Swift Pixels vs Glyphon
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Swift Pixels
Create pixel art with a unique color palette and diverse rendering options. Save your creations as PNGs with transparency or high-resolution images to share. Import photos from your library or camera to use as a base for your designs.
- Unique color palette with universal categories
- Render pixels as squares, 3D boxes, beads, towels, or hexels
- Save images as PNG with transparency
- High-resolution export and sharing
- Import photos from library or camera
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Simple and easy to use drawing application to create pixel art. Features: * Unique color palette based on universal color categories. Each color category expands a continuous gamut for that color. * Render pixels as simple squares, 3D boxes, beads, a towel, or as hexagons (hexels). * Save small images as PNG images with transparency (alpha/mask), or save them in hi-res and share them with the world :) * Load and import pictures from your Photo Library, or directly take a picture from your camera.
Glyphon
Create pixel fonts for retro games or unique display faces. Draw, refine, and export your typeface in industry-standard formats. Sync your work across Mac, iPad, and iPhone.
- Pixel-perfect glyph drawing
- Full Unicode support
- Export to TTF, BDF, and JSON
- Per-glyph advance width control
- Live text preview
- iCloud sync across devices
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Glyphon is a pixel font editor built for anyone who loves the craft of bitmap typography. Whether you're designing a retro game font, a lo-fi display face, or a complete character set, Glyphon gives you the tools to draw, refine, and ship your typeface — at your desk or in your pocket. DRAW PIXEL-PERFECT GLYPHS Work in a large pixel grid with pinch-to-zoom, a toggleable grid overlay, and draggable typographic guides for baseline, cap height, x-height, ascender, and descender. Drag any guide directly on the canvas for instant precision. Every stroke is undo-able. FULL UNICODE SUPPORT Your font isn't limited to the ASCII alphabet. Add glyphs for any Unicode range — Basic Latin, Latin Extended, Cyrillic, Greek, Hiragana, Katakana, Box Drawing, and more — in a single step. EXPORT TO INDUSTRY FORMATS When your font is ready, export it as: - TTF — install directly on your Mac or share with other designers - BDF — the open bitmap standard used in embedded and terminal applications - JSON — a portable format for round-tripping with the Glyphon web app DESIGN WITH PRECISION - Per-glyph advance width with a live visual indicator on the canvas - Origin-aware horizontal flip that keeps your left-bearing columns in place - Shift pixels in any direction with a single tap or keyboard shortcut - Copy and paste pixel designs between glyphs - Flood fill for closed areas LIVE PREVIEW See your font render real text as you draw. Type any sentence into the preview strip to test spacing, rhythm, and readability at a glance. SYNC ACROSS YOUR DEVICES Start a typeface on your Mac, refine it on iPad, finish a stubborn glyph on your phone. iCloud sync keeps every font current on every device — automatically. Each font is still a self-contained file you own. DESIGNED FOR MAC, iPAD, AND iPHONE Glyphon is a native SwiftUI app, at home on every Apple device. On Mac, every action has a keyboard shortcut. On iPad, pinch to zoom and swipe between glyphs. On iPhone, the full editor fits in your pocket — draw a font in a boring meeting and it'll be waiting on your Mac when you get back.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Glyphon at Free against Swift Pixels's $1.99. Glyphon also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 60%) and update cadence (every 10 days vs every 5 months). Swift Pixels's advantage is ratings volume (14 vs 1) and iOS requirement (14.7 vs 26.0). On ads, in-app purchases and device support 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
Glyphon is free to download; Swift Pixels costs $1.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Glyphon holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Swift Pixels has 14 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 60% of Swift Pixels's written reviews are positive against 100% of Glyphon's.
Swift Pixels ships an update every 5 months, Glyphon every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on October 2, 2026 and October 17, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Swift Pixels | Glyphon |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $1.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.7 (14 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 60.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 14 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 5 months | Every 10 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better | iPhone, iPad, Mac |
| Requires iOS | 14.7 — better | 26.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 3 MB | 2 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | David Gavilan | Jussi Edlund |
Customer experience
Swift Pixels
Glyphon
In-app purchases
Swift Pixels
No in-app purchases
Glyphon
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Swift Pixels free?
Is Glyphon free?
Which has better reviews, Swift Pixels or Glyphon?
Do Swift Pixels or Glyphon have ads?
Which is updated more often, Swift Pixels or Glyphon?
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