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2.1 update – May 2023

Our first major update for Version 2 introduces hundreds of improvements across all apps and platforms. They include many usability enhancements to guides, layers, assets, warping, strokes, text and brushes, as well as some all-new features such as a Vector Flood Fill Tool in Affinity Designer and running headers in Affinity Publisher.

This update is free to anyone who already owns V2 of Affinity (you should automatically be prompted to update to 2.1 but if you’re having issues, please check out this article).

For new customers, or those wishing to upgrade from V1 to V2, check out our purchase options!

2.1

Take a look at the new features and improvements

Balanced dashed lines Available on both desktop and iPad

Windows, macOS and iPad

Dashed lines can now be set to be ‘balanced’, meaning the pattern is automatically rescaled between any cusps in a curve. This gives a more desirable result for things such as corners of a box, or the start and end of a stroke. You can toggle balanced dashed lines on and off using the new button in the Stroke Panel.

Vector Flood Fill Tool Available on both desktop and iPad

Windows, macOS and iPad

This all-new tool allows you to easily fill areas created by intersecting objects and curves with a single click. The behavior is similar to what you may be used to with a pixel-based flood fill, but you get true vector results.

To use the tool:

  1. Select all the items you want the tool to consider
  2. Switch to Vector Flood Fill Tool – this will analyze your selection and work out all the areas available to fill
  3. Choose your fill color – select what color you wish to fill your areas with from the Color or Swatch Panel
  4. Click in any of the available areas to fill with your chosen colors

The other great thing with this tool is it allows for the simple creation of bitmap fill textures too – you can create a texture fill from any asset or stock item just by clicking on it. You can also choose to layer a texture fill on top of a color fill with the options available in the context toolbar.

Other tips when using this tool:

  • If you don’t have any objects pre-selected you can just use the tool to fill any existing closed shape. It’s a way to quickly change the color of objects without having to select them first.
  • While in the tool, if you wish to change your selection, you can hold Command (Mac / iPad) or Ctrl (Windows) and click / drag marquee to select other objects.
  • For an area to be recognized, any curves in your selection need to fully intersect, so it can sometimes be beneficial to expand strokes to bridge gaps in paths before using the tool.

There are lots of options available when using this tool. For more information, check out this tutorial.

Running headers Available on both desktop and iPad

Windows, macOS and iPad

Running headers are a great way to easily include the name of the current topic of your document in the header or footer of your page. The way it works is by copying text formatted with a particular paragraph or character style on a page into a special running header field.

For example, let’s say your file uses a paragraph style of “Heading 1” for the title of each new section in your document. You could add a running header field to the top of every page (normally by adding to your master page), and that field will automatically show your section name, dynamically changing if you edit any of your titles in the document.

The really useful element of this feature is that if there isn’t a new title anywhere on a page, the header will automatically ‘run’ from the previous page and will continue to do so until a new title is found, as shown below:

On desktop, you can insert a running header field from the right click menu:

On iPad, you can find it in the fields list available from the extended keyboard:

To edit the settings of the field (e.g. what text style it is based on, or whether you want it to be based on the first or last instance of that style) you can right click ‘Edit Field’ (or long press ‘Edit’ on iPad).

To learn more about running headers, take a look at our full tutorial.

Show / hide special characters Available on both desktop and iPad

Windows, macOS and iPad

In Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo, you can now choose to show special characters – allowing you to see the hidden markups in your project including paragraph breaks, spaces, tabs, returns, etc. It is available from the Text menu on desktop and the View menu on iPad.

This was already an option in Affinity Publisher, but has been made available in Designer and Photo after many requests!

Auto-select toggle, plus selection options Available on both desktop and iPad

Windows, macOS and iPad

All Affinity apps now have the ability to disable the Move Tool auto-selecting objects when you click on them (this option was previously only available in Affinity Photo). This can be very useful when you want to make sure you do not accidentally select a different object from the one you are working on. Having auto-select turned off means you can also drag anywhere on your document to move your selection, getting your cursor (or finger on iPad!) out of the way.

