Naver Webtoon to make English version of Toon Filter

Naver Webtoon, South Korean tech giant Naver’s digital comics platform, announced that the company is scheduled to launch an English version of its recent artificial intelligence art generator Toon Filter on Monday.

Toon Filter is Naver Webtoon’s AI image maker, which recreates the users’ selected photos in an art style from one of the company’s 10 beloved webtoon artists, including Lee Dong-geon of “Yumi’s Cells,” 232 of “Love Revolution,” Pak Tae-jun of “Lookism,” Oh Sung-dae of “Tales of the Unusual” and more.

Ranging from images of friends and family to food and pets, different kinds of photos are eligible for the generator's webtoon-style adaptation.

According to the company, Toon Filter created almost 20 million images within a week after its release on May 12.

Though the AI art generator was only available in Korean, more than 80 percent of its users were from overseas countries.

Indonesia, South Korea, Russia, the Philippines and Malaysia were the top five countries with the biggest number of Toon Filter users.

The US, Japan, Thailand, France and Italy are among 30 other countries which have used Toon Filter since its launch.

“Naver Webtoon initially launched Toon Filter with the goal of entertaining Korean readers,” a Naver Webtoon official told The Korea Herald on Monday. “Surprisingly, it also entertained overseas webtoon fans and we decided to launch an English version of Toon Filter for webtoon fans across the globe.”

Though the exact release date of the English version of Toon Filter is yet to be decided, Naver Webtoon aims to launch the global version as soon as possible, according to the official.

“As the 10 webtoon artists agreed on implementing their webtoon series only in the Korean Toon Filter, we need to talk with the creators once again and ask for their cooperation for the English version. (This may result in) more or fewer webtoon artists participating with the upcoming AI art generator,” the official said.

Meanwhile, romance webtoon series “Love Revolution” author 232 shared that she hoped Toon Filter will use more than the lead characters from webtoons to create diverse art works.