Unicode Pad Pro with keyboards vs Black Keys
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Unicode Pad Pro with keyboards
Access and use over 155,000 Unicode characters with this comprehensive character map app. It features customizable keyboards for any iOS app, bundled and importable fonts, and detailed character information. Seamlessly copy, search, and organize characters for diverse writing needs.
- Access 155,000+ Unicode characters
- Customizable keyboards for any iOS app
- Install and import custom fonts
- Detailed character information and search
- Copy characters to clipboard
- Notepad for frequently used characters
- Drag and drop support
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Unicode Pad Pro is the ultimate Unicode character map app for the iPad. Offering an extensive database of over 155,000 characters, it supports the latest Unicode 16 standard. This powerful tool features customizable keyboards, which can be used across any iOS app, bundled fonts, and the ability to import custom fonts. Users can easily browse, search, and copy characters, access detailed character information, and enjoy seamless multitasking with other apps. Perfect for everything from scientific notation to creative writing, Features: • Custom keyboards can be used in any other iOS app • Install bundled fonts for use in other apps • Import and use any custom font into the app • Support for Unicode 15.1 standard, which has many new symbols. • Huge selection of symbols (thousands), in fact all that are available on your device. Database itself actually contains data for all characters (over 140000!). • Copy characters to clipboard for use in other apps, like web, mail, chat, notes... any iOS app! • Detailed information on each Unicode character, including encodings, extra info, similar characters and availability in fonts • Extensive gesture support for smooth workflow! • Drag and drop support for text, PNG and PDF graphics! • Notepad with customizable keyboards, for your often-used characters and for copying several characters at once. Great for casual writing, too! • HTML entity names for relevant characters • UNIHAN english definitions for CJK ideograms for many characters • Egyptian hieroglyph definitions • Ideographic Description Sequences (IDS) for CJK ideograms • Share your custom keyboards with your friends! • Search for characters by name, hexadecimal codepoint or glyph! Find similar and related characters instantly! • Great support for iPad multitasking - works great together with other apps • Streamlined design, specifically optimized for each device. Support for all device orientations and Retina display. • Support for dark mode. • Fully tested on latest iOS • Support for Backspace, New line, Shift and Alternate special keys on custom keyboards. • Custom keyboard sizes up to 6x16=96 keys. • Flick left and right for next and previous characters in detail view • View extended character descriptions on Wikipedia, unicode.org charts or Emojipedia right from inside the app! • Copy glyphs as PDF graphics or PNG images • Sections of favourite and recently copied characters • One universal application works on iPhone, iPod and iPad! • Reference booklet of characters available on modern computers! Paper Unicode maps are over 1000 pages long! • Quick access to many groups of commonly used symbols! • Great for scientific, mathematical and physics notation, handles many superscripts, subscripts and other symbols! • Excellent for phonetic notation! • Developers: see which characters are available on your iOS device and in which fonts. • Perfect for writing Unicode poetry! • Awesome for making interesting app names!
Black Keys
This app provides multilingual keyboards for typing in unsupported languages and the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). It features a dark mode for eye comfort and supports a wide range of languages, including Arabic, Amharic, and Khmer. Tutorials are available for complex typing methods.
- Multilingual keyboard support
- IPA typing
- Dark mode
- Support for many languages
- Tutorial videos
- Long-press for hidden letters
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Black Keys, multilingual keyboards, for unsupported languages and typing IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet). Black mode is simple but awesome and good for your eyes. Check your language in this list and download: *IPA: IPA full and English IPA (new design and full of letters) *Arabic group: Dari, Pashto,Sorani Kurdish, Uyghur *Need to install font group: Amharic, Burmese, Coptic,N'ko,Tifinagh *Others: Khmer, Inuktitut, Georgian, Armenian, Sinhala, Lao, Kazakh, Nepali, Bangla, Gurmukhi, Malayalam, Gujarati, Kannada, Oriya, Telugu. *NOTE: -Some keyboard have longPress to popup some hidden letters: Amharic, Dari, Pashto, Sorani Kurdish. Please take your time to practice much from beginning to understand how to use or check our video tutorials from app -Burmese and Sinhala use smart combination to help you type faster, please check tutorial video from app. -Deprecated languages: Persian, Syriac (move to swipekeys app) If your keyboard miss some letters, or need to improve or you need to add your languages,please contact us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BlackKeyboards
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Unicode Pad Pro with keyboards at 4.5 against Black Keys's 3.4. Unicode Pad Pro with keyboards also leads on review sentiment (81% vs 54%) and ratings volume (198 vs 27). Black Keys's advantage is update cadence (fortnightly vs every 4 months) and price ($0.99 vs $6.99). On ads, in-app purchases 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
Unicode Pad Pro with keyboards costs $6.99 and Black Keys $0.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Unicode Pad Pro with keyboards holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 3.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Unicode Pad Pro with keyboards has 198 ratings behind it against 27, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 81% of Unicode Pad Pro with keyboards's written reviews are positive against 54% of Black Keys's.
