JixiPix's Sprektrel Art is free until 29 August

Spektrel Art is a smart Windows and Mac app/ Photoshop plugin which transforms images into digital works of art -- and it’s available for free until August 29th.

What does it do? The developer attempts to explain, saying it’s "an extravagant otherworldly display of undulating movement that glimmers and gleams with intersecting lines of tapered light". Umm, great.

What this means in real life is it emphasizes edges, smooths the background and enhances colors, often to spectacular effect.

The exact results will depend on your source image, but they often have a dreamlike quality, maybe a painted or drawn look, while also preserving a lot of detail of the original. Browse the product page for some examples.

There’s surprising scope for variation, too. For example, just switching from the "Light" to "Dark" theme can transform a bright and friendly image into something dark and sinister.

The good news: Spektrel Art is normally priced at $19.99, but is currently available for free, an offer that has been extended until August 29th.

The bad news: you can’t just download and install, but have to work your way through the normal registration process, which includes providing your physical and email addresses and your phone number.

Spektrel Art is an interesting program and we’d say it’s probably worth signing up. If you’re in doubt, grab the trial build (Mac) instead. You’ll be able to see what it can do with your own source images, although the "Save" option is disabled.

Spektrel Art is available for Windows Vista and later and Mac.