Comparison

Calligraphy Handbook vs Zen Brush 2

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

Head to head
About

Calligraphy Handbook

This app is a digital tool for learning and practicing calligraphy. It offers various pens, colors, and effects for both beginners and experienced artists. Users can also challenge friends or test their skills with a calligraphy game.

Highlights
  • Digital pens and papers for learning
  • Unique pen and color effects
  • Calligraphy game for skill evaluation
  • 11 calligraphic pens and 1 pointed pen
  • 19 calligraphic hands in various styles
  • Layer management for artistic creation
  • Export creations to camera roll or email
Features
Read full description

It's proven that practicing calligraphy can quickly improve bad handwriting by a better understanding of letters' structure and proportion. Writing bigger letters helps to make curves and lines correctly. The beauty of the letters will make the task of writing more pleasant. Calligraphy is also a very constructive leisure. It develops virtues such as patience, attention to detail, perfection, willingness to learn, and the sense of beauty. Calligraphy is a full art form using letters, words and illuminations. It’s also a meditation process when your mind focuses on the strokes, beautifully draw lines and curves, following your intuition and inspiration. The only pre-requirement to this art is the knowledge of writing, which everyone is proficient. Calligraphy has a high potential of discoveries, it’s one of the rare art form that you can start from a basis you already know: writing letters and words. 1/ CALLIGRAPHY HANDBOOK is a perfect tool for learning and improving your calligraphy skill. As a beginner, the app will provide the best digital pens and papers for your learning. Don’t waste paper and ink now, digital tools are endlessly renewable. As a confirmed calligrapher, you will find pen and color effects that are impossible to create in real life: 6 small parallel lines, 4 size-lines, light effect pen, shaded line, rainbow effect, mixed colors in one stroke, alternated colors in one letter… 2/ CHALLENGE your friends in different writing styles, or simply evaluate your skill with the incredible calligraphy game. Reproduce a model inside a limited space, with a limited number of strokes, and see how many stars you can gain. Avoid actions as: undo, exceeding strokes or using tracing image. Otherwise your score will be heavily cut down. 3/ WRITING TOOLS: - 11 calligraphic pens - 1 pointed pen - 12 mixed colors effects - 12 alternated colors effects - 1 eraser - Smoothed strokes for all pens, let you draw perfect curves and lines. NOTE: we have intentionally made the strokes slower and smoother, because drawing beautiful letters has to be done in a slower speed compared to handwriting or painting. Calligraphy is a highly relaxing activity, a slow motion is the best for it. Writing features and supplies: - 19 calligraphic hands in a large choice of styles (more hands are coming with future updates) - Old papers - Guiding lines - Shadowed letters for tracing - 24 preset pen angles - 63 premixed colors - Export your writing to the camera roll or by email. - Palm rejection - Pen offset 4 / ARTISTIC CREATION. Calligraphy Handbook is a truly comprehensive tool for creating calligraphic works (greeting card, invitation, letterhead, logo, brochure, magazine cover, etc ... - Users can create true works of art with all the calligraphic tools. - An entire page is provided with layers management. - A gallery to save works in progress. - The gallery is organized by blocks, each block contains an unlimited number of pages. - The works and the blocks can be exported and shared in png or pdf formats. - Shadows and texture can be added to your lettering. 5/ TIPS: - Draw your letters very very SLOWLY. - Take a long breathe before a long stroke, then expire slowly and regularly while drawing. - Take a comfortable sitting position. - Clean up your screen frequently. - When following the lessons in this app, don’t pressure yourself to immediately draw perfect letters, but simply follow your intuition and focus on the movement of the strokes. It’s not so important to get completely correct letters, don’t forget, it’s not typography. - Relax yourself before starting a calligraphy session, you will have better strokes. Stretch and simply shake your hands and shoulders. Take a comfortable sitting position.

About

Zen Brush 2

This app offers a drawing experience inspired by East Asian ink brush art. Its intuitive interface and new engine provide a fluid and expressive way to create unique artwork, with options to share and edit your creations.

Highlights
  • East Asian ink brush simulation
  • New expressive brush engine
  • Gallery for saving work
  • Red ink option
  • Ink dispersion effect
  • 92 background templates
  • Pressure sensitive stylus support
Features
Read full description

Zen Brush 2 is a drawing app focused on the strong yet beautiful feel of the East Asian ink brush. With a new drawing engine that brings to life a feeling of silky fluent painting and the delicacy of an ink brush, providing a simple and intuitive user interface imbued with the Zen spirit, this app is designed to be optimal for performing Zen art. Simply start the app and you are immediately ready to draw. Anyone can create superb Zen art anywhere and at any time with this app’s uniquely rich expressiveness. You can publish your work to Facebook and Twitter with the "Share" and "Open in" functions. You can also share or edit your images by opening them in other apps such as Instagram, WhatsApp, LINE, Photoshop Mix, etc. - The next step in the evolution of the Zen Brush app which achieved more than 1.5 million downloads on all platforms combined. - Includes a new brush engine providing an even stronger, beautiful expressiveness. - Includes a gallery feature that makes it possible to save your work in progress. - Includes red ink in addition to the black ink (*). - Ink dispersion effect enables a three-dimensional feeling of depth. * Actual colors vary depending on the template. Features: - 92 background style templates. - Simple brush size adjustment with slider. - Simple main tools: Ink brush, red brush, eraser brush. - 3 levels of ink dispersion. - 3 levels of ink tone. - Canvas zoom (zoom in and out with pinch gestures). - Guide lines (9 types). - Undo / redo (5 levels). - Save your work to the photo library. - Open in other apps (Formats: JPEG, PNG, transparent PNG (no background)). - Share artwork (Facebook, Twitter, etc.). - Simulated finger pressure. - Support for pressure sensitive styluses. * Apple Pencil / Wacom Bamboo Stylus / Adonit / Scriba / SonarPen - Support for iPad Pro. - Support for 3D Touch. - Adjustable brush pressure sensitivity (5 levels). - Adjustable tilt sensitivity (5 levels). * Requires a pen that supports tilt. - Supports multitasking (Slide Over / Split View). - Support for iMessage App.

