Comparison

Calligraphy Handbook vs Trace it ! Let's draw app

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

Trace it ! Let's draw app

Easily create stunning drawings and illustrations by tracing images from your device or camera onto physical paper. Perfect for artists of all ages looking to practice and learn new drawing techniques.

Highlights
  • Trace any image from device or camera
  • Use with physical paper for stenciling
  • Adjust zoom and image opacity
  • Includes pre-defined drawing images
  • Create stencils and coloring sheets
  • Practice drawing and fonts
Features
Read full description

Want to draw like a pro? With Trace It! you can trace any image onto paper by looking through your phone's camera. Pick an image, place a sheet of paper in front of your phone and follow the lines while looking at the screen: the image appears semi-transparent over the paper and your hand. HOW IT WORKS - Choose one of the included images, a photo from your library, or take a picture right away. - Move, rotate and resize the image with your fingers. - Adjust the opacity and the camera zoom. - Lock the image so it doesn't move while you draw. NEW - AR mode: the image stays anchored to your paper even when you move the phone, no tripod needed. - Line filter with adjustable detail and thickness, plus black & white and inverted filters. - Grid to copy proportions with the grid method. - Flip the image horizontally or vertically. - Favorites and recent images in the gallery. - Lightbox: use the screen as a light box and lock it while you trace on top of it. - Share images to Trace It! from Photos, Safari or Files. - Torch, reference points and iPad improvements. FOR EVERYONE Perfect for learning to draw, practicing calligraphy and lettering, making stencils, coloring pages, murals and crafts. Great for kids, students and artists of all ages. Ads bothering you? Watch a short video and enjoy 30 minutes without ads, enough for a drawing.

Screenshots

Trace it ! Let's draw app4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Calligraphy Handbook at 70% against Trace it ! Let's draw app's 21%. Calligraphy Handbook also leads on rating (4.5 vs 2.7) and ads (none vs shown). Trace it ! Let's draw app's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1). On price 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Calligraphy Handbook sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Trace it ! Let's draw app asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Calligraphy Handbook holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 2.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Calligraphy Handbook has 517 ratings behind it against 18, 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 Trace it ! Let's draw app's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Calligraphy Handbook ships an update every 4 months, Trace it ! Let's draw app every 14 months. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard8 real differences · 2 level
Calligraphy Handbook versus Trace it ! Let's draw app: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCalligraphy HandbookTrace it ! Let's draw app
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (517 ratings) — better2.7 (18 ratings)
Positive reviews70.0% of reviews — better21.4% of reviews
Number of ratings517 — better18
Update frequencyEvery 4 months — betterEvery 14 months
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesAd-supported — better
DevicesiPadiPhone, iPad — better
Requires iOS9.0 — better18.5
Further details — not scored
Size257 MB10 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperEtienne Nguyen Tan HonAlberto del Rio

Customer experience

Calligraphy Handbook

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

Trace it ! Let's draw app

All ratings14 ratings
Positive28.6%
Neutral21.4%
Negative50.0%
Written reviews14 reviews
Positive21.4%
Neutral21.4%
Negative57.1%

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

Trace it ! Let's draw app

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Calligraphy Handbook

One-time1
  • Unlock All Features$3.99
None

Trace it ! Let's draw app

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Calligraphy Handbook free?
Calligraphy Handbook is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Trace it ! Let's draw app free?
Trace it ! Let's draw app is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Calligraphy Handbook or Trace it ! Let's draw app?
Calligraphy Handbook is rated higher. Calligraphy Handbook averages 4.5 out of 5 from 517 ratings, while Trace it ! Let's draw app averages 2.7 from 18 ratings.
Do Calligraphy Handbook or Trace it ! Let's draw app have ads?
Trace it ! Let's draw app shows ads; Calligraphy Handbook does not.
Which is updated more often, Calligraphy Handbook or Trace it ! Let's draw app?
Calligraphy Handbook ships an update every 4 months, and Trace it ! Let's draw app every 14 months. Most recently, Calligraphy Handbook was updated on November 1, 2026 and Trace it ! Let's draw app on November 3, 2026.

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