Infinite Painter vs iArtbook

Price

Both are free to download, but they charge for different things.

Infinite Painter is free to download. The free version includes every built-in brush, brush editing and up to 5 layers, and a 7-day trial unlocks everything. The Pro upgrade is a one-time $9.99 purchase on the US App Store, with no subscription.

iArtbook is free to download, and Pro is a one-time upgrade: $12.99 on iPad, or $7.99 for iPhone only, with no subscription.

Platforms

Both run on iPad, iPhone and Mac. Only Infinite Painter runs on Android and Chromebook.

Infinite Painter is one app across iPad and iPhone, also runs on Apple silicon Macs, and has an Android version for phones, tablets and Chromebooks. Pro is bought separately through the App Store or Google Play.

iArtbook is one app for iPhone and iPad that also runs on Apple silicon Macs.

Brushes

Infinite Painter has hundreds of built-in brushes with more than 100 settings each. It imports and exports its own brushes and sets, can sample lower layers when blending, and applies live color adjustments and filters to any brush.

iArtbook brushes can be dry, glossy or wet, with three kinds of wet paint, more than 50 settings per brush, and a library of over 1,000 textures to build your own. Calligraphy smoothing keeps lines clean even when you draw with a finger.

Comics and manga

Infinite Painter includes screentone brushes, editable shapes and text layers, but it does not advertise comic panel layouts.

iArtbook does not advertise comic panel or screentone tools; its extras are animation and a lesson mode for copying artwork.

Layers and editing

Infinite Painter: In Pro it offers live adjustment and filter layers with more than 40 filters, masks on layers, adjustments and groups, and 30 blend modes, so you can change an effect later without repainting. The free version stops at 5 layers.

iArtbook: Layers are unlimited, with blend modes, masks and lossless transforms. Two color pickers, a color mixer and palette import and export round out the color tools.

Drawing tools and extras

Infinite Painter: Drawing aids include five perspective guides, a hatching guide, radial and kaleidoscope symmetry, smart shape detection, a gradient fill tool and editable text layers. It also has seamless pattern projects and CMYK print presets. It does not advertise animation.

iArtbook does frame-by-frame animation with unlimited frames and multiple animation layers, exporting to MP4, HEVC, GIF and APNG. Its lesson mode lets you copy any painting or sketch side by side to learn, and timelapse recording is on by default.