These days everything is about AI, but before neural style transfer came along there was a small, lively scene of procedural painting engines. These programs used algorithms to turn photos into digital paintings. Some have since been abandoned, while others are still being developed. All of them are great fun to explore. Here are some of my favourites.

I don’t have them all installed on my laptop – but for those I do, I’ve included an example image.

Dynamic Auto Painter

Commercial product. Quite expensive, with occasional sales. Still actively developed. I’ve listed this one first because it’s my favourite. It has lots of presets, and is able to do oils, watercolours, pastels, and lots more. It’s quite slow. Like many auto-painting products, it renders the brush strokes in real time. Depending on your mood, you might find this relaxing or frustrating, but you can always set the canvas size to small – which paints this images much more quickly – to try out multiple presets, and than change the canvas size to large once you’ve found the style you like.

It’s quite complex to learn, and I’ve probably done no more than dip my toes into its capabilities, but the many presets give you a great starting point, For most people, there’s probably no need to dive any deeper.

Corel Painter Essentials

Commercial product. Inexpensive, and frequently discounted. Last updated 2023, and unclear whether it’s still being actively updated. There are far fewer presets here, but the unique advantage of Corel Painter Essentials is this it includes a cut-down – and vastly simpler – subset of the digital painting tools available in the full version of Corel Painter. This allows you, once you have selected your preset and let the program do its thing, to jump in with your own brushes and add your own brushstrokes, seamlessly integrated with the rest of the digital painting.

FotoSketcher

Free, and still actively developed. It’s like a cut-down version of Dynamic Auto Painter. This one’s way better than you would expect for the price. Very basic interface, perhaps, but all the tools you need are there. As a bonus it’s a small download, and is very forgiving of older computer setups.

SnapArt

Commercial product. It’s unclear whether it’s still being developed, and it hasn’t been updated for many years. Quite overpriced, though I suppose the price is reasonable if you buy it in a bundle with some of Exposure Software’s other products. The advantage of this one is the ease of use, the wide range of styles which it can output, and the fact that its hardware requirements are very basic. That price though!

Topaz Studio 2

Commercial product – discontinued and no longer sold, though it can still be downloaded from the Topaz website as legacy software. Now let me tell you something odd because while I’ve bought other Topaz products, I’ve never bought Topaz Studio 2. But when I logged into the app using my usual account credentials – intending to enjoy the 30 day trial – a message popped up onscreen stating that the software was “fully licensed”. Surely some mistake?

But no, several months later, it was still working. Does that mean that Topaz is allowing anyone to use it free of charge, now that it’s been abandoned. Did I qualify for a free licence at some point when buying other Topaz software? I have no idea, but I’ve seen other people hinting at similar experiences on Facebook. Who knows? Maybe it’s worth a try?

Well actually, my experience with Topaz Studio 2 has been quite poor, and I’m unsurprised that Topaz abandoned it. I realise that this puts me out of step with many other users who still lament the fact that it’s no longer updated. But for me, Topaz Studio 2 tries too hard to do everything. If you’re looking for an all in one solution – from basic photo processing to finished painting – it’s definitely worth a try. But other auto-painting software is better at the core job of creating digital paintings from original photographs.

Jixipix Software

Commercial products – still actively updated. Prices vary, with occasional sales giving very good discounts.

Jixipix has a whole suite of digital painting software, so it’s a great choice if you’re only interested in one style. The products I have experience with are Impresso Pro (oils) and Watercolor Studio. Both are excellent, if you can forgive the slightly dated interface. Costs can quickly mount up if you buy multiple apps, so check bundle pricing before committing.