Paint by sticker book app: play the hobby digitally

Updated August 2026 · A Pentire guide

The Paint by Sticker books earned their following honestly. Workman Publishing's series turned sticker-by-number into a bestselling hobby: peel a numbered sticker, find its outline, press it down, and watch a low-poly artwork assemble under your fingers. The books are tactile, completely screen-free, and one of the most reliable gifts you can hand a kid — or a grown-up who wants something to do with their hands.

If you've searched for a companion app, though, you've hit a wall: as of August 2026 there is no official app for the Paint by Sticker books. The series is physical-only. Pentire is an independent iPhone and iPad app built around the same mechanic — it is not affiliated with Workman Publishing or Hachette — and this page is an honest look at what a digital version of the hobby gains and what it gives up.

What changes when the hobby goes digital

• The pages never run out. A book ends when its pages do. Pentire ships with a library of 60 original puzzles across six collections — Space, Ocean, Landscapes, Abstract, Food, and Farm — generates unlimited brand-new original art on demand across six scene types (plus a "Surprise me" button), and turns your own photos into puzzles, all processed entirely on your device.
• Stickers can't be misplaced or torn. No piece falls behind the couch, sticks to itself, or rips on the way off the sheet. Place a sticker in the wrong spot and it lifts cleanly; if you're stuck, hints are free and unlimited.
• One picture is many pages. A book page is one fixed cut. In Pentire, any picture can be re-cut at any time to five difficulties (from 12 stickers at Starter to 220 at Expert), four piece shapes, and four art looks — 80 combinations per picture, each keeping its own saved progress.
• It travels in your pocket. No flat surface, no good lighting, no book bag. A ten-minute wait becomes a few placed stickers, and the app picks up exactly where you left off.
• It works offline. The library, the art generator, photo import, and play itself all work in airplane mode — the books' great travel virtue, kept.

What the books still do better

Being fair to the original matters, because some of what makes the books special is precisely that they're paper:

• A finished page is a keepsake. The books' pages are made to be pulled out and displayed; a framed finished page is a real object on a real wall.
• They're genuinely screen-free. For a family limiting screen time, an app is a screen no matter how calm it is. The books win this by definition.
• They make better gifts. A wrapped book under a tree beats a redemption code every time.
• Real stickers feel like real stickers. The peel of vinyl off backing paper is its own small pleasure, and glass can only approximate it.

Books vs. Pentire, side by side

How Pentire's version works

Open a puzzle and the picture becomes numbered outline slots with a tray of sticker pieces below — the same grammar as the books. Tap a piece to peel it, twist with two fingers to rotate it, and set it on its matching number; a correct placement settles in with a gentle optional haptic. There are no timers, no scores, and no lives, and if a piece has you stumped, the free hint pulses its exact spot and turns it the right way round.

Frequently asked questions

Related reading: what a paint by stickers app is · stickers vs. paint by number · sticker by number alternatives · how photo puzzles are made