The auto-select toggle is available from the context toolbar when in the Move Tool. Additionally, when auto-select is turned on, you can also choose how you want selections to be made from the drop-down:

  • Default – clicking on any objects or groups will select them
  • Objects / Layers – ignores any groups and automatically drills to select any child object you click on
  • Group – only selects groups, will ignore any objects not part of a group
  • Under (iPad only) – if you have multiple objects stacked on top of each other, each tap will cycle through the z-order of the layer stack, allowing you to select items underneath the top item (this can also be achieved by holding Alt or ).
Blend mode keyboard shortcuts Available on both desktop and iPad

Windows, macOS and iPad (requires keyboard)

Keyboard shortcuts have now been added so you can easily change the blend mode of the current layer(s), or the current brush if using the Paint Brush Tool.

Holding Shift with + or - will go to the next or previous blend mode in the list. Additionally, you can use any of the shortcuts in the accompanying table to change immediately to a specific blend mode. As well as assigning shortcuts to other blend modes (where a default shortcut hasn't been given), these can be customized within Settings.

The default shortcuts assigned to each blend mode are shown below:

Blend mode keyboard shortcuts

Blend mode iPad / macOS Windows
Next iPad / macOS: + Windows: Shift+
Previous iPad / macOS: - Windows: Shift-
Normal iPad / macOS: N Windows: ShiftAltN
Darken iPad / macOS: K Windows: ShiftAltK
Multiply iPad / macOS: M Windows: ShiftAltM
Color burn iPad / macOS: B Windows: ShiftAltB
Linear burn iPad / macOS: A Windows: ShiftAltA
Lighten iPad / macOS: G Windows: ShiftAltG
Screen iPad / macOS: S Windows: ShiftAltS
Color dodge iPad / macOS: D Windows: ShiftAltD
Add iPad / macOS: W Windows: ShiftAltW
Overlay iPad / macOS: O Windows: ShiftAltO
Soft light iPad / macOS: F Windows: ShiftAltF
Hard light iPad / macOS: H Windows: ShiftAltH
Vivid light iPad / macOS: V Windows: ShiftAltV
Linear light iPad / macOS: J Windows: ShiftAltJ
Pin light iPad / macOS: Z Windows: ShiftAltZ
Hard mix iPad / macOS: L Windows: ShiftAltL
Difference iPad / macOS: E Windows: ShiftAltE
Exclusion iPad / macOS: X Windows: ShiftAltX
Hue iPad / macOS: U Windows: ShiftAltU
Saturation iPad / macOS: T Windows: ShiftAltT
Color iPad / macOS: C Windows: ShiftAltC
Luminosity iPad / macOS: Y Windows: ShiftAltY
Alt-drag to duplicate in Layers Panel Available on both desktop and iPad

Windows, macOS and iPad

With any layer(s) selected in the Layers Panel, you can now hold Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac / iPad) and drag to create a copy of the selected layers. The duplicated layers will be inserted into the layer stack in the position you have dragged to.

For iPad users:

If you don’t have a keyboard attachment, you’ll need to use the Option modifier () on the Command Controller.

Alt-click to expand / collapse all in Layers Panel Available on both desktop and iPad

Windows, macOS and iPad

In all apps, you can use the Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac / iPad) modifier on the expand chevron in the Layers Panel to either expand or collapse all groups, layers and other nested items within the parent in one action.

For iPad users:

If you don’t have a keyboard attachment, you’ll need to use the Option modifier () on the Command Controller.

Photo Crop Tool improvements Available on both desktop and iPad

Windows, macOS and iPad

A number of improvements have been made to Affinity Photo’s Crop Tool:

  • Crop to selection – if you have a pixel selection active, the Crop Tool will now initiate to be a minimum fit around the selection you have
  • Maintain zoom level – after a crop, the current zoom level will be maintained (rather than automatically zooming to fit)
  • Easily apply same ratio crop – the Crop Tool now remembers the last setting globally, so if you wish to apply the same ratio crop to a number of images, it‘s much easier
  • Resize a crop by dragging anywhere on the bounding box edges, rather than having to drag from a handle
  • Reset the current crop with Esc
  • In unconstrained mode, holding Shift will now constrain the current aspect ratio and Command (Ctrl on Windows) will resize around the center
Auto-clean added to Paint Mixer Brush Available on both desktop and iPad

Windows, macOS and iPad

A new option is now available in the context toolbar of the Paint Mixer Brush to auto-clean the brush after every stroke should you wish.

