# Grid Painter — user reviews > 54 indexed App Store user reviews of Grid Painter by bigpantsgroup LLC, rated 4.80/5 from 393 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/grid-painter/id1089049611/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/grid-painter/id1089049611.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 351 · 4★ 28 · 3★ 5 · 2★ 3 · 1★ 6 ## What do users think of Grid Painter? Overall sentiment: positive **Pros** - 👍 Easy to use and navigate - 🎨 Great for drawing and painting accuracy - 📐 Helpful for grids and composition - 💡 Useful for value study and grayscale conversion - ⏱️ Saves time for artists - 🖼️ Customization of canvas and grid size - ✨ Versatile tool for artists - 🖌️ Good for portraiture and complex subjects - ✅ Does Notan and value studies effectively - 💯 Worth buying and highly recommended **Cons** - 🐛 Grid lines too thick - 🔄 Rotation issues with square photos - 🗂️ Cropping feature uses absolute values, not ratios - 🚫 Inability to print with grid - ⚠️ Cropping feature can freeze - 📂 Saving/retrieving images can be unreliable - 🖼️ Resizing issues without maintaining aspect ratio - 📱 Crashing when changing canvas to Landscape **Commonly reported bugs** - Cannot upload photos from desktop - Grid width too thick even at lowest setting - Photo library update message with no update available - Grid would not reset - App crashes when changing canvas to Landscape - Resizing won't maintain aspect ratio and image disappears - Stop work after last update - Annoying bug: rotates square format photos with Notan/grayscale - Cropping feature only allows absolute values (inches), not ratios - Cropping feature freezes the page - Cannot get saved images back - Inability to print image with grid - Email developers function freezes - Crop feature does not work **Most requested features** - Allow uploading photos from desktop directly - Lock canvas size and adapt photo to fit - Approximate color in levels section for palette preview - Sort projects - Different grid styles (isometric, diagonal) - Select grid opacity - User-selectable number of rows and columns for grids - Add movable lines for grid customization - Combine multiple grids without screenshots - Geometrically sound grid drawing method (X through corners, etc.) ## Newest reviews (16 of 54) ### 4/5 — Quite good *2026-04-12* Now I am getting the hang of it I am managing to get useful grids - It wont let me upload the photos I want to use from my desktop, but I am working round that by putting them into my photos library and then it lets me take them from there. **Developer response:** I’m sorry you are having trouble with that. In the info button is a link to email support and we can help you figure it out ### 5/5 — Useful and Simple *2024-11-27, version 2.75* Just a few minutes learning the options is all that are needed to use the app. ### 4/5 — Grid painter *2024-11-10* This app is fantastic. The only thing I would like it to do is to enable me to lock in a canvas size and then adapt my photo to fit that size. Maybe that’s possible and I just haven’t discovered it yet. **Developer response:** Yes you can! Just hit the lock button on the top left of the side bar. It unlocks the image from the canvas. Scale and move it around and when you are satisfied just tap the lock again to lock it down. ### 5/5 — Useful Art Tool *2024-08-16, version 2.79* Very helpful for gridding out complicated subjects like trees on the the go ### 5/5 — Great painting aid *2024-08-13* I use this app almost every time I started painting. Even outdoors, using my iPad sometimes. It helps me get my drawing down right before I start painting and allows me to see values if I switch to grayscale. ### 5/5 — So helpful! *2024-06-09* Easy to navigate and “figure out” as you go. I dabbled in painting here and there (for many years) and decided it was time to take a lesson. My lessons require to paint in a very different way, i.e. note values, draw with brush, paint in darks first, etc. this app helps me see values and simplify shapes. A great tool in my painting journey! ### 5/5 — My painter starter *2024-02-18* I use this app to crop my photos and convert them to greyscale and notan to analyze the composition. I then apply a grid and work from the image to draw on watercolor paper. I use this process both en Plein air and studio. It saves a lot of time I used to spend on multiple preliminary sketches. ### 5/5 — Gridpainter *2024-02-17* I do most of the drawing in my life from photographs occasionally from live sources. In either context, this is an invaluable tool for getting the image from my camera onto my paper! Takes a little practice at first, but then it becomes second nature. I love this and couldn’t do art without it. **Developer response:** We are flattered. Thank you. ### 5/5 — Liking this *2024-02-09, version 2.79* I haven’t printed anything , but so far I like it. ### 5/5 — GridPainter *2024-01-29* Very versatile. Provides all the functionality I need as an artist. Customisation of grids and the ability to vary the grayscales are just what I need. A great app. ### 5/5 — Great app every painter needs *2023-11-13* Does