Affinity Designer 2 for iPad

Finally a no subscription based software that’s better than Adobe’s offering

Works great with other programs, has many export options so working with others is really easy. Has all the functions of other programs making leaning it really easy. The price is great for what you get. The app runs smoothly and feels like it was made for iPad. Overall a great app for a great price.

It works well when it works, but glitches and crashes far too often. Even worse, trying to navigate the UI is clunky since it doesn't follow standard UI conventions for basic, repeatedly necessary functions. Want to "insert" or "import" a photo from Photos or a file? Use "Place". Want to rotate the canvas? Good luck unless you first exit out of the file you're working on, go into the main program Preferences, and then look under Tools, and then "Allow canvas rotation in all tools" ... rather than just having a quick toggle while working on an artwork a bloody explanation as to "what tools it is typically enabled in" period, where to find out, or how to toggle that, or why it even needs to be available on a tool-by-tool basis. Want to deselect a selection you've made using, say, the Lasso tool? Good luck finding Deselect ANYWHERE in the interface. Want to access something in a menu? Well, first you've gotta figure out WHICH menu to look in because there are TWO literally NEXT TO ONE ANOTHER?!? Neither have labels and neither are consistent or make any sense as to why they are separated! Want to duplicate a layer or an object? Don't bother trying to tap on the layer to bring up a menu becuase it's not there ... you have to find it in the menu's at the top left of the UI, along with Copy and Paste because, really, why would you expect it to be the same place as in the desktop app or literally EVERY OTHER art program's UI for the past 20 years?!? This is without acknowledging Serif's recent purchase by Canva, and their refusal to answer basic community questions about how AI will be integrated or whether Serif will retain autonomy over their own destiny; the Serif CEO has said in the forums that Canva's past handling of buyouts have no bearing on this purchase, which is what so many companies who has been acquired, absorbed and shut down in the past have said, and Canva has a terrible track record with transparency. If you're looking for a functional replacement for Illustrator, this can work, but don't hold your breath expecting a long-term replacement that is production ready or something intuitive to use. It's 80-90% there, but held back by poor UI design choices, lack of following conventions for iPad drawing apps and industry standard apps like those from Adobe. And don't bother expecting bug fixes or additional features any time soon that the community have asked for or needed for ages because they just haven't shown they care ... This is cheaper

Love it but the app keep crashing every now and then. Please fix the bugs so I can work on my iPad Pro 12.9 (6th generation) as well. Thanks so much Affinity team 🙂

As a Photoshop user of many years since version one, and as a reviewer of other products, by the same company, I can unequivocally say that Affinity Designer goes toe to toe with any other vector drawing program. This app was executed almost perfectly for the iPad. I’ve been really enjoying being converted from a desktop to an iPad with respect to my illustration work. Affinity is an excellent company producing excellent products for an excellent price. I like buying the upgrades and I feel so much better not renting my Software.

Just a slight adjustment from Mac app to iPad and you are good to go on the go. I love that I can work on my iPad which I almost always bring with me. Seamless! The whole Affinity suite is priceless! Easily 5 stars.

Affinity is easily my favourite workspace but there is a fundamental error in its architecture where the program just stacks up storage memory. In a matter of days and working on one project Affinity consumed upwards of 88 GB of my iPads storage - it appears as though every time you save it creates a copy of the file rather than updating it. Serif are aware of the issue and have been “addressing it” for years now which suggests that the issue is big and probably requires a redesign of the software architecture. It’s also full of bugs as reflected in its overall score. Appears that since being sold to Serif this app is now just a minor concern of a major company. Such a shame because if it worked, it would be awesome. I found Linearity Curve to be a good alternative -not as capable or powerful but at least it works!!!

Took a bit of time to switch from the original version. I like the new interface, I think it’s a bit more intuative. Regrettably however it freezes often and now it will not reload, it’s stuck in a loop at ..initializing ..I wait and wait and it won’t load. It did that when I wanted to save with changes a new document I had just worked on my dropbox. I will try to reinstall but reliability is a dealbreaker for me. Hope we get an update soon otherwise I will look elsewhere.

It is an amazing and very fast and powerful app. It is something between Adobe Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop and Figma. You can merge all your project files in one file. Instead of having too many files. You can work on a same file with desktop and iPad version. You can annotate on your file, adding some notes on your artworks. The UI can be much better.

love affinity overall but main functions are not working which is a downgrade now rather than an upgrade… sad. hope it gets properly fixed soon. Update (July 2023) : after months into V2, I keep experiencing so many issues on a daily basis on the iPad Pro (2021). Today I am sitting in front of this app, my once beloved tool, with a sense of disappointment. Many hours of work lost, every time the app crashes my works’ last edits vanish and I have to start again. I invested a lot of money into add-ons and brushes and I feel stuck. I’m a long time affinity user, I work as an artist, this has been my primary tool. I work and I’m stressed out now, not knowing when it will fail. How can this be? I religiously share on the forums the issues encountered and stay up to date on the latest developments. Yet, It doesn’t matter, it feels like the heart of the program itself is unstable… While trying to find an exit, I went back to V1, it worked for a bit but now I experience new issues that make it unusable. I love the app itself, but not like this. The team is full of great human beings that want to help and I’m grateful. I am not an app developer and I don’t face the complexity of programming itself; sadly, I don’t understand how simple actions can be a problem for a released app from an organization who has been on the scene with great results in the past.