Painnt

What is Painnt?

Painnt is a photo-to-painting app that applies art and cartoon filters to your pictures and short videos using neural style transfer. It is made by Moonlighting, the developer name shown on the App Store, where the seller is listed as Ricardo Corin.

You pick a photo, choose a style such as an impressionist painting or a pencil sketch, and the app renders a new version of the image in that style. Sliders control how strongly the style is applied, and paid users can train their own filters from any reference image and share them with other users.

Painnt dates from the first wave of AI art filter apps that followed Prisma. It remains listed on the US App Store with a 4.3 rating, but the latest iOS version, 2.22, dates from February 2021. We could not load painnt.com during research, so treat it as a working but rarely maintained app.

Key Features

Custom style training is Painnt’s strongest feature, because it lets you turn any painting or photo into a reusable filter on top of the large preset library.

• Large filter library: The iOS listing advertises more than 2,000 art and cartoon filters, from Van Gogh and Picasso looks to sketch styles. A third-party Mac listing claims over 20,000, so the real count depends on platform and catalogue updates.
• Custom styles from any image: You can train a new filter from a painting or photo you supply. Training uses credits sold in packs on the App Store, and finished styles can be shared with the wider Painnt community.
• Community filter feed: Other users publish the custom styles they create, so the catalogue grows beyond the developer’s own presets. This gives you unusual looks that preset-only apps such as basic filter packs do not offer.
• Video painting: The iOS app can apply an art filter to short video clips as well as still photos. Rendering video takes longer than a single image, so short clips under a minute work best.
• HD output: Higher-resolution rendering is offered for prints and large screens. On iOS, HD comes with the subscription or with a separate one-off purchase listed at $9.99 in the US store.
• Brush and strength controls: Sliders let you adjust brush size and how strongly a style is blended with the original photo. You can also choose output options, which helps keep faces recognisable in portraits.

Pros

Price is Painnt’s clearest advantage: the US App Store lists a full year of premium access for $9.99, far below most modern AI photo editors.

• Low subscription cost: The US App Store lists the annual plan at $9.99, with weekly and monthly options under $2. Casual users can therefore test the full catalogue without a large commitment.
• Unusual custom looks: Training a style from your own reference image produces results that preset-only apps cannot match. Artists and hobbyists gain a personal look they can reuse across many photos.
• Simple workflow: The app follows a pick, tap and save pattern, with sliders for fine control. Beginners can get a finished painting in a few taps without learning layers or masks.
• Works on several devices: Painnt is listed for iPhone, iPad and Apple Vision Pro, and third-party sites list Mac, Android and Windows builds. You can usually keep using it on whichever device you already own.
• Solid user ratings: The US App Store shows 4.3 out of 5 from about 690 ratings. That suggests most reviewers were happy with the results, although many reviews are several years old.

Cons

Maintenance is the weak point, since the iOS app has not received a listed update since February 2021 and the official website did not load.

• No recent iOS updates: The App Store version history ends at 2.22, dated February 2021, with notes about iOS 14 support. Bugs on newer iOS releases may stay unfixed, so test it on your device first.
• Official site unreachable: We could not load painnt.com during research, and the App Store points to a page on moonlighting.io instead. Help pages and contact details are therefore hard to confirm.
• Advertising and tracking: The App Store privacy label says usage data may be used to track you and for third-party advertising. Privacy-minded users should review the label and limit ad tracking in iOS settings.
• Extra costs for training: Custom styles need training credits, sold separately in packs from $0.99 to $8.99 on iOS. Heavy custom-style users can end up paying more than the subscription headline suggests.
• Older style-transfer engine: Painnt applies neural style transfer to an existing photo and cannot generate new scenes from text prompts. Users who expect modern text-to-image tools will find it narrower in scope.

Who is Using Painnt?

Casual photographers and social media creators make up most of Painnt’s audience, judging by its consumer pricing and App Store reviews.

• Hobby photographers: Casual shooters turn holiday and pet photos into painted prints. They value the quick results and the low price of the annual plan.
• Social media creators: Creators use cartoon and sketch filters to give posts a consistent look. Video painting adds short stylised clips for stories and reels.
• Digital artists: Artists train custom styles from their own paintings. They use the results as studies, backgrounds or starting points for further editing.
• Gift makers: People make painted portraits for cards, canvases and framed prints. HD output matters most here because prints need higher resolution.

Pricing

Painnt is a free download with optional subscriptions from $0.99 a week to $9.99 a year (US App Store listing, October 2026).

Free-tier limits such as watermarks and lower resolution come from a third-party Mac listing, and prices on Android, Mac and Windows may differ from iOS.

Disclaimer: store prices vary by country and can change without notice, so check the price shown in your own app store before subscribing.

What Makes Painnt Unique?

A shared library of user-trained styles separates Painnt from most filter apps. Instead of relying only on presets chosen by the developer, you can train a filter from a reference image and publish it, so the catalogue reflects what the community wants to paint with.

Its pricing is also unusual for 2026. Many newer AI photo apps charge monthly fees several times higher and push generative features. Painnt sticks to style transfer on your own photos, which keeps it simple and cheap, but also means it has not kept pace with newer tools.

Compatibilities and Integrations

Painnt runs mainly on Apple devices, with the App Store listing iPhone, iPad and Apple Vision Pro, and it shares output through standard files.

• Platforms: The App Store lists iPhone and iPad on iOS 13 or later, plus Apple Vision Pro. Third-party listings report Mac, Android and Windows versions from the same developer.
• Sharing: Finished images and clips save to your photo library or go out through the system share sheet. There is no direct publishing to social networks inside the app beyond this.
• API and automation: No public API, plug-in or batch automation for iOS was found. A third-party Mac listing mentions batch processing, which we could not confirm on an official page.
• Data and export: Output is standard image and video files that open in any editor. Custom styles live inside Painnt and its community feed rather than as exportable files.

Painnt Tutorials

Turning a photo into a painting takes about six steps and only a minute or two per image.

1. Install Painnt from the App Store or your platform’s store and open it.
2. Choose a photo or short video from your library or take a new one.
3. Browse the filter categories and tap a style to preview it.
4. Adjust strength and brush size until the subject still reads clearly.
5. Train a custom style from a reference image if the presets do not fit, using credits.
6. Save in HD or share the result through the share sheet.

How We Rated It

Painnt earns 3.4 out of 5, because cheap pricing and custom styles are offset by years without updates and weak support.

Summary

Painnt suits casual users who want painterly or cartoon versions of their photos for very little money. Its custom style training and community filters still give it a niche that preset-only apps lack. The main limitation is maintenance, because the iOS app was last updated in February 2021 and the official site did not load. Support and privacy also lag behind newer rivals. Before paying for the annual plan, try the free version on your current device to confirm it runs without crashes.