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What is Artify?

Artify from Kodama Studios is a simple and easy-to-use iPad app for applying impressionist painting effects to your photos.
Compatibility: iOS Universal for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch running iOS 3.1 or later.

_{Version reviewed: Artify 1.2}

Artify Pros:

• Simple and fun way to enhance and add interest to photos.
• Allows for both automatic and manual control over painted effect.

• User interface rotates for portrait and landscape orientation.
• Universal app works on iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch.

Artify Cons:

• Does not offer a lot of variety or flexibility.
• Eraser tool could use opacity control.
• Difficult to achieve fine detail with only three brush size options.
• Toolbar could be better optimized on iPad version (where there is more space).

Artify Description:

• Transform a photo into artwork instantly, or selectively apply the art effects using a paintbrush tool.
• Choose from three painterly styles - Impressionism, Salon de Paris, and Grand Masters.
• Take a photo with device camera or choose from photo library.
• Paint by hand or use eraser tool to restore detail to important areas.
• Zoom and Pan.
• One level Undo/Redo, or use clear button to restore photo to original state.
• Advanced settings for effect density (lo/med/hi), brush size (small/med/large), color intensity, tint, and hue.
• Share directly to Facebook, Twitter, and by email. Save to photo library.

Hands-On with Artify

Artify is a simple and fun app for applying painterly effects to your photos.

It transforms your photo into a work of art, inspired by the Impressionist painters Degas, Renoir, and Monet. Artify allows you to choose from three different styles of painting--Impressionism, Salon de Paris, and Grand Masters. You can apply the art effect automatically to the entire photo, or paint the effects on selectively.

Artify gives you an eraser tool for restoring the original photo in areas. The advanced settings allow you to change the brush size and density, and to play around with various color effects by changing saturation, tint, and hue. Even with the advanced settings, it can be difficult to achieve natural-looking detail in many photos, such as portraits. Having more that three choices of brush size and an opacity control for the eraser tool would help with this.

Artify is very easy to learn and can add a bit more interest to some photos, especially the low quality photos you get from the built-in camera of the iPod touch 4 and the iPad 2. It doesn't always give pleasing results for every photo, but I enjoyed the results it gave to many of the photos I tried it on. When you have a pleasing result from Artify, you can share your photo art directly to Facebook, Twitter or email.

Artify has been jumping around in price from $0.99 to $1.99, but I managed to pick it up free during a brief promotion. I probably wouldn't plunk down $2 for it in its current state, but if the developer adds more painting styles and control options in a future version, this would be a reasonable price to pay. For now, if you can find it on sale for 99 cents, or free, it is worth picking up.

Artify in the iTunes App Store

Publisher's Site