Press release · October 21, 2026

A pocket paint tin for iPhone Duo, iPhone and iPad

AltoPaint turns a phone into a tin of paint. The lid holds a tiny canvas, the base holds twelve real pigments and a mixing tray, and the paint behaves like paint. It launches on the App Store on October 23, 2026, the same day as iPhone Duo.

App Store All assets (Google Drive) Press kit PDF

AltoPaint on iPhone Duo: a mountain lake painted on the canvas in the lid, with pigments and mixes in the base of the tin

Paint that behaves like paint

Colors mix the way pigments do, the brush runs dry, wet strokes drag into each other, paint dries, and thick strokes catch the light. Each screenshot below shows one of these, painted live in the app.

Lemon and phthalo mixing to green, cadmium yellow and red to orange, ultramarine and magenta to violet — **Real pigments, mixed like paint.** Twelve real pigments, and each pixel keeps how much of each it holds. Two pigments, then what they make together on the tray.

Three strokes, each from one dip, breaking up into dry-brush streaks — **The brush runs out of paint.** One dip each, painted until the brush runs dry and breaks into scratchy dry-brush streaks.

White and lemon strokes dragged across wet blue and magenta stripes — **Wet-into-wet.** Strokes across wet paint drag it along. Lemon across wet blue turns green.

White across wet blue picks up streaks; white across dry blue stays clean — **Paint dries.** White across wet blue (left) picks up pale streaks. Across blue that has dried (right), it stays clean.

Daisies with thick white petals showing bristle grooves — **Thick paint catches the light.** Bristle grooves, ridges and the mark where the brush stopped.

Colored stripes smeared by a palette knife, and flat knife-laid planes — **Palette knife.** A clean knife smears each color into the next; a loaded one lays flat, solid planes.

Looping blue and red strokes that swell and thin — **A flat brush that writes like a pen.** Held at one angle, its chisel swells and thins as the stroke turns.

Tapered green and blue blades, and scratchy side-of-the-brush strokes — **Apple Pencil.** Pressure swells and tapers a stroke; tilt the Pencil to paint with the side of the brush.

Glossy oil strokes on a warm toned canvas — **Oil.** Glossy and thick, on a warm toned canvas, and stays wet for a while.

The same strokes in matte gouache on white paper — **Gouache.** The same strokes, matte and flat on white paper, and dry within a few strokes.

No undo, on purpose

Like real paint, AltoPaint has no undo. Paint over it, scrape it back with the knife, or let it dry and work on top. Nothing is ever ruined; it just becomes part of the painting.

Made for iPhone Duo

The tin opens across the middle of the screen, right where the Duo folds, so a half-open Duo holds the canvas up like the lid of a tin, with the paints and tray lying flat below. It works just as well on any iPhone or iPad, with the tin filling the screen.

A meadow with mountains painted in AltoPaint on iPhone Duo — iPhone Duo

A meadow painted in AltoPaint on iPhone — iPhone

A mountain lake painted in AltoPaint on iPad — iPad

Fact sheet

App: AltoPaint
Tagline: Curiously small paintings
Developer: High Line Labs LLC, New York City
Release date: October 23, 2026
Platforms: iPhone Duo, iPhone, iPad
Requires: iOS 27 or iPadOS 27
Price: $4.99 for launch week, then $5.99. No subscriptions, in-app purchases or ads.
Languages: English, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Spanish
Input: Touch and Apple Pencil (pressure, tilt and azimuth)
App Store: apps.apple.com/app/id6825181273
Website: altopaint.app

About the maker

AltoPaint is made by Eric Kunz, an engineer at Instagram and the founder of High Line Labs LLC, a small app studio in New York City. His other apps include Horolog, a watch collection tracker, and Hinge Harp, a pocket instrument for iPhone Duo. He’s drawn to the place where digital design meets traditional craft.

Assets and contact

The Google Drive folder has full-resolution screenshots for iPhone Duo, iPhone and iPad, the feature screenshots above, the app icon, screen recordings, this press release, and the press kit PDF.

For interviews, review copies and questions, email press@highlinelabs.co.