Comparison

Pastello vs Topaz for Mobile

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Pastello

Transform your photos into stunning dry media art, mimicking styles like pastel, charcoal, and colored pencil. This app offers a professional workflow with customizable layers and one-click presets for creating expressive, traditional-looking artwork.

Highlights
  • Photo to Pastel, Chalk, Charcoal, Crayon conversion
  • Layering of different dry media
  • Customizable stroke direction, size, and volume
  • One-click presets with customization options
  • Traditional sketch styles and DaVinci effect
  • Professional workflow for artists and photographers
Read full description

Transform photos into a fine art drawing with Pastel, Pencil, Chalk, Charcoal and Crayon Introducing Pastello, a brand-new companion app to JixiPix’s Impresso Pro. Pastello takes you back in time to the 15th century. Away from brushes and large strokes and into the realm of dry media with color that is both brilliant and subtle. The “Dry color method” made famous by Leonardo da Vinci is so powerful in its simplicity and beauty with its black and red chalk and yellow pastel highlights. Later, artists would paint charming portraits in a smooth heavily blended fashion. Move forward a few centuries later and pastel quickly became filled with brilliant color and crisp detail. Fast forward to today and a digital age has made it so you, the artist, can mix and match media that is difficult or impossible in a traditional setting. Pastello makes it simple and convenient to take an image and change it into Pastel, Chalk, Charcoal, Crayon, Colored Pencil and Graphite drawings. Use alone or combine these medias using powerful layers to produce interesting expressive sketch effects filled with colorful personality and passion. And the best part is Pastello does all the work. With Pastello, photographers and artists can now go beyond the camera to turn image files into creative works that resemble traditional handmade media using a professional workflow that is easy and comfortable to operate. Pastello has a pro workflow that automatically transforms a photo into a pastel drawing and places it on an art paper with options to customize. The Pastel can then be changed to Chalk, Charcoal, Colored Pencil, Graphite, Conte or Crayon using Layer styles. The medias start out delicate like traditional drawings do, then allows you to build them up using fills, shading and detail layers. The medias are beautiful as they are, or mix them for an expressive artwork. Pastello includes plenty of traditional sketch styles as well as a DaVinci effect using a mixed media of pencil, charcoal, crayon and old paper. It’s easy to use! We have mixed the media into one-click presets with all the freedom to customize, blend and fine-tune for your own unique artwork filled with age, depth and timeless beauty as if created by the renaissance artist himself. Pastel Styles: Colored Pencil, Graphite, Charcoal, and Chalk come with a fill and detail option that can be layered for infinite variation. Conte has a dynamic sketch feature that lets you fill in shadows, mid-tones and highlights with crosshatching or scumbling. All with the ability to change stroke direction, size, volume and variation. Pastel—(Soft) is a soft, buttery consistency and intense color. This effect is dense and filled with the grain of the paper. Chalk—(Hard Pastel) is a light dusty effect with little specks of preserved paper. This chalky pastel is known for it’s soft strokes and velvety texture. Charcoal—creates a velvety black charcoal effect with shades of grey. Use it for warming up the under painting of a composition, or to complete a finished charcoal piece. Colored Pencil—creates soft colorful strokes in the drawing that can be layered to build up color then burnished with a light Pencil Layer, or the Smudge tool. Pencil—creates pencil drawings with fluid outlines and soft, limpid tonal shadings for a drawing filled with warmth and charm. Conté—is a beautiful crayon media for enhancing highlights, midtones and shadows in drawings using classic colors. Crayon—creates a colorful waxy base to a drawing, then burnished it with a Conte White for highlights or Bistre for shading.

About

Topaz for Mobile

Restore old photos, fix blurry images, and enhance overall photo quality using advanced AI. This app can unblur, upscale, and repair images, making low-resolution pictures crystal-clear and bringing new life to cherished memories.

Highlights
  • Fix blurry photos instantly
  • Restore and repair old photos
  • Upscale images by 4x without losing detail
  • Enhance faces with AI
  • Refine AI art and digital creations
  • Multiple AI enhancement modes
Read full description