everything I need. Would be nice to be able to sort the projects. ### 4/5 — Love it *2023-11-12* I love this app but recently it’s been crashing when I change the canvass to Landscape ### 5/5 — Handy Tool *2023-04-06, version 2.75* I found this to be a handy tool to guide my oil paintng. The grid helps be draw an image on my canvas. The gray scale helps me chose the correct value for my colors. ### 5/5 — Excellent app *2023-03-16* Found this app so useful with regards my artwork ### 5/5 — Great app for value study and sizing (cropping). *2022-09-14, version 2.79* I took a David Boyd, Jr class at The Booth Museum in Cartersville,GA and David recommended this app. ### 5/5 — Good stuff *2022-08-08, version 2.79* Built-in Notan is good ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Cannot get it to work *2024-11-25* I bought this app as a package with Notanizer. However, I have yet to be able to get it to work with my IMac. Every time I try to upload photos, I get the message “To view and select photos, update your photo library”. But there is no update! ### 1/5 — Grid *2024-06-12, version 2.79* Would not reset! Very annoying. When I first started using it, it worked fine. Now it will not reset back to original. ### 1/5 — What happened *2021-09-30, version 2.77* Used to work great. Now when resizing won’t allow maintaining aspect ratio and image just disappears ### 1/5 — Does not work *2017-10-19* The crop feature does not work. The page freezes and does not let you crop OR cancel out of it. I have to shut the app down, reopen it and start over. I can use the grid, but I need the cropping feature I paid for. Also, when sending an email to the developers from the app regarding this issue I discovered that the contact page with my composed email also just stayed open after I hit Send. There is no way to know if the email was sent or not. The only choices on the page are to hit Send or Cancel. Hit Send and you get nothing, hit Cancel and it asks if you want to delete your draft - implying that the email did not send. (However I had cc myself and found I had an email in my inbox for every time I had hit send!) Again, the only way to leave this page is to close the app, then open again to get to the main page. Totally frustrating. This app does not do what it claims it can and has been a waste of my time and money. **Developer response:** The release of IOS 11 unfortunately broke our app. We are fortunate that we have some great users who emailed us and worked with us to correct the issues. We also we able to find a better way to handle some memory issues and now it’s runs smooth and fast. ### 2/5 — Not Perfect *2022-07-06* The description makes it sound like you can choose different grid styles. I was needing isometric or diagonal which they do not have. Misleading description and I feel like I wasted my money. **Developer response:** There are 5 different grid patterns included based on the most popular ones as well as suggested by our users. If you need a different pattern please reach out to us. ### 2/5 — Has annoying bug; disappointing cropping feature *2020-05-20* I decided to purchase this app primarily for the notan and grayscale features (there are free grid apps available) as well as its apparent ability to crop an image to custom sizes. Unfortunately, I quickly discovered a really annoying issue that makes the notan and grayscale feature pretty much worthless to me (and thus the app): for no reason whatsoever, it always rotates any square format photo when either of these filters is applied. Since I work in square format a lot, this is clearly a significant issue. There is no button or anything that I could see that would allow for me to un-rotate the image. The crop feature is also next to useless in that it only allows for absolute values - in inches - instead of ratios, like 1:2 or 3:4, etc. You plug in the size in inches and the crop borders remain fixed; there is no way I can figure out to expand or contract either the image or the crop grid to actually resize the picture. It is not a vector scaled cropping feature, in other words. Which is inexcusable: why would it be necessary to define an image on an iPad with actual inches vs. simple customizable and standard ratios? Answer: it isn’t. I wrote to the developers, waited a week, and heard nothing. Maybe seeing a poor public review will prompt a response and maybe some action to fix the rotation issue and poor cropping feature. At this point, I’d say if you are looking for an app with good functionality in terms of cropping, and especially if you’re ever trying to apply the non-grid features to your square format images, definitely skip this one 🙄. **Developer response:** V2.71 fixes the rotation issue as sometimes photos came in rotated sideways which would show up during the filter process of creating the Notan images. We are always open to suggestions for improvement of our apps based on what the user wants. In fact the latest version includes a 1/4 grid in addition to the 1/3 etc. The cropping feature is freehand. Just drag the edges to the content. We figured most people wanted to just grab a corner of