7. Choose your desired cloud storage and (optionally) a directory to save the document to.
Using either Save a Copy or Save with the location set to iCloud Drive is useful if you want to continue editing your iPad project on the desktop version of Affinity Designer.
SEE ALSO:
Opening and importing Closing documents
Using undo, redo and history History Studio
C L O S I N G D O C U M E N T S
A document is considered open when it appears as a thumbnail, alongside other documents' thumbnails, on the Home screen. Tapping the thumbnail in the Home screen simply brings it into view. Closing a document removes the document from the Home screen if you've already saved a copy of it or deletes it permanently if you haven't saved it, If saved, you can open the saved copy at a later date.
T o c l o s e a d o c u m e n t :
1. From the Home screen, tap the menu icon at the bottom right of the document's thumbnail.
2. On the pop-up menu, tap Close.
You'll be warned on exit that your work will be lost unless exported or saved.
SEE ALSO:
Opening and importing
T O U C H G E S T U R E S
Affinity products for iPad are designed to be used with touch-based gestures like pinching, tapping and swiping.
The following gestures can be used in Affinity Designer:
N a v i g a t i o n
• A two-finger drag will pan around your document.
• A pinch gesture will zoom into and out of your document, respectively.
• Swipe up/down on the Navigator Studio‘s icon will zoom to screen centre.
• Double tapping within the Navigator Studio window will Zoom to Fit; double tap again to revert back to original zoom level.
• Double tapping a layer thumbnail (in Layers Studio) will Zoom to Object.
• A rotate gesture (twist) will rotate your canvas. In Preferences (Tools), the Allow canvas rotation in all Tools option must be enabled.
B a s i c o p e r a t i o n s
• A two-finger tap undoes the last edit you have made.
• A three-finger tap redoes the last edit you undid
• A long press shows which fingers are involved in a gesture. This will display as a blue overlay.
• Dragging up and down on the Stroke and Text Studio icons will adjust the stroke width and text size, respectively.
• A single-finger long press (no drag) and release brings up the Edit Menu for clipboard options or pixel selection options (if Pixel Persona is active).
T r a n s f o r m i n g
• A single-finger hold while moving an object constrains movement to horizontal, vertical or 45 degrees.
• A single—finger hold locks an object's aspect ratio as you resize.
• A two—finger hold resizes an object from its centre.
• A three—finger hold, resizes an object from centre and locks its aspect ratio.
• During shape creation, a two—finger hold sets the starting point of the new object.
• A single—finger hold while rotating an object will rotate in 15 degree intervals.
O b j e c t c o n t r o l
• Swipe right/left on an object(s) to select and deselect in Layers Studio.
• On the Layers Studio (within the Vector Persona or Export Persona), with an object selected, a two—finger tap on another non—adjacent object will select all objects in between (same layer only).
• Double tapping on an object inside a group will select it while still grouped.
• On the Layers Studio, pinch inwards (either vertically or horizontally) to group selected objects. To ungroup, do the opposite and pinch out.
• With Move Tool active, 3 two-finger hold (with an object selected) plus a one finger drag on an object duplicates the selected object.
L a y e r c o n t r o l
• Swipe right/left on Iayer(s) to select and deselect in Layers Studio.
• On the Layers Studio (within the Vector Persona or Export Persona), with a layer selected, a two-finger tap on another non-adjacent layer will select all layers in between.
C o l o u r c o n t r o l
• Swipe up/down on the Colour Studio icon to adjust the luminance of the selected colour.
• Swipe left/right to swap colours between stroke and fill on colour selectors in Colour Studio.
• Swipe up on Stroke or Fill colour selector to set no fill in Colour Studio.
• Holding down a finger when using the Fill Tool constrains fill path movement to 45 degree intervals
P e n t o o l d r a w i n g
• While drawing, a single-finger hold converts a node to a cusp (sharp corner).
• While drawing, a two-finger hold constrains control handles to 45 degree intervals.
• A two-finger hold lets you reposition existing nodes (control handles are locked).
• A three-finger hold repositions the last active placed node (with snapping).
P a i n t i n g
• With the Paint Brush or Pixel Tool selected, a long press and drag displays a colour picker for your stroke.
• With the Paint Brush or Pixel Tool selected, after an initial stroke is laid down, a single-finger press and tap at another point on the page draws a straight line stroke.
You can enable palm rejection in Designer so that the app only responds to touch when it is used for gestures. To do this, go to the Preferences from the Home
A R T B O A R D S
Artboards are discrete design areas, of any shape and size, within the same document, on which you can place design elements. Objects which extend beyond the boundary of an artboard are clipped to the edge of the artboard's design area.
A B O U T A R T B O A R D S
Using artboards, you can convert a single page document into a multi—page design project.
Their true power lies within their flexibility - artboards have limitless uses.
The size of artboards can be based on presets or customised to suit your needs. They can be moved and resized just like other objects in a document and can be arranged in any way you want—sometimes this will be important to the outcome of the design, other times it simply helps you organise your work
Artboards also possess their own colour and opacity properties, so these can be adjusted at any time during the design process.
A r t b o a r d t o p i c s :
• Adding and removing artboards
• Selecting, moving and resizing artboards
• Renaming and viewing artboards
• Aligning and distributing artboards
• Exporting artboards
S o m e u s e s f o r a r t b o a r d s
• Two artboards of equal size might represent two sides of a page.
• Several artboards of varying sizes could be used to create a branding concept including a company logo, letter headed paper, compliment slip, envelope, business card and
brochure.
• Various sized artboards might be placed together for an advertising campaign which
includes a billboard poster, full and half-page ads, flyers, as well as web banners and rich-graphic emails.
• Numerous artboards of equal size showing different screen displays of a mobile app.
• Two equal sized artboards could be used to design the back and front of a book cover, with a third, changeable width artboard in the middle to accommodate the spine.
• Numerous artboards of equal size could be created to allow for the design of a pack of cards.
• Progressive mock-up artboards might be placed together leading to the final, signed off design artboard.
• Several artboards displaying colour variants of an identical design.
• Various sized artboards arranged logically to form the basis of a concept sheet for character design.
SEE ALSO:
A D D I N G A N D R E M O V I N G A R T B O A R D S
Artboards can be created with new documents or added to your current document at a preset or custom size at any time.
A d d i n g a r t b o a r d s
When creating a new document, you can automatically create your first artboard using the settings in the New Document dialog.
Once you have a document open, you can add additional artboards in different ways:
• using the original document‘s dimensions—perfect for creating multi-page documents
• using preset sizes—perfect for device-specific designing
• using the current selection‘s dimensions
• at a custom size
• by copying or duplicating other artboards
R e m o v i n g a r t b o a r d s
Artboards can be deleted from your project at any time. Any objects placed on the artboard will be deleted as well.
T o c r e a t e a n e w d o c u m e n t w i t h a n a r t b o a r d : 1. From the Home screen, tap the plus icon.