Camera Lucida vs Simple Trace
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Camera Lucida
Transform your phone into a tracing projector using augmented reality. Overlay any image onto a surface and draw it with ease. Perfect for artists and hobbyists looking to enhance their drawing skills.
- Augmented reality drawing
- Trace images onto paper
- Intuitive user interface
- AR tracing templates
- Accurate perspective rendering
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Camera Lucida is a revolutionary app that brings the experience of drawing on paper to life with augmented reality. Create amazing drawings using your phone's camera and bring them to life! Our app makes it easy to draw on paper with the power of augmented reality. With its intuitive user interface, you can quickly create stunning artwork on any paper surface. Unleash your creativity and explore the possibilities of augmented reality with our app! Using Camera Lucida app is the same thing as always having a sheet of tracing paper. It allows you to duplicate key points of the scene on the drawing surface, thus aiding in the accurate rendering of perspective. Choose any image you'd like to draw then look at your screen while you trace the image on paper Our app is not affiliated with Camera Lucida app created by Peter Moeykens. We provide artists with our original AR tools and tracing templates. Privacy - https://playhawker.github.io/privacy/ Terms - https://playhawker.github.io/terms/ Support - playhawker@gmail.com
Simple Trace
This app helps beginners practice drawing and painting by allowing them to trace over photos and images. Load pictures from your camera roll and use a stylus to learn basic line drawing techniques. Save your traced creations as JPG files.
- Trace photos and pictures
- Practice drawing and painting
- Load images from camera roll
- Adjust image transmittance
- Zoom in and out
- Save drawings as JPG
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Simple Trace makes it easy to trace photos and pictures by hand. The concept is to be able to practice painting. Once you've loaded the image from your camera roll, it's easy to get started with Apple Pencil. By tracing the original picture, you can practice basic drawing such as how to draw lines in the illustration. Feature - Change of transmittance - Zoom in and out of the drawing area - Images can be saved as jpg
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Simple Trace at 1.5 against Camera Lucida's 1.0. Simple Trace also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 5) and review sentiment (33% vs 4%). Camera Lucida's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and device support (3 vs 1). On price, ratings volume and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Camera Lucida sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Simple Trace asks for nothing beyond the download.
Simple Trace holds the better App Store score, 1.5 against 1.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3 and 2 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 4% of Camera Lucida's written reviews are positive against 33% of Simple Trace's.
Camera Lucida ships an update every 6 weeks, Simple Trace every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 11, 2026 and September 27, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Camera Lucida | Simple Trace |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 1.0 (3 ratings) | 1.5 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 4.4% of reviews | 33.3% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 3 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Every 6 weeks | Every 2 weeks — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Ad-supported — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPad |
| Requires iOS | 14.4 | 13.2 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 207 MB | 5 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Ilya Koryakin | Kazuaki Matsuda |
Customer experience
Camera Lucida
Simple Trace
In-app purchases
Camera Lucida
- Lucida Premium$4.991 Month
- Yearly subscription$6.991 Year
- Lucida Premium$9.991 Year
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- Lucida Premium3 Days trial$29.991 Year
- Lucida Premium$19.99
Simple Trace
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Camera Lucida free?
Is Simple Trace free?
Which has better reviews, Camera Lucida or Simple Trace?
Do Camera Lucida or Simple Trace have ads?
Which is updated more often, Camera Lucida or Simple Trace?
Other comparisons
