Comparison

Gridder vs Art Reference

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

Head to head
About

Gridder

Easily add customizable grid lines to your photos. Perfect for artists and illustrators, this tool lets you import images, adjust grid settings like line thickness and color, and export your work for sketching or reference.

Highlights
  • Import and crop images
  • Customizable grid lines
  • Adjust rows and columns
  • Control line thickness and opacity
  • Change grid line color
  • Export images with grid
Features
Read full description

Gridder is a customizable image grid overlay tool — designed for artists and illustrators who sketch from photo references or plan paintings. Import any image, crop it to your desired format, and apply a customizable grid. You can adjust the number of rows and columns, grid line thickness, opacity, and color to suit your style. When you're ready, export the final image with the grid applied for printing, sketching, or saving to your reference library.

About

Art Reference

This app provides digital reference tools for traditional artists working with physical media. It offers features like value studies, gridlines, side-by-side comparison, and composition adjustments to aid in creating accurate and balanced artwork.

Highlights
  • Value study mode
  • Gridlines for accurate sketching
  • Side-by-side reference and canvas view
  • Crop and frame reference images
  • Curated starter project collections
  • Color harmony experimentation
  • Offline functionality
Features
Read full description

Artists Reference is made for painters, illustrators, and traditional artists who work with real materials, not pixels. It gives you the digital reference tools you need while you're creating physical art. Key Features - Gallery: Take a photo of your finished work, add a frame, and view them all together in your personal gallery. - Value Study Mode: Instantly view your reference in 7-value scale to see shadows and highlights or greyscale to see tone and contrast clearly. - Gridlines: Helps get your under-sketch down accurately. - Side-by-Side View: Compare your reference and your canvas at the same time, optimized for tablets and stands. - Crop and Frame Tools: Adjust composition and aspect ratio of your reference to match your canvas before you begin. - Collections: Curated starter projects to help you practice and improve, including Animals, Architecture, Botanical, Figure, Landscape, Master Study, Portrait, and Still Life. - Color harmonies: Experiment with color harmonies to define the feeling if your piece and save swatches - Offline Friendly: Works anywhere, even in the studio or outdoors. - Clean, Focused Design: No ads. No clutter. Just the reference tools you need. - All of your artwork is private and only saved in your personal icloud. No artwork is visble to the internet or AI models Made for Traditional Artists Whether you're painting with oils, gouache, watercolor, or charcoal, Artists Reference helps you translate what you see into confident compositions and balanced values. Start with curated Collections to build your skills, or bring your own references for any project. No AI art is used for any of the starter project references in this app. All photos are attributed to the original artists with links to their portfolio.

Screenshots

Gridder4 screens
Art Reference4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Gridder at none against Art Reference's 1. Gridder also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.7) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 26.0). Art Reference's advantage is ratings volume (3 vs 1). On price, ads, monetization model 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

Both are free to download. Art Reference sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Gridder asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Gridder holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 3 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Gridder versus Art Reference: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterGridderArt Reference
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better4.7 (3 ratings)
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings13 — better
Update frequency—Every 11 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS12.0 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size34 MB182 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperQing YanGil Osborne

Customer experience

Gridder

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Art Reference

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

In-app purchases

None

Gridder

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Art Reference

One-time1
  • Lifetime Full Access$14.99

Questions

Is Gridder free?
Gridder is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Art Reference free?
Art Reference is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Gridder or Art Reference?
Gridder is rated higher. Gridder averages 5.0 out of 5 from 1 ratings, while Art Reference averages 4.7 from 3 ratings.
Do Gridder or Art Reference have ads?
Neither Gridder nor Art Reference shows ads.

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