Comparison

Simple Trace vs Translucent

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • Trace photos and pictures
  • Practice drawing and painting
  • Load images from camera roll
  • Adjust image transmittance
  • Zoom in and out
  • Save drawings as JPG
Features
Read full description

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

About

Translucent

This app transforms your device into a digital light box, offering a premium library of over 220 professional tracing images. It provides advanced camera overlay and drawing tools to help artists of all levels improve their skills and create detailed artwork.

Highlights
  • Premium image library with 222+ curated tracing images
  • Adjustable opacity camera overlay
  • Pinch-to-zoom with 20x capability
  • Grid overlay and filter modes
  • Import own images and reference photos
  • Lifetime access to new images
Features
Read full description

TRACE ANYTHING ONTO REAL PAPER. YOUR PHONE IS THE LIGHT BOX. Hold your phone over a sheet of paper and the drawing appears on the page through the screen. Trace what you see. No printer, no carbon paper, no taping a page to a sunny window. YOUR OWN PHOTOS ARE FREE. FOREVER. Import any picture from your camera roll, set the opacity, trace it. The light box, zoom, rotate and your own photos are not behind a paywall and never will be. That is the whole point of the app. HOW IT WORKS 1. Pick a drawing from the library, or import a photo of your own. 2. Hold your phone over your paper, or pin the drawing to the page with AR. 3. Trace the lines you see through the screen. 400 DRAWINGS, 104 OF THEM FREE Animals, Anime, Architecture, Cartoon, Fantasy, Food, Nature, Objects, People, Tattoo and Vehicles, at beginner, intermediate and advanced levels. Real line art drawn for tracing, not photos run through a filter. 348 STEP-BY-STEP LESSONS Every lesson is built out of the drawing itself: big shapes first, then structure, then detail. You watch a face or a dragon assemble one stage at a time instead of copying a finished picture and hoping. AR ANCHORING Pin the drawing to your paper and it stays there. Move your phone, tilt it, set it down and pick it up, and the drawing is still exactly where you left it. No more propping your phone against a coffee cup. EVERY TOOL - Opacity, zoom, rotate, pan - Canvas lock, so your palm cannot knock the drawing out of line - Hands-free mode - Grid overlay, flip and mirror - Contrast, brightness and color filters for difficult light - Torch for tracing in the dark - Line art: turn a photo of your own into clean traceable outlines - Layer breakdown: a drawing split into its build-up stages - Strobe: the reference blinks off so you can see your own lines - Practice timer and daily streaks - Time-lapse: record a session and share it - Kid Mode: the whole library, none of the clutter - Works offline. No account, no sign-up. PERFECT FOR Artists learning proportion and perspective. Anime and manga. Tattoo artists transferring flash. Embroidery, quilting and cross-stitch patterns. Calligraphy and hand lettering. Woodworking and pyrography templates. Classroom and homeschool. Kids learning to draw. Anyone who was ever told they cannot draw. Tracing is not cheating. Artists have traced for centuries to study proportion and build the hand-eye coordination freehand drawing needs, which is why the lessons here take a drawing apart instead of just showing you the answer. FREE - The light box: opacity, zoom, rotate, pan, grid, filters, torch - Your own photos, unlimited - 104 drawings - 3 saved projects, 3 guided lessons, 3 strobe sessions - Canvas lock, hands-free, AR anchoring, practice timer - Supported by ads PREMIUM - All 400 drawings and all 348 lessons - Unlimited saved projects - Unlimited line art, layer breakdown and strobe - Time-lapse export with no watermark - No ads Already bought the Premium Library? You keep it, and you will never be asked to pay again. PREMIUM PLANS Premium Weekly - $6.99 per week Premium Yearly - $39.99 per year, after a 3-day free trial Premium Lifetime - $69.99, one payment, does not renew Prices are shown in your own currency before you confirm. Payment is charged to your Apple ID at confirmation of purchase. Subscriptions renew automatically unless auto-renew is switched off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period, and your account is charged for renewal within 24 hours of the end of that period. Manage your subscription or switch off auto-renew in your device Settings after purchase. Any unused part of a free trial is forfeited when you buy a subscription. Terms of Use (EULA): https://aylan-apps.com/privacy/translucent-tracing/terms-of-service Privacy Policy: https://aylan-apps.com/privacy/translucent-tracing/privacy-policy

Screenshots

Translucent4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Translucent at 3.0 against Simple Trace's 1.5. Translucent also leads on ratings volume (17 vs 2) and device support (3 vs 1). Simple Trace's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and review sentiment (33% vs 20%). On price and ads 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Translucent sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Simple Trace asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Translucent holds the better App Store score, 3.0 against 1.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Translucent has 17 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 33% of Simple Trace's written reviews are positive against 20% of Translucent's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Simple Trace ships an update every 2 weeks, Translucent every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 27, 2026 and October 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard8 real differences · 2 level
Simple Trace versus Translucent: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSimple TraceTranslucent
PriceFreeFree
Rating1.5 (2 ratings)3.0 (17 ratings) — better
Positive reviews33.3% of reviews — better20.0% of reviews
Number of ratings217 — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeks — betterEvery 3 weeks
AdsYesYes
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationAd-supportedFree — better
DevicesiPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS13.2 — better15.0
Further details — not scored
Size5 MB101 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperKazuaki Matsudamounir tajaouart

Customer experience

Simple Trace

All ratings2 ratings
Positive0.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative100.0%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive33.3%
Neutral0.0%
Negative66.7%

Translucent

All ratings17 ratings
Positive47.1%
Neutral5.9%
Negative47.1%
Written reviews5 reviews
Positive20.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative80.0%

In-app purchases

None

Simple Trace

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Translucent

One-time1
  • Premium Library$2.99

Questions

Is Simple Trace free?
Simple Trace is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Translucent free?
Translucent is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Simple Trace or Translucent?
Translucent is rated higher. Simple Trace averages 1.5 out of 5 from 2 ratings, while Translucent averages 3.0 from 17 ratings.
Do Simple Trace or Translucent have ads?
Both Simple Trace and Translucent show ads.
Which is updated more often, Simple Trace or Translucent?
Simple Trace ships an update every 2 weeks, and Translucent every 3 weeks. Most recently, Simple Trace was updated on September 27, 2026 and Translucent on October 3, 2026.

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