I took over Painteresque, a 14 year old Objective-C app and rebuilt it
Around 3 weeks ago, I came across a reddit post from someone who was looking to see if anyone was interested in taking over a 12-14 year old objective c app which hadn't been on the app store for many years. I responded and decided to do it. The app is called Painteresque. It lets you turn photos to charcoal drawings, paintings etc while doing all the processing locally on device: https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/painteresque-photo-to-sketch/i... The app is entirely free to use, has no ads, third party analytics, trackers, subscriptions or other junk. It does offer…
I took over Painteresque, a 14 year old Objective-C app and rebuilt it launched on March 1, 2025 with 117 votes, #376 of 7,215 launches that month and more than 95% of that year's launches. The site was still online in September 2026, 1 year on.
In plain words
Painteresque is an iOS app that transforms photos into charcoal drawings, paintings, and other artistic styles using on-device processing. The rebuilt application, revived from a 14-year-old Objective-C codebase, is completely free with no ads, analytics, trackers, or subscriptions. It processes all artwork transformations locally on the user's device and offers optional tips for those who wish to support development.
written from the facts on this page · September 2026
From the sources
Download Painteresque Photo to Sketch by Pranoy Chowdhury on the App Store. See screenshots, ratings and reviews, user tips and more apps like Painteresque…
Free · In-App Purchases · Designed for iPad. Not verified for macOS. Photo & Video Developer Pranoy Chowdhury Language EN English Size 11.1 MB iPhone, iPad Painteresque lets you make your photos look like paintings, charcoal drawings, colored pencils, lithographic print, vintage, trippy, retro, portrait, etc. Just select a photo from your photo album or camera for Painteresque to revisualize, and a few seconds later the resulting image is ready to save. You can choose from a handful of included filters, or fine tune various settings and save custom filters. It generally produces good results for scenery, still life, architecture, plants, birds, and animals. Results for photos of people can…from apps.apple.com
In the maker’s words, at launch
Around 3 weeks ago, I came across a reddit post from someone who was looking to see if anyone was interested in taking over a 12-14 year old objective c app which hadn't been on the app store for many years. I responded and decided to do it. The app is called Painteresque. It lets you turn photos to charcoal…
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