# Charcoal Drawing

Gerhard
Kulzer

    gerhard at kulzer.net

The digiKam image plugin Charcoal is an effect filter that creates a charcoal sketch-like result.

KDE
Digikam

# Introduction

The digiKam image plugin Charcoal uses the gradients of color and luminosity to produce a grey scale charcoal sketch. The lines defining the outline of the image are pronounced. Pictures with slowly changing gradients are not ideal for this effect. It is helpful to imagine what scene you would pick to do as a hand sketch yourself, in order to choose the picture to start with.

## Using the plugin

There are two sliders to control the effect on a scale of 1-100. The upper slider selects the pencil size, whereas the second slider adjusts the contrast (smoothness).

## The plugin in action

This is an example of the charcoal filter. The original image is (1) and the transformed image is (2). Default values of 30 and 10 where applied. The result can be improved by adjusting the luminosity levels.

### The Charcoal Editor Plugin in Action