# Icelus — Real screens, text underneath

> Real screens, text underneath (iPhone/iPad app by Joshua Trommel.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/icelus/id6794988951 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Joshua Trommel](https://appshunter.io/developer/6779522177)
- Category: Developer Tools, Graphics & Design
- Price: $0.99
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 17.0 · 3 MB
- Languages: American English, Arabic, Bangla, Dutch, French (France), German (Germany), Hebrew, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian and 17 more
- Released: 2026-08-20
- Data updated: 2026-10-25

## What is Icelus?

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.

## Is Icelus safe?

Not enough ratings yet to assess Icelus.

## Is Icelus legit?

Icelus appears legitimate, with a few gaps. The AppsHunter Legitimacy Score for Icelus is 65 out of 100 points across 7 verification signals from App Store and developer data.


## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 50.0.0 — 2026-10-20

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.

### 38.0.0 — 2026-10-19

Glyphbox is now Icelus, named for the Greek god who makes dreams look real. Same app, same projects, a new name.

Masks. Crop any part from its edges, or clip it to the shape of another part, and only that much shows. Nothing is cut: clear the crop or the clip and every character comes back.

A real canvas. Buttons, fields, checkboxes, switches, menus, tables and cards now look like the real thing, on screens laid out like artboards. Arrows, paint and charts keep their character style, the text look is one switch away in Settings, and every export works as before.

Adjustment layers. Drag a box with Adjust and everything under it changes without being touched: invert it, dim it, turn it into plain ASCII, or swap every box to double, rounded or heavy lines. Change your mind any time, or hide the layer to see the original.

Color. Give any part an ink and a paper from the 16 terminal colors, and paint strokes in color cell by cell. Copied text stays plain, Copy as ANSI keeps the colors for a terminal, and images and HTML keep them too.

Gradients. Drag to lay a ramp of shade, light to solid, straight across or round like a glow. Shades now fill their whole cell, so ramps, shaded photos and fills read as smooth tone instead of stripes.

Selections. Drag a box around any cells, or tap a mark with the magic wand to pick its whole run. Copy them as text, cut them, fill them, or drag to move what they hold. Whole parts move with it and a box is never cut open.

Brush. Paint any mark freehand, one to five cells wide: a full block, a shade, a dot or a hash. Each stroke is its own layer you can move or delete, and the eraser takes paint away without ever cutting a box open.

Built for agents. Connect Claude or any MCP client to Icelus and it can read worked examples, sketch a screen from a sentence, review it, and build from it.

Present. Export, then Present, and your screens play one at a time, full screen, in reading order. Tap or use the arrow keys to move, and Save as PDF to send the whole deck.

Code that compiles. Export, then Copy React code or Copy SwiftUI code, and your layout becomes a React component with plain CSS or a SwiftUI view: real buttons, fields, checkboxes, tables and headings in the same places. Paste it into your project and restyle from there.

Hand it to Claude Code. Export, then Copy for Claude Code, and you get one build brief: every screen drawn, its parts with their words, place and state, the flow between screens and your notes. Paste it into an agent and it builds to match.

Variations. Ask for variations on any screen and get three takes side by side, stacked, split and dense, from the same parts. Keep the one you like and the others clear away.

Accounts, if you want one. Sign in with email to keep your name with your work, or skip it: everything works without an account. Settings holds the tutorial and the switch for all controls. You can delete your account any time from Profile.

Capture a page. Type a web address and Icelus draws that page as a wireframe: headings, links, buttons, fields, lists and tables, ready to edit.

Easier to start. A short tutorial walks you through your first screen: pick a button, place it, change its words, move it, copy it. The basics sit up front and everything else waits under More.

Design systems. Paste a design system file made from your code and its components join your palette, drawn in text. Review then checks every box against its style.

Review. Tap Review and Icelus checks your screens: parts that overlap, boxes cut open, placeholder labels like Label or Click here, a list with no empty state, a form with no error state. Tap an issue to jump to the part.

Also new: photos in braille or soft shade; pressed, disabled and error states drawn into any part; symbols you change once to change every copy; layers you can hide and lock; groups that move as one; and file trees, sequence diagrams and flowcharts drawn from a few typed lines.

### 12.0.0 — 2026-10-19

Blockprint is now Glyphbox. Same app, same files, a new name and icon.

Tables that grow. Type a table as rows like Name | Plan, and every column widens to fit its longest cell. Add or remove a row or a column with one tap, and the frame redraws itself.

Charts from numbers. Type a few numbers and get a bar chart with lined-up labels, a sparkline, or a progress row. Change a number and the chart redraws.

Screens. Put several screens side by side, each a named frame that carries its parts when you move it. Draw an arrow from a button to the next screen, then Copy all screens to get the whole flow as one document. Start from a template: sign in, settings, list, detail or empty state. Pinch to zoom.

Make it yours. Highlight a part in the accent color, save any part to your own palette, and pick from part packs in the style of iOS, Material, the terminal and email. Copy HTML hands the layout to a developer as real buttons, inputs and tables.

Bring it in. Paste any text wireframe, from a README, a chat or another tool, and it becomes parts you can edit. Two Shortcuts actions draw a screen from typed lines and turn box characters into plain ASCII.

For everyone. Glyphbox now speaks 27 languages, right to left included, and VoiceOver reads every part on the canvas.

Photos. The Photo tool turns any picture into block-character art you can paste anywhere, and Trace a photo puts one faintly under the grid so you can draw over it.

Draw the lines between things. The Arrow tool draws a line from one part to another, and when you move a part, its arrows follow. Where lines cross, the characters join up cleanly.

Type a whole screen. Pick Type it, write a few lines like "Email" and [Sign in], and Glyphbox draws them as real parts. Copy as typed lines turns any sketch back into those lines.

Fourteen new parts, 37 in all, plus text boxes, big block-letter banners, snap and alignment guides, and five box styles.

### 2.0.0 — 2026-10-19

The app is now called Blockframe. Same wireframe tool, clearer name.

### 1.1.3 — 2026-10-05

The app is now called Blockframe. Same wireframe tool, clearer name.

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## More apps by Joshua Trommel

- [Epiphany](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/epiphany/id6779522175)
- [Talli](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/talli/id6782366555)
- [Notate](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/notate/id6782604262)
- [NYC Survive](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/nyc-survive/id6782618198)
- [Lexly](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/lexly/id6783501611)
- [Thinkpond](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/thinkpond/id6785162492)

All apps by Joshua Trommel: https://appshunter.io/developer/6779522177

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-10-25.*