Convert Photos to Line Art Illustrations

Line art illustration is the cleanest, most versatile flavor of vector graphic: single-color outlines that scale from sticker to billboard and read instantly — whether the subject is a single figure or a busy crowd. From storyboards and editorial illustration to t-shirt graphics, decals and sticker packs, line art is the visual style behind a huge slice of modern editorial, apparel and merchandise design.

The trade-off has always been the time to make one. Tracing a photo into Illustrator by hand — pen tool, smoothing curves, deciding which details to keep — easily takes an hour per drawing, and that's for a single subject. A crowd scene or action sequence can take days. PhotoCAD's AI does that interpretation step automatically, even on busy scenes with dozens of figures.

What you get is line art at output — outline drawings, no fills, no gradients, no painterly style. From there the file is yours: open the SVG in Illustrator or Inkscape to refine the lines, layer your own color palette, or use it as the base for a fuller illustration. PhotoCAD shortens the photo-to-vector path; the creative direction stays with you.