Ability to create more complex dashed lines Available on both desktop and iPad

Windows, macOS and iPad

Dashed line settings have been expanded to allow three dashes and three gaps to be set, which enable more complex patterns to be created such as a two-dot chain.

Quick tip: on desktop you will also find the labels for dashes and gaps to be draggable to quickly adjust the values.

Guide improvements Available on both desktop and iPad

Windows, macOS and iPad

Many little improvements have been made to the way you can edit and manage guides:

  1. When moving a guide by dragging you now see both the guide position relative to the ruler origin (as before) as well as the distance from the guide’s previous position. This means, for example, if you want to move a guide 10mm you can achieve that easily without changing the ruler origin.
  2. When dragging a guide, holding Shift will now snap the guide position to ruler marks. Additionally holding Shift and Alt / Option together will snap to the delta distance.
  3. If you hold Alt / Option before dragging a guide, that will now create a copy of the guide.
  4. Dragging a new guide from rulers will now automatically turn guide visibility on (if it was set off).
  5. Alt / Option-clicking on a guide will delete the guide.
  6. Double-clicking on an existing guide will now open the guide manager dialog (with the focus on the guide you double-clicked).

For iPad users:

If you don’t have a keyboard attachment, you will need to use the Command Controller to access the modifiers.

Vector warp nodes are now snappable Available on both desktop and iPad

Windows, macOS and iPad

When editing a vector warp in Affinity Designer, any nodes in your mesh will now snap based on your general snapping preferences (when snapping is turned on). As with nearly all operations in Affinity, you can temporarily toggle snapping off while dragging a node by holding Alt / Option.

Brush Panel improvements Available on both desktop and iPad

Windows, macOS and iPad

A lot of customer feedback has been incorporated into the Brush Panel:

  • Brush Panel now always highlights the current raster brush (in blue) and will now denote if the brush has been edited (by highlighting red).
  • If you change brush tools (e.g., between paint brush and eraser) which have different brushes assigned, the panel will automatically scroll / switch category to always show the current brush. This is something which can be optionally switched off (‘Auto-Scroll’ in the panel’s burger menu).
  • If you have changed any of the temporary properties of a brush, you can choose to update your brush preset to use that setting (from right click menu on desktop, left swipe menu on iPad).
  • In Affinity Designer we have now made it possible to view your vector brushes in thumbnail view (Brush Panel burger menu -> uncheck ‘Show as list’). This was previously only available as an option with raster brushes.

Additionally, in the desktop versions you can now:

  • Choose to show brush names in the panel (option in burger menu). The iPad versions already showed brush names in prior versions.
  • Alt / Option-drag a brush to quickly create a duplicate of the brush in the panel.
Raster live warps added to Pixel Persona Available on both desktop and iPad

(Pixel Persona)

Windows, macOS and iPad

We have now added both the perspective and mesh warp live filters from Affinity Photo into the Pixel Persona of Affinity Designer. You can add one of these live filters from the Layer menu in Pixel Persona on desktop, or from the + button in the Layers Panel on iPad (again only when you are in Pixel Persona).

These filters are completely non-destructive, and particularly useful for distorting images and embedded documents you want to incorporate within your design.

Note: These are pixel-based warps so will rasterize any vector data warped by them at export time. If you just wish to warp vector outlines, you should be using the vector warp group functionality in the Designer Persona (added as a new feature to V2) which will always maintain a true vector result.

Double-click artboard label to rename Available on both desktop and iPad

Windows, macOS and iPad

You can now rename an artboard by double-clicking / tapping on the artboard label in your document.

Rename layer shortcut and tab functionality Available on both desktop and iPad

Windows, macOS and iPad

On desktop and iPad versions, ‘Rename Layer…’ is now available using the shortcut Command Shift R (Ctrl Shift R on Windows). This can be customized in Settings should you wish.

Additionally, in the Mac version, after updating a layer name in the Layers Panel, you can now tab / Shift-tab to quickly edit the next / previous layer’s name. Note: this was already possible in the Windows version!

WebP and JPEG XL batch export Available on both desktop and iPad

Windows, macOS and iPad

You can now choose both WebP and JPEG XL as export file types from the batch export dialog in Affinity Photo.

