch tool and this looks like it will work for me. With time and the myriad of customization options, I would imagine someone could get very artistic with this program.

Clicking the download link didn't work, so I tried right-clicking and "Save Target As..." and the filename was SketchDrawer14_zip -- note that there's an underscore before the zip file extension, not a period.

And now, several *minutes* after clicking on the download link, the download has started and with the same odd filename mentioned above.

I assume that renaming it to SketchDrawer14.zip will let it unzip and install, but I thought it was still worth mentioning about the delayed download and the filename.

Agree with comment 7

Fotosketcher better AND free;

http://www.portablefreeware.com/?id=1414&ts=1262560810

Downloaded and installed easily enough on 7 and received registration key by email. I tried a few photos and just wasn't impressed with the outcome so I have uninstalled it. There are a few settings but all of the finished sketches looked almost the same.

I love it, easy to use and the end result is amazing.

Installed like warm butter on hot rye toast, W7. I jumped in to the program quickly, very easy to use and great world variations. Oops there is a default, click on that and the world of variations becomes a universe all with previews. One photo modified with this program can fill a gallery. This is a must have. Thank you Giveawayoftheday and Thank you Soft Orbits.

Yes PS people, I am sure you can do it in PS, but what is instantaneous in Sketch Drawer would take you PS people hours .... many long hours ....

See
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1122113/giveawayoftheday/2014Q3/SketchDrawer_PRO_1.4_activated_2014-07-10_120028.png

Installed and registered on window 8 32x pro. There are less editing tools as compared to sketch..

The name is incorrect. It suggests we do not get a PRO version, like on 7-1-2014. But after entering the code, you can see you really have the PRO version.

One word
Fotosketcher is ultimate in this regard
Nitin

My download before was version 1.3, today's is version 1.4 which I had no trouble installing and registering.
Testing on the same photograph as last time I do see an improvement in the affects on the image.
In fact I was really pleased with the result as it looked very much like a charcoal sketch.
Most certainly will be keeping this program.

We had ver 1.3 in December 2013. Who knows what new in 1.4?
So I installed on XPSP3 and I'm still waiting for the activate code in my E-mail.

Installed and registered without problems on a Win 8.1 Pro 64 bit system.

A Russian company with address, phone&fax.

We had had version 1.3.0.0 (as Sketch Drawer "Pro") on January 7th 2014. Here are the old reviews.

http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/sketch-drawer-newyear/

The .exe is still file version 1.3.0.0 and slightly greater the the .exe from the last GAOTD.

It installs this time in a "Photo to sketch" directory.

A resizable window opens, you add a photo and with the default option you start to convert it to a pencil sketch. Under options you can change the language and with the presets you have a detailed option to change the sketch drawing process to your impression. A picture on the left shows the effect of the preset (not of the actual picture)

My former opinion is still valid :

The Sketch drawer is a simple to use program. You choose your picture and choose a mode for the drawing process. That’s all, but is much to less for a good result. There is the most important tool missing, a pencil or a brush, where YOU define, which parts of the picture should be altered to a drawing. e,g. keep the eyes nearly original, the face as a color pencil sketch and the surrounding background as a rough and low contras black pen.

And yes, they have now added the watermark tool. In the last version this was only included in the "Pro" version. If you are missing a watermark program. This does this simple task, too.

Still not impressed. A simple tool, compared with others on the market. It will replace the former version on my computer.

registered without a problem, used to draw a photo..no problem, saved the photo...no problem...reopen the photo and it said my copy is unregistered and has a big red line through the photo by the bottom, ..reinstalled my code again..no problem it said registered again, did another photo and saved it...no problem. don"t know what that was about, but looks like it is fixed now. program works fine, easy to use and results are ok.

I once used this program. Thumb up! It really can make you become a renowned sketch artist in just a few clicks. It needs a few minutes per photo to carry out the conversion task but provides excellent output results. And not quite friendly with system resources, so the overall performance of the computer may be hampered. However, it's a cool program.

I got it from SoftOrbits Photo Digital Suite (integrates 9 photo tools and Sketch Drawer is one of them) which can really make your collection of images perfect. And really don't hesitate to get one. :)

I downloaded this last time it was offered. It is easy to use, but I wasn't impressed with the outcome.