16 Methods to Turn Pictures into Cartoons for Free on Windows/Mac/Android/iOS/Online

Last Updated on February 23, 2023 by Peter Wood


It is funny to create a cartoon avatar by yourself. Making pictures look like cartoons is one of the experiments with photo editing for those who love photography.

Your friends around you might use a picture in a cartoon in their social profile, such as TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, Line, WhatsApp, etc. you may also want to turn your selfie photo into a cartoon. Then you may wonder what are the best photo editors and how to make them.

The article introduces you 15 best ways to turn pictures into cartoons. Whether you need to make a special cartoon from your portrait or have a landscape cartoon, here you can get the desired cartoon maker for different platforms, including Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS.

Turn Photo into Cartoon

Part 1. How to Turn a Picture into a Cartoon Online for Free (8 Ways)

Many people prefer to use online cartoon pic editors as they are compatible to more platforms and allow you to make photos into cartoon at anytime and anywhere.

Since there are lots of online pic cartoon maker on the internet, we pick 8 top online picture into cartoon makers out for your reference. You can choose one of them to make your photo into a cartoon with easy steps.




1. Fotor.com - Turn Photos into Cartoons

Fotor.com is a popular online photo editor that most people know for free photo editing with well-designed interface. There are many unique and creative images you can design with. Moreover, the stickers and clip art from Fotor are also the top choice for most people.

With it, you can turn any photos into cartoons easily.

How to turn a photo into a cartoon with Fotor

Step 1. Open Fotor.com and upload your image to the site.

Step 2. Go to the sticker and clip art to select the specific cartoonized photo effect you like.

Step 3. Preview your artwork and share it to Facebook, Instagram and other photo-sharing places by one click.

Turn Photo into Cartoon with Fotor

2. Befunky.com - Turn Pics into Cartoons in One Click

Befunky.com is one of the early website that launched a single effect called the Cartoonizer. At that time, you can mail Befunky a photo, and let cartoonists in Befunky turn your photo into a cartoon and mail it back to you. Nowadays, Cartoonizer is one of the most popular effects of Befunky photo editor online.

How to turn picture into cartoon with Befunky Cartoonizer?

It is very easy to make your picture a cartoon with Befunky. Just a single click of Cartoonizer and you will go from photo to cartoon in seconds.

Step 1. Click the Open button at the top sidebar of online Befunky photo editor. You can upload a photo from your computer, or choose a photo from your Google Drive or Google Photos account, or even from Befunky stock images.

Step 2. Choose a digital art from Artsy of the left sidebar and click one of the effects. The cartoon photo filters will directly apply cartoon photo effects to your photo.

Step 3. When you feel satisfied with the effect, you can choose Save at the top sidebar to download it to your computer, save to your Google Drive or Google Photos, or even save it as the project for further editing.

Tip: In fact, this making photos into cartoons feature on Befunky can only be used for BeFunky Plus which charges annual subscription fee.

Befunky Cartoonizer Make Photo to Cartoon

3. Toonyphotos.com - Turn any Image into Cartoon

Toonyphotos is a website that mainly helps you making cartoons from pictures for free. You can cartoonize yourself to make great social profile pictures to impress your friends and family. Moreover, you can even turn your house, car and pets images into cartoons as well!

How to make your picture into a cartoon with Toonyphotos

Step 1. Enter the toonyphotos.com on the browser.

Step 2. Click Start Turning Photos into Cartoons! Button to enter the photo into cartoon editing webpage. Then click Choose Photo button to upload a photo from your computer.

Step 3. Outline the region of the uploaded picture you need to turn into a cartoon. Stop outlining by clicking the right mouse button. Then click Render to start cartooning your photo.

Note: Since your outlined region may affect cartooning a photo, you may better outline more regions to get a more detailed cartoon photo.

Step 4. After applying, click View to preview the cartoon photo or directly click Download to download it.

Turn Photo to Cartoon with Toonyphotos

4. Pho.to - Make Pictures into Cartoons online

Cartoon.pho.to has a face-morphing feature, which make a caricature of portraits. Pho.to cartoon maker enables you to apply cartoon filter to all kinds of photos.

How to turn photo into caricature with pho.to

You can make interesting cartoons out of photos with easy steps.

Step 1. Access cartoon.pho.to in any browser. Upload the picture you want to make to cartoon with options of from disk, Enter URL or From Facebook.

Step 2. After loaded, it will deal with the picture automatically.

Note: If your picture contains face, you can add animation by ticking the checkbox of Face Morphing or crop face by ticking the Face auto crop checkbox.

Step 3. Click Save and share button and save the cartoon photo to local hard drive by hitting the Download button or share it online with the URL.

Tip: When you want to turn portrait images into cartoon, cartoon.pho.to would be your better choice as it offers different types of funny effects for portraits.

