Comparison

Ampersand ∙ Explore Typography vs Font Studio

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

Head to head
About

Ampersand ∙ Explore Typography

Features
Read full description

Discover, inspect, and collect free fonts with Ampersand. Ampersand is a beautiful typography browser, designed to make it easy (and delightful) to explore fonts. DISCOVER ∙ Browse thousands of fonts in an infinite, omnidirectional grid. ∙ Filter by category, popularity, style count, italics support, variable axes, language support, and script support. ∙ Hide font names so you can focus on the type. ∙ Customize the sample text to see fonts in your own words. ∙ Search fonts by name or designer. INSPECT ∙ Try every available style, weight, and italic variant. ∙ Fine-tune each variable axis individually. ∙ See typographic metrics, glyph counts, supported languages, and scripts. ∙ Explore every glyph in the typeface. ∙ Learn about each font’s designer, category, date added, and license. COLLECT ∙ Save fonts to your collections. ∙ Create as many collections as you want, each with a name and description. ∙ Share fonts. All fonts in Ampersand are open-source and come from the Google Fonts catalog. Google Fonts is a trademark of Google LLC. Ampersand is not affiliated with or endorsed by Google. Terms & Conditions: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Font Studio

Features
Read full description

Font Studio: Font Editor A professional font toolkit for creating, editing, inspecting, composing, repairing and converting fonts — entirely on-device. Font Studio brings real font engineering tools to iPhone and iPad. Work directly with your fonts without sending files to a server or relying on a desktop computer. CREATE AND EDIT FONTS Build and refine fonts with professional vector tools. • Design glyphs with Bézier paths • Draw and edit vector outlines • Transform, duplicate and flip glyphs • Inspect individual glyph structures • Create new fonts from scratch • Import and work with existing typefaces WORK WITH GLYPHS Explore and manage the characters inside your fonts. • Browse glyphs visually • Search Unicode characters • Inspect glyph mappings • Remove unwanted glyphs • Replace glyphs • Subset fonts by character coverage • Compare glyphs and font coverage PERFECT TYPOGRAPHY Fine-tune the details that make type look right. • Edit glyph metrics • Adjust advance widths • Fine-tune spacing • Edit kerning • Preview typography with real font rendering • Compare changes against the original • Test custom text, paragraphs and specimens COMPOSE FONTS Combine typefaces while keeping control over what gets added. • Compare source and destination fonts • Find missing characters • Resolve glyph conflicts • Choose which glyph to keep • Compose new font files • Handle composite glyph dependencies • Review changes before building the result VARIABLE FONT TOOLS Work with variable font technology directly on your device. • Inspect variable axes • Work with multiple font masters • Build variable fonts from compatible masters • Configure axes and instances • Preview variable font output • Export production-ready font files INSPECT OPENTYPE Go beyond the visible glyphs. Inspect: • GSUB • GPOS • GDEF • kern • cmap • glyf • gvar • hmtx • name • OS/2 • STAT • fvar • MVAR • and other font tables View scripts, lookups, feature information, metrics, coverage and technical metadata. REPAIR AND OPTIMIZE Analyze your fonts before they reach production. • Detect font health issues • Inspect warnings and diagnostics • Clean problematic outlines • Optimize font structure • Review technical findings • Re-analyze after changes CONVERT AND EXPORT Work with common font formats on-device. • TTF • OTF • WOFF • WOFF2 Convert, process and export your fonts without uploading them to a remote service. FONT PREVIEW Test your typeface before exporting it. Use: • Type preview • Paragraph preview • Specimen preview • Glyph preview • Custom text • Typography metrics • Spacing and kerning • Variable font axes BUILT FOR iPHONE AND iPAD Font Studio is designed as a real font workspace rather than a simplified desktop companion. Use it on iPhone for focused font work, or take advantage of the larger iPad workspace for detailed editing, inspection and typography. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Your font files can stay on your device. Font processing is performed locally, so you can work with your typefaces without needing to upload them to a cloud font-processing service. Create. Edit. Engineer. Perfect. Font Studio by Podzi.

Screenshots

Ampersand ∙ Explore Typography4 screens
Font Studio4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Ampersand ∙ Explore Typography at none against Font Studio's shown. Font Studio's advantage is device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 26.0). On price, update cadence 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Ampersand ∙ Explore Typography sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Font Studio sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Ampersand ∙ Explore Typography ships an update every 3 days, Font Studio every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 7, 2026 and October 20, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 3 level
Ampersand ∙ Explore Typography versus Font Studio: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterAmpersand ∙ Explore TypographyFont Studio
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 3 days — betterEvery 4 days
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS26.015.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size68 MB78 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperRafael GuimarãesAhmed Nader

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Ampersand ∙ Explore Typography

One-time1
  • Ampersand Deluxe$8.00
3 purchases

Font Studio

Subscriptions2
  • Font Studio Pro Monthly1 Month trial$3.991 Month
  • Font Studio Pro Yearly1 Year trial$29.991 Year
One-time1
  • Life time$49.99

Questions

Is Ampersand ∙ Explore Typography free?
Ampersand ∙ Explore Typography is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Font Studio free?
Font Studio is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Ampersand ∙ Explore Typography or Font Studio have ads?
Font Studio shows ads; Ampersand ∙ Explore Typography does not.
Which is updated more often, Ampersand ∙ Explore Typography or Font Studio?
Ampersand ∙ Explore Typography ships an update every 3 days, and Font Studio every 4 days. Most recently, Ampersand ∙ Explore Typography was updated on October 7, 2026 and Font Studio on October 20, 2026.

Other comparisons