Frequently asked questions

Every picture is more than a tracing page. You can trace it onto real paper, color it in on screen, turn it into a jigsaw puzzle, or print it out to color by hand. There's also a Mandala maker that blooms any scribble into a symmetric pattern, a sticker album that fills in as you finish drawings, and four family board games — Chess, Connect 4, Snakes & Ladders and Tic-Tac-Toe.

Prop your phone above a sheet of paper on a stand (or a stack of books). Pick a picture in the app — it appears as a faded overlay on the live camera view of your page. Trace along the lines with a pencil, adjusting the size and image strength until it feels right. Step-by-step instructions are in our guide: How to trace a picture with your phone.

A phone or tablet, a sheet of paper, a pencil, and something to hold the phone a few inches above the page — a phone stand, a stack of books, or two mugs with the phone resting across them all work. Good room light helps the camera see the paper.

It's rated 4+ and designed for kids, but it's genuinely fun for all ages. Little ones love tap-to-fill coloring and the 6-piece puzzles; older kids and grown-ups use tracing to learn proportions and the Mandala maker to unwind.

Yes. DoodlePlot is on the App Store for iPhone and iPad, and on Google Play for Android phones and tablets. The core features — tracing, coloring, puzzles, mandalas, stickers and the games — are on both.

No. DoodlePlot works with no account and no sign-in. Drawings and progress stay on your device.

Yes. DoodlePlot is ad-free and collects no personal information. The camera's live view is shown on screen only — never recorded or uploaded. The optional AI features — turning a photo into a traceable outline, Photo Caricature, and Magic pictures — send the photo or your words for one-time processing to create the artwork; nothing is stored. They're off until a grown-up turns them on, and everything else you draw stays on your device. See our Privacy Policy for details.

No ads, ever — no banners, no video ads, no third-party ad networks. The only thing the app will ever offer is its own optional DoodlePlot Pro subscription, and it never interrupts a child mid-drawing to do it.

No. The camera is only used as a live window onto your paper so the picture can be overlaid on it. Nothing from the camera is recorded, saved, or sent anywhere. When you choose to snap a photo of a finished drawing for the gallery, that photo stays on your device.

It's sent once, for one-time processing to create the outline or caricature, and is not stored by us afterward. These photo features are off by default and turned on by a grown-up, who sees a plain-language disclosure first. Everything is explained in the Privacy Policy.

Yes. Tracing, coloring, puzzles, the Mandala maker, the games and the bundled packs all work fully offline. Only the optional extras — Magic pictures, photo outlines and caricatures — need a connection.

Drawings live on the device they were made on. Optional, parent-controlled cross-device sync is something we may add in the future.

Yes. Print any picture — blank to color by hand, or a finished creation — straight from the app: AirPrint on iPhone and iPad, and the system print service on Android. Make My Book even bundles several pictures into one printable coloring book.

Yes. Doodle mode lets you draw directly on the screen over a faint guide with a finger or Apple Pencil, and then watch your doodle redraw itself stroke by stroke.

The app is free to start, with an optional DoodlePlot Pro subscription that unlocks the full template library and extras. Purchases are handled entirely by the App Store or Google Play — your usual purchase confirmation (Face ID, Touch ID, a password, or Ask to Buy on a child's device) guards any spending — and you can view, manage, or cancel anytime in your device's account settings.

Pro unlocks the full template library plus the AI extras — Magic pictures, photo outlines and Photo Caricature. It's $4.99 a month or $29.99 a year, with a 7-day free trial. There are no weekly plans and no lifetime AI plan.

Subscriptions are managed by Apple or Google, not by us. On iPhone: Settings → your name → Subscriptions. On Android: Play Store → Profile → Payments & subscriptions. Refund requests also go through Apple (reportaproblem.apple.com) or Google Play.

Accessibility is a first-class part of the app. It works with VoiceOver and TalkBack — you can navigate everywhere, color a picture area-by-area, solve puzzles, and build mandalas. It supports Larger Text (Dynamic Type), honors Reduce Motion, and adapts to Differentiate Without Color by giving each crayon its own texture as well as its color. On iPhone and iPad there's also an optional “Say color names aloud” setting that speaks each color as your child picks it — a fun way for pre-readers to learn their colors.