Turn Picture into Cartoon with Pho.to Win Download Mac Download

5. TheCartoonist.me - Turn Images into Cartoon Professionally

TheCartoonist.me is a professional photo to cartoon web converter. If you need to make a different portrait to express yourself for social media, it is the best solution.

How to cartoonize a photo with TheCartoonist.me

Before turning photos into cartoons, you have to select a front portrait photograph with clear view.

Step 1. Click the UPLOAD button to select your photo to make cartoon.

Step 2. After uploading, enter your name and email address.

Step 3. Process the payment and wait to receive the cartoon portrait in 24 hours. When you receive your cartoon, you can download it as a JPEG profile picture and use it on your social media accounts.

Note: If you want to make some changes to the cartoon, you can only adjust a face or body part, make color correction or size adjustment. It is impossible to convert photo to cartoon with extra accessories or have a new design.

Make Picture to Cartoon with TheCartoonist

6. Cartoonize.net - Instantly Create, Edit and Make Photos into Cartoons

Cartoonize.net is an easy to use online photo to cartoon tool that enables users to make a cartoon manually.

How to make cartoon pictures with Cartoonize.net

Step 1. Click Open to add the photos from computer, and zoom in the photo to view the details of the photo before converting.

Step 2. Choose Cartoonizer effect from the Effects section at the left sidebar. Apply one of the cartoon effects to your photo.

Step 3. Preview the cartoonized photo and click Save at the top sidebar of the window when you feel satisfied with the effect.

Cartoonize Portrait Images with Cartoonize.net

7. PicturetoPeople.org - Turn Photo into Cartoon Illustrations free

PicturetoPeople.org is a free online cartoon photo effect creator with numerous cartoon effects. With this Picture to People online cartoon photo editor, you can generate your favorite portraits and landscapes into smooth cartoon styles with nice detail level.

How to turn a picture into a cartoon with PicturetoPeople.org

Step 1. Choose a photo by clicking the Choose File button, and load the images with JPG, PNG or GIF formats to convert into cartoon drawings.

Step 2. Adjust the color improvements, draw contours and half-toned drawing to get the desired result without getting instant preview for the final cartoon image.

Step 3. Click the View Effect Result to check the cartoon photo. If you are satisfied with the result, you can click the Download Result to turn your picture into cartoon. You can also share the cartoon to social media manually.

Make Cartoonized Image with PicturetoPeople

8. Lunapic.com - Make Pictures into Cartoons Online for Free

Lunapic.com is a free online photo editor which provides various editing tools like cropping, adding text, etc. and more than 200 effects and filters to help you easily edit your images according to your need.

How to make a photo into a cartoon with Lunapic

If you want to make a photo into a cartoon, just follow the instruction below:

Step 1. Click Upload on the top sidebar and choose an image from your computer for LunaPic editing.

Step 2. Choose Cartoon from Effects drop list on the top sidebar. Just one click, your photo will become cartoon automatically.

Note: There are the Adobe Photoshop-like filters on the left sidebar for you to further editing your cartoonized image.

Step 3. If you like the photo, you can click the Save button below the photo to download it directly. Or you can share this image on Facebook, Twitter, Google Photos, etc.

Turn Image to Cartoon with Lunapic Win Download Mac Download

Part 2. How to Convert Photo to Cartoon on Windows 10/8/7 and macOS

1. Make Cartoons from Portraits and Landscapes with WidsMob AI Retoucher

How to make some stunning landscapes and portraits automatically? Since the AI algorithms to turn portraits into cartoons are quite different from the ones for landscapes, WidsMob AI Retoucher is a versatile cartoon maker with both algorithms, including Classic and Portrait. Besides, you can also tweak the cartoons with a series of HSL enhancements, color adjustments, and noise reductions.

  1. Turn both landscapes and portraits into cartoons with different AIs.
  2. Provide multiple editing features, like rotate, flip, crop, compare, etc.
  3. Edit portraits via skin softening and blemish removal before conversion.
  4. Touch up images with AI retouching, filters, AI style transfer, and more.
Win Download Mac Download

Step 1. Once you have installed WidsMob AI Retoucher, you can launch the program on your computer. Click the Import button to add the desired photo to the program. Moreover, you can also drag-n-drop multiple images for a batch process.

Import Photos Retoucher

Step 2. When you need to further edit the portrait photo or landscape photo conversion, double-click the image and choose the Face Clean option with the AI algorithm. It enables you to soften skin, whiten skin, remove shine, and remove eye circles.

Touch Up Portrait Retoucher

Step 3. To turn portraits into cartoons, you can click the AI Cartoonization menu and choose the Portrait mode. Make sure you are using portraits for bursts or selfies. Just choose the Crop menu to cut out the desired image before conversion.

Convert Portrait to Cartoon Retoucher Landscape to Cartoon Retoucher

Step 4. Of course, you can also click the Adjust menu to tweak the whole series of HSL enhancement, color adjustment, and noise reduction settings before clicking the Save As button. After that, you can share the file with your friends via social media apps.

