Comparison

AR Drawing vs Core Image Tools

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

Head to head
About

AR Drawing

Transform your phone into a drawing tool by projecting images onto surfaces for tracing and coloring. Explore a wide variety of templates and share your creations with friends. Ideal for artists of all levels looking to explore augmented reality art.

Highlights
  • Project images for tracing
  • Trace on paper or any surface
  • Coloring functionality
  • Extensive template library
  • Use phone camera for projection
  • Built-in flashlight
  • Share drawings with friends
Features
Read full description

Just trace a projected picture on paper and color it! - Use your phone camera to draw - Lots of templates: Animals, Cars, Nature, Food etc. - Built-in flashlight - Share the result with your friends AR Drawing is an innovative mobile app that allows to create stunning drawings and paintings using augmented reality technology. You can draw anything you want on any surface. Whether you are an experienced artist or just starting out, this app is perfect for unleashing your creativity and exploring new possibilities in art. So why wait? Download AR Drawing: Sketch & Paint today and start creating your own masterpiece! Privacy Policy: https://ar-drawing.com/privacy/ Terms of Use: https://ar-drawing.com/terms/

About

Core Image Tools

This app offers over 100 image editing tools with a simple interface for various effects. Easily edit, enhance, resize, and apply filters to your photos across multiple devices. Its intuitive workflow allows for seamless, step-by-step image manipulation without complex file management.

Highlights
  • Over 100 image editing tools
  • Simple and intuitive user interface
  • Multi-platform support (Mac, iPhone, iPad, Vision)
  • Resize images with added pixels
  • Flip and mirror functionality
  • Various blur effects
  • Chroma-keying tools
Read full description

Over 100 powerful image editing tools, presented in the simplest user interface. Like most workshops, you use several tools to accomplish a task. Core Image Tools is a large toolbox to reach into, to accomplish many complex effects, one simple step at a time. Lightweight yet Powerful: Edit, enhance, resize, rotate, & add effects to your photos|images from the palm of your hand, while you're on the go, or also from your desktop|laptop. Multi-Platform: Use the same app across your devices - iPhones, iPads, Macs, & Vision. Super-Simple Workflow: Pick a Photos image, apply an effect, tap save - done! Want more? Pick that saved image, apply some other effect to it, tap save - done! Loop the image through as many edits|effects as desired & always have a hardcopy in Photos of each step along the way. Plus you'll always have your original, & never had to type in a single filename throughout the entire process. Resize Images: ACTUALLY resize images, not just crop them down or zoom in. Also, you can ADD color|transparent|semi-transparent pixels to any edge of an image to resize it, or offset it, using 'Border | Underlay'. Flip|Mirror: Quickly mask|mirror a brand name out of your selfie. Flip|mirror an image, horizontally and|or vertically, with one tap. Use 'Skew' to straighten, keystone-correct, zoom, mirror, & crop all at once. Smooth: Use 'Blur, Selfie Smoother' to iron out a few wrinkles, de-focus skin blemishes, or smooth out other unwanted details. Line|Edge Drawn: Make an image look as if it was drawn|sketched using an ink pen, pencil, charcoal, colored pencils, colored chalk, light-pen, watercolored, wax-scratched (scratch-art), or made entirely out of dots|square pixels|points|hex-pixels|or crystalized. Bump Distortion: Kids of all ages (Mom? Dad?) love to swell up, or shrink down, faces & parts of people - give dad a superhero chin, a sibling one big eye & one little one, a bubbled alien-forehead of a friend - endless fun. Wish you had a smaller nose - shrink it. Wish you had bigger biceps or shoulders - pump 'em up. Wonder what implants would look like - find out. Zoom in on, & bring attention to, any feature in an image, especially for technical uses, like highlighting a capacitor on a PCB, or a component of a wiring schematic. Overlay Images: Including resizing, repositioning, & rotating them. Overlay your logo or business card over an image. Also, you can make an entire image of a transparent, or semi-transparent color & overlay that over your image, adding a color filter effect to the entire image. Chroma-Keyers (6 types!): Remove red, green, or blue-screen, or any color. Maybe make transparent overlays out of them? Maybe use 'Polygon | Star' to make color-keyed shapes for transparency masks. Checkerboard: Make checkerboard designs - just pick your colors, including clear|transparent. Blurs: Gaussian Blur, Zoom Blur, Motion Blur, Glow|Bloom, & other blur effects. 3D|Graphics|Cube Images: Make your textures|shaders, tile them, rotate them, make normal|bump maps from them for enhanced lighting effects. Mirrored|seamless tiles, multicolored gradients (linear & radial, plus gradients scale perfectly & tile infinitely from one small image - very efficient). Use 'Alpha as Grayscale' to map out image transparencies for your texture|shader's opacity channel. The best skybox|cube image tools too! Color & Light Adjusters: Many options - brightness, contrast, saturation, exposure, gamma, vibrance, opacity. Try 'Dark Document Enhancer' on a dark document or a scan that you want to enhance. Grayscale Images: Select from 7 grayscale modes each honed for specific imaging challenges. Animated Image Player: Play, pause, slow down, speed-up, & reverse animated images. Kaleidoscopes: Do you like kaleidoscopes? Oh yeah! Gotcha covered there! Over a dozen types. Infinite possibilities just from one image, & the default image is of the most beautifully colored flowers. Developers: Make App Icons, Buttons, & Radio buttons.

