Caricature Creator EZ

Caricature Creator EZ is an application that allows you to create funny faces by adding distortions.

As a result, you will get ludicrous exaggerations of human faces that will definitely make you smile.

The program comes with a neat and attractive interface that lets you load image files either by dragging and droping them or by browsing through your computer. Once a picture is imported, you can choose one of 12 standard distortion profiles provided and apply it to your photo right away. However, each time you press on the 'More random faces' button, new slides are generated, so that you can pick up the hilarious illustration you like best. It seems that the utility is mainly designed for creating distortions of human faces. In this sense, the app has a built-in face detector that automatically scans your picture looking for facial elements – like eyes, mouth, nose etc. – to apply artistic distortion effects to them. Yet, you can ignore the 'No face detected' warning and alter any image you want, no matter what its content is.

As it is a freeware tool, you will not find advanced image editing features. You can just control the color intensity and crop a selected area within a picture. The tool provides two effect filters – Poster and Gloom – which, honestly speaking, I didn't find outstanding. The preview however is large and generous, so that you can enjoy seeing the comic look of a distorted face. The resulting image can be saved in popular image file formats, such as JPEG, JPEG-2000, Open-EXR, PDF, PNG, and TIFF.

The essence of a caricature is to provoke laughter by exaggerating facial elements. You will get this effect effortlessly by selecting a distortion slider and applying it to your original photo. Still, the quality of the output image is questionable, as you are not provided with advanced editing features to make refined adjustments. In addition, you don't have any control on the distortions – it's not possible to create a manual distortion or to customize the default sliders.