Comparison

活字帖 | Live Calligraphy vs 3D Ink Brush

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

Head to head
About

活字帖 | Live Calligraphy

Practice Chinese brush calligraphy on your iPad or iPhone. This app uses original strokes from master calligraphers to help you feel like a true master. It focuses on character structure and offers various classic scrolls for learning.

Highlights
  • Practice Chinese brush calligraphy
  • Uses original master strokes
  • Focuses on character structure
  • Offers 8 classic handscrolls
  • Learn from ancient calligraphers
Features
Read full description

***Featured*** as "Chinese Culture" in more than 120 countries during Chinese Spring Festival, 2015. ***Over 5,000*** 5-star ratings in App Store China. Learn and practice Chinese brush calligraphy with your finger in iPad and iPhone. Live Calligraphy uses the original strokes extracted from the master piece of ancient calligrapher in your practice, so that you can feel yourself like a real master of Chinese calligraphy, and fully enjoy the artistic charm of the art of calligraphy. LanTing calligraphy scroll is generally considered as the best running script in ancient China, and Live Calligraphy provides over 100 characters of LanTing in current release, wish you like them. Enjoy Chinese calligraphy~ Now, the app contains 8 handscrolls: - LanTing (兰亭集序--王羲之) - Basic Strokes (基本笔画--楷书四大家) - Timely Clearing After Snowfall (快雪时晴帖--王羲之) - Namo Amitābha by HongYi (南无阿弥陀佛--弘一法师) - Poem of Fragrance (秾芳诗帖--宋徽宗) - Confucius Passed Away (仲尼梦奠帖--欧阳询) - Ode to Qin (琴赋--文征明) - Heart Sutra (心经--赵孟頫) *Keyword*: Chinese calligraphy, Chinese culture/art, practice Chinese characters --------------------------------- 你是否曾想像自己如书法大师一样挥毫呢?来试试吧,用你的手指在iPad和iPhone上练习毛笔书法。 “活字帖”利用中国古代名家书法作品中的原笔迹,在你描摹或者临帖时绘制出来,使得你的书法效果能媲美真迹,让你体验如书法家一样的练字感受,更真切的感受书法的魅力。 本作与现有大多数作品的最大区别在于,大多数现有的作品只是根据手指运行轨迹,用计算机计算模拟出类似于毛笔笔迹的效果。但是,因为触摸屏的限制,计算机再如何聪明,又如何能知道用户运笔时的轻重缓急,浓淡干湿呢?故本作规避了用笔技巧,着重于练习每个字的字体结构。因此,本作并不能代替笔墨纸砚的常规练字方法,但是却可以从一定程度上提高用户的书法水平。 《兰亭集序》被誉为中国古代书法的第一行书,本版本免费提供前100个字,后续字体需要IAP解锁或者由完整版获得。 本App现有8个字帖: - 兰亭集序(王羲之) - 基本笔画(楷书四大家) - 快雪时晴帖(王羲之) - 南无阿弥陀佛(弘一法师) - 秾芳诗帖(宋徽宗) - 仲尼梦奠帖(欧阳询) - 琴赋(文徵明) - 般若波罗蜜多心经 (赵孟頫) 希望大家喜欢。

About

3D Ink Brush

Experience the art of Chinese calligraphy with this digital ink brush tool. Write directly on your screen, adjusting stroke width and color with finger pressure or movement speed. Learn traditional calligraphy with built-in copybook functions featuring regular script.

Highlights
  • Digital ink brush simulation
  • Adjust stroke width and color
  • 3D Touch pressure sensitivity
  • Speed-based stroke control
  • Calligraphy copybook for learning
  • Regular script (Kai Shu) style
Features
Read full description

3D Ink Brush - A Chinese ink brush simulation tool. Instead of real ink brushes, use fingers to directly write on the screen. Features: *On the 3D-Touch supported devices, user can adjust the finger pressure on the screen to control width and color of the strokes. *On the devices without 3D-Touch, width and color of the strokes are changed with regard to the speed finger moves. *Copybook functions help users to learn Chinese calligraphy by reading and tracing pre-written famous calligraphic characters. *The style of calligraphy available in the copybook is regular script (楷书). Users can choose their favorite character or randomly select from "Thousand-character classic" (千字文).

Screenshots

活字帖 | Live Calligraphy4 screens
3D Ink Brush2 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: 3D Ink Brush at none against 活字帖 | Live Calligraphy's 9. 3D Ink Brush also leads on ads (none vs shown) and iOS requirement (9.0 vs 13.0). 活字帖 | Live Calligraphy's advantage is update cadence (every 6 months vs every 33 months) and review sentiment (84% vs 67%). On price and device support 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. 活字帖 | Live Calligraphy sells 9 one-off in-app purchases. 3D Ink Brush asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

活字帖 | Live Calligraphy ships an update every 6 months, 3D Ink Brush every 33 months. The most recent releases landed on November 10, 2026 and November 2, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
活字帖 | Live Calligraphy versus 3D Ink Brush: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
Parameter活字帖 | Live Calligraphy3D Ink Brush
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (47 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews84.2% of reviews — better66.7% of reviews
Number of ratings47 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 6 months — betterEvery 33 months
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPod
Requires iOS13.09.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size60 MB17 MB
Age rating4+4+
Developer哲 盛维鸥 周

Customer experience

活字帖 | Live Calligraphy

All ratings45 ratings
Positive91.1%
Neutral0.0%
Negative8.9%
Written reviews171 reviews
Positive84.2%
Neutral4.7%
Negative11.1%

3D Ink Brush

Written reviews3 reviews
Positive66.7%
Neutral0.0%
Negative33.3%

In-app purchases

9 purchases

活字帖 | Live Calligraphy

One-time9
  • Namo Amitābha$0.99
  • Confucius Passed Away$0.99
  • Ode to Qin$0.99
Show 6 more
  • Heart Sutra$0.99
  • Thousand Character Classic$0.99
  • Timely Clearing After Snowfall$1.99
  • Poem of Fragrance$1.99
  • Basic Strokes$1.99
  • Lan Ting$2.99
None

3D Ink Brush

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is 活字帖 | Live Calligraphy free?
活字帖 | Live Calligraphy is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is 3D Ink Brush free?
3D Ink Brush is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do 活字帖 | Live Calligraphy or 3D Ink Brush have ads?
活字帖 | Live Calligraphy shows ads; 3D Ink Brush does not.
Which is updated more often, 活字帖 | Live Calligraphy or 3D Ink Brush?
活字帖 | Live Calligraphy ships an update every 6 months, and 3D Ink Brush every 33 months. Most recently, 活字帖 | Live Calligraphy was updated on November 10, 2026 and 3D Ink Brush on November 2, 2026.

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