Fix blurry, pixelated, and old photos in seconds. Topaz for Mobile is the AI photo enhancer that upscales resolution, sharpens details, removes blur, and restores damaged images—all on your iPhone or iPad. Topaz Labs’ AI has enhanced more than 1 billion images. Now you can access that technology on mobile and through Topaz Image Web, our browser-based app, with a single subscription. Simply choose the result you want, add one photo or an entire batch, and let the AI do the rest. You can even start a job, close the app, and return to finished results. WHY MILLIONS CHOOSE TOPAZ: • Professional-grade AI photo enhancement • Trusted by millions of photographers and creators • More than 1 billion images enhanced with Topaz Labs AI • One subscription for mobile and web • Unlimited processing on every plan USE TOPAZ TO: • Enhance Photo Quality Bring out clarity, sharpness, and detail for clean, vivid selfies, portraits, and scanned images. • Upscale and Enhance Increase image resolution while recovering fine textures and realistic details. • Fix Corrupted Images Repair blur, noise, fading, and damage in old or low-quality photos. • Enhance Faces with AI Sharpen facial details, refine selfies, and restore group photos—even from low-quality originals. • Refine AI Art and Digital Creations Improve the clarity and resolution of AI-generated images for clean, professional results. POWERFUL AI WORKFLOWS: • Autopilot — Automatically selects enhancements for the best all-around result • Upscale: Creative and Realism — Increases resolution and recovers detail • Restore Old Photos — Denoises, repairs, and revives damaged images • Restore and Recover Faces — Brings back natural, lifelike facial detail • Unblur and Sharpen — Fixes soft or out-of-focus images • Colorize — Adds natural-looking color to black-and-white photos • Background Remover — Quickly isolates your subject • Adjust Lighting — Improves exposure and illumination Process a single image or an entire batch. Start a job, close the app, and come back when your enhanced images are ready. SUBSCRIPTIONS: Every plan includes unlimited processing on Topaz for Mobile and Topaz Image Web. • Personal Plan — $19/month or $17/month billed annually Unlimited processing for images up to 32MP • Pro Plan — $59/month or $50/month billed annually Unlimited processing for images up to 256MP Download Topaz for Mobile today and experience our most advanced AI photo enhancer for iPhone and iPad. Privacy Policy: https://topazlabs.com/privacy Terms of Use: https://topazlabs.com/ios-eula Support: [support@topazlabs.com](mailto:support@topazlabs.com)

Screenshots

Topaz for Mobile4 screens

Verdict

The call

Pastello and Topaz for Mobile both sit at 4.8 stars, but that hides the real split: 79% of Pastello's written reviews are positive against 22% of Topaz for Mobile's. Pastello also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 18). Topaz for Mobile's advantage is price (Free vs $29.99) and update cadence (weekly vs every 3 months). On rating, ads, device support and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Topaz for Mobile is free to download; Pastello costs $29.99 up front. Topaz for Mobile sells 18 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per 7 days. Pastello asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Pastello holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Topaz for Mobile has 2.2K ratings behind it against 44, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 79% of Pastello's written reviews are positive against 22% of Topaz for Mobile's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Pastello ships an update every 3 months, Topaz for Mobile weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 21, 2026 and October 30, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Pastello versus Topaz for Mobile: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPastelloTopaz for Mobile
Price$29.99Free — better
Rating4.8 (44 ratings) — better4.6 (2.2K ratings)
Positive reviews78.9% of reviews — better21.6% of reviews
Number of ratings442.2K — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFree with in-app purchases — better
DevicesiPadiPhone, iPad — better
Requires iOS15.0 — better16.0
Further details — not scored
Size123 MB151 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJixiPix, LLCTopaz Labs, LLC

Customer experience

Pastello

All ratings43 ratings
Positive93.0%
Neutral2.3%
Negative4.7%
Written reviews19 reviews
Positive78.9%
Neutral0.0%
Negative21.1%

Topaz for Mobile

All ratings2,170 ratings
Positive89.3%
Neutral3.3%
Negative7.5%
Written reviews435 reviews
Positive21.6%
Neutral9.7%
Negative68.7%

Bugs and requests

Pastello

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

Topaz for Mobile

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Unable to log in or create an account
  • Inconsistent image quality results
  • Crashes when trying to access certain features
  • Fails to apply enhancements properly

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add iPad support
  • Provide more control over enhancement settings
  • Allow purchasing credits directly in the app
  • Integrate with cloud storage services
  • Add metadata preservation for edited images

In-app purchases

None

Pastello

No in-app purchases

18 purchases

Topaz for Mobile

Subscriptions18
  • Standard Weekly (Free Trial)3 Days trial$4.997 Days
  • Gigapixel Premium Monthly3 Days trial$6.991 Month
  • Standard Plan Weekly$7.997 Days
Show 15 more
  • 80$9.991 Month
  • Image Personal Monthly$12.001 Month
  • Gigapixel Premium Monthly3 Days trial$14.991 Month
  • Standard Plan (Monthly)3 Days trial$14.991 Month
  • Premium Plan (Weekly)3 Days trial$17.997 Days
  • Premium Plan (Weekly)$17.997 Days
  • Image Pro Monthly$35.001 Month
  • 400 (Intro Offer)1 Month trial$39.991 Month
  • 400$39.991 Month
  • Premium Plan (Monthly)3 Days trial$49.991 Month
  • 1400$49.991 Month
  • Standard Plan (Annual)3 Days trial$89.991 Year
  • Standard Plan Annual$89.991 Year
  • Image Personal Annual$109.001 Year
  • Premium Plan (Annual)3 Days trial$479.991 Year

Questions

Is Pastello free?
Pastello costs $29.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Topaz for Mobile free?
Topaz for Mobile is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Pastello or Topaz for Mobile?
Pastello is rated higher. Pastello averages 4.8 out of 5 from 44 ratings, while Topaz for Mobile averages 4.6 from 2.2K ratings.
Do Pastello or Topaz for Mobile have ads?
Neither Pastello nor Topaz for Mobile shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Pastello or Topaz for Mobile?
Pastello ships an update every 3 months, and Topaz for Mobile weekly. Most recently, Pastello was updated on October 21, 2026 and Topaz for Mobile on October 30, 2026.

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