‘Close All’ added to File menu Available on desktop only

Windows and macOS

New options have been added to the File menu that allow you to close all currently open documents. The default shortcut is assigned as:

  • macOS: W
  • Windows: Alt Ctrl W
Asset Panel re-ordering improvements Available on desktop only

Windows and macOS

You can now re-order subcategories within the Asset Panel by drag and drop (as well as using the burger menu on the subcategory to move up and move down as before). Additionally, there are new options in the burger menu of ‘Expand All’ and ‘Collapse All’ to quickly expand or collapse all subcategories in the panel.

‘Mask to below’ added to Layer menu Available on desktop only

Windows and macOS

The ‘Mask to below’ function, previously only available from the right click menu in the Layers Panel, has now been added to the top Layer menu. This was requested primarily so that a shortcut could be assigned if desired.

Measure and Area tools now available in Photo and Publisher Available on desktop only

Windows and macOS

The Measure Tool and Area Tool, which were both added to Affinity Designer in V2, are now available in both Photo and Publisher. This is not included in the default set of tools when you first run the app, but you will find it in the list if you go to View -> Customize Tools.

Place Tool can now be added to toolbar in Affinity Photo Available on desktop only

Windows and macOS

You can now find the Place Tool as a customization option in Affinity Photo (View -> Customize Tools) and add it to your main set of tools, making it more easily accessible than going to File -> Place.

Zoom tool context options included in Develop Persona Available on desktop only

(Develop Persona)

Windows and macOS

The Zoom Tool in Photo’s Develop Persona now includes the context toolbar options offered in the main Photo Persona (slider and drop-down of preset values).

Blend mode and opacity now available in main Layers Panel Available on ipad only

iPad

As has been frequently requested, we have promoted the opacity and blend mode options that were previously only available from the Layer options (…) panel, at the top of the main Layers Panel. Double-tapping on opacity will reset the value to 100%, and double-tapping on blend mode will reset to ‘Normal’.

New left swipe options in layers Available on ipad only

iPad

The left swipe menu in Layers has been expanded to include:

  • Lock / Unlock
  • Rename Layer…
  • Change compound type (if the layer in question is a compound)

This makes these options much more easily accessible than having to go to the Layer options (…) panel.

Redesigned Edit menu on iPad Available on ipad only

iPad

Changes have been made to the ‘Edit…’ menu on iPad to make the menu more functional and readable (especially on documents with light colored backgrounds). The biggest change is that we’ve brought back the icons for the isometric (Affinity Designer, when working on an iso grid) and insertion target options we had in V1.

iPadOS Photos app integration Available on ipad only

iPad

When browsing your photos, either to open or place an image, all apps now use the inbuilt iPadOS Photos app rather than our own bespoke browser as before. This gives a much more familiar experience and will automatically take advantage of any new features the Photos app adds in the future.

‘Show in Files’ available from Live Documents Available on ipad only

iPad

You can now easily find the source of any documents you have open which have previously been saved to Files via this new option in the Live Docs burger menu.

Style Picker Tool added to all iPad apps Available on ipad only

iPad

The Style Picker Tool, which was added to the desktop versions in 2.0, is now available in the iPad versions. You will find this nested within the Color Picker Tool.

This tool allows you to quickly copy the style of any object or text in your document to other objects.

A few tips:

  • In the context toolbar, you can see whether the tool is currently loaded with a style or not. If you wish to unload the tool, you can tap the ‘Delete’ button in the context toolbar.
  • When the picker is unloaded you can load it with a style from any object / text in your document with a single tap.
  • Alternatively, when it is unloaded you can drag on the screen which will give you a loupe similar to the color picker to more accurately choose the style you want to pick.
  • Once a style is loaded, you can then tap other objects or marquee around them to apply that style to other objects.
  • In the case of applying the style to text, you can single tap to apply that style to a single word, or click drag to highlight sections of text you wish to apply the style to.
  • To quickly reload with a new style, you can Alt / Option-tap to copy a style from a different shape to the picker.
  • From the Style Picker menu in the toolbar, you also get access to the additional options available on desktop to select which attributes you want the Style Picker to copy.
New keyboard shortcut options Available on ipad only

iPad (requires keyboard)

The following additional keyboard shortcuts are now available on iPad. They are pre-set with the default shortcuts as shown but can also be customized in Settings.

