Turn a photo into a watercolor
Give a photo the look of a watercolor painting: colors are softened, reduced to a few main shades, and a light paper texture is added. Adjust the blur, the number of shades and the texture intensity.
How it works
The image is first softened with a box blur that erases fine details, much like water spreading across watercolor paper. Each color channel is then reduced to a limited number of shades (quantization), which flattens the nuances and gives the typical "patchy" look of a painting, before a light paper grain is added.
Why reduce the number of shades?
A digital photo contains millions of subtle shades, whereas a real watercolor layers a limited number of pigment washes. By grouping similar colors into a small number of levels, the tool recreates the effect of uniform color areas that is characteristic of painting.
What does the paper texture setting do?
It adds light, random noise across the whole image to simulate the grain of watercolor paper and the small irregularities of drying pigment. At 0%, the image keeps a smoother, more digital look.
The blur, color quantization and texture are computed locally in your browser: your photo is never sent to a server.