Screenshots

Zen Brush 24 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Calligraphy Handbook at Free against Zen Brush 2's $2.99. Calligraphy Handbook also leads on rating (4.5 vs 3.9) and ratings volume (518 vs 129). Zen Brush 2's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and update cadence (monthly vs every 4 months). On review sentiment and ads 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

Calligraphy Handbook is free to download; Zen Brush 2 costs $2.99 up front. Calligraphy Handbook sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Zen Brush 2 asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Calligraphy Handbook holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 3.9. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 518 and 129 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 74% of Calligraphy Handbook's written reviews are positive against 67% of Zen Brush 2's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Calligraphy Handbook ships an update every 4 months, Zen Brush 2 monthly. The most recent releases landed on September 12, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard9 real differences · 2 level
Calligraphy Handbook versus Zen Brush 2: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCalligraphy HandbookZen Brush 2
PriceFree — better$2.99
Rating4.5 (518 ratings) — better3.9 (129 ratings)
Positive reviews74.1% of reviews — better67.1% of reviews
Number of ratings518 — better129
Update frequencyEvery 4 monthsMonthly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
Best chart rank—#156 — better
DevicesiPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS9.0 — better12.0
Further details — not scored
Size257 MB72 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperEtienne Nguyen Tan HonPSOFT

Customer experience

Calligraphy Handbook

All ratings518 ratings
Positive88.2%
Neutral3.9%
Negative7.9%
Written reviews112 reviews
Positive74.1%
Neutral8.0%
Negative17.9%

Zen Brush 2

All ratings129 ratings
Positive67.4%
Neutral14.7%
Negative17.8%
Written reviews289 reviews
Positive67.1%
Neutral11.8%
Negative21.1%

User reviews

Calligraphy Handbook

From 518 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Helpful for learning calligraphy
  • 💡 Variety of font styles and color options
  • 👍 Calming and meditative experience
  • 👍 Great for beginners and intermediate users
  • 👍 Useful for practicing without supplies

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Frequent crashes and bugs
  • 💰 Misleading about free features
  • 🔒 Lack of palm rejection and input issues
  • 👎 Overly strict grading system
  • 👎 Limited free features, need to pay for full access

Zen Brush 2

From 129 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🎨 Realistic brush simulation and stroke quality
  • 😌 Meditative and relaxing user experience
  • ⚡ Quick and responsive performance
  • 🎯 Simple, minimalist interface design
  • ✍️ Excellent for calligraphy and character practice

Room to improve

  • 🎨 Limited color options (primarily black and red)
  • 📱 No iCloud sync or cloud backup support
  • 🐛 Occasional app crashes and freezes
  • ⚠️ Confusing interface for new users
  • 🗑️ Delete button placement causes accidental deletions

Bugs and requests

Calligraphy Handbook

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • App crashes when switching between uppercase and lowercase letters
  • Undo feature causes freezing and loss of progress
  • Inconsistent performance and lag when using Apple Pencil
  • Restoration of in-app purchases not working as expected

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add more font styles, especially Gothic and modern
  • Implement better palm rejection and input handling
  • Allow users to favorite/save preferred font styles
  • Add the ability to practice full words and sentences
  • Improve export and sharing options

Zen Brush 2

Reported bugs

9 issues
  • Background menu freezes
  • App crashes during export/save operations
  • Blank canvas loads despite recent saves
  • Unable to export artworks (ALAssetsLibraryErrorDomain error)
  • Brush stroke continues in straight line after stylus lift
Show 4 more
  • Performance issues on newer iPad Pro models
  • Inconsistent undo button behavior
  • File loading issues with previously saved images
  • Pressure sensitivity not working with certain styluses

Requested features

19 requests
  • Expanded color palette beyond black and red
  • iCloud synchronization across devices
  • Layer support for more complex artwork
  • Import background photos for tracing and reference
  • Custom guides and grid overlays
Show 14 more
  • Zoom functionality
  • Ability to adjust canvas/paper size
  • Move and scale drawing tools
  • Increased undo/redo history (25-30 steps)
  • Landscape mode support with adaptive layouts
  • Tutorials and user guidance documentation
  • Option to disable finger input when using stylus
  • Disappearing ink effect option
  • Pre-wet paper option for ink interaction
  • Numeric brush size adjustment
  • Save default brush size settings
  • Landscape orientation paper backgrounds
  • More brush variety and customization
  • EPS, SVG, and PDF export formats

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Calligraphy Handbook

One-time1
  • Unlock All Features$3.99
None

Zen Brush 2

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Calligraphy Handbook free?
Calligraphy Handbook is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Zen Brush 2 free?
Zen Brush 2 costs $2.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Calligraphy Handbook or Zen Brush 2?
Calligraphy Handbook is rated higher. Calligraphy Handbook averages 4.5 out of 5 from 518 ratings, while Zen Brush 2 averages 3.9 from 129 ratings.
Do Calligraphy Handbook or Zen Brush 2 have ads?
Neither Calligraphy Handbook nor Zen Brush 2 shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Calligraphy Handbook or Zen Brush 2?
Calligraphy Handbook ships an update every 4 months, and Zen Brush 2 monthly. Most recently, Calligraphy Handbook was updated on September 12, 2026 and Zen Brush 2 on September 23, 2026.

Other comparisons