Keyboard shortcuts

Function Default Shortcut
Zoom in Default Shortcut: +
Zoom out Default Shortcut: -
Zoom to 100% Default Shortcut: 1
Zoom to 200% Default Shortcut: 2
Zoom to 400% Default Shortcut: 3
Zoom to 800% Default Shortcut: 4
Zoom to actual size Default Shortcut: 8
Zoom to fit Default Shortcut: 0
Zoom to pixel size Default Shortcut: 9
Zoom to selection Default Shortcut: 0
Zoom to width Default Shortcut: 0
Show guides Default Shortcut: ;
Show grids Default Shortcut:
Select next Default Shortcut: ]
Select previous Default Shortcut: [
Select top Default Shortcut: unassigned
Select bottom Default Shortcut: unassigned
Double-tap Apple Pencil for quick menu Available on ipad only

iPad

When using Apple Pencil, you can now configure ‘double-tap’ on your pencil to open the quick menu. You can choose what behavior ‘double-tap’ has by going to Settings -> Pencil -> Double-Tap Action.

Long press geometry operation to create compound Available on ipad only

iPad

You can now quickly create a compound (non-destructive Boolean operation) by long pressing any one of the geometry operations from the menu.

More advanced PDF import options now available Available on ipad only

iPad

When opening a PDF in Affinity for iPad, you will now be able to choose from the same advanced options as are available on desktop. These options include how text is grouped, DPI and color space conversion.

Modifiers now available for Select Object Available on ipad only

iPad

Select Object modifiers which were previously only available in the desktop version are now available on iPad:

  • Shift – this will add the selected object type to your current selection
  • Option – this will subtract the selected object type from your current selection
  • Shift Option – this will just select any of the selected object types from within your current selection

You can either use the Command Controller or a connected keyboard to access these modifiers.

Main view rulers now available Available on ipad only

iPad

iPad now has rulers! You can toggle them on from the View / Preview mode drop-down. These new rulers have all the functionality of the desktop versions, including:

  • Ability to add horizontal or vertical guides quickly by dragging out from either of the rulers.
  • Drag to change the ruler / page origin. This can be done by dragging from where the horizontal and vertical rulers meet in the top left corner. This will snap to other objects, guides, grids, etc (obeying your current snapping options). You can reset the origin by double-tapping in the same place.
  • All of the new guide improvements are also available on iPad, including Alt / Option-drag to duplicate, Alt / Option-tap to delete, etc.
Reset rotation in navigator with double-tap Available on ipad only

iPad

In the Navigator Panel, a double-tap on canvas rotation value will now reset to zero degrees. While there are already quick buttons for different zoom levels available, we have also made it so that a double-tap on the zoom value resets to 100%.

Tapping warp group thumbnail now selects Node Tool Available on ipad only

iPad

If you tap the thumbnail of a warp group in the Layers Panel on iPad, it will now automatically select the Node Tool for you to edit the warp as it does on desktop.

Option to hide the layer type icon now available Available on ipad only

iPad

On iPad, you now have the option to hide the layer type icon (the icon which denotes if a layer is pixel, image, curve, etc). It is available in the burger menu of the Layers Panel and the option to check on or off is within ‘Show Object Type’.

Version 2 – November 2022

Our first paid-for upgrade since the launch of the original Affinity apps, Version 2 delivered a next-level creative experience. Discover the wealth of new features and enhancements included in V2 across the whole suite of apps below.

Tons of new features. A completely redesigned UI. Hundreds of performance enhancements and workflow improvements. Here’s everything you should know about the next generation of Affinity…

You want it? You got it.

Publisher for iPad.

Work wherever and whenever you want, without compromising the quality of your work, with Affinity Publisher for iPad—a pro page design app that allows you to create incredible layouts on the go.

Ta-da!

V2 delivers a creative experience unlike any other. Discover the wealth of new features and enhancements across the whole suite of apps below.

Vector Warp

This hugely powerful and highly requested addition allows you to apply a non-destructive vector warp over any vector artwork or text. Editing any warp offers a super-fast live preview, even on complex illustrations and gives a true vector end result.

Shape Builder Tool

Add and subtract shapes and segments in a much easier, more interactive way. Quickly create complex shapes by simply dragging between segments to combine or holding a modifier to subtract.

