Comparison

Camera Lucida™ vs Sketchbook®

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

Head to head
About

Camera Lucida™

This app uses your device's camera to superimpose a reference image onto your drawing surface, guiding your hand to create detailed art. It offers advanced features and tools to enhance your sketching and painting skills, making art creation easy and fun.

Highlights
  • AR image superposition for drawing
  • Advanced image filters
  • Zoom lock for detail
  • Session save and restore
  • Time-lapsed recording
  • External USB camera support
Features
Read full description

Draw Like a Pro with Camera Lucida™: AR Drawing One-Time Purchase: No subscriptions! Buy it once and use on your devices. Enhance Your Art Skills: Whether you're sketching with a pencil or painting with a brush, Camera Lucida™ helps you become a better artist. Unmatched Functionality: With 12+ years of development, Camera Lucida™ offers features that no competitor can match. Create stunning physical art using your iPhone or iPad's camera. Simply point your device at your drawing surface, and watch the screen to see your reference image superimposed over your work. It's more versatile than a light table, better than a projector, and easier to use than a traditional Camera Lucida™. How It Works: Place your iPhone or iPad between your eyes and your drawing surface. The app shows a virtual image on your screen, guiding your hand as you draw. This clever method makes it easy and fun to create detailed art. Top Features: • Buy it once for lifetime use. • Advanced Image Filters: See with an artist's eye. • Zoom in Lock: For ultra detailed drawing. • Session Save & Restore: Automatically realign your camera, sketch, and reference image. • Full Color Palette Control: Use your own paints, markers, and more. • Camera Adjustments: Use your device camera and adjust for different setups manually or with an in-app purchase to auto-adjust. • Time-Lapsed Recordings: Share your drawing process on social media. • Advanced Tools: Vertical split screen sliders, timed image fading, and more. • Video Tutorials: Watch tutorials within the app or on YouTube. • Comprehensive User Manual: Accessible from within the app. • Reliable Customer Support: Plus, an active user community for inspiration. • External USB Camera Support: For USB-C equipped iPads running iOS 17. Easy Setup: Secure your iPhone or iPad above your drawing surface using common household items like a stack of books or a vase. Tutorials are included to help you get started. Contact: For any questions or support, email cameralucida@bigidesign.com.

About

Sketchbook®

This app provides a professional-grade drawing and painting experience for artists and illustrators. It offers a natural drawing feel with customizable tools, layers, and guides for precision. Unlock advanced features like custom brushes and canvas resizing with an optional premium purchase.

Highlights
  • Full complement of brush types
  • Highly customizable brushes
  • Guides, rulers, and stroke tools
  • Layers with blend modes
  • Clean and unobtrusive interface
  • Custom brush creation (premium)
  • Canvas resizing (premium)
Read full description

From quick sketches to fully finished artwork, Sketchbook goes where your creativity takes you. Sketchbook is an award-winning sketching, painting, and drawing app for anyone who loves to draw. Artists and illustrators love Sketchbook for its professional-grade feature set and highly customizable tools. Everyone loves Sketchbook for its elegant interface and natural drawing experience, free of distractions so you can focus on capturing and expressing your ideas. • A full complement of brush types: pencils markers, airbrushes, smear and more that look and feel just like their physical counterparts • Brushes are highly customizable so you can create just the look you want • Guides, rulers and stroke tools support precision when you need it • Layers with a full complement of blend modes deliver the flexibility to build up and explore drawings and color • Purpose-built for sketching, the interface is clean and unobtrusive so you can focus on drawing Purchase the Premium Bundle to unlock more... • Import and export brushes • Create your own custom brushes • Resize your canvas or image • Set canvas resolution in px/inch or px/cm • Clipping masks • Time-lapse recording: choose fixed canvas view or show pan/zoom navigation • Additional layer adjustments including blur, sharpen, brightness/contrast, greyscale, and invert • Additional color harmonies • Additional custom gradients • Select color from reference images • Extract color palettes from images • Import and export color palettes • Layer grouping • Layer masking Blend Modes • Draw Outline tool • Lasso Fill tool • Export to PDF • plus more to come!

