Lux Draw vs Calligraphy Guidelines
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Lux Draw
Create unique art with light-inspired tools and gritty textures. Draw from scratch or enhance photos with glow pens and special effects. Offers advanced features like HDR brushes and Apple Pencil support for a professional artistic experience.
- Live-calculated HDR brushes
- Glow Pen, Hot Pen, Light Spheres
- Gritty paper/canvas textures
- Smear tool for flame art
- Apple Pencil support
- Multiple layers
- Photo tracing mode (Pro)
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Draw with light-inspired tools, for a unique art style! Create a drawing from scratch, or add effects to your photos. Let your creativity run wild! • LIVE-CALCULATED HDR BRUSHES • The app features live-calculated brushes and strokes, that together with HDR values make it feel like drawing with light! Drawing tools include Glow Pen, Hot Pen, Light Spheres, and more. Tip: Use the Smear tool on a photo or drawing to achieve immensely cool flame art (seriously, try it!). • GRITTY PAPER/CANVAS TEXTURES • Having a paper/canvas texture interacting in real-time with the drawing tools will give your artwork a satisfying, gritty look. You can remove or change the default-generated texture to something else. • UNIVERSAL PURCHASE • If you choose to buy the Pro upgrade, this one-time in-app purchase will unlock all Pro features in the app on all available platforms (iPad-iPhone-Mac)! • METAL • The engine is based on Metal, with 128-bit color and floating-point arithmetic. • SWIFT • The app was developed entirely using Swift (earlier versions used C++). • FINGERTIP = STROKE SIZE • CHANGE SIZE/FORCE/COLOR WHILE DRAWING • • APPLE PENCIL SUPPORT • FULL SCREEN DRAWING • SEAMLESS PATTERN EDITING MODE • • DARK MODE • LANDSCAPE • PORTRAIT • WIDE COLOR • • MULTIPLE LAYERS • PHOTO TRACING MODE (Pro feature) •
Calligraphy Guidelines
Generate custom guidesheets for calligraphy practice or professional work. Tailor every aspect of your practice templates, from line styles and spacing to pen types and page layouts. Export your designs as high-resolution PNG or vector PDF files.
- Customizable guidesheet generation
- Support for various script styles
- Adjustable line styles and colors
- Multiple page layouts and orientations
- Instant preview of designs
- Export to PDF and PNG
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Calligraphy Guidelines is a comprehensive generator to design your guidesheets for daily handwriting practice or professional penman work and export them to PDF or high-res PNG formats. Productivity tool number one for every penman! No more buying expensive practice pads! Create and print worksheets on demand. A universal collection of adjustable settings in the application allows the creation of worksheets and templates for any script style Copperplate, Spencerian, Gothic, Italic, and so on. Note: Calligraphy Guidelines application is not for writing on your device. If you wish to train calligraphy using your device, then check out our application "Calligraphy: Cursive Writing". Customize every aspect of calligraphy rulers with the Calligraphy Guidelines app: * Choose Pointed pen or Broad pen guidesheets style. * Select one of 6 popular page layouts, such as A5, A4, A3, US Letter, US Legal and US Junior. * Choose Portrait or Landscape page orientation. * Define left, top, right, and bottom margins. * Select x-height size starting from 2mm. * Set Broad pen width starting from 2mm to 8mm. * Adjust spacing ratios for ascender, descender, and height of interline space. * Select your favorite style for ascenders, descenders, waistlines, and baselines from Solid, Dotted, and Dashed lines. Hide any of the lines using the Hidden style. * Choose a color for each type of line. * Define slant lines angle in diapason from 30 to 90 degrees for pointed pen; select color, and adjust repeating frequency for both pointed pen and broad pen nibs. * Watch your changes with an instant preview. * Export as a high-resolution 300 dpi PNG image. * Export, share or print as a vector PDF file. The free version without a subscription allows customizing all settings for both pointed pen and broad pen nibs and previewing the resulting guidesheet on the screen. With the subscription, you'll get access to exporting and printing vector PDF files with the designed guidesheet, and exporting high-resolution PNG files. *Calligraphy Guidelines Subscription* • Calligraphy Guidelines app requires a subscription to export and print PDF files, or export high-res PNG files. • 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. Terms of use: https://calligraphy.app/guidelines/termsofuse/ Privacy policy: https://calligraphy.app/guidelines/privacy/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Lux Draw at 4.7 against Calligraphy Guidelines's 3.7. Lux Draw also leads on ratings volume (939 vs 15) and review sentiment (82% vs 60%). On price, update cadence, 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. Lux Draw sells 6 one-off in-app purchases and Calligraphy Guidelines sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per 7 days. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Lux Draw holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 3.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Lux Draw has 939 ratings behind it against 15, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 82% of Lux Draw's written reviews are positive against 60% of Calligraphy Guidelines's.
Lux Draw ships an update every 2 months, Calligraphy Guidelines every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 15, 2026 and October 13, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Lux Draw | Calligraphy Guidelines |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (939 ratings) — better | 3.7 (15 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 81.5% of reviews — better | 60.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 939 — better | 15 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months — better | Every 3 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 15.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 24 MB | 31 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Norbyte | Vladislava Rudetskaia |
Customer experience
Lux Draw
Calligraphy Guidelines
Bugs and requests
Lux Draw
Reported bugs
3 issues- Freezing and unresponsiveness when switching tools
- Leaving unwanted color dots when erasing
- Compatibility issues with certain devices
Requested features
5 requests- Add fill tool, shapes, and text capabilities
- Improve compatibility with tablets and styluses
- Provide more customization options for brushes and colors
- Implement undo/redo functionality
- Add ability to export/share drawings easily
Calligraphy Guidelines
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Lux Draw
- Tip Jar: Smallest Tip$1.00
- Tip Jar: Small Tip$2.00
- Pro Upgrade$5.00
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- Tip Jar: Medium Tip$5.00
- Tip Jar: Big Tip$10.00
- Tip Jar: Biggest Tip$25.00
Calligraphy Guidelines
- Guidelines Weekly$1.997 Days
- Guidelines Monthly$2.991 Month
Questions
Is Lux Draw free?
Is Calligraphy Guidelines free?
Which has better reviews, Lux Draw or Calligraphy Guidelines?
Do Lux Draw or Calligraphy Guidelines have ads?
Which is updated more often, Lux Draw or Calligraphy Guidelines?
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