A free alternative to Da Vinci Eye. No app, no account.
Art Overlay does the part most people install Da Vinci Eye for: it puts your reference image on top of the live camera view so you can trace it by hand. It runs in a browser tab, it is free with nothing above it, and your images never leave your device.
- Free forever
- No account
- Nothing to install
- Your images never leave your device
The short version
If what you want is to get a photo onto paper, a canvas or a wall without paying for it, Art Overlay covers that today — open the page, allow the camera, trace. It will also pin the image to the paper if you print a sheet of markers, free. If you want AR that needs nothing printed and holds when the markers leave the frame, step-by-step stencil breakdowns, or a tool that flips between your drawing and the reference to compare values, Da Vinci Eye has those and Art Overlay does not. Both halves of that are spelled out below.
Side by side
| What | Art Overlay | Da Vinci Eye |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free. There is no tier above it. | Free tier; $29.99 a year or $7.99 a month for full access. |
| Install | Nothing to install — it is a web page. | An app from the App Store or Google Play. |
| Account | Not needed. | Needed for the subscription. |
| Runs on | Any phone, tablet or computer with a browser and a camera. | iOS, iPadOS, visionOS and Android. |
| Where your images go | Nowhere. The camera feed and the reference are processed in your browser. | A native app — read their privacy policy. |
Prices checked in September 2026 against Da Vinci Eye’s own site. They can change, and we are not the ones who get to change them. Their pricing page.
What Da Vinci Eye does that this does not
A comparison that only lists the other side’s weaknesses is an ad. These are real, and if you need one of them, go pay for the app — it is a fair price for them.
AR with nothing to print
Both apps pin the image to the surface now — Art Overlay does it from a marker sheet you print once, free. The difference is what happens when the markers leave the frame: Da Vinci Eye uses ARKit, so the phone keeps its bearings on its own and the image stays put. The browser has no equivalent, so here something has to stay in view. Zoom into the middle of a big drawing and the lock waits for a marker to come back.
Stencil breakdowns
Breakdown Mode turns a photo into a sequence of stencils you work through in order. Art Overlay hands you the whole image at once and an opacity slider.
Value comparison
Its strobe tool flips between your drawing and the reference so you can see where your values have drifted. There is nothing like it here.
Grid tools
Mural Maker and Doodle Grid are separate apps of theirs, built around grid transfer. Art Overlay skips grids entirely — the overlay is the transfer.
It is an installed app
It opens from the home screen and does not depend on a browser tab, or on this page being up. Art Overlay needs the page to load at least once.
What Art Overlay does that a projector app usually does not
Curved surfaces, done properly
Cup, roller and ball bend the reference the same way the object bends it, so the two cancel out. Unwrap the mug afterwards and the design is even, instead of stretched at the edges.
Four corners, any perspective
Drag the four handles onto whatever you are tracing and the reference follows them. That covers a canvas leaning back on an easel, a board flat on a table, and anything you are looking at from off to one side.
It can find the surface by itself
Detect looks for the flat rectangle in front of you and snaps the reference onto it, matching the angle you are seeing it from. There is no model to download, so it is instant and works with no connection.
A background remover in the same page
Cut the subject out of your reference and trace it straight away, without the round trip through your downloads folder — one less thing to squint past while you draw.
Nothing to trust us with
No upload, no account, no sign-in — which also means a client’s artwork never ends up on someone else’s server unless you send it yourself.
About the APK and the “mod” downloads
A good share of the searching around this app is for an APK, a mod, or a cracked build. That is not really a request for a file — it is a request not to pay. Sideloading a patched APK gets you a build nobody maintains, from a site with its own reasons to bundle something extra, and you still have to install it and still have to trust it. Art Overlay is the same wish with none of that attached: it is a web page, it is actually free, and there is nothing to sideload. We do not host anyone’s APK, and you do not need one to trace an image.
Questions
Is there a free alternative to Da Vinci Eye?
Yes — this one. Art Overlay lays your reference over the live camera so you can trace it by hand, free, with no account, no install and no tier above it. It anchors to the paper too, from a marker sheet you print once. What it does not have is Da Vinci Eye’s markerless AR, its stencil breakdowns or its value strobe. If all you wanted was to get a picture onto paper, that gap never comes up.
How much does the Da Vinci Eye app cost?
It is free to download and has a free tier, and full access runs $29.99 a year or $7.99 a month — the same on iPhone, iPad and Android. That is what their own pricing page said in September 2026. Prices move, so check there before you plan around it.
Is Art Overlay really free, or does it turn into a subscription later?
It is free and there is no tier above it. No account, no trial, no watermark and no cap on how many images you trace. You can use your own photos, which is the part most tracing apps keep behind the subscription.
Do I need to install anything?
No. Open the page on your phone, allow the camera, and you are tracing. No app store, no download, and no permission beyond the camera.
Is there a Da Vinci Eye APK or mod I can download?
We do not host one and would not send you to one. A patched APK is an unmaintained build from a site you have no reason to trust, installed with far more access than a web page ever gets. If the reason you went looking was that you did not want to pay, open Art Overlay instead: it costs nothing and installs nothing.
Does it work on iPhone?
Yes. It is built camera-first for Safari on iOS, including the tap-to-start that iOS requires and the safe-area handling that keeps the notch and the home indicator off the controls. It works on Android and on desktop too.
So which one should I use?
Try Art Overlay first — it costs you nothing but the tap, and if it does the job you are done. Go pay for Da Vinci Eye the moment you catch yourself wanting the image pinned to the wall while you step back from it, or the stencil breakdowns, or the value strobe. Those are worth the money, and we do not have them.