Tracewell: Trace Photos

Pick a photo, hold your phone over your paper, and Tracewell lays the photo on the page. It stays put as you move the phone and draw, so you can get the outline and proportions down and move on to the part you enjoy. In most tracing apps the photo is fixed to the screen, so the moment your phone shifts, the photo and your lines drift apart. Tracewell finds the edges of your paper and keeps the photo on them. ON PAPER • Hold your phone over a sheet of paper or an index card on a table. The photo lands on it in perspective, turned to match the sheet. • Move the phone, lift it and bring it back. The photo stays on the same spot of the page. • Slide or turn the paper and the photo goes with it. • Your hand shows on top of the photo, and so do your pen and the darker lines you've drawn. • An orange line marks the paper the photo is on. Tap other paper on the screen to move the photo there. • Reopen a tracing, point at the same paper, and the photo returns to its place on the page. ON A CANVAS OR A WALL • Tap a canvas, a wall or a bare table, and the photo lands where you tapped and stays there. • Drag, pinch and twist to size it. A label shows its real width while you resize. • The camera needs some texture to hold onto, so a plain painted wall or a plain white table may not work. Use Stand for those. PHONE ON A GLASS • Rest your phone on a glass or a stand above the paper and switch to Stand. The photo stays still on the screen, and both hands are free. • Snap fits the photo to the corners of the paper. • Drag the four corners to line it up by hand. • Switch to 0.5× to fit the whole sheet in view, on iPhones with an ultra-wide camera. TOOLS • Line art turns the photo into outlines. • Change the opacity, add a grid or flip the photo. • Hold the eye to hide the photo and check your lines. • Lock hides the controls so a stray touch can't move anything. • Turn on the flashlight when your desk is dim. • Record a time-lapse and save it to Photos. The video shows your paper and hand without the photo, and twenty minutes of drawing plays back in 40 seconds. • Start from a photo in Photos, or an image or the first page of a PDF in Files. PRICE Your first tracing is free, with every tool, and you can keep using it. Unlimited tracing is one purchase, paid once. There's no subscription, updates are free, and Family Sharing covers up to five family members. PRIVACY Your photos stay on your iPhone. Tracewell has no account, no ads and no tracking, and nothing the camera sees leaves your phone. Tracewell works on any iPhone with iOS 26 and doesn't need LiDAR.