drawsta vs Adobe Fresco
drawsta is free, needs no account, and puts a picture under your line in one tap. Fresco is free too, and the thing worth knowing before you compare them is that the “Trace” in Fresco's feature list is a shape guide: tracing a picture there means importing it and lowering a layer's opacity.
| Feature | drawsta | Adobe Fresco |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free. | Free. Adobe's own page calls it “a free professional level painting and drawing app”. |
| Subscription | None. | Not for Fresco itself. Adobe sells Creative Cloud plans that bundle Fresco with 20+ other apps, but Fresco alone requires no payment or subscription. An Adobe account is part of using it. |
| Platforms | iPhone and iPad. iOS 17 or later. | iPhone and iPad, iOS 18 or later, a newer iOS than drawsta asks for. Also on Windows. |
| Tracing | Tap a picture and it lands on your canvas as a ghosted layer you draw straight over. Turn the ghost off and your line is what is left. Bring your own photo and it works the same way. | No dedicated trace mode. Adobe's own help describes the workflow instead: import an image, use it as a background layer and lower its opacity to draw on top. The “Trace” in the listing is a different thing: “Trace along the edges of a ruler, circle, square or polygon”, a shape guide. You bring the picture. |
| Who it is for | Working artists who draw from reference: illustrators, tattooers, designers, anyone who sketches. | Painters and illustrators, especially anyone who wants watercolour and oil that behave like the real thing, and anyone already inside Adobe's ecosystem. |
Choose Adobe Fresco if
- you want to paint rather than draw: live watercolour that bleeds and oils that smear and mix on the canvas, which nothing else on these pages imitates.
- you need a line that stays sharp at any size: vector and raster brushes live in the same app.
- you want unlimited layers and animation tools without paying for them, or you are already inside Adobe's other tools.
The honest version
Fresco is free, and tracing a picture in it means importing the picture and lowering a layer’s opacity. drawsta is free too, and one tap puts the picture under your line as a ghosted trace layer you draw straight over.
Where these claims come from
Every statement about Adobe Fresco on this page is from one of these, checked 9 October 2026. They are named rather than linked: a source you can look up is as checkable as one you can tap, and this page is not here to hand you a download button for somebody else. Prices move and differ by region. If something could not be verified from a listing, an official site or official documentation, it is not here.
- Adobe Fresco on the App Store
- adobe.com/products/fresco