About Stencil AI
Stencil AI is built by Joseph AG., an indie iOS developer. It is a one-person project: the app, the App Store listing, the support inbox and every guide on this site come from the same desk.
Why Stencil AI exists
Turning a photo into a stencil used to mean a threshold filter in a photo editor, a lot of clean-up, and lines that still broke wherever the light was soft. Tattoo artists trace references by hand because the automatic tools were never good enough. Crafters gave up on photos entirely and searched for ready-made patterns instead.
The app exists to make that first step quick and reliable on the phone the photo is already on. You pick a photo, tap once, and get pure black outlines on white that you can mirror, size, print and transfer. The editor covers the clean-up that used to take the longest: line weight, darkness, smoothing, a touch-up brush, and a mirror button for tattoo transfer.
How the conversion works
Stencil AI uses an AI image model rather than a pixel filter. A threshold filter keeps every pixel darker than a cut-off value and throws the rest away, which is why it produces noisy, broken edges on ordinary photos. The model instead redraws the subject as continuous outlines: it decides where an edge is, drops shading and colour, closes shapes, and keeps solid black only where the design needs it.
Because the model redraws rather than copies, you should always check likeness with the built-in before/after slider before you use a stencil, especially for portraits and lettering. The Touch Up tool is there for the last small corrections.
Your photo is uploaded over an authenticated, App Check-protected cloud function only to generate the stencil. The result is stored on your device in the app's Collection. There is no account to create. The privacy policy has the full details.
What the app is and is not
It is an iPhone app on the App Store, localised in English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish. It requires iOS 26.2 or later. There is no Android version and no web version.
The first stencil is free, and further conversions are in-app purchases shown inside the app. Purchases go through Apple, and support explains how to restore, cancel or ask for a refund.
The editorial promise behind the guides
The guides are written to be useful without the app. Every one is tested against real output: stencils printed on thermal and hectograph paper, pumpkins actually carved, cardstock actually sprayed. If a method is slower or worse than doing it by hand, the guide says so.
Three rules apply to every post:
- No invented numbers. If a statistic, study or quote cannot be verified, it is left out.
- No padding. Each section opens with the answer and then explains it.
- Stencil AI is mentioned only where it honestly helps, with its limits stated.
Guides carry a published date and an updated date, and the author is always Joseph AG..
Contact
Questions about the app, a purchase, or a correction to a guide: email denw3n@gmail.com. Include your User ID from the app's Settings screen if the question is about a purchase.