Art Set 4 vs Simple Handwritten Note
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Art Set 4
Experience hyper-realistic digital art creation with advanced tools for painting and drawing. Explore a vast array of brushes, fluid simulations, and 3D paint effects. This app offers a customizable workspace and professional features for artists of all levels.
- Hyper-realistic art tools
- Fluid watercolor simulation
- 3D paint effects
- Customizable workspace
- Time-lapse video recording
- PSD export
- Layer masks
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Art Set has been No.1 iPad app in over 30 countries around the world. Now completely re-written with some of the most advanced artistic digital painting and drawing tools ever created! An 'App of Day', this giant new version has tools with incredible levels of realism and many professional features. Exclusive artistically created brushes, from real world art mediums through to the purely digital for all styles of artwork. Watch fluid Watercolor flow and run as you paint. Express your strokes in 3D giving thick gloopy paint you can even etch back into. It's also a must for any Apple Pencil owner! Art Set brushes have many additional expressions that come into play, some deeply integrated, with new levels of sensitivity you may have never experienced before! It's now free to download for the first time ever! INCLUDED FOR FREE : HYPER-REAL TOOLS - Oil Paint, Watercolors, Oil Pastel, Pencil, Biro Pen, Marker, Wax Crayon, Blenders and more! - Fluid dynamic simulation for Watercolor - 3D Paint - Custom blending achieving rich deep color - Art Set keeps track of where the canvas is wet, dry when needed - Turn on Slow Draw for drawing to lag your stroke. Create smooth curves and lines; great for calligraphy! - Blur Filter with localised quick masking - Color Wheel - User Editable Palette - Metallic Colors - Time-lapse Video Recording; share how you made your artwork stroke by stroke. - PSD Export UI - Fully customizable workspace; have just a single brush or tools on every side of your screen. - Zoom, Pan and Rotate the canvas for fine detail - Light low contrast or Dark high contrast mode - Minimalist UI for less interference with your artwork WORKFLOW - Latest graphics technology written entirely in METAL 2 - Supports the iOS Files app to manage or or transfer documents - iTunes File Sharing - Auto save - Split Screen Multitasking - use a reference image whilst you draw side by side - Export to your photo album, email, AirDrop or social networks etc. - In-depth User Guide in the app complete with video - Import photos and images at screen resolution PREMIUM PRO FEATURES - Single Upgrade Unlocks everything : 200 ADVANCED BRUSHES - Wide variety of extra hyper-real Paints, Pens, Pencils, Inks, Chalks, Pastels, Charcoal, Wet media, Stamps, Splatters, Form, Graphics, Patterns, Fabric, 3D Texture, Neon to basic Pixel and Flat Digital - You can try out all premium brushes on a test area before upgrading! DRAWING - Flood fill - Symmetry - Pixel Art - Shape primitives for Ellipse, Circle, Square, Rectangle and Line in any brush - Echo shapes for special FX - Erase mode - use any brush as an eraser - Adjust brush Size, Opacity, Flow, Grain, Loading and Dynamics LAYERS - Layer Masks - Transform, move, rotate and scale - Flip - Adjust Opacity - Layer maintains resolution whilst transformed - Blend Modes - Alpha lock - Cut, Copy and Paste, to and from other documents or other Apps - Drag and drop layers from other apps - Import from your photos CUSTOM HIGH-RESOLUTION CANVASES - Choose any resolution canvas size, the highest being dependent on your device capabilities - Set DPI and canvas dimensions in millimeters, inches or Points and Pixels - Great for pixel art or tens of millions of pixels - if device allows - Papers and Canvases from old cardboard, raw canvas, graph, squared and isometric paper COLOR - Display P3 WideColor on supported devices - Auto Color Sample, allows you to easily turn photos into paintings - Color picker - Toolbar placable HSB and RGB sliders ADJUSTMENTS - Localized adjustments, allow you to tweak all or just part of your image via quick masking - Change Hue, Saturation, Brightness, Recolor, Invert, Contrast and Blur WORKFLOW - Auto backup, saves snapshots - iOS Pasteboard or Drag and Drop to or from other apps - Import photos and images and high resolution Art Set is a wonderful creative addition to any iPad!
Simple Handwritten Note
This app allows users to jot down notes and sketches using a black pen. It functions as a simple memo pad or notebook for quickly capturing ideas or communicating through writing. The core features include writing, erasing, and saving.
- Handwritten note-taking
- Drawing and sketching
- Memo pad functionality
- Quick idea capture
- Writing, erasing, and saving
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A handwritten note app that lets you write with a black pen Can be used as a memo pad, notebook, quickly write down ideas, draw, sketch, written communicate, etc. It is a simple function of writing, erasing, and saving, please try it.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Simple Handwritten Note at none against Art Set 4's 1. Simple Handwritten Note also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.6) and device support (3 vs 1). Art Set 4's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (every 6 days vs every 3 months). On price 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
Both are free to download. Art Set 4 sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Simple Handwritten Note asks for nothing beyond the download.
Simple Handwritten Note holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Art Set 4 has 29K ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 63% of Art Set 4's written reviews are positive against 50% of Simple Handwritten Note's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Art Set 4 ships an update every 6 days, Simple Handwritten Note every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on November 9, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Art Set 4 | Simple Handwritten Note |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (29K ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 63.1% of reviews — better | 50.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 29K — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 6 days — better | Every 3 months |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Ad-supported — better |
| Devices | iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 12.4 — better | 15.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 158 MB | 13 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | LOFOPI | Ryouhei Azuma |
Customer experience
Art Set 4
Simple Handwritten Note
Bugs and requests
Art Set 4
Reported bugs
4 issues- Crashes when opening color palette or blending
- Unexpected loss of work and canvas resets
- Inability to resize canvas or change aspect ratio
- Brush size and settings not preserved when switching tools
Requested features
6 requests- Add more free brushes and tools
- Improve layer management and export options
- Allow more brush size and customization options in free version
- Provide better documentation and tutorials
- Add undo/redo gesture support
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- Improve color management and palette tools
Simple Handwritten Note
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Art Set 4
- Unlock All$12.99
Simple Handwritten Note
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Art Set 4 free?
Is Simple Handwritten Note free?
Which has better reviews, Art Set 4 or Simple Handwritten Note?
Do Art Set 4 or Simple Handwritten Note have ads?
Which is updated more often, Art Set 4 or Simple Handwritten Note?
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