AKVIS Watercolor: Turn Photos Into Soft, Luminous Watercolor Paintings
AKVIS Watercolor is a Windows, macOS and Linux program that converts photos into watercolor paintings in two styles, soft Classic washes or bolder Contour paintings with outlines, for hobbyists and designers with no painting skills. The Home license costs $49 once, and Home Deluxe, with the abstract and finishing tools, is $69.
Real watercolor is hard: the paint spreads, the paper shows through, and mistakes can't be painted over. AKVIS Watercolor imitates the look, transparent strokes, soft wet edges and the texture of watercolor paper, from a photo you already have. You pick a style and a preset, adjust a few sliders and press Run.
Quick facts
- Version: 8.1
- Developer: AKVIS
- Platforms: Windows 7-11 (32/64-bit), macOS 10.12 to macOS 27 (Intel and M1), Linux 64-bit (standalone only)
- Editions: standalone app, or a plugin for AliveColors, Adobe Photoshop, Corel PaintShop Pro and other editors
- Styles: Classic Watercolor and Contour Watercolor
- Price: $49 Home (plugin or standalone), $69 Home Deluxe, $89 Business, all one-time
- License: never expires, covers 2 computers
- Trial: 10 days, all features, no registration
- What we checked: the license comparison table and tutorials on the vendor site, the 64-bit Windows installer on the download server (197 MB, file dated April 15, 2026), and the price of all four licenses on the order page on November 8, 2026. We didn't install the program or paint our own photos
Before you buy
Both painting styles work on every license, so the $49 Home license already makes full watercolor paintings with canvas, frames, text and batch processing. What Home leaves out is the Abstract Art tab, the Stroke Direction tool and the post-processing brushes (Smudge, Blur and the other finishing tools). Those need Home Deluxe ($69) or Business ($89).
Home Standalone and Home Plugin each give you one edition, not both, and Home licenses are for personal use only. Selling prints or doing client work needs Business.
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Overview
AKVIS Watercolor has two views. Presets shows a column of thumbnails of your own photo in each preset, so you can pick a look by eye. Parameters shows the style menu and three tabs: Painting, Abstract Art and Decoration. A quick-preview square shows changes on part of the photo, and Run paints the whole image.
Version 8.0 added blending options for mixing the painting with the original photo in both styles, an updated library of paper and frame textures, refreshed presets and TGA support. Version 8.1 is a bug-fix and stability release.
AKVIS Watercolor 8.0 on Windows in the Classic Watercolor style with the "AKVIS Aquarelle Art" preset, on peach-colored paper, blended 10% with the original.
Features
Classic Watercolor: transparent washes
AKVIS Watercolor's Classic style paints with transparent strokes and gives you control over the paper color, stroke thickness and length, Dry Brush (which roughens strokes to show the brush texture), Simplicity, Stroke Density (less paint means more luminous strokes), Dispersion, Saturation and Edge Smoothness. High edge smoothness imitates the wet-on-wet technique, where colors bleed softly into each other.
Contour Watercolor: color with outlines
AKVIS Watercolor's Contour style imitates watercolor combined with pencil, close to the dry-on-wet technique. Thin lines trace the edges of objects, and the colors are brighter and less blurred, so results can look like gouache or poster art. You set simplicity, uniformity and density for the image, size, brightness and blur for the strokes, and thickness and sensitivity for the contour lines.
The Contour Watercolor style on a harbor town, with the Image, Strokes and Contours settings on the right.
Blend with the original
AKVIS Watercolor can mix the painting back with the photo by a percentage and a blend mode such as Normal or Linear Burn. A little blending keeps a face recognizable while the rest stays loose and painterly.
Stroke Direction and finishing brushes (Deluxe and Business)
AKVIS Watercolor's Stroke Direction tool lets you draw guide lines so strokes follow hair, fabric or patterns, in the Classic style only. After processing, brushes such as Smudge and Blur let you mix colors and soften spots by hand. You can save and reload your guide lines, and they adapt to the image size.
Abstract Art (Deluxe and Business)
AKVIS Watercolor's Abstract Art tab works with both styles and turns a painting into a modern abstract piece with vivid colors and irregular shapes.
The Mac version in Contour Watercolor style with the "AKVIS Gouache" preset on an autumn portrait, blended 20% with the original.
Paper, frames, signature and batch processing
AKVIS Watercolor's Decoration tab imitates watercolor paper texture, adds a classic or decorative frame and puts your signature or text on the painting, on every license. Batch processing paints a whole folder with one preset. It opens TIFF, JPEG, BMP, PNG, WEBP, TGA, RAW and DNG files, and PSD through the plugin.
Benefits
You get a gentle, hand-painted look in a few minutes, from photos you already like. The two styles cover very different moods: Classic suits misty landscapes and soft portraits, while Contour gives the crisp, illustrated look of a travel sketchbook. Because the paper texture and frame are built in, the result is ready to print without a trip to another program.
Real-World Uses
- Wedding and family gifts: turn a favorite photo into a soft watercolor print on textured paper.
- Travel sketchbook: batch-paint a trip's photos in the Contour style for a matching album.
- Invitations and cards: paint a venue or a couple for a watercolor-style invitation, with text added in the program.
- Blog and social images: give a series of posts a consistent hand-painted style.
- Poster art: Contour with bright settings gives a gouache-like poster look.
The Presets view on the Mac: each thumbnail on the right previews a preset (Gouache, Vivid Portrait, Showy) on your own photo of a marina.
Who It's For, and Who Should Skip It
AKVIS Watercolor suits photographers and hobbyists who want watercolor versions of their photos for prints, gifts and albums, and Photoshop users who want the effect as a plugin. The Home license is a reasonable start here, since both styles are included.
