PaintSteps vs PainterLab

Turn any photo into a practical, step-by-step painting guide. PaintSteps simplifies your reference into progressive color stages, helping you see what to paint first and what to add next. Choose your medium and painting order, then work through the image, palette, and mixing guidance at your own pace. CREATE FROM ANY PHOTO - Choose an image from your photo library - Crop and position it for your canvas - Adjust colors, steps, smoothing, and canvas ratio - Build dark-to-light, light-to-dark, or balanced PAINT WITH CLEAR GUIDANCE - Follow progressive painting steps - Use color numbers and an adjustable drawing grid - Pinch to zoom while guides stay aligned - Press and hold to compare with the original photo TRACE WITH LINE ART - Turn your painting into an outline drawing to transfer onto the canvas - Choose the level of detail, or let Auto pick a step that's easy to trace - Add a drawing grid and color numbers, then print it or share it as a PDF or PNG - With Pro, choose thin, medium, or bold lines MIX COLORS - View practical paint-mixing suggestions for every palette color - Choose from built-in paint sets - With Pro, use your own paints and palettes, calibrate tinting strength, and edit recipes SAVE AND EXPORT - Keep your painting projects in one library - Export complete PDF tutorials, including the line art page, or individual PNG step images with Pro The free version includes up to two saved paintings, tutorials with up to four steps, and line art. PaintSteps Pro unlocks unlimited paintings, up to eight steps, custom paints and palettes, recipe editing, export, and line art thickness. PaintSteps Pro is a one-time purchase. No subscription. Mixing results are estimates. Always test a small mix before painting.

PainterLab turns any photo into a practical painting study you can observe, simplify, and mix from. It is not a coloring game, and it does not paint for you. PainterLab helps painters and art students understand color shapes, value structure, and temperature relationships, then translate selected screen colors into real-paint mixing ideas. SIMPLIFY COMPLEX SCENES Organize a busy photo into clear, paintable color shapes. Explore natural color blocks, limited palettes, and region-based forms, then adjust detail and smoothing for your study. SEE THE VALUE STRUCTURE Compress an image into 2–10 value levels to study large light-and-dark relationships, grayscale organization, and Notan. Use the adjustable histogram to control each value boundary. UNDERSTAND COLOR TEMPERATURE Compare cool, neutral, and warm relationships across the image. Adjust balance and smoothing to reveal the overall temperature structure more clearly. TURN SCREEN COLORS INTO REAL PAINT Select a color from the original photo or a simplified color shape. PainterLab uses your chosen paint palette to suggest practical paint combinations and mixing proportions. You can also photograph your mixed paint and compare it with the target color. BUILD YOUR OWN PAINT PALETTES Choose the physical paints you already own and organize them into custom palettes. Mixing recipes are calculated using the palette selected for each study. SAVE EVERY STUDY Your source photo, observation modes, adjustments, and sampled colors are saved in the Study Library, so you can return and continue practicing at any time. KEY FEATURES • Photo-to-color-shape simplification • Value studies and Notan analysis • Warm and cool color-temperature analysis • Color sampling and real-paint mixing recipes • Custom physical-paint palettes • Study Library with automatic saving • On-device photo processing PainterLab includes free basic features. PainterLab Pro unlocks unlimited studies, additional simplification styles, fine detail controls, and other advanced features. Subscription options and local pricing are shown by the App Store before purchase and can be managed or canceled through your App Store account. Privacy Policy: https://wavecave-studio.uk/painterlab/privacy-policy Terms of Use: https://wavecave-studio.uk/painterlab/terms-of-service