Affinity Designer Ipad Help

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Affinity Designer for iPad has been a total game-changer for my surface design process. Not only does it enable you to do precise movements with the transform tool, which makes your repeat pattern pixel perfect (goodbye pixel lines and offset repeat elements!) but you can also see a live preview of your pattern as you create it, so you never have to wonder if a repeat element is in the wrong. Affinity Designer; Features; New features in this version; Personas; Switching Personas; User interface. Visual Reference; Toolbar; Persona Toolbar; Context toolbar; Get started. App registration and content syncing; Create new documents; New from clipboard; Open documents and images; Document setup; About bit depth; Viewing; Zooming; Document.

If you’re a professional designer, illustrator or digital artist then you probably have a killer computer setup and trusty sketch pad in your studio. Yet you might have seen that lots of designers have started doing all their professional work on iPads.

Why on earth would they do that? How can you possibly get the same quality of work done?

Affinity Designer Ipad Stylus Support

We believe that you shouldn’t have to compromise when you’re on the move or can’t be in your studio. That’s why we’ve partnered with Affinity to bring you the best design tools, even when you’re on the move.

In this article we cover the eight things you need to know about Affinity Designer for iPad and why it’s a game changer for creatives.

1. Shrink your equipment without compromising

There’s just no need for the huge setups to do serious work anymore. Just because the iPad is a thin and light device that’s extreme portable doesn’t mean that it can’t be a serious artistic tool.

Affinity developers spent months working with influential artists, illustrators and designers to fine-tune the creation of Affinity Designer for iPad and this is obvious the moment you pick it up, as it’s such an intuitive and flexible tool.

One of the designers involved in the beta was Steve Simpson. With over 30 years’ experience Steve is renowned for his hand lettered packaging design, whimsical characters and illustrated barcodes. For Steve, Affinity Designer for iPad gives him the freedom to work in coffee shops and even on the plane or a park bench.

Hear Steve talk about his experience of working with Affinity Designer for iPad in the video below.

Steve Simpson talks about Affinity Designer for iPad from Affinity on Vimeo.

“Affinity Designer for iPad is a fully featured vector app with raster tools available on a tablet. It’s a different level.” – Steve Simpson

2.It gives you vector and raster design tools, all in one app

One of the most powerful features of Affinity for iPad is that you can use vector and pixel tools in the same app. So, Steve says that he’s able to work on a vector design, and then switch over to Pixel Persona to add texture with raster brushes.

For you it could mean working on some app icons in vector and then see the pixel preview. Or edit a photo to use in your website mock-up. Cool, eh?

‘God Lion’ was created by designer and illustrator Juan Manuel Orozco during the Affinity Designer for iPad VIP beta.

“Discovering this app has been amazing, I’ve fallen in love. I can ink in vector and colour in raster all in one portable app, with no layer limitations. It’s totally changed my workflow.” – Juan Manuel Orozco

3. Ultimate speed and sensitivity

Affinity Designer utilises all of Apple’s magic technology so it’s lightning fast. You can see that by using all the effects, in real-time. And it works in the way that you always hoped it would with the Apple Pencil too, so you can take advantage of its incredible pressure sensitivity.

AffinityAffinity Designer Ipad Help

“Blending modes work great and fast (and it’s hard to say the same for Illustrator). Noise/grain parameters for colours are amazing. The layer structure is great. It’s a lot faster, especially when comparing performance with blurs and crazy blending modes in a large file.” – Art director and concept artist Eric Pautz on his experience of using Affinity Designer for iPad.

4. Gestures have been pushed to a whole new level

In terms of creative workflows on iPad, there are some gestures that just shouldn’t be messed with. Double finger tap for ‘undo’, and three finger tap for redo is a case in point. So ‘redo’ and ‘undo’ gestures work in the same way in Affinity Designer for iPad, but for some actions there is no established paradigm. So Affinity have taken an innovate approach. This tutorial video gives you the lowdown on all the gestures you need to know.

5. You have full control over export

You’re not limited by what you can export to just because the app is on iOS. You have full control over format, slices and with standard and retina options you can complete projects on the move. Send your projects by email, save to iCloud or Dropbox, the choice is yours. Continuous export works like a charm too.

Continuous export works like a charm too. See how artist and VIP beta tester, Bob Byrne, uses continuous export from Affinity Designer on iPad to work on his desktop with Spine at the same time…

Best Ipad For Affinity Designer

“I’m shocked at how fast it is. I know a large part of that is due to Apple magic but it’s crazy that we can do things which would make a desktop chug a little, instantly on the iPad.” – Bob Byrne talking about Affinity Designer for iPad.

6. The file format is seamless

Whether you’re working with Affinity Designer on desktop or iPad, or on other Affinity apps, it’s seamless. We don’t believe you should have to sacrifice your normal workflow just because you’re not in the office and neither do Affinity.

7. 1,000,000% zoom (well, even more than that actually…)

Affinity designer ipad help desk

Yes, you read that right. Don’t believe us? Check out the video

We were blown away when we first saw this, as the power available under the hood is monumental. Not only can you zoom to your heart’s content, but the process is incredibly speedy, allows for real time adjustments and has super smooth panning. It’s such a jaw dropping experience and we’re excited for you to see it for yourself!

