# Pochade – Reference Photo Prep — Grid, crop & value study tool

> Grid, crop & value study tool (iPhone/iPad app by John Fowler.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/pochade-reference-photo-prep/id6759844707 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [John Fowler](https://appshunter.io/developer/1508765768)
- Category: Graphics & Design, Photo & Video
- Price: Free with in-app purchases
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 26.0 · 24 MB
- Languages: American English
- Released: 2026-03-12
- Data updated: 2026-07-29
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/pochade-reference-photo-prep/id6759844707/reviews.md

## What is Pochade?

**Pochade is free to try with included sample images. Unlock importing your own photos with a single one-time purchase of $9.99. No subscription, no ads, yours forever.**

Pochade is a focused reference prep app for painters. Import a photo, study its values, compose your framing, and plan your grid — all before brush hits canvas.

No AI generation. No social features. No clutter. Just the reference tools painters actually need, designed for iPad.

STUDY VALUES WITH CLARITY
The hardest part of painting from a photo is seeing the value structure. Pochade simplifies your reference into 2–9 tonal steps so you can map out your lights and darks before you start mixing paint.
A live luminance histogram shows your overall tonal distribution. Select any value bucket to isolate it with a mask overlay, making it easy to see exactly where each tone falls in your composition.

COMPOSE YOUR FRAMING
Crop non-destructively with preset aspect ratios (1:1, 3:2, 4:3, 5:4) or use the original framing. Your source image is never altered — adjust your composition as many times as you need.

OVERLAY A PLANNING GRID
Add a customizable grid overlay to plan your drawing transfer. Choose your row and column count (2–12 each), pick a color that reads well against your image, and adjust line thickness. The grid respects your crop, so what you see is what you'll paint.

TOGGLE GRAYSCALE
Switch to grayscale to strip away color and focus purely on value relationships — the foundation of every strong painting.

BUILT FOR HOW PAINTERS WORK
Your sessions save automatically as you adjust tools. Come back tomorrow or next week and pick up right where you left off. Undo and redo are built in, up to 50 steps deep.
A session library keeps your references organized with thumbnail previews and tool state badges so you can see at a glance what you've done with each image.
Zen mode hides all controls so you can evaluate your reference without distraction. Pan, zoom, and rotate to inspect details.

BUILT NATIVELY FOR iPAD AND iPHONE
Pochade is built natively for iPad and iPhone. Everything runs on-device. Your photos and sessions stay on your iPad, nothing is uploaded anywhere.

Privacy Policy: [link]
Terms of Use: [link]

## Pricing and in-app purchases

Base price: Free.

**One-time purchases**

| Purchase | Price | Type |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Pochade Pro | $9.99 | one-time |



## Version history (last 4 releases)

### 1.2.1 — 2026-07-24

Zen mode is now on iPhone

### 1.2 — 2026-07-07

Pochade is now on iPhone!

Your painting references now travel with you. This release brings the full Pochade experience to iPhone, redesigned for one hand and smaller canvases:

- A compact library with full-width landscape tiles, so every reference gets room to breathe
- A streamlined editor with the tool bar within thumb's reach and inspectors that slide up only when you need them
- All four tools (crop, grayscale, grid, and values) rebuilt for the compact layout, including a new sparkline value analysis view

Also in this release:

- Tap the active tool to put it away — deselecting a tool now hides its inspector, giving your reference the whole canvas

As always: import a photo, prep it, and get back to painting.

### 1.1 — 2026-03-27

Export for Procreate
You can now export your session as a layered PSD file and open it directly in Procreate. Each layer (reference image, grayscale, value study, grid overlay) arrives separately, so you can toggle them on and off as you paint.

A new config sheet lets you choose which layers to include before exporting, with a live file size estimate as you toggle. Reference is always included, everything else is up to you.
Save as Image lets you export a flat JPEG snapshot of your current view.
Also fixed: export now waits gracefully if the image pipeline is still rendering, and grid overlays no longer appear with a black background in exported files.

### 1.0 — 2026-03-12

No release notes.

---

*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 2026-07-29.*