Screenshots

AR Drawing4 screens
Core Image Tools4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Core Image Tools at 100% against AR Drawing's 28%. Core Image Tools also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.5) and in-app purchases (none vs 10). AR Drawing's advantage is price (Free vs $0.99) and ratings volume (96K vs 3). On update cadence and device support 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

AR Drawing is free to download; Core Image Tools costs $0.99 up front. AR Drawing sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $5.00 per 7 days. Core Image Tools asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Core Image Tools holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: AR Drawing has 96K ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 28% of AR Drawing's written reviews are positive against 100% of Core Image Tools's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

AR Drawing ships an update fortnightly, Core Image Tools every 8 days. The most recent releases landed on November 7, 2026 and October 30, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard9 real differences · 2 level
AR Drawing versus Core Image Tools: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterAR DrawingCore Image Tools
PriceFree — better$0.99
Rating4.5 (96K ratings)5.0 (3 ratings) — better
Positive reviews28.4% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings96K — better3
Update frequencyFortnightlyEvery 8 days — better
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases — betterPaid
Best chart rank#8 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, Mac, Vision Pro — better
Requires iOS15.0 — better18
Further details — not scored
Size175 MB60 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperDigital Solutions Technologies LimitedLino Bailey

Customer experience

AR Drawing

All ratings94,571 ratings
Positive86.6%
Neutral4.1%
Negative9.3%
Written reviews2,415 reviews
Positive28.4%
Neutral7.2%
Negative64.5%

Core Image Tools

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

AR Drawing

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Frequent crashes and app freezes
  • Subscription issues and unexpected charges
  • Inability to exit paid features

Requested features

4 requests
  • More free drawing options
  • Ability to upload and draw own images
  • Improved camera controls and positioning
  • Longer free drawing time

Core Image Tools

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

10 purchases

AR Drawing

Subscriptions9
  • AR Drawing Premium - 1 Week3 Days trial$5.007 Days
  • AR Drawing Premium - 1 Week$6.007 Days
  • AR Drawing Premium - 1 Week3 Days trial$7.007 Days
Show 6 more
  • AR Drawing Premium - 1 Week$8.007 Days
  • AR Drawing Premium - 1 Week3 Days trial$9.007 Days
  • AR Drawing Premium - 1 Week7 Days trial$9.007 Days
  • AR Drawing Premium$9.007 Days
  • AR Drawing Premium - 1 Week3 Days trial$11.007 Days
  • AR Drawing Pro - 1 Year3 Days trial$35.001 Year
One-time1
  • AR Drawing Premium$29.00
None

Core Image Tools

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is AR Drawing free?
AR Drawing is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Core Image Tools free?
Core Image Tools costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, AR Drawing or Core Image Tools?
Core Image Tools is rated higher. AR Drawing averages 4.5 out of 5 from 96K ratings, while Core Image Tools averages 5.0 from 3 ratings.
Do AR Drawing or Core Image Tools have ads?
AR Drawing shows ads; Core Image Tools does not.
Which is updated more often, AR Drawing or Core Image Tools?
AR Drawing ships an update fortnightly, and Core Image Tools every 8 days. Most recently, AR Drawing was updated on November 7, 2026 and Core Image Tools on October 30, 2026.

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