Knife Tool

Slice any shape, curve or text into component parts faster than ever.

Measure Tool & Area Tool

Measure line lengths, segments, distances and areas of any objects to scale.

X-Ray View

A new view mode to show the makeup of your work, particularly useful for targeted selection of a specific curve/object within complex artwork.

DXF / DWG Import

Import and edit AutoCAD and DXF files quickly and accurately, maintaining the layer structure and scale of the original file.

Non-destructive RAW Develop

Develop RAW files non-destructively and choose to embed into a document file or link externally.

Tip: if you have a Universal License and own Publisher 2, you can use StudioLink to place RAW files into your documents and edit the development settings at any time (something no other publishing app offers!).

Live Masks

Build powerful, non-destructive workflows with new live masks which update automatically based on the properties of the underlying image.

Hue Range

Create a mask based on a specific color and apply adjustments, effects or just paint on the automatically generated mask for your chosen hue.

Band-pass

Band-pass allows the creation of a mask to be focused around edges within an image. This has wide uses for re-touchers who work on different frequency layers, but also enables the creation of artistic effects.

Luminosity

Specify a luminosity range to mask; for example, isolate specific ranges of highlights or shadows (or anything in between) and apply controlled adjustments to those areas.

Compound Masks

Easily combine multiple mask layers together non-destructively using add, intersect, subtract and XOR operations. This means separate masks you’ve created can be maintained non-destructively while you create new masks based on those component parts.

Live Mesh Warp

Want an image or file to be distorted to match the surface of an underlying template? Now you can apply a non-destructive warp to make that happen, and go back to edit whenever you like.

Bonus: This has some powerful use cases when using the Photo Persona in Publisher 2. You can distort linked files without losing the integrity of the link, as well as warp picture frames to enable quick drag and drop of alternate images.

Brush Engine

Improvements

Re-order nozzles by drag/drop. Use any swatch for intensity brushes, including gradient and bitmap fills. Plus: new distance controller, brush tip interpolation and overall improved performance and accuracy.

Books

Combine separate Publisher documents as chapters to create one long publication, automatically synching page numbers, table of contents, indexes and styles throughout – an especially useful feature for collaboration, as contributors can work on their own sections individually before bringing it all together. Available in desktop version only.

Footnotes, Endnotes and Sidenotes

Add academic style notes or references to sections of text.

Place Auto-flow

Create a single layout that automatically repeats across your document until all desired images are accommodated. Plus, with the ability to choose a repeat count for images, you can set up advanced templates so that in the future you can instantly produce multiple variants in only a few clicks.

Linked File Layer Visibility Override

Turn any layers on or off from within placed files, including PSD, PDF, DWG, DXF and other Affinity documents without losing the integrity of the link. Even if the source file is changed, your layer visibility settings will be maintained. Also available in Designer 2 and Photo 2.

Style picker tool

Quickly apply the style of any object or text on your page to another. Also available in Designer 2 and Photo 2 (desktop only).

Performance

We’ve reengineered how we handle memory for imported PDFs and other large documents, resulting in significant performance improvements.

Refined & Redesigned

The all-new UI doesn’t just give a brand-new look to the apps, but also provides many workflow improvements.

Desktop.

New Document now includes a much more accessible list of presets, easier preset management and organization, the ability to flag presets as favorites as well as a clearer preview and document summary.

Recent documents are now available to view as thumbnail previews or a list. You can also pin your documents for quick access.

The completely revamped Layers Panel has a ton of new functionality, including:

  • Clearer drop zones for dropping inside, masking and reordering
  • New parent bar to easily collapse groups and drop layers above or below their current parent
  • New quick menu (right click on visibility icon) for color tagging
  • Option to show/hide other layers
  • Drag across multiple layers’ visibility at once to instantly show/hide those layers
  • Drag FX icon to copy layer effects to other layers (or drag to trash)
  • Ability to lock layers without selecting first
  • New option to show icons denoting layer type (pixel, image, text, curve, etc)

Along with the existing triangle wheel, the optimized Color Panel has a new box color wheel, which makes it easier for you to change saturation without changing luminosity and vice versa by moving vertically and horizontally.

