A distinctive feature of the pastel technique is the deep vibrant shimmering colors and rich velvety texture. Unlike oil and watercolor paints, pastels don't cover the whole surface. The small gaps let the paper show through the strokes and increase the general picturesque effect.

AKVIS Pastel is a powerful tool to unleash your creativity. Once you load your image in the program, you can choose one of the effect presets or change the pastel settings to create a unique painting. The adjustable effect parameters give you a strong sense of control over your digital art. The software starts creating your new pastel by a mouse click. The advanced brush tools will help you to refine the result, change the direction of the automatic strokes, strengthen or weaken the pastel effect on different areas, put the finishing touches to your picture.

To obtain a true pastel painting, it's especially important to choose a right surface. Generally, pastel artists use a textured paper. With the software you can put your painting to any surface: sanded paper, MDF board, brick wall, and others. Using the program, you can not only create a pastel painting from your photo, you can personalize your artwork by adding a signature, a title, or a greeting.

The Batch Processing option in the program lets you apply the artistic effect to a folder full of images and automatically convert all pictures. It is a very useful and time-saving feature especially when you need to make a number of drawings at the same style for a site, blog or booklet.

What's New in Version 2.0:
AKVIS Pastel 2.0 enhances its functionality with an improved pastel effect, new stylish frames, a redesigned user interface with easily scalable graphics, support for Ultra HD monitors, and other improvements. Experiment with different stroke techniques and decoration effects to create your personal gallery of pastel paintings!

Improved Pastel Effect
The new version offers you more creative choices with the new powerful Small Details and Large Strokes check-boxes. They allow you to try different stroke application modes and choose the most suitable one.

Timeline
The new update introduces a list of intermediate shots representing different stages of conversion, from a semi-processed image to a practically finished work. This wonderful option allows you to create numerous variations of your painting with minimal effort!

New Decoration Effects
The new Decoration section includes three effects: Canvas, Text, and (New!) Frame. You can drag the effects to change the order of their application to an image. The new option makes it easy to enhance your image with a canvas surface, a personal signature, or a suitable photo frame. The program offers the following types of frames: Classic, Pattern, Strokes, Vignette, and Passe-Partout.

New Presets
The new version includes an updated list of built-in presets allowing you to achieve rapid end results.

Support for Ultra HD 4K & 5K Displays
The new version provides support for ultra high video resolutions going far beyond traditional 1080p systems. The texts and new vector based icons now scale correctly on 4K & 5K displays.

Also in the new version:
- increased the size of the Quick Preview area (adjustable in the preferences),
- improved the Crop tool with the possibility to set the aspect ratio,
- added new Print options,
- the possibility to choose a drive to install the program,
- fixed minor bugs,
- and other changes.

Requirements: Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, 10

Home Page - http://akvis.com