PaintSteps vs Gridline

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.

Put a grid over any reference photo and check its values on the same screen. Gridline is a drawing grid for painters, illustrators and art students who work from reference photos. Import a picture, set up the grid, switch to grayscale or a notan when you need to judge values, and paint with your phone or iPad beside the easel. ■ Free • Import from your photo library or take a new photo • Square or rectangular cells, with any number of columns and rows • Diagonals, cell numbers, line color and line thickness • Grayscale view, a 2-tone notan, and mirror • Paint mode: the tools disappear, touches are ignored and the screen stays awake, so the device can stand by your easel. Long-press to leave • Unlimited projects, each one reopening with the settings you left ■ Gridline Pro (one-time purchase) • Notan in 3, 4 or 5 tones: drag the split points on the value scale and simplify the small details • Fit to canvas: crop to A4, 8×10, 9×12, 11×14 or 16×20 in, or square, in portrait or landscape, and see the real cell size in cm or inches • No ads Pro is a single purchase, not a subscription. You can restore it on other devices signed in with the same Apple Account. ■ About ads The free version shows one banner ad at the bottom of the project list. The editor, where you look at your reference, has no ads. ■ Your photos stay on your device Gridline keeps its own copy of each reference inside the app. There is no account or sign-up, and your images are never uploaded.