Affinity Designer Ipad Review

Super smooth panning and zooming in Affinity Designer for iPad.

8. No subscription and incredible value for money

Affinity Designer for iPad is just as feature-packed as the desktop version and has everything you need to create stunning illustrations, branding, icons and UI/UX designs, print projects, typography, concept art and much more − all completely free from the confines of your desk!

Affinity apps are not linked to a subscription model. You simply buy the app once and get free updates until version 2.

Within hours of release it became #1 Paid app on the App Store in over 100 countries worldwide and was awarded Editor’s Choice by Apple.

Affinity Designer for iPad is available for a one-off payment of £19.99 / $ 19.99 USD / € 21.99 on the App Store. Bargain!

To say that I am an enthusiastic user of Affinity Photo would be an under statement. It is the most used app on my iPad and always a pleasure to use. I’ve been using it for client projects literally since the day it was released in June 2017. With the first update of 2018, version 1.6.7 the developers added the ability to open and save files in place. This is great because while the app has a decent built-in interface for managing files and folders that interface does have limitations. I’ve mostly been ignoring those limitations until today. By chance I was poking around the iPad Settings app and took a look at my iPad’s storage and saw that Affinity Photo was using up 22GB! I’ve got quite a few projects but expected it to be half of that. But using the apps built in method for file interaction provides no indication of file sizes so really, it’s all just guessing. Another limitation is that if I want to back-up a bunch of files, copy or move them I have to do it one at a time via the “Save as” option. Very tedious.

Using the Affinity Photo file browser to browse a folder containing 4 files

Now, I’ve got plenty of storage on my iPad but I don’t like the feeling that if I want to move or copy my files I have to do it one file at a time. There’s no way to tag or search files either. That’s not a problem if I’ve just got 10 files. But if I’ve got 150 files in 12 folders you can see how cumbersome this can be. File management is the only part of the app that I found average. So, I decided it was time to have a serious look at how Affinity Photo uses the Files app. I’d previously tinkered with it but it seemed a bit confusing.

Affinity Designer For Ipad Manual

By default files are stored within the Affinity Photo built in storage system on the iPad. A sort of hidden storage area which only shows up in the documents browser within Affinity Photo. It’s not possible to see file sizes from this location. How do I move these over to the Files app and what are the options? There are two options for storage in the Settings, general tab: iCloud or “On my iPad”. If I had better internet I would have gone with iCloud. But given the bandwidth Iimits I have (rural satellite) I chose “On my iPad”.

To save my Affinity Project files to this Files accessible storage area I access the corner widget of the document icon in the built-in document browser and chose “Save”. The file is then saved into “On my iPad” in the “Photo” folder on iPad. After that I can open it up from the Files app using the “On my iPad” location in the side bar. From the Files app I can now see the file size and easily share the file via the share sheet or via drag and drop from the Files app to any location or to email as an attachment or Messages or whatever.

HelpHelp

The Affinity Photo folder is very easy to spot thanks to the icon.

So, going forward, I’ll be moving my current Affinity Photo files over to this local iPad storage and will save all new files there. I’ll save in folders by project and/or client and also begin using some of the tags that I have set-up for the Files app. After a file has been saved to Files I will delete the original that remains within the Affinity Photo app storage system so as to not have duplicates. Interestingly, the way to delete a file from the application storage is simply to select the same corner widget where the Save function is, but choose Close. They really should call it Delete not Close. Now, if I then open the newer copy of the file from within the Files app and make changes I can choose the option (again, the widget is in the bottom of the file icon) to Save and then Close. In this latter case it is closed from the application but remains in the Files app as one would expect. It’s a bit confusing and I hope the folks at Affinity change the way it is labeled. Files stored internally should have the option to Delete. Files stored in the Files app should have the option to close.

As long as the files are in the “Photo” folder on “On my iPad” they can easily be opened “in place” from Files by a simple tap to it’s icon. I can save at any time and any changes I make get saved back to the file just as I would expect. Note, again, saving is done while looking at the document icon from within the Affinity Photo file browser and choosing save from the widget from the lower right corner. Files can also be nested in other folders within that Photo folder in the Files app.

Affinity Designer Ipad Pro

What happens if I copy these folders or files to another location, for example, to the a Documents folder in my iCloud Drive? In that case tapping it does not open into the app but rather opens a preview of it in the Files app. I can then use the “Copy to Photo” option in the share sheet to send it to Photo. As long as I leave don’t use the above mentioned “Close” option I can repeatedly open it for editing. I can save changes and those changes will take place on that file. If I close it I have to reopen again via the same “Copy to Photo” option in the share sheet. So, it’s still open in place with changes saved back, but it’s opening process is slightly different.

Affinity Designer Ipad Help Desk

Affinity Photo is an app I’ll be using for many years and many client projects. It is a “Pro” app. Given that, I’m hoping that the developers add an option to use the Files app as the default method for managing files. Maybe even making that the default rather than the current storage within the app’s hidden away storage. The current options that I’ve discussed above are in the app’s help pages but some of the specifics are missing. For now it would helpful if they could emphasize the option for saving out to files stored in the Files app.