Letterforms vs FontStudio
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Letterforms
Design unique variable fonts from sketches to screen with professional typography tools. This app offers a touch-first vector drawing experience and seamless syncing across Apple devices.
- Variable font creation
- Touch-first vector drawing
- Professional typography tools
- Scan sketches to vector
- Cross-device sync
- Clean font preview
Read full descriptionHide full description
Make Your Own Creative Variable Fonts. From Sketch to Screen. Letterforms is a professional font design app for iOS and Mac. Craft unique variable fonts from the ground up with a precise and intuitive set of tools. Key Features: True Font Creation: Design, interpolate, and export professional-quality variable fonts as TTF/OTF files. Touch-First Design: A vector drawing tool built for your fingers. Edit glyphs with precision on any device. Professional Typography Tools: Fine-tune kerning, font metrics, guides, composite glyphs, and anchors. Scan to Vector: Turn your paper sketches into editable, refined vector paths in seconds. Seamless Workflow: Sync projects across your Apple devices. Copy and paste paths between Letterforms and your favorite design apps.* Clean Preview: Instantly visualize your font with a beautiful, uncluttered preview pane. Unlock the full creative potential of Letterforms with a subscription. Manage your subscription easily through your App Store account settings. For more details on subscription terms, privacy, and data handling, please visit our full policy page. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
FontStudio
Transform your handwriting into usable digital fonts. Design and refine every letter with intuitive tools, then export your creations as TTF, OTF, or WOFF files. All your font projects are stored directly on your device.
- Handwriting to font conversion
- Vector outline editing
- Adjustable spacing and kerning
- Printable handwriting sheets
- Multiple export formats (TTF, OTF, WOFF)
- Import artwork and existing fonts
Read full descriptionHide full description
Turn your handwriting into a font you can actually use. FontStudio is a complete type design studio for iPhone and iPad: draw every letter, perfect the curves, tune spacing and kerning, then export a real TTF, OTF, or WOFF file. Everything is made and stored on your device. DRAW EVERY LETTER • Sketch each character with Apple Pencil or your finger on a pressure-sensitive canvas • Four nib profiles: Pressure, Monoline, Calligraphic with a pen angle dial, and Tapered • Guides for baseline, x-height, cap height, ascender, and descender, plus an adjustable grid • Trace or compare against a ghost reference letter shown in any font on your device • Pencil-only mode lets fingers pan and zoom while only Apple Pencil draws • Double-tap or squeeze your Apple Pencil to switch between drawing and erasing • Deep per-letter undo and redo that survives switching characters PRINT A SHEET, SCAN A WHOLE ALPHABET • Generate a printable handwriting sheet on US Letter or A4, ruled with your font's own metrics • Write your letters in the printed cells, then scan the pages with your camera • Registration marks align each page automatically, with manual adjustment if one is missed • Review every cell, exclude the ones you want to redo, and import a full alphabet at once PERFECT EVERY CURVE WITH VECTOR NODES • Edit true outlines with anchor points and bezier handles • Switch nodes between corner and smooth, add or delete points • Move, scale, and rotate selections with an on-canvas gizmo or lasso select WEIGHT, SPACING, AND KERNING • One slider makes the whole font lighter or bolder — your strokes stay intact, and reset is one tap away • Set left and right side bearings per letter with a live proof of its neighbors • Kern pairs by dragging letters closer or apart, with suggestions like AV, To, and LT TEST IT BEFORE YOU SHIP IT • The type tester compiles your font and renders live text in it • Type your own sample or use built-in specimens for pangrams, capitals, numerals, punctuation, and kerning • Adjust size and line height, and preview in light or dark IMPORT ARTWORK, OR OPEN A FONT YOU ALREADY HAVE • Bring in PNG or SVG artwork from Photos, Files, the clipboard, or by dragging it onto a letter • Tune ink detection and smoothing to control how artwork is traced • Open TTF, OTF, WOFF, and WOFF2 files to edit, straight from Files, AirDrop, or the share sheet EXPORT REAL FONT FILES • TrueType (.ttf) — the one file most people need; installs on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Windows • OpenType CFF (.otf) — for design applications • WOFF — for @font-face on your website • Per-letter SVG files and a printable specimen PDF • Real kerning tables are compiled into the exported font • Export checks catch empty letters, unclosed outlines, and name conflicts, then jump you straight to the fix • Send your font with the share sheet or save it to Files YOUR FONT LIBRARY • Every font shows a live specimen drawn from your own letters • Grid, list, compact, and gallery layouts, favorites, and sorting • Duplicate a font, or duplicate as a variant to build a family • Choose your coverage: capitals, lowercase, numerals, punctuation, accented Latin, and your own custom characters • Set family name, style, PostScript name, version, author, copyright, and license — written into the font itself PRIVATE BY DESIGN • No account, no sign-in, no upload — fonts are compiled entirely on your device • Optional iCloud sync keeps your library on all your devices and works offline • Lock the app with Face ID or Touch ID • Export and import a full backup of your fonts at any time FREE AND PRO Drawing, node editing, importing, weight, spacing, kerning, the type tester, and printing handwriting sheets are free forever. Pro unlocks font export and handwriting scanning, as a monthly subscription or a one-time lifetime purchase. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: FontStudio at 5.0 against Letterforms's 3.7. FontStudio also leads on monetization model (free with in-app purchases vs subscription). Letterforms's advantage is ratings volume (9 vs 1) and device support (4 vs 2). On price, ads and in-app purchases 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. Letterforms sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per 7 days and FontStudio sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
FontStudio holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Letterforms has 9 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
| Parameter | Letterforms | FontStudio |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.7 (9 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 33.3% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 9 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Weekly | — |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Subscription | Free with in-app purchases — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 14.0 — better | 26.2 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 36 MB | 23 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | 久乔 魏 | Life Utility Apps, LLC |
Customer experience
Letterforms
FontStudio
In-app purchases
Letterforms
- Weekly Subscription7 Days trial$0.997 Days
- Monthly Subscription1 Month trial$3.991 Month
- Yearly Subscription$39.991 Year
- Legacy purchase$49.99
FontStudio
- Monthly$3.991 Month
- Lifetime Access$19.99








