Comparison

Photo Formation vs Pixel Shape

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

Head to head
About

Photo Formation

Transform your photos into unique paper art with intricate folds, weaves, and rips. This app offers a powerful 3D lighting engine for realistic shadows and a variety of creative presets and customization tools.

Highlights
  • Auto-transforms photos into paper formations
  • 3D light engine for realistic shadows
  • Library of one-touch presets
  • Randomize button for instant creations
  • Customizable moving, rotating, and scaling tools
  • Adjustable lighting and multiple light sources
  • 8 creative paper styles
Read full description

Photo Formation is a photo effect that auto-transforms images into super creative paper formations while a 3D light engine casts ultra cool shadows with loads of dimension. Use it to fragment, join, weave, rip and fold photos into fascinating eye-catching pieces, with all the subtle creases, curls and bends as if painstakingly assembled by hand. Photo Formation comes with a library of one-touch presets to get you started fast, and a randomize button that will automatically render a variety of paper creations over and over until you get something catered to you. Moving, rotating and scaling tools can then be used to customize each composition—the sky is the limit to what can be done! 

We make it easy to use without taking control away from you, the artist. If you are the hands on type who likes to make stuff from scratch, an Auto Generate button gets you in the creative mode by starting the initial paper effect for you then presents a control panel so you can make it exactly the way you like. It’s not as much work as it sounds, just specify how many strips, tiles or folds; how much curl, crinkle or depth; and if you want exposure, opacity, texture and grain. An apply button renders the creation to the document where you finish it off by moving around paper elements (only if you want), and adding optional photo settings. 

 What sets Photo Formation apart from others is it’s powerful lighting system. Oriented in a 2D space, Photo Formation renders true 3D popping folds and creases along with all their perspective distortions that cast realistic shadows for amazing high-end result! The lighting is fully adjustable and by simply moving it around the document you can change the direction of the shadows. You can also set up multiple light sources by duplicating the light to create fantastic double and triple shadows—how many is up to you! Photo Formation Includes 8 Creative Paper Styles: Photo Weave, Panographic, Photo Slice, Photo Strips, Fold Defy, Crease, Crumple and Rip

About

Pixel Shape

Features
Read full description

Use words or shapes to remake a picture. Bored of zero-dimensional pixels, replace them with words or shapes that you choose or create your own shapes to remake your pictures with them. Non-Latin characters allowed

Screenshots

Pixel Shape4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Pixel Shape at Free against Photo Formation's $21.99. Pixel Shape also leads on device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 15.0). Photo Formation's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 2) and ads (none vs shown). On update cadence 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

Pixel Shape is free to download; Photo Formation costs $21.99 up front. Pixel Shape sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. Photo Formation asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Photo Formation ships an update weekly, Pixel Shape every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 15, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Photo Formation versus Pixel Shape: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPhoto FormationPixel Shape
Price$21.99Free — better
Rating5.0 (35 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings35 — better—
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 2 weeks
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaid—
DevicesiPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS15.012.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size144 MB118 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJixiPix, LLCFluocode

In-app purchases

None

Photo Formation

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

Pixel Shape

One-time2
  • Long text and Fonts$4.99
  • Shape Editor$4.99

Questions

Is Photo Formation free?
Photo Formation costs $21.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Pixel Shape free?
Pixel Shape is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Photo Formation or Pixel Shape have ads?
Pixel Shape shows ads; Photo Formation does not.
Which is updated more often, Photo Formation or Pixel Shape?
Photo Formation ships an update weekly, and Pixel Shape every 2 weeks. Most recently, Photo Formation was updated on October 24, 2026 and Pixel Shape on October 15, 2026.

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