See recent raster brushes by layer. Any pixel layers you have painted on now offer a drop-down list of the brushes you have used on that layer, making it much easier to pick up where you left off, even after making heavy edits to your document in between.

iPad.

As well as having nearly all the new feature additions mentioned above, the iPad versions have some of their own special enhancements:

Quick Menu — Gain instant access to clipboard options and nine customizable shortcut operations with a simple three-finger swipe.

Command Controller — This new radial menu gives quick access to common modifiers in all tools.

Compact Mode — New mode available for the Layers Panel allows you to keep the panel open while maximizing document real estate.

All-new context bar — For all tools, making many more options easily accessible.

New sliders for attributes — Like brush width and opacity, stroke width, filter effect settings and more.

Zoom to fit/zoom to previous, snapping and preview mode options — Now available in the top toolbar.

iPadOS 16

Ready

All iPad apps are now optimized to take advantage of the increased memory limits available since iPadOS 15. Customers of iPadOS 16 will also get the added benefit of the new virtual memory swap – dramatically increasing performance on very large documents.

And that’s not all…

Multiple layer effects — Outline, Inner Shadow, Color Overlay, Gradient Overlay and Outer Shadow can all now have multiple instances applied to the same object. Available in all apps.

Quick grid — Quickly create a grid of any object as you draw it, including shapes, text frames and photo frames, by using arrow keys. Available in all apps, but especially useful in Publisher (desktop only).

Quick bitmap fill — Instantly add seamless bitmap texture fill to any shape by drag and drop. The source texture can be dragged directly from your files or your Assets Panel within Affinity apps. You can now also set bitmap textures to scale with an object (desktop only).

Pencil Tool improvements — New straight line mode and auto-close options available, the latter of which now allows you to automatically connect the final node with the first node by releasing the mouse button (Designer 2).

Nominate key object — Gain control over exactly what you want to align to, subtract from and other functions (Designer 2).

Content Link

All major content types, including Assets, Brushes, Swatches and Styles are now linked between Affinity apps on your device. This means if you create a new brush in Affinity Photo, this will become instantly available to you in the Pixel Persona of Designer and the Photo Persona of Publisher. Or if you drag a new asset into one of your asset categories, again that will be available across all three apps.

You can easily control whether or not you want any of your content categories linked, too.

Force scale everything — This new option in the Transform Panel allows you to override any individual scale settings so you can force all strokes, effects and fills to scale with whatever your currently selected object is set to (all apps).

Normals Adjustment — Adjust lighting information baked into existing normal maps. Great as standalone feature for texture artists, but also allows the editing of lighting layers generated from 3D render software (Photo 2).

Show pixel grid — This new option to expose a pixel grid when zoomed in improves editing accuracy (Photo 2).

Create new document from Stock Panel — Drag straight from Stock Panel to top toolbar to create a new file from a stock image (all apps, desktop only).

JPEG XL and .webp support — all apps now support both import and export of JPEG XL and .webp files.

Word & character count — Get a word, character, line and paragraph count of your document or current selection (Publisher 2).

Resave package — Resave a package with the resource content being updated automatically. Hugely efficient and prevents duplicate resources being created (Publisher 2, desktop only).

Frame/art text conversion — Convert frame text to art text and vice versa (Publisher 2).

DXF & DWG place — Place DXF or DWG files into your Affinity Publisher publications.

Brush Panel grid view — Option to view your brushes as a grid of nozzles rather than a list of stroke previews. Very useful if you want a greater density of brushes to be visible at once. (Photo 2, desktop only).

Select Same / Select Object — New functionality allows you to scope your selection based on your current artboard or from within your current selection. Plus, Select Same now has options to base on width, height or rotation as well as the option to select hidden objects or not (Designer 2 and Publisher 2, desktop only).

Smart layer states — Save different visibility states of your layer stack to quickly review different design options or versions of your work (Photo 2, desktop only).

Oi, watch it!

We’ll be posting videos regularly on YouTube and social media, including V2 feature demos and more, so make sure you’re following us.

Affinity YouTube

What now?

Ready to dive into a new creative era? See all the buying options on our pricing page. Want to learn more about the individual desktop or iPad apps? Check out the dedicated pages for Photo 2, Designer 2 and Publisher 2. Have questions about V2? Browse our FAQs. For tutorials and other learning resources, head over to our Learn page.

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