How to Turn an Image into a Cartoon in Photoshop

Original Image to be Turned into a Cartoon

This article will teach you how to easily turn any image into a cartoon using two Photoshop Filters. You don't need any prior knowledge
of Photoshop.

Things You'll Need

• Adobe Photoshop (any version should be fine)
• An image that you would like to turn into a cartoon

Instructions

1. 

   Open the image up in Photoshop, and duplicate the background by holding down Control on Windows,Command on Mac, and pressing the J key. This creates a new layer from the background layer. You can now hide the background layer if you wish. All this does is provide you with a backup copy of your image, in case you mess it up and want to go back. nce the image is open, you need to utilize a filter in Photoshop called
   Poster Edges. It is under the Filter menu. Filter->Artistic->Poster Edges. I recommend leaving the settings at their default value for your first try, and then going back and tweaking them later until you get an effect you like.

2. 

   Press OK to tell Photoshop to go ahead and Poster the Edges of your image. Your new image should look similar to the example I have provided at the left. The little black smudges are SUPPOSED to be there - if they aren't, try going back through my directions and trying again. You don't have to do this step to get a cartoon effect in Photoshop, but it generally improves the result greatly.

3. 

   Now you want to use another filter called Cutout. You can find it under the Filter menu: Filter->Artistic->Cutout. The image to the left shows where this is as well. Again, I recommend that you leave the settings at their default value, and then go back and change them if you aren't happy with the result. Click OK to tell Photoshop to go ahead and Cutout your image - this will hopefully give you a cartoon effect.

4. 

   Check to make sure your final result is similar to mine. If it isn't, go back through the directions and make sure you did everything correctly. If the filters worked, but you aren't happy with the result, now is a good time to revert back to your background copy and experiment with the settings in Poster Edges and Cutout. You will find that the results vary greatly, depending on the image that you are using.