Icelus
Real screens, text underneath
$0.99 · Designed for iPad. Not verified for macOS.
Inspect any part: its size, the gap on each side and its own code. Column grids, part libraries, one switch for ASCII lines, auto layout.
Icelus is a design tool for screens. Design on a real canvas; underneath, every screen is text.
Pick a part, tap the canvas, and it lands there as a real button, field, switch or table. One switch in Settings shows the same screen as box-drawing characters. Buttons, inputs, tables, date pickers, tab bars, charts, 38 parts in all. Draw arrows between them, add a big title, and move things around until the screen looks right. Or type the whole screen in a few lines and let Icelus draw it.
Then copy it. A Icelus screen is text underneath, so it pastes into a pull request, an issue, a README, a chat or a code comment, and it stays editable wherever it lands. No image to attach, no design file to open.
What you get:
- A real canvas: parts draw as real controls on artboards, with a Settings switch for the text look
- Brush, eraser, selections, gradients, 16 terminal colors, adjustment layers and masks
- 38 parts, each its own object you can move, resize, duplicate and reorder
- Several screens on one canvas, linked by arrows, copied as one document
- Screen templates: sign in, settings, list, detail, empty state
- Highlights, your own saved parts, and iOS, Material, terminal and email packs
- Copy HTML: the layout as real elements for a developer
- Paste any text wireframe and edit it
- Shortcuts: Draw a screen, Make plain ASCII
- 27 languages and full VoiceOver support
- Arrows that stay attached when parts move
- Type a screen in a few lines, and copy any sketch back as those lines
- Turn a photo into block art, or trace over one
- Text boxes, banners and five box styles
- Tables you edit as typed rows, with columns that grow
- Bar charts, sparklines and progress rows drawn from numbers
- Flowcharts from a line like a -> b -> c
- Sequence diagrams from lines like User -> App: Sign in
- Trees from an indented list
- Groups that move as one
- A layer list: hide, lock, reorder
- Symbols: edit one copy, every copy follows
- Pressed, disabled and error states
- Snap and alignment guides
- Copy as text, Markdown or plain ASCII, or share an image
- Autosave and 50 steps of undo
- Keyboard control on the Mac
- The same project file on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and the web
Everything stays on your device. An account is optional, and nothing you draw is uploaded. No tracking.
One price, no subscription. The web version at icelus.jaybulb.com is free.
Ratings & Reviews
- This app hasn’t received enough ratings or reviews to display an overview.
Inspect. Pick a part and open More: where it sits, its size, the gap to its neighbours on each side, and its own React or SwiftUI code to copy.
Grids. Select a screen and set Columns and Gutter. Faint column bands appear inside it, and a part you drag snaps onto a column. Use on Every Screen gives the rest the same grid.
Libraries. Make parts into symbols and copy them as a library. Paste it into any project and its parts join Mine. Paste a newer version and every linked copy updates, except what a copy owns.
Variables and modes. Under More, Canvas has a Lines switch: draw every part in ASCII, single, heavy, double or rounded lines at once, and switch back any time. Add a named spacing value and bind a screen's gap or padding to it. Change it once and every screen using it restacks.
Properties. Select a copy of a symbol and turn on Own words or Own style. Swap puts another symbol in its place, right where it sits.
Sizes. Select a screen and tap Make sizes: phone, tablet and desktop widths side by side, kept in step.
Auto layout and constraints. A screen's parts stay stacked with an even gap. Pin a part and it follows when the screen is resized.
Harmonize, heal and expand. A dropped part takes on the look of its screen. Delete a box in a flow and its arrows join up.
Actions and History. Record a few edits and play them on any part. Every step listed by name, tap one to go back.
The developer, Joshua Trommel, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Not Collected
The developer does not collect any data from this app.
Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
Information
- Seller
- Joshua Trommel
- Size
- 2.7 MB
- Category
- Developer Tools
- Compatibility
Requires iOS 17.0 or later.
- iPhone
Requires iOS 17.0 or later. - iPad
Requires iPadOS 17.0 or later. - Mac
Requires macOS 14.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later. - Apple Vision
Requires visionOS 1.0 or later.
- iPhone
- Languages
English and 26 more
- English, Arabic, Bengali, Dutch, French, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Thai, Traditional Chinese, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Vietnamese
- Age Rating
4+
- 4+
- Copyright
- © 2026 Joshua Trommel