an image, say a face or just a portion of something else. It’s not really designed to do any post image processing, just to help you generally layout your canvas and get you started. We are trying to keep it as simple as possible without it turning into a Photoshop clone. But if some simple 1 button cropping is a need of the group we would be happy to look into it. As far as the email goes, I answer every one we get almost immediately and it surprises people. Although I was out camping the last 10 days for some much needed outdoor time. Are you sure it went through? ### 2/5 — Unreliable *2020-02-05* I want to like this app however when I save an image I never seem to be able to get it back. It tells me to make sure it still exists in my library, which it does. It’s very frustrating as I take the time to set an image the way I want and unless I finish it all in one shot I have to spend so much time trying to get it the way I had originally set it. **Developer response:** Yes that was an issue. We have rebuilt the database and checked every setting and now it behaves the way you expect. ### 3/5 — Grid too thick *2026-02-10, version 2.75* Grid width, even at the lowest setting, is too thick. ### 3/5 — Review *2019-09-16, version 2.60* The apparent inability to print the image with the grid is a severe limitation. ### 3/5 — Not ideal *2019-06-10* I was hoping that the custom grid feature would allow for truly customizable grids but it does not. It would be great if the user could combine multiple grids without taking a screenshot in app and applying a second grid over the screenshot image. It would also be nice if it had a feature where the user could select the number of rows and columns instead of merely adjusting the size of the grid squares. It would also be nice if the user could add movable lines to customize it further. The art school I graduated from taught the method of drawing an x through the canvas from opposing corners and then a cross through the center and further refinement by doing the same within the smaller shapes generated which end in rectangles of the same ratio as the canvas. Geometrically this makes more sense than breaking the grid out into squares, especially if using a non standard ratio canvas. It is also easier than carrying around a ruler to measure out squares on the canvas. Overall it was a bit disappointing and I would have been willing to pay more if it were compatible with the way i use grids. **Developer response:** The are hundreds of ways to grid an image that work for many people. We have the Focal Point which does put the x across the image but we have never heard of continuing subdividing the x into smaller sections. We build these apps for you so if you have any requests for a function please reach out to us using the built in email feature and let us know if you have ways of making our app even better. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Easy to use and very versatile *2026-07-14* I have to reteach myself how to use the app when I am away from it for too long, but that being said I am perfectly able to reteach myself as it is so user friendly. I highly recommend it. ### 5/5 — Best app for artists *2026-05-24* This is the best app for getting an accurate drawing and so helpful for seeing values ### 5/5 — Daily composition helper *2026-03-18* This program helps with my daily painting, and make sure the composition is sound ### 5/5 — So helpful for drawing! *2025-12-19* This is a wonderful tool to save time when drawing buildings or birds! I don’t have to keep redrawing or erasing lines since the proportions are always correct with the grids. You can customize the size of the canvas which is also very helpful. Love this app! ### 5/5 — Useful tool *2025-07-10* Easy to use what is available. ### 5/5 — Does Notan, value and grid *2025-05-17* You don’t need to pay for the painters bundle. This does both effectively. ### 5/5 — Great Artist Tool *2025-05-11, version 2.75* Use this all the time to grid and print to size my designs ### 5/5 — Excellent App *2025-05-03* I use grid painter almost everyday. It always works perfectly. I love the options to customize the size of the canvas and grid too. The ability to go from color, to notanize, to gray scale is very convenient too. This app is very worth buying and I am glad I found it. ### 5/5 — Everyday *2025-04-28, version 2.75* As an artist, I find myself using this app everyday. Thank you! It has helped me understand perspective a little more. - Su ### 5/5 — Everything you need to paint reference *2025-03-01, version 2.75* This is the perfect tool, everything is useful to paint from reference. Grid to draw. Then can check values with the levels. Crop, canvas size. Everything is easy to use. A cool feature would be to approximate a color in the levels section so you can get a sense of what palette of colors would look like. We usually use the levels to determine values and then pick colors based on those limited values, so taking the levels a step further would be really cool. Thanks for making this otherwise amazing app. --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-09-03.*