AKVIS Draw is a commercial tool for transforming digital images into realistic pencil (and similar) drawings.

If you've been disappointed by this kind of application before - wait. AKVIS Draw tramples all over just about every competitor in this area. The company's Examples page has some images to help show what's possible, and if anything they're underestimating its abilities - it's even better than it looks.

As with similar AKVIS tools, the program is extremely easy to use. Open your target image, it's immediately converted into a drawing, and if you're happy then it can be printed, saved locally or shared via Twitter, Flickr, Google+ or Dropbox.

Even better, the converted image is supremely configurable. Would you prefer a colour image? Click here. Thicker lines, more or less detail, lighter or darker? Drag a slider there.

If you don't have the time to tweak each setting individually, no problem, AKVIS Draw has more than 40 bundled presets. Just use your arrow keys to move up or down the list, the program redraws its preview window to show the results, and stop when you find something you like.