Comparison

Glyphon vs Draw Fonts

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

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • 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
Features
Read full description

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.

About

Draw Fonts

Features
Read full description

Design your own typeface—or start with 500 open-source fonts already included. Draw Fonts is a private font-design studio for iPhone and iPad. Draw characters with Apple Pencil or your finger, capture lettering from paper, refine every glyph, and preview your OpenType font as you work. Preview, edit, and install included fonts on iPhone and iPad, then use them in Pages, Microsoft Word and other Office apps, Scrivener, and more where custom fonts are supported. DRAW WITH TYPOGRAPHIC GUIDES • Work against cap-height, x-height, baseline, and descender guides • Adjust glyph size, baseline position, and sidebearings • Edit vector outlines for precise shapes • Add multiple forms of a character for automatic contextual alternates CAPTURE LETTERING FROM PAPER • Print a three-page handwriting template • Scan completed pages with the camera or import them from Photos • Convert captured lettering into editable glyph artwork on device • Import TTF, OTF, WOFF2, and variable fonts you have permission to modify REFINE THE TYPEFACE • Create custom kerning pairs and two-to-four-character ligatures • Review spacing and common-pair kerning suggestions before applying them • Batch-edit glyph status, metrics, and artwork • Compare your typeface with the system font and find missing characters PROOF AND ORGANIZE • Preview paragraphs, posters, invitations, comics, and interface text • Export PDF specimens • Keep multiple independent font projects • Duplicate projects, create backups, and restore fonts from Recently Deleted • Browse, preview, edit, and install 500 included open-source typefaces EXPORT REAL FONT FILES • Export TrueType (TTF) and WOFF2 font files • Generate CSS @font-face code and a complete ZIP release package • Create an installation profile for apps that support custom fonts • Preserve designer, copyright, license, version, description, and website metadata PRIVATE BY DESIGN Your handwriting, imported artwork, and font projects stay on your device. No account is required, and Draw Fonts does not upload your font data. Create and explore up to three font projects at no cost. A one-time Lifetime Unlock enables unlimited projects and all export formats. No subscription.

Screenshots

Glyphon4 screens
Draw Fonts4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Glyphon at none against Draw Fonts's 1. On price, update cadence, ads 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. Draw Fonts sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Glyphon asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Glyphon ships an update every 10 days, Draw Fonts weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 17, 2026 and October 7, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
Glyphon versus Draw Fonts: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterGlyphonDraw Fonts
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings1 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 10 daysWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS26.026.0
Further details — not scored
Size2 MB114 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJussi EdlundKairoos Solutions SL

In-app purchases

None

Glyphon

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Draw Fonts

One-time1
  • Lifetime Unlock$4.99

Questions

Is Glyphon free?
Glyphon is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Draw Fonts free?
Draw Fonts is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Glyphon or Draw Fonts have ads?
Neither Glyphon nor Draw Fonts shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Glyphon or Draw Fonts?
Glyphon ships an update every 10 days, and Draw Fonts weekly. Most recently, Glyphon was updated on October 17, 2026 and Draw Fonts on October 7, 2026.

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