
Free
In-App Purchases
About
Trace anything onto paper. Traceur gives you a complete tracing studio on your iPad or iPhone — adjust your reference image, then choose how you want to work.
Two ways to trace
• Tracing paper over the screen — lay tracing paper directly on your device, push the reference to full opacity, and trace what's right under your hand. Works flat on a desk.
• Camera overlay — mount the iPad above your drawing surface in a stand. The live camera shows your paper; the reference floats over it at any opacity you choose. Draw on the paper while watching the screen.
Tune the reference in real time with brightness, contrast, saturation, and sharpness sliders. Apply artistic styles like threshold, edge detection, posterize, comic effect, or invert to break a complex image down to the lines and shapes that matter. Drop a rule-of-thirds grid over the view to nail proportions.
Save complete projects — image plus every setting — so you can return to a piece exactly where you left it.
Built for graphite, ink, marker, watercolor, gouache — any medium where seeing the reference live unlocks faster, more accurate work.
Features
• Live camera view with adjustable overlay opacity
• Pan, pinch, and rotate to position the reference exactly
• Brightness, contrast, saturation, sharpness sliders
• Threshold, posterize, comic effect, color invert, photo styles
• Edge detection, Gaussian blur, pixelate, vignette
• Configurable rule-of-thirds grid — divisions, color, screen-locked or image-locked
• Adjustable camera zoom
• Floating control panel that drops into any corner
• Tap to hide controls — nothing in your way while you draw
• Projects: save and restore complete sessions with thumbnails
• Mark Lock: print a small reference marker, place it on your paper, and the overlay tracks the marker so the iPad can shift without losing alignment
Privacy
Traceur runs entirely on-device. No accounts, no cloud, no analytics, no third-party SDKs. Camera frames are processed locally and never recorded. Imported images stay in the app's private sandbox.
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What's New in Traceur
1.5
July 2, 2026
iPhone support. I don't have an iPhone, so have tested in the simulator as best I can. Let me know if you have any issues.
1
In-App Purchases
$5.99
Mark Lock
Follow reference image using QR code detection





