Comparison

Calligraphy Calm vs Calligraphy

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

Head to head
About

Calligraphy Calm

Create realistic ink paintings and calligraphy with a fluid, tapered line effect. Explore minimalist art inspired by East Asian traditions, adding ornamental borders and red stamps. Enjoy a calming creative experience on your iPhone and iPad.

Highlights
  • Realistic fluid ink painting effect
  • Dynamic tapered line brushes
  • Merge ink colors with paper texture
  • Ornamental borders
  • Chinese chop-style red stamps
  • Save artwork to device gallery
Features
Read full description

Calligraphy Calm - Ink Painter is a minimalist art app in the tradition of Chinese and Japanese painting and calligraphy. Create a realistic, fluid ink painting effect on your iPhone and iPad with the swipe of your finger! Practice the art of simplicity and capture the essence of your subject. OUR BRUSHES Our brushes create a dynamic 'tapered' line effect, which produces a beautifully organic feel for handwritten typography and drawing. Try overlaying brush strokes and you will find the ink colors merge with the paper texture. Move your finger QUICKLY to increase the thickness of the line and SLOWLY to get a really thin line. This is what makes our brushes unique. Bigger brushes produce a rougher line texture. SPECIAL FEATURES To keep the app in line with Asian traditional painting you can add: • Ornamental borders to frame your art or calligraphy • Red stamps in the style of Chinese chops (choose from 22 designs) HOW TO ENJOY CALLIGRAPHY CALM 1) Use the painting tools for calligraphy writing or art. 2) Get into the flow of minimalist painting and feel calm. 3) Save your progress to the gallery * 4) Download your best designs to your device Photos for safe keeping. *Please note - Your paintings are saved to your device. Deleting the app will delete your saved artwork. FREE version: • 3 brushes • 3 ink colors + black • 4 paper textures • Eraser tool • Save 6 paintings to your Gallery screen • Download images to your Camera Roll To unlock all ink colors, all papers and tools please upgrade to the PRO version. PRO upgrade: • Save unlimited paintings to your device • 34 inks colors (with gradient depth) • 2 pens + 4 brushes • All paper textures • Eraser tool (use it in combination with the brushes) • Remove the watermark logo on image downloads • Remove Ads Paint your way to calm :)

About

Calligraphy

Learn the art of beautiful handwriting with this comprehensive course. It offers theoretical and practical lessons to develop your penmanship skills and master letter shapes. Practice on a digital pad or print exercises for paper practice.

Highlights
  • Theoretical and practical lessons
  • Hand muscle development
  • Letter shape mastery
  • Digital training pad
  • Printable exercises
  • Guideline sheet customization
Features
Read full description

Dive into the enchanting universe of calligraphy, a place where every mark bears witness to the sophistication of script. More than just penmanship, calligraphy is a visual concert of alphabets, assembled with delicacy and symmetry, capturing the individuality of each creator. This discipline elevates writing beyond mundane communication, turning it into a unique artistic statement. Becoming proficient in calligraphy is a path filled with ongoing education and practice. The Cursive Writing App serves as a manual for effective cursive handwriting, offering a series of successive theoretical and hands-on lessons. Upon completing this course, you will acquire the necessary writing abilities, develop mastery over the hand's writing muscles, and learn how to practically apply these skills to the shapes of letters. The free version without a subscription includes lessons on basic principles in writing, the first two lessons of more advanced stages, and limited writing on the training pad. With the subscription, you'll get access to all theoretical and practical lessons of the course plus an ability to write on the training pad. You can also print all exercises in the "Practice" section, as well as tune and print a guidelines sheet for practicing on paper. *Calligraphy Course Subscription* • Calligraphy Course requires a subscription to access all books' content. • Once your purchase is confirmed, you will be charged through your iTunes account. • The subscription will automatically renew. • You can manage your subscription and turn off auto-renewal at any time in your App Store account, but at least 24 hrs before the end of the current period. • If you chose an offered trial period and would like not to proceed with subscribing, you have to cancel your subscription at least 24 hrs before the end of the Trial, otherwise, you will be charged for the first billing period. Terms of use: https://calligraphy.app/penman-book/termsofuse/ Privacy policy: https://calligraphy.app/penman-book/privacy/

Screenshots

Calligraphy Calm4 screens
Calligraphy4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Calligraphy Calm at 3.4 against Calligraphy's 2.9. Calligraphy Calm also leads on iOS requirement (12.0 vs 15.0). Calligraphy's advantage is ads (none vs shown). On price, review sentiment, ratings volume and 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

Both are free to download. Calligraphy Calm sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Calligraphy sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per 7 days. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Calligraphy Calm holds the better App Store score, 3.4 against 2.9. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 50 and 25 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 41% of Calligraphy Calm's written reviews are positive against 33% of Calligraphy's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Calligraphy Calm ships an update every 3 weeks, Calligraphy every 5 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Calligraphy Calm versus Calligraphy: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCalligraphy CalmCalligraphy
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.4 (50 ratings) — better2.9 (25 ratings)
Positive reviews40.5% of reviews — better33.3% of reviews
Number of ratings50 — better25
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeks — betterEvery 5 weeks
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS12.0 — better15.0
Further details — not scored
Size24 MB53 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperFrosby Designs Ltd.Vladislava Rudetskaia

Customer experience

Calligraphy Calm

All ratings48 ratings
Positive58.3%
Neutral12.5%
Negative29.2%
Written reviews37 reviews
Positive40.5%
Neutral29.7%
Negative29.7%

Calligraphy

All ratings25 ratings
Positive40.0%
Neutral8.0%
Negative52.0%
Written reviews6 reviews
Positive33.3%
Neutral16.7%
Negative50.0%

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Calligraphy Calm

One-time1
  • Calligraphy Calm PRO$2.99
4 purchases

Calligraphy

Subscriptions4
  • Full Access Weekly Sale$0.997 Days
  • Full Access Weekly$1.997 Days
  • Full Access$3.991 Month
Show 1 more
  • Full Access Monthly Family$7.991 Month

Questions

Is Calligraphy Calm free?
Calligraphy Calm is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Calligraphy free?
Calligraphy is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Calligraphy Calm or Calligraphy?
Calligraphy Calm is rated higher. Calligraphy Calm averages 3.4 out of 5 from 50 ratings, while Calligraphy averages 2.9 from 25 ratings.
Do Calligraphy Calm or Calligraphy have ads?
Calligraphy Calm shows ads; Calligraphy does not.
Which is updated more often, Calligraphy Calm or Calligraphy?
Calligraphy Calm ships an update every 3 weeks, and Calligraphy every 5 weeks. Most recently, Calligraphy Calm was updated on November 6, 2026 and Calligraphy on November 3, 2026.

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