Tracing Paper Lite vs Pocket Reader
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Tracing Paper Lite
Practice and improve your drawing and sketching skills on a translucent canvas with a grid. Trace any photo, adjust its size and position, and use various tools like shading, flood fill, and an eraser. Save or share your creations.
- Translucent canvas with grid
- Trace photos from device library
- Adjustable image size and position
- Shading and brush size control
- Flood fill tool
- Undo/redo functionality
- Zoom, rotate, and pan canvas
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I'm currently celebrating "Cato's Hike", my just released game to teach children (and adults) basic programming! Please check out and enjoy :) Please note the full version has had a major update!!! Get it while it is hot :) This is the Lite version of Tracing Paper. It contains all the features of the paid version except for: - can create only *THREE* traces at a time in the app, you can always delete old ones if you want to create more - can't save or export your pictures outside of the app or share your traces using email, PDF, Twitter, Facebook, photo gallery, Open in..., Copy to Clipboard or printing Please enjoy! Tracing Paper is a simple yet elegant universal application for the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch that helps you practice and improve your drawing and sketching skills by giving you a blank translucent canvas with a clean and simple grid on which you can trace anything you wish as often as you like. I believe it will be great for anyone who enjoys drawing or for kids that just want to play around! After choosing a photo from your library you can adjust its size and location under the canvas using your fingers to pinch to rotate/zoom and one finger to drag it around, then you just trace and shade whatever you wish using your finger. If you make a mistake simply choose the eraser tool and erase your mistake (also, you can use the eraser creatively to help add details in ways that are different from simply drawing), or if you want more accuracy than an eraser there is undo/redo support for up to 8 actions. For those hard to see details zoom, rotate or pan the canvas in for further detail by simply pinching the canvas or using two fingers and dragging to move! For those details where we want the colors to really pop there is now support for coloring and changing the pencil size to draw larger or smaller details as needed! For those moments where you want to quickly fill a region, there is now flood fill support, just press the bucket tool and click in an enclosed region to fill in. After you are done, wow the world and save your masterpiece to your Photo Library or share it via Email, Facebook, Twitter, PDF or even copy to the clipboard or use open-with to open it in compatible programs to touch it up! Tracing Paper features: • Super-smooth drawing with proprietary OpenGL-based rendering engine • 2 pencil styles • Support for tracing any photo from your device’s photo album • Gallery mode to browse to create/load/edit your traces • Shading support just like a real pencil, draw over the same area multiple times to shade it darker • Changing brush size to help draw or shade larger areas • Zooming, rotating and panning of the image to trace to focus on the details that matter (pinch to zoom/rotate, two fingers to pan) • Flood Fill • Undo/redo up to 12 actions • Saving your creations to your Photo library • Sending your traces via email, Facebook, Twitter, Open-with for other programs • Export to PDF • Open With... support to open trace in other programs I am definitely excited about this project and want to continue improving it as much as possible. I've already added many features based on feedback I've received and I'm always appreciative of new ideas that fit the vision and feel of this app. Please feel free to leave ratings and reviews however you feel and I will do my best to respond with updates! You can reach me anytime at the email below or via twitter at: @tracingpaperios. Please feel free to email me ANY questions, comments or crashes you have. I will continue working to add new features. Version 5.2 - iPhone 5 and iOS6 fixes - fix using the new pencil mode on iOS6 - save last used pencil settings - stability and OpenGL crash fixes, especially multitasking - fix tracing grid to not show crash on resize - added new iOS6 sharing sheet - raise limit to 3 traces - fix problem using "Open With..." when already tracing - eraser fix - retina pencil icon
Pocket Reader
Save web content for later reading without needing an account. Sync saved articles across your iPhone, iPad, and Mac using iCloud.
- Save web content
- No account registration
- iCloud cloud sync
- Multi-device support
- Save any URL
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Pocket Reader - This is a reading app that does not require account registration or login, offering an extremely simple and easy-to-use interface. Core Features: Save web content you plan to read later or valuable content you have already read and want to keep. Design Philosophy: Pocket Reader is designed with the best user experience in mind. We understand the burden that new account registrations impose on users, so unlike apps like Instapaper, Feedly, or Readwise, Pocket Reader does not require users to register a separate account. Users can continue using their Apple ID, leveraging the powerful capabilities of iCloud for cloud synchronization. This is what we believe to be the natural usage pattern for such an app. Key Features: - Save any URL: Simply enter the content URL. - iCloud Cloud Sync: Sync your saved articles across multiple devices. - Multi-device Support: Whether you use an iPhone, iPad, or Mac, your data is synchronized across devices. We are continuously developing more features, including support for additional languages, categorization by tags, reading data analytics, and more, aiming to provide an even better product for our users.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Pocket Reader at 5.0 against Tracing Paper Lite's 3.5. Tracing Paper Lite's advantage is ratings volume (52 vs 1) and iOS requirement (5.0 vs 14.0). On price, 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Pocket Reader holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Tracing Paper Lite has 52 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Tracing Paper Lite ships an update every 3 weeks, Pocket Reader monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Tracing Paper Lite | Pocket Reader |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.5 (52 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 60.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 52 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks — better | Monthly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 5.0 — better | 14.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 4 MB | 18 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Hesham Wahba | DropletApps |
Customer experience
Tracing Paper Lite
Pocket Reader
Bugs and requests
Tracing Paper Lite
Reported bugs
11 issues- App freezes when zooming or scrolling
- App slows down iPhone
- Line work is pixelated
- App crashes
- Zooming is terrible and glitchy
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- App doesn't load photos
- Drawing doesn't register
- App states limited usage but hasn't been used
- Cannot save pictures
- Picture and photo shift position
- App is incompatible with iOS 11
Requested features
16 requests- Update for newer iOS versions
- Update for iOS 11
- Update for iOS 10
- Ability to lock rotate feature separate to zoom
- Ability to pick tools without options popping up
Show 11 moreShow fewer
- Allow background image rotation and scaling
- Color code typer for specific colors
- Adjustable lighter/dimmer by color
- Zoom bar instead of finger version
- Plus and minus buttons for zoom and pen/paintbrush size
- Button to instantly reset frame size and angles
- Review board for paintings within the app (full version)
- More choice of brushes, pens, etc.
- Mac version
- More aesthetic line work like Zen Brush
- More drawing pages in lite version
Pocket Reader
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Tracing Paper Lite
No in-app purchases
Pocket Reader
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Tracing Paper Lite free?
Is Pocket Reader free?
Which has better reviews, Tracing Paper Lite or Pocket Reader?
Do Tracing Paper Lite or Pocket Reader have ads?
Which is updated more often, Tracing Paper Lite or Pocket Reader?
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