Simple Pixel Art Maker vs Glyphon
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Simple Pixel Art Maker
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Pixel art, made simple. Simple Pixel Art Maker is a clean, fast drawing studio for iPhone and iPad — designed for the way pixel art actually works: a precise grid, a tight set of tools, and colors that snap to curated palettes. Tap a square. Pick a color. Build a tiny world, one pixel at a time. EVERYTHING YOU NEED, NOTHING YOU DON'T • Pencil, Eraser and Fill — the three tools you actually use • Adjustable brush size from 1 to 8 pixels • Eyedropper to sample any pixel on the canvas • Pixel-perfect Line, Rectangle and Circle tools • Move tool to nudge layer pixels around • Unlimited Undo and Redo CANVAS SIZES FROM 8×8 TO 128×128 Pick a preset — 8, 16, 32, 64, 128 — or set a custom width and height up to 256 px. Lock the 1:1 aspect or go rectangular. Pixel grid lines and a checkerboard background are toggles, not requirements. LAYERS Build sky, mountains and the cactus on separate layers. Hide them, lock them, and reorder them as you sketch. The free version supports a comfortable starting stack; Pixel Pro unlocks unlimited layers for more ambitious scenes. CURATED COLOR PALETTES Swipe through Basics, Beach, Forest, Sunset, Retro and more — each carefully picked so your art looks intentional from the first pixel. Or use the eyedropper to grab any color already on the canvas. MIRROR MODE Horizontal, vertical, or both. Perfect for sprites, faces and symmetrical icons — every stroke mirrors instantly. EXPORT TO PHOTOS Save your art to the Photo Library as a PNG at 1×, 2×, 4× or 8× scale, with an optional transparent background. Your pixel art stays crisp at every size. PIXEL PRO — $2.99, ONCE Simple Pixel Arts Maker is free to download with non-personalized ads. A single in-app purchase unlocks Pixel Pro for $2.99: • Unlimited Layers — build complex scenes with as many layers as you need • Unlimited Projects — the free version keeps 4 recent projects; Pixel Pro removes that ceiling • No Ads — no banners, no interstitials, ever • One-time purchase. No subscriptions. Yours forever. QUIETLY PRIVATE No account. No sign-up. No analytics. Your pixel-art projects are stored locally on your device and are never uploaded anywhere. The free version uses Google AdMob to serve ads; if you choose "Ask App Not to Track," only non-personalized ads are served. PERFECT FOR • Game designers prototyping sprites and tile art • Kids and beginners discovering pixel art for the first time • Logo, icon, and emoji designers who want pixel-perfect output • Anyone who finds drawing on a grid relaxing
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 Simple Pixel Art Maker's 1. Glyphon also leads on ads (none vs shown). Simple Pixel Art Maker's advantage is iOS requirement (17.0 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. Simple Pixel Art Maker sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Glyphon asks for nothing beyond the download.
| Parameter | Simple Pixel Art Maker | Glyphon |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | — | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | — | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | — | 1 — better |
| Update frequency | — | Every 10 days |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | — | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 — better | 26.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 6 MB | 2 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Chaleepa Mallawa | Jussi Edlund |
In-app purchases
Simple Pixel Art Maker
- Pixel Pro$2.99
Glyphon
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Simple Pixel Art Maker free?
Is Glyphon free?
Do Simple Pixel Art Maker or Glyphon have ads?
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