FrameTrace

Trace any image onto real paper with a Steam Frame.

FrameTrace shows a picture on your sheet in the headset's passthrough, at the size you set. You draw along it with a normal pencil, a bit like on a light box, on a desk, wall or easel.

Download 0.0.2 How to install

Android APK, 31 MB, released 5 October 2026. Free beta. Needs Developer Mode and Lepton Development on the Frame.

Place

Lay the right controller on your paper and press A. The image appears on the sheet at A4, A3 or any size you set.

Adjust

Grab it with a grip to move it, use both hands to turn and scale. Press A again to lock it in place.

Trace

Fade it with the stick, switch to outlines or tone steps, and hold a grip to peek at your drawing.

What it opens

PNG and JPG pictures, PDF pages and SVG drawings at the paper size they state, and 3D models (glTF, GLB, OBJ, STL) to draw from. Copy them to ~/Downloads or ~/Documents on the Frame. Twenty-one practice images, six models and a set of drawing guides are built in. No account and no online features: your files and projects stay on the headset.

Install

FrameTrace runs as an Android app through Valve's Lepton Development. Lepton removes apps installed over adb when it closes, but it reinstalls everything in its auto-install folder each time it starts. That folder is the easy way.

First, turn on Developer Mode on the Frame and set up Lepton Development, following Valve's developer guide. Then pick one of the ways below.

On the Frame itself, with one command

No PC needed. In Desktop Mode on the Frame, copy this command, open a terminal (Konsole) and paste it with a right-click and Paste (or Ctrl+Shift+V), then press Enter:

curl -fsSL https://frametrace.app/install.sh | sh

It creates the auto-install folder, downloads FrameTrace 0.0.2, checks the download and removes older copies. Then start Lepton Development. Run the same command again to update. See what the script does.

On the Frame itself, with the browser

In Desktop Mode, open the file manager and create the folder lepton_auto_install_apks in your home folder.
Open this page in the Frame's web browser, tap Download 0.0.2 and save the file into that folder. Delete older FrameTrace APKs from it.
Start Lepton Development. FrameTrace appears in its app list.

From a PC

On the Frame's SteamOS side, create the folder ~/lepton_auto_install_apks, for example over SSH:
```
mkdir -p ~/lepton_auto_install_apks
```
Copy FrameTrace-0.0.2.apk into that folder (over SSH or a file share). Remove older FrameTrace APKs from it.
Start Lepton Development. FrameTrace appears in its app list.

Updating: run the command again, or replace the APK in the folder, and restart Lepton Development. Your settings and projects live in ~/Documents/FrameTrace, so they survive updates and restarts.

Installing from a PC with adb instead

With the Frame in Developer Mode and on the same network:

adb connect <frame-ip>:5555
adb install -r FrameTrace-0.0.2.apk

This copy disappears when Lepton Development closes. Use the auto-install folder to keep it.

SHA-256 of FrameTrace-0.0.2.apk: 5f5c62f5c78e19b5915e790cb65edc190020f29b055e4ed2d469d4af5a58da0a

Help

FrameTrace doesn't show up in Lepton

Check that the APK sits directly in ~/lepton_auto_install_apks (not in a subfolder) and restart Lepton Development. It installs the folder's contents on start only.

The image slides over the paper when I move my head

Run Menu > Position > Height check. Sway your head and push the right stick down or up until the image stays put, then press A. FrameTrace remembers the result.

The image is gone or in the wrong place

Press Y to bring the active layer to your hand. After a restart, Menu > Quick > Restore place puts your layers back where they were.

Where are my projects?

In ~/Documents/FrameTrace on the SteamOS side. Copy that folder to back them up.

Can I change the buttons?

Yes: Menu > Controls. The Help tab in the menu lists every control and can start the tour again.

Which version am I running?

The Help tab shows the version and build at the bottom. Include it when you report a problem.