Skip it if you want to paint from scratch with a digital brush: this converts photos, it isn't a painting app. If you need oil, pastel or pencil looks too, AKVIS's ArtWork bundles several painting styles in one program, which may be better value than buying single-effect tools one by one.
Usage Guide
- Download the installer (almost 200 MB on Windows) and run it. It installs both the standalone app and the plugin on Windows. On a Mac they are two separate downloads.
- Open a photo in the standalone app, or start AKVIS Watercolor from your editor's filter menu. In the standalone app, crop first if needed.
- Open the Presets view and pick a look from the thumbnails.
- Switch to Parameters, choose Classic or Contour, and adjust the sliders while watching the preview square.
- Press Run, then add paper texture, a frame or a signature on the Decoration tab.
- Save the painting. On Deluxe or Business, finish with the brushes as the very last step.
Where it falls short
- Brush work is lost if you re-run. AKVIS warns that changes made with the post-processing tools disappear when you run the processing again, so finish the settings first.
- Stroke Direction is Classic only and needs Deluxe or Business.
- A large download. The 64-bit Windows installer is about 197 MB, several times the size of most AKVIS installers.
- Edition gaps. The standalone app can't open PSD files, the plugin has no Crop tool, and the Linux version is standalone only.
- One effect per program. If you want several art styles, separate AKVIS programs add up quickly.
What Users Say
AKVIS Watercolor's reviews are mostly from its launch in 2016 and 2017, from tech publishers and Mac user groups. We found no ratings for it on the large user-review sites and no recent independent tests, so take these as early impressions.
The Kleper Report in Digital Publishing
"Even using the default settings, the software elegantly converts a standard digital image into a sophisticated watercolor rendering, with appropriate levels of detail and color." Michael Kleper, version 1.0
"There is no easier method that we have seen to create beautiful watercolor masterpieces without any artistic training." Michael Kleper, version 2.0
Imaging Resource and MaUsE
"The software, available as a standalone application or Photoshop plug-in, is designed to be easy to use. You simply select your desired settings and then run the processing." Jeremy Gray, Imaging Resource, December 6, 2016 (version 1.0)
"The type of brush strokes, colour saturation, lighting and edges can be heavily modified to give different effects in order to achieve desired results." Michael Shaw, MaUsE DoubleClick, December 2016 (version 1.0)
AKVIS also lists a Best of Soft 2016 award from PC Magazine Russian Edition. The common thread is ease of use and a good result from the defaults. We found no published criticism of the program, which says more about how little it has been reviewed than about it having no flaws.
Editions and Pricing
| License | Price at checkout | Edition | Use | What you get |
|---|
| Home Standalone | $49 | Standalone app only | Personal, non-commercial | Both styles, decoration, batch, Crop, no PSD |
| Home Plugin | $49 | Plugin only | Personal, non-commercial | Both styles, decoration, batch, PSD, no Crop |
| Home Deluxe | $69 | Plugin and standalone | Personal, non-commercial | Adds Abstract Art, Stroke Direction, brushes |
| Business | $89 | Plugin and standalone | Commercial use allowed | Everything in Deluxe |
Buy Home Standalone ($49)Buy Home Plugin ($49)Buy Home Deluxe ($69)Buy Business ($89)
FAQs
Is AKVIS Watercolor a subscription?
No. AKVIS Watercolor is a one-time purchase and the license never expires. Updates are free for 12 months; after that, a newer version costs $19.95, or $49.95 to update all your AKVIS programs.
Does the AKVIS Watercolor Home license include both styles?
Yes. AKVIS Watercolor Home includes both Classic and Contour Watercolor, along with presets, paper textures, frames, text and batch processing. Deluxe adds the Abstract Art tab, Stroke Direction and finishing brushes.
Can I upgrade AKVIS Watercolor Home to Deluxe later?
Yes. AKVIS charges the difference: $20 from Home to Home Deluxe, $40 from Home to Business, and $20 from Home Deluxe to Business.
Can AKVIS Watercolor process video?
No. AKVIS Watercolor works on still images. AKVIS sells a separate Watercolor Video plugin for After Effects and Premiere Pro, with its own license.
Does AKVIS Watercolor run on Apple Silicon Macs?
Yes. AKVIS Watercolor supports Intel and M1 Macs on macOS 10.12 Sierra through macOS 27.
How many computers does an AKVIS Watercolor license cover?
Every AKVIS Watercolor license registers on 2 computers, and the two can run different operating systems.
Can I sell prints made with AKVIS Watercolor?
Only with the Business license. AKVIS Watercolor Home and Home Deluxe are for non-commercial personal use.
System Requirements
- Windows: Windows 7-11, 32 or 64-bit. Minimum Pentium IV and 4 GB RAM, recommended Core i5 and 8 GB RAM.
- macOS: 10.12 Sierra to macOS 27, 64-bit. Minimum Intel and 4 GB RAM, recommended Intel or M1 and 8 GB RAM.
- Linux: 64-bit Debian, Ubuntu, Red Hat, CentOS, Fedora or openSUSE, standalone only. Minimum Core i3 and 8 GB RAM, recommended Core i5 and 16 GB RAM.
- Plugin: needs a photo editor that supports plugins.
Conclusion
AKVIS Watercolor is worth it if you want watercolor prints and gifts from your photos without learning to paint. Unlike several AKVIS programs, the $49 Home license is genuinely usable, with both painting styles included, so you only need Deluxe for abstract effects and hand finishing. The reason to buy is how quickly the two styles produce convincing, print-ready paintings. The main reason not to is that it does one thing, and the reviews are old: run the 10-day trial on your own photos before you pay.
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