2. Turn Pictures into Cartoons with Clip Studio Paint on macOS and Windows

If you want to make cartoon pictures professionally, you can try Clip Studio Paint that is an artist’s software for drawing and painting. This program can be used on Windows, macOS, Chromebook, iPad, iPhone, Galaxy and Android. So if you want to find a cross-platform cartoon image pro software, this would be your best choice.

Win Download Mac Download

How to turn photo into cartoon with Clip Studio Paint

Before starting, keep in mind the important elements that make the portrait recognized:

  • The shape of the face
  • The shape of the eyes
  • The shape of the nose
  • The shape of the mouth and lips
  • The way the hair frames the face
Learn Portrait Shape before Making Cartoon Image

Step 1. Start drawing according to the portrait image with Draft and Lineart. This would need you have some drawing skills. Don’t hesitate to go back and forth quickly between your drawing and your reference.

Draw Draft Portrait with Clip Studio Paint

Step 2. After making the line drawing, put the color base. In the process, color your background first as it will influence your cartoon image color. Then color the cartoon portrait as you like.

Color Cartoon Portrait with Clip Studio Paint

Step 3. Do some modification to make the cartoon more vivid. Then you can output your cartoon portrait pic and use it as your social media profile picture.

Compare turning photos into cartoons with photoshop, using Clip Studio Paint would be better as it is more focus on cartoon creation. So if you try to use a more professional cartoon maker, Clip Studio Paint would suit you.

Win Download Mac Download

3. Cartoonize a photograph with Paint.net on Windows 10/8/7

Paint.net is a free photo editor for Windows, depending on the .Net framework. As one of the best alternative for Microsoft Paints, Paint.net offers more effects and features, including making cartoon photos with personal images.

Step 1: Import photo

Launch Paint.net and go to File-> Open to import the photo you want to convert to cartoon from hard disk.

Step 2: Add effect

Unfold the Effects menu on top ribbon and choose Ink Sketch from the Artistic option. This photo effect has two parameters, Ink Outline and Coloring. You can adjust them until you see the satisfactory result and then click OK button to confirm it.

Step 3: Simulate cartoon

Go to Effects-> Noise and choose Median effect. Then you can modify the values of Radius and Percentile as you wish.

Tips: Radius is better at a low value. And you can repeat step 2 and step 3 multiple times to get perfect result.

Step 4: Fill background

Change the background of the photo with a dramatic color or cartoon style effect. Also, you can add some cartoon like text on the cartoon photo.

Then save the paint to local disk.

Turn Picture to Cartoon with Paint.net

Part 3. Top 5 best Turning Pictures into Cartoons Apps on Android and iOS


1. Cartoon Photo Editor (Android)

Cartoon Photo Editor is a free photo to cartoon app that lets you do some artwork on your photos and make them into funny pictures. You can use a lot of filters to edit your photo and extract it into a cartoon image.

It is available for Android phones including Android 4.4 or later. The easy-to-use single tap effects allow users to turn photos to cartoons directly with setting your built-in camera of Android phone into the magic wand. Once you open and take photos through Cartoon photo editor on Android, you can turn the world to the Disney-style sceneries.

Make Cartoon Like Picture with Cartoon Photo Editor

2. Cute Face Image Maker (Android)

Cute Face Image Maker is one of the best android apps to create your photo into a cartoon art. With this cartoon picture maker app, you can change your photos into cartoons, sketches, oil paintings, pencil drawing and more.

Make Pictures Cartoons with Cute Face Image Maker Win Download Mac Download

3. Clip2Comic (iOS)

Clip2Comic is a cartoon, sketch and caricature maker to help you transform pictures and videos into authentic, high-resolution cartoons, caricatures and sketches with quick comic style filters and creative photo editing tools.

Turn Pic into Cartoon with Clip2Comic

4. Cartoon yourself & caricature (iOS)

Cartoon yourself & caricature offers various video effects and photo filters to cartoonize caricature from your selfie photos. It can imitate any emotion or make a fun face morph in seconds. Cartoon yourself & caricature has a user-friendly interface to let you turn photo into cartoon easily.

Make Picture into Cartoon with Cartoon yourself & caricature

5. Cartoon Camera + (iOS)

Cartoon Camera + is an amazing camera and photo app to create cartoon effect like photography with your camera. You can choose cartoon or pencil sketch effects and take photos or convert existing photos to sketch or cartoon and share with your friends.

Make Photo into Cartoon with Cartoon Camera +

Wrapped Up

In this article, we introduce how to turn photos into cartoons online, on Windows, macOS, iOS, or Android phones. Just keep in mind that the style of cartoon effect you wanna achieve is also an important factor you need to consider. Just choose one of the above solutions according to your need. After that, you can download them and make some stunning cartoons according to your requirements.

Win Download Mac Download