Comparison

iColorama vs Pastello

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

Head to head
About

iColorama

Enhance photos and digital art with over 1000 effects, from simple adjustments to complex transforms. Repaint images with various brushes, and import custom Photoshop brushes, curves, and fonts to create unique artistic pieces.

Highlights
  • Over 1000 image effects
  • Image adjustments
  • Math transforms
  • Repainting with brushes
  • Import custom brushes
  • Import custom fonts
  • Import custom curves
Read full description

iColorama is an imaging app for creators interested in enhancing their photos/paintings/drawings and converting them into amazing pieces of art. There are too many effects to be listed, more than 1000 !! The effects go from simple image adjustments to complicated math transforms. Images can also be repainted with different brushes. You can also import your own Photoshop brushes and curves and fonts. Follow Instagram:@icolorama for news and best-featured works!! Jerry Jobe's Tutorials: http://enthusiasmnoted.wordpress.com/?s=icolorama Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Pastello

Transform your photos into stunning dry media art, mimicking styles like pastel, charcoal, and colored pencil. This app offers a professional workflow with customizable layers and one-click presets for creating expressive, traditional-looking artwork.

Highlights
  • Photo to Pastel, Chalk, Charcoal, Crayon conversion
  • Layering of different dry media
  • Customizable stroke direction, size, and volume
  • One-click presets with customization options
  • Traditional sketch styles and DaVinci effect
  • Professional workflow for artists and photographers
Read full description

Transform photos into a fine art drawing with Pastel, Pencil, Chalk, Charcoal and Crayon Introducing Pastello, a brand-new companion app to JixiPix’s Impresso Pro. Pastello takes you back in time to the 15th century. Away from brushes and large strokes and into the realm of dry media with color that is both brilliant and subtle. The “Dry color method” made famous by Leonardo da Vinci is so powerful in its simplicity and beauty with its black and red chalk and yellow pastel highlights. Later, artists would paint charming portraits in a smooth heavily blended fashion. Move forward a few centuries later and pastel quickly became filled with brilliant color and crisp detail. Fast forward to today and a digital age has made it so you, the artist, can mix and match media that is difficult or impossible in a traditional setting. Pastello makes it simple and convenient to take an image and change it into Pastel, Chalk, Charcoal, Crayon, Colored Pencil and Graphite drawings. Use alone or combine these medias using powerful layers to produce interesting expressive sketch effects filled with colorful personality and passion. And the best part is Pastello does all the work. With Pastello, photographers and artists can now go beyond the camera to turn image files into creative works that resemble traditional handmade media using a professional workflow that is easy and comfortable to operate. Pastello has a pro workflow that automatically transforms a photo into a pastel drawing and places it on an art paper with options to customize. The Pastel can then be changed to Chalk, Charcoal, Colored Pencil, Graphite, Conte or Crayon using Layer styles. The medias start out delicate like traditional drawings do, then allows you to build them up using fills, shading and detail layers. The medias are beautiful as they are, or mix them for an expressive artwork. Pastello includes plenty of traditional sketch styles as well as a DaVinci effect using a mixed media of pencil, charcoal, crayon and old paper. It’s easy to use! We have mixed the media into one-click presets with all the freedom to customize, blend and fine-tune for your own unique artwork filled with age, depth and timeless beauty as if created by the renaissance artist himself. Pastel Styles: Colored Pencil, Graphite, Charcoal, and Chalk come with a fill and detail option that can be layered for infinite variation. Conte has a dynamic sketch feature that lets you fill in shadows, mid-tones and highlights with crosshatching or scumbling. All with the ability to change stroke direction, size, volume and variation. Pastel—(Soft) is a soft, buttery consistency and intense color. This effect is dense and filled with the grain of the paper. Chalk—(Hard Pastel) is a light dusty effect with little specks of preserved paper. This chalky pastel is known for it’s soft strokes and velvety texture. Charcoal—creates a velvety black charcoal effect with shades of grey. Use it for warming up the under painting of a composition, or to complete a finished charcoal piece. Colored Pencil—creates soft colorful strokes in the drawing that can be layered to build up color then burnished with a light Pencil Layer, or the Smudge tool. Pencil—creates pencil drawings with fluid outlines and soft, limpid tonal shadings for a drawing filled with warmth and charm. Conté—is a beautiful crayon media for enhancing highlights, midtones and shadows in drawings using classic colors. Crayon—creates a colorful waxy base to a drawing, then burnished it with a Conte White for highlights or Bistre for shading.

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: iColorama at Free against Pastello's $29.99. iColorama also leads on update cadence (every 4 days vs every 3 months) and ratings volume (256 vs 44). Pastello's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 3) and rating (4.8 vs 4.5). On review sentiment, ads, device support and iOS requirement 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

iColorama is free to download; Pastello costs $29.99 up front. iColorama sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per 7 days. Pastello asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Pastello holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: iColorama has 256 ratings behind it against 44, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 80% and 79% positive.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

iColorama ships an update every 4 days, Pastello every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 18, 2026 and October 21, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
iColorama versus Pastello: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameteriColoramaPastello
PriceFree — better$29.99
Rating4.5 (256 ratings)4.8 (44 ratings) — better
Positive reviews79.6% of reviews — better78.9% of reviews
Number of ratings256 — better44
Update frequencyEvery 4 days — betterEvery 3 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases — betterPaid
DevicesiPadiPad
Requires iOS16.615.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size1.1 GB123 MB
Age rating4+4+
DevelopertalonsodevJixiPix, LLC

Customer experience

iColorama

All ratings256 ratings
Positive87.5%
Neutral3.9%
Negative8.6%
Written reviews196 reviews
Positive79.6%
Neutral5.1%
Negative15.3%

Pastello

All ratings43 ratings
Positive93.0%
Neutral2.3%
Negative4.7%
Written reviews19 reviews
Positive78.9%
Neutral0.0%
Negative21.1%

Bugs and requests

iColorama

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Freezing issues
  • Unable to load photos
  • Watermark overlay issues
  • Incompatibility with newer devices

Requested features

4 requests
  • Ability to save in full quality
  • Improved stability and performance
  • Support for latest iOS versions
  • Restore previous free version

Pastello

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

3 purchases

iColorama

Subscriptions2
  • iColorama PRO3 Days trial$0.997 Days
  • iColorama PRO3 Days trial$9.991 Year
One-time1
  • iColorama PRO$14.99
None

Pastello

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is iColorama free?
iColorama is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Pastello free?
Pastello costs $29.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, iColorama or Pastello?
Pastello is rated higher. iColorama averages 4.5 out of 5 from 256 ratings, while Pastello averages 4.8 from 44 ratings.
Do iColorama or Pastello have ads?
Neither iColorama nor Pastello shows ads.
Which is updated more often, iColorama or Pastello?
iColorama ships an update every 4 days, and Pastello every 3 months. Most recently, iColorama was updated on October 18, 2026 and Pastello on October 21, 2026.

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