Comparison

Calligraphy Handbook vs Draw 3D

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

Draw 3D

Learn to draw a wide variety of objects with step-by-step lessons. Explore over 100 items and enjoy offline play. This app offers essential drawing tools like zoom and a grid display for easy navigation.

Highlights
  • Over 100 drawing lessons
  • Step-by-step tutorials
  • Offline mode support
  • Grid display for object browsing
  • Zoom in/out functionality
Features
Read full description

* Draw 3D has collected a lot of various lessons. You can find any objects you want in Draw 3D. All is here. * Draw 3D has step by step lesson, it's easier in learning and drawing for anyone. === FEATURES === + Content: over 100 objects. Play in whole day. + Display with GRID style: be able to see lots of objects on one screen. + Downloaded section: support play with offline mode. + Zoom In/Out: essential functionality for drawing. + And more... ----- Let's download and discover... -----

Screenshots

Draw 3D4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Calligraphy Handbook at 70% against Draw 3D's 21%. Calligraphy Handbook also leads on rating (4.5 vs 3.2) and ads (none vs shown). Draw 3D's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and device support (3 vs 1). On price, update cadence and monetization model 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. Calligraphy Handbook sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Draw 3D asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Calligraphy Handbook holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 3.2. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Calligraphy Handbook has 518 ratings behind it against 31, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 70% of Calligraphy Handbook's written reviews are positive against 21% of Draw 3D's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Calligraphy Handbook ships an update every 4 months, Draw 3D every 7 months. The most recent releases landed on October 6, 2026 and October 2, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Calligraphy Handbook versus Draw 3D: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCalligraphy HandbookDraw 3D
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (518 ratings) — better3.2 (31 ratings)
Positive reviews70.0% of reviews — better21.1% of reviews
Number of ratings518 — better31
Update frequencyEvery 4 months — betterEvery 7 months
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS9.0 — better12.0
Further details — not scored
Size257 MB23 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperEtienne Nguyen Tan HonBinh Le

Customer experience

Calligraphy Handbook

All ratings518 ratings
Positive88.2%
Neutral3.9%
Negative7.9%
Written reviews150 reviews
Positive70.0%
Neutral10.7%
Negative19.3%

Draw 3D

All ratings31 ratings
Positive51.6%
Neutral3.2%
Negative45.2%
Written reviews19 reviews
Positive21.1%
Neutral0.0%
Negative78.9%

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

Draw 3D

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Calligraphy Handbook

One-time1
  • Unlock All Features$3.99
None

Draw 3D

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Calligraphy Handbook free?
Calligraphy Handbook is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Draw 3D free?
Draw 3D is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Calligraphy Handbook or Draw 3D?
Calligraphy Handbook is rated higher. Calligraphy Handbook averages 4.5 out of 5 from 518 ratings, while Draw 3D averages 3.2 from 31 ratings.
Do Calligraphy Handbook or Draw 3D have ads?
Draw 3D shows ads; Calligraphy Handbook does not.
Which is updated more often, Calligraphy Handbook or Draw 3D?
Calligraphy Handbook ships an update every 4 months, and Draw 3D every 7 months. Most recently, Calligraphy Handbook was updated on October 6, 2026 and Draw 3D on October 2, 2026.

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