Comparison

Calligraphy Handbook vs Tayasui Doodle Book

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

Tayasui Doodle Book

Unleash your creativity with a digital sketchbook offering a variety of patterns and smart tools. Doodle freely or create intricate masterpieces with an expansive range of artistic possibilities. Enjoy moments of relaxation or intense creative expression.

Highlights
  • Dozens of original patterns
  • Smart drawing tools
  • Optional soothing sounds
  • Freehand drawing
  • Pattern-based doodling
  • Creative relaxation
Features
Read full description

Just want to doodle like crazy, and no pen and paper in sight?! Here comes Doodle Book! Ease your itch with its dozens of original patterns and smart tools (with optional soothing sounds), and doodle like there’s no tomorrow or draw with no fear of the daunting blank page! Open the app and choose a pattern that suits your mood. And just doodle carelessly, improvise a collection of bearmojis, make fish and sweets rain altogether… Or free your drawing spirit and let your imagination run wild: festive crowd, glorious architecture, futuristic microcosm… there’s no limit! Extravagant doodling or intricate masterpiece, enjoy a moment of pure relaxation or intense creativity! Subscribe to access to premium app features; subscription details are the following: - Length: monthly, yearly - Your payment will be charged to your iTunes Account as soon as you confirm your purchase - You can manage your subscriptions and turn off auto-renewal from your Account Settings after the purchase - Your subscription will renew automatically, unless you turn off auto-renew at least 24 hours before the end of the current period - The cost of renewal will be charged to your account in the 24 hours prior to the end of the current period - When canceling a subscription, your subscription will stay active until the end of the period. Auto-renewal will be disabled, but the current subscription will not be refunded - Any unused portion of a free trial period, if offered, will be forfeited when purchasing a subscription Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Tayasui Doodle Book4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Calligraphy Handbook at none against Tayasui Doodle Book's shown. Calligraphy Handbook also leads on review sentiment (70% vs 47%) and ratings volume (517 vs 125). Tayasui Doodle Book's advantage is update cadence (fortnightly vs every 4 months) and device support (3 vs 1). On price, rating, in-app purchases 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 and Tayasui Doodle Book sells 11 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per 7 days. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.5 for Calligraphy Handbook against 4.5 for Tayasui Doodle Book. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 517 and 125 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 70% of Calligraphy Handbook's written reviews are positive against 47% of Tayasui Doodle Book's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Calligraphy Handbook ships an update every 4 months, Tayasui Doodle Book fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 29, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Calligraphy Handbook versus Tayasui Doodle Book: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCalligraphy HandbookTayasui Doodle Book
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (517 ratings)4.5 (125 ratings) — better
Positive reviews70.0% of reviews — better46.6% of reviews
Number of ratings517 — better125
Update frequencyEvery 4 monthsFortnightly — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS9.0 — better13.0
Further details — not scored
Size257 MB84 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperEtienne Nguyen Tan HonSKETCHES SRL

Customer experience

Calligraphy Handbook

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

Tayasui Doodle Book

All ratings109 ratings
Positive86.2%
Neutral9.2%
Negative4.6%
Written reviews337 reviews
Positive46.6%
Neutral13.6%
Negative39.8%

User reviews

Calligraphy Handbook

From 517 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

Tayasui Doodle Book

From 125 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 💫 Relaxing doodling experience
  • 🎨 Satisfying drawing tools
  • 👍 Simple and intuitive interface
  • 🎨 Realistic paper and pencil sounds
  • 🎨 Variety of background patterns

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Buggy page navigation
  • 💰 Limited free features, requires paid upgrade
  • 🖌️ Lack of customization options (pen size, color, etc.)
  • 🤔 Confusing tutorial
  • 🤔 Unclear access to paid features

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

Tayasui Doodle Book

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • App crashes on launch for some users
  • Inability to progress through tutorial
  • Drawings not saving properly
  • Paid features not unlocking as expected

Requested features

5 requests
  • Option to disable finger input when using stylus
  • Ability to save and view past drawings
  • More background options, including blank pages
  • Easier page navigation and management
  • Color palette and brush customization

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Calligraphy Handbook

One-time1
  • Unlock All Features$3.99
11 purchases

Tayasui Doodle Book

Subscriptions10
  • Weekly premium$2.997 Days
  • Weekly premium7 Days trial$2.997 Days
  • Monthly premium$2.991 Month
Show 7 more
  • Monthly premium7 Days trial$2.991 Month
  • Weekly premium7 Days trial$3.997 Days
  • Weekly premium$3.997 Days
  • Yearly premium$9.991 Year
  • Yearly premium7 Days trial$9.991 Year
  • Yearly premium7 Days trial$69.991 Year
  • Yearly premium$69.991 Year
One-time1
  • Doodle Book Pro$1.99

Questions

Is Calligraphy Handbook free?
Calligraphy Handbook is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Tayasui Doodle Book free?
Tayasui Doodle Book is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Calligraphy Handbook or Tayasui Doodle Book?
Tayasui Doodle Book is rated higher. Calligraphy Handbook averages 4.5 out of 5 from 517 ratings, while Tayasui Doodle Book averages 4.5 from 125 ratings.
Do Calligraphy Handbook or Tayasui Doodle Book have ads?
Tayasui Doodle Book shows ads; Calligraphy Handbook does not.
Which is updated more often, Calligraphy Handbook or Tayasui Doodle Book?
Calligraphy Handbook ships an update every 4 months, and Tayasui Doodle Book fortnightly. Most recently, Calligraphy Handbook was updated on October 23, 2026 and Tayasui Doodle Book on October 29, 2026.

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