Screenshots

Camera Lucida™4 screens
Sketchbook®4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Sketchbook® at Free against Camera Lucida™'s $14.99. Sketchbook® also leads on ratings volume (221K vs 2K). Camera Lucida™'s advantage is review sentiment (89% vs 77%) and chart position (#11 vs #42). On rating, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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

Sketchbook® is free to download; Camera Lucida™ costs $14.99 up front. Camera Lucida™ sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Sketchbook® sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for Camera Lucida™ against 4.8 for Sketchbook®. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Sketchbook® has 221K ratings behind it against 2K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 89% of Camera Lucida™'s written reviews are positive against 77% of Sketchbook®'s.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Camera Lucida™ ships an update every 4 months, Sketchbook® every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 29, 2026 and October 30, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 5 level
Camera Lucida™ versus Sketchbook®: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCamera Lucida™Sketchbook®
Price$14.99Free — better
Rating4.8 (2K ratings) — better4.8 (221K ratings)
Positive reviews89.4% of reviews — better76.7% of reviews
Number of ratings2K221K — better
Update frequencyEvery 4 monthsEvery 2 months — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationPaidFree with in-app purchases — better
Best chart rank#11 — better#42
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS12.0 — better15
Further details — not scored
Size55 MB144 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperCamera LucidaSketchbook, Inc

Customer experience

Camera Lucida™

All ratings1,947 ratings
Positive95.9%
Neutral1.2%
Negative2.9%
Written reviews273 reviews
Positive89.4%
Neutral1.1%
Negative9.5%

Sketchbook®

All ratings220,588 ratings
Positive95.8%
Neutral2.4%
Negative1.8%
Written reviews1,731 reviews
Positive76.7%
Neutral7.1%
Negative16.2%

User reviews

Camera Lucida™

From 2K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Great drawing aid
  • 👍 Easy to use
  • 💡 Helpful for improving drawing skills
  • 🚀 Saves time in drawing
  • 👍 Accurate proportions and perspective

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Difficult to set up and use at first
  • 🐛 Occasional issues with image alignment
  • 🐛 Needs a stand or mount to work properly

Sketchbook®

From 221K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Amazing, free, and no ads
  • 👍 Lots of brushes and customization options
  • 👍 Intuitive and easy to use
  • 👍 Great for beginners and professionals
  • 👍 Smooth performance and no lag

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional freezing and crashing issues
  • 🐛 Blurry or corrupted images when saving or copying
  • 🐛 Glitches with color selection and layers
  • 🐛 Inability to rotate canvas or access gallery easily
  • 🐛 Lack of blurring and clipping mask tools

Bugs and requests

Camera Lucida™

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Compatibility issues with newer iOS versions
  • Occasional crashes or freezes

Requested features

3 requests
  • Ability to draw larger images
  • More camera settings and controls
  • Integration with other art apps

Sketchbook®

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Layers randomly deleted or corrupted
  • Freezing when using certain tools like the eyedropper
  • Saving issues leading to loss of progress
  • Incompatibility with newer iPad Pro devices

Requested features

7 requests
  • Add blurring and clipping mask tools
  • Improve gallery and canvas rotation functionality
  • Allow custom font import
  • Add effects like glow, stroke, and drop shadow
  • Implement layer grouping and organization
Show 2 more
  • Add real-time collaboration features
  • Improve time-lapse recording and saving

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Camera Lucida™

One-time1
  • Auto-Correct For Perspective$4.99
1 purchases

Sketchbook®

One-time1
  • Premium Bundle$2.99

Questions

Is Camera Lucida™ free?
Camera Lucida™ costs $14.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is Sketchbook® free?
Sketchbook® is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Camera Lucida™ or Sketchbook®?
Camera Lucida™ is rated higher. Camera Lucida™ averages 4.8 out of 5 from 2K ratings, while Sketchbook® averages 4.8 from 221K ratings.
Do Camera Lucida™ or Sketchbook® have ads?
Neither Camera Lucida™ nor Sketchbook® shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Camera Lucida™ or Sketchbook®?
Camera Lucida™ ships an update every 4 months, and Sketchbook® every 2 months. Most recently, Camera Lucida™ was updated on October 29, 2026 and Sketchbook® on October 30, 2026.
Which is more popular, Camera Lucida™ or Sketchbook®?
Camera Lucida™ currently peaks at #11 in the App Store charts, and Sketchbook® at #42. Chart position reflects recent download velocity rather than total install base.

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