TextStudio vs Glyphon
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
TextStudio
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Create stunning stylized text in seconds. Choose from thousands of curated effects, customize every detail, and export your design ready to share. WHAT YOU CAN DO - 3500+ ready-to-use effects: neon, 3D, metallic, retro, vintage, futuristic, handwritten, cinematic - Live preview as you tweak every parameter - Fine control: outlines, depth, bevel, shadows, fills, textures, gradients, specular highlights - Animations: pulse, bounce, glow, shimmer, particles and more, exported as GIF or MP4 - Distort modes: perspective, stretch, bend, free-form mesh - Background customization: colors, gradients, photos - Import your own fonts from the iOS font system - Save your designs as personal presets, sync them across devices PERFECT FOR - Social media (Instagram, TikTok, Twitter) - YouTube thumbnails and banners - Logos and watermarks - Greeting cards, stickers, memes - Product mockups SIGN IN Connect with Apple, Google, or email. Your favorites and saved presets sync automatically across all your iOS devices. PREMIUM Upgrade to Premium for unlimited HD exports, premium animations, advanced distortions, and an ad-free experience. iMESSAGE TextStudio integrates with iMessage so you can drop your designs straight into a conversation. We hand-craft new effects every week. Got feedback or a wish? Contact us right from Settings. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Glyphon
Create pixel fonts for retro games or unique display faces. Draw, refine, and export your typeface in industry-standard formats. Sync your work across Mac, iPad, and iPhone.
- Pixel-perfect glyph drawing
- Full Unicode support
- Export to TTF, BDF, and JSON
- Per-glyph advance width control
- Live text preview
- iCloud sync across devices
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Glyphon is a pixel font editor built for anyone who loves the craft of bitmap typography. Whether you're designing a retro game font, a lo-fi display face, or a complete character set, Glyphon gives you the tools to draw, refine, and ship your typeface — at your desk or in your pocket. DRAW PIXEL-PERFECT GLYPHS Work in a large pixel grid with pinch-to-zoom, a toggleable grid overlay, and draggable typographic guides for baseline, cap height, x-height, ascender, and descender. Drag any guide directly on the canvas for instant precision. Every stroke is undo-able. FULL UNICODE SUPPORT Your font isn't limited to the ASCII alphabet. Add glyphs for any Unicode range — Basic Latin, Latin Extended, Cyrillic, Greek, Hiragana, Katakana, Box Drawing, and more — in a single step. EXPORT TO INDUSTRY FORMATS When your font is ready, export it as: - TTF — install directly on your Mac or share with other designers - BDF — the open bitmap standard used in embedded and terminal applications - JSON — a portable format for round-tripping with the Glyphon web app DESIGN WITH PRECISION - Per-glyph advance width with a live visual indicator on the canvas - Origin-aware horizontal flip that keeps your left-bearing columns in place - Shift pixels in any direction with a single tap or keyboard shortcut - Copy and paste pixel designs between glyphs - Flood fill for closed areas LIVE PREVIEW See your font render real text as you draw. Type any sentence into the preview strip to test spacing, rhythm, and readability at a glance. SYNC ACROSS YOUR DEVICES Start a typeface on your Mac, refine it on iPad, finish a stubborn glyph on your phone. iCloud sync keeps every font current on every device — automatically. Each font is still a self-contained file you own. DESIGNED FOR MAC, iPAD, AND iPHONE Glyphon is a native SwiftUI app, at home on every Apple device. On Mac, every action has a keyboard shortcut. On iPad, pinch to zoom and swipe between glyphs. On iPhone, the full editor fits in your pocket — draw a font in a boring meeting and it'll be waiting on your Mac when you get back.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Glyphon at none against TextStudio's 3. Glyphon also leads on ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (every 10 days vs every 5 weeks). TextStudio's advantage is iOS requirement (18.5 vs 26.0). 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
Both are free to download. TextStudio sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month. Glyphon asks for nothing beyond the download.
TextStudio ships an update every 5 weeks, Glyphon every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on October 4, 2026 and October 17, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | TextStudio | Glyphon |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | — | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | — | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | — | 1 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 5 weeks | Every 10 days — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | — | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 18.5 — better | 26.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 15 MB | 2 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Gaudin Ltd | Jussi Edlund |
In-app purchases
TextStudio
- Premium Monthly$9.991 Month
- Premium Yearly$49.991 Year
- Premium for Life$129.99
Glyphon
No in-app purchases









