To continue with my mission to find a fully functional digital art iPhone app, I came across iRetouch. This is mostly used for photo editing, but I was able to use it for some drawing as well. As I’ve mentioned in previous reviews, I would like to find an app (or series of apps) that allow me to use a fully functional Photoshop on my phone. This may setting the bar very high, but I’m curious to see what’s out there.

I started by downloading iRetouch Lite. As with all lite versions, the app had the feel of the full app, but without all of the bells and whistles. The main difference between the two is that you can save higher resolution photos (1536x2048px) with iRetouch, than lower resolution saves (default 640×480, but as high as 1024×768) in iRetouch Lite. The dpi difference here alone was enough for me to upgrade, especially when I found the full version for sale from the App Store at 50% off.

Positive Features

• You may continue your last session
• Undo (Redo in full version)
• Preview of effects prior to implementing (full version)
• Basic Tools (full version) and Retouch Tools (both versions)
• Blend Modes

To clarify, iRetouch provides an addition to the repetoire of iRetouch Lite with it’s Basic Tools, which provide for higher quality saving, easy photo crop, rotate, flip, resize, brightness/contrast, black&white, color temperature (warmer/colder), invert, unlimited undo and redo.

The Touchup Tools remain the same in both versions and provide the ability to clone stamp, smudge, brighten, hue, color, eraser, pencil, brush, and use stamps (which come in a variety of customizable shapes).

The true success of iRetouch comes in its Blend Modes. This is the closest to a Photoshop App (besides the real Photoshop) I’ve found. There are layman friendly descriptions of each blend mode and quite a bit of control in implementing them. Most of the work I have posted here takes advantage of the blend modes within iRetouch.

Future Changes I Want to See

• Redo in Touchup Tools
• Easier way to take photo from Basic Tools into Touchup Tools (and without quality loss)
• An offset drawing option would be nice
• More space between the edge of the photo and the edge of the app

My frustrations arose when i found the full version also does not include a redo in the Touchup Tools. Sometimes I tried something out only to accidentally hit the undo button and found I could not replicated exactly what I had errased. This could have been erradicated had I found a redo button, but alas I found none.

a different version I made with iRetouch Lite

My last serious petpeeve came up when I was trying to touchup details near the edges of my photos and found that I was hindered by the format of iRetouch. With in inability to zoom out far enough to bring the border of my photo into the center of the screen, some of the edges were unable to receive the same treatment as more accessible areas.

Face was lightened from a wash of shadow.

Bottom Line

iRetouch is a refreshing approach at easy photo editing with all of the extras to keep you happy. I have kept this app for months and keep going back to it over other photo editing apps. Try the free Lite version to get a feel for it, then find the full version for faster work.