Unicode Pad Pro with keyboards ships an update every 4 months, Black Keys fortnightly. Both last shipped on October 17, 2026.
| Parameter | Unicode Pad Pro with keyboards | Black Keys |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $6.99 | $0.99 — better |
| Rating | 4.5 (198 ratings) — better | 3.4 (27 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 81.0% of reviews — better | 53.6% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 198 — better | 27 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Fortnightly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 13 | 8.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 259 MB | 35 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Ziga Kranjec | LE SANG |
Customer experience
Unicode Pad Pro with keyboards
Black Keys
Bugs and requests
Unicode Pad Pro with keyboards
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Black Keys
Reported bugs
53 issues- Keyboard takes up more space over time
- Eastern font lost after update
- Syriac-Eastern font shows as Estrangelo
- Myanmar Error Unicode and Zawgyi
- Cannot add vowels on alphabets
Show 48 moreShow fewer
- Language change button inconsistent
- App took money, no service
- Won't do Normal QWERTY
- Cannot change case, numbers, or common symbols
- Font typing error in iPhone 6 plus
- Cannot see Myanmar font on iPhone
- Typing review of letters falls under finger
- Semi-shift does not work in Twitter
- Space between words gets messed up with semi-shift
- Kazakh missing lowercase 'a'
- Keyboard appears and disappears when clicking a field
- Some Sinhala letters missing
- App closes automatically while typing some letters
- Font missing for Nepalese language
- Every time writing something it shows specific characters
- White mode doesn't work
- Bug with diacritical markers in Notes/Email apps
- Keys seem incomplete for Khmer
- Keys are too small and slow for Khmer
- Keys show as ... when shifting cases
- Key layout moves around when switching cases
- Response when hitting key is slow for Khmer
- Small additional characters hidden under finger
- Cannot find '?' and '!' on new keyboard
- Two keys for Burmese alphabet 'ဘ'
- Zawgyi update misplaced some characters
- Shift key button deleted in Burmese (zawgyi) after iOS 8.1 update
- Cannot see shift key to switch
- Long pressing not accurate on small keypad
- Dots at the foot of character vary
- Cannot find dot to place above characters
- Cannot use Myanmar font properly after updating
- Cannot see Myanmar font on YouTube
- Missing some previous characters in Myanmar Zawgyi font
- Keyboard theme not beautiful anymore
- Space button has a delay
- Keyboard layout not standard for iPad
- Not all keys included in Burmese Unicode Keyboard
- Shift key seems left out in Burmese Unicode Keyboard
- Crashing when attempting to place diacritical markers
- Black background too dark
- No space between keys
- Not working after adding to keyboard list
- Don't work and show keyboard after adding
- A bit of delay when first changing to numpad
- No 'Pa' for word 'Pa'
- Keyboard size issue
- Syriac Estrangelo replaced by Serto after iOS 9 update
Requested features
22 requests- Fix Nestorian style font
- Add vowels on alphabets
- Improve language change button consistency
- Add custom keyboard creation/customization
- Add Latin Extended keyboard
Show 17 moreShow fewer
- Add multiple signs for prenasalization
- Add original theme option
- Add Text-To-Speech function for IPA
- Improve keyboard design and layout
- Add sound for keys
- Add space between keys
- Improve Persian keyboard layout for iPad
- Add white background option
- Fix missing characters in Sinhala keyboard
- Fix missing characters in Nepalese language
- Fix missing characters in Kazakh keyboard
- Fix missing characters in Khmer keyboard
- Fix missing characters in Burmese Unicode Keyboard
- Fix missing characters in Myanmar Zawgyi font
- Add IPA characters for 'm, ɱ, ɳ, ɲ, ŋ, and ɴ'
- Add combining diacritics to Latin Extended keyboard
- Add IPA characters for 'ⁿ'
In-app purchases
Unicode Pad Pro with keyboards
No in-app purchases
Black Keys
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Unicode Pad Pro with keyboards free?
Is Black Keys free?
Which has better reviews, Unicode Pad Pro with keyboards or Black Keys?
Do Unicode Pad Pro with keyboards or Black Keys have ads?
Which is updated more often, Unicode Pad Pro with keyboards or Black Keys?
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