Settings

General

Undo Limit—Set the number of steps to save as part of the document's undo history. Larger values may affect document file sizes and current memory use.
Autosave Interval—In seconds, determines how often to save a backup version of the current document. An autosaved version may be restored in the event of a crash or sudden loss of power (depleted battery).
Language—Sets the UI language independently of the operating system. Select from the pop-up menu.
Assistant Options—Configure the feedback provided by the Assistant. See Assistant for more information.
Notification Options—Configure the feedback provided when interacting with the app, e.g. when changing tool, selecting context toolbar items, and hovering with Apple Pencil (on iPads that support Pencil Hover).
Automatically Update Help—When enabled, automatically looks for an updated version of the help online and downloads it.
Automatically Lock Background Layer on Import—When importing an image and creating a new document, locks the initial Background (Pixel) layer to prevent it from being accidentally transformed.
Link New Content Categories—Choose whether newly created or imported content categories are automatically linked to all Affinity 2 apps on your device.
Import PSD Text as Text (not Pixel Layers)—Attempts to import editable text from PSD documents instead of rasterising it. Enabling may affect accuracy of text.
Refine HEIC Depth Maps—configures whether depth maps from HEIC iPhone Portrait images have additional resampling applied upon import.
Dither Gradients—Adds dithering to gradients to reduce banding. Only applies to the canvas view and not the exported file.
Show Touches—Displays a semi-transparent blue 'fingerprint' under your finger tips when touching the iPad screen. Useful for screencasting and screen recording (e.g. for video tutorials).
Cache Screen Updates (Uses More Memory)—Enabled by default. Reduces transient screen pixellation issues when zooming or panning around the canvas.
Present on External Displays—Determines whether Affinity Designer displays a second, independently controllable document view on an external screen.
Apple Typing Aids—Determines whether iPadOS features such as autocorrect and predictive text suggestions are enabled.
Send anonymous usage information—When enabled, Serif collects Analytics data related to your device OS, hardware and app usage for continual product improvement. This data is used for statistical analysis. Absolutely no personal information, as covered by data protection rules, is contained in the data collected.

User Interface

Background Grey Level—Controls the greyscale level of the document view's background (behind your document).
Left-Handed Mode—Reverses the layout so the Studio panels are on the left and the tools are on the right.
Automatically Hide UI—When enabled, automatically hides the interface when brushing on the canvas near the sides for a clearer view.
Panning Inertia—When enabled, the document view will gradually come to a halt after it is scrolled. When disabled, scrolling stops abruptly.
Monochromatic Iconography—Makes icons display in greyscale.
Show Status Bar—When enabled, the status bar is shown at the bottom of the workspace and describes the current tool and Command Controller modifiers that can be used with it.
Show Undo and Redo Buttons—Displays undo and redo icons in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen.
Text in Points—Display text size in points by default.
Lines in Points—Display line width in points by default.
Ask for name when creating Layers and Groups—Choose whether you would like to be prompted to name a new layer, group or warp group upon creation.
Show Brush Previews—With a mouse or trackpad connected, the option (when enabled) displays a circular preview of the current brush's nozzle; disable the option to hide the nozzle preview if the preview obscures existing page content. When Force pressure on the brush tool's context toolbar is enabled, previews are automatically disabled.
Decimal Places for Unit Types—controls the number of decimal places allowable for each document measurement unit and degree readouts.

Colour

Import ICC Profile—Import your own ICC profiles from cloud storage to use in Designer.
You can set up your default RGB, RGB32 (HDR), Greyscale, CMYK and LAB colour profiles for use in future documents. Select from the pop-up menus.
Rendering Intent—Choose the rendering intent for your images. Select from the pop-up menu.
Tap Choose OCIO Package to pick an OpenColorIO configuration file. See Using OpenColorIO for more information.
Perform OCIO Conversions on Filename—Designer converts EXR documents from source colour space to scene_linear. The source colour space can be inferred by the exr filename's suffix when this option is enabled, e.g. "render_acescg.exr".
Configure additional OpenEXR document import options.
Choose whether to apply black point compensation when opening an image.
Choose whether to convert an opened file's colour space to the working space and also choose whether to warn that this has occurred.
Choose whether to receive a warning when a working profile is assigned to an unprofiled image.

Tools

Create Text with Blend Gamma—Determines the blend gamma value for text objects.
Nudge Distance—Spacing in pixels when nudging layers.
Modifier Nudge Distance—Spacing in pixels when nudging layers with an active modifier.
Select Object when Intersects Selection Marquee—Adds an object to the current selection if the selection marquee partially covers it.
Synchronise Tools Between Documents—Makes tool settings persistent between different documents.
Allow Canvas Rotation in All Tools—When enabled, a two-finger-rotate gesture will rotate the canvas.
Touch for Gestures Only—When enabled, only your connected Apple Pencil can use tools on the canvas but you can still use gestures. Useful for preventing accidental tool use when dragging your finger on the canvas. When disabled, you have full touch control plus gestures, with or without your Apple Pencil.
Enable View Tool for Accessibility—When enabled, allows the user to turn on a View Tool as an alternative to using two fingers to navigate the canvas.
Move Tool Aspect Constrain—Toggle constraining behaviour when using the Move Tool to transform and scale layers:
- Automatic (based on selection)
- Always constrain
- Never constrain

Pencil

Allow Scribble with Text Tools—Allows you to write text using your Pencil into objects created using the Artistic Text Tool, Frame Text Tool and Table Tool. (Scribble must be turned on in iPadOS's Apple Pencil settings.)
Enable Double Tap—Allows for the configuration of a double-tap gesture when using an Apple Pencil (2nd-generation). When enabled, double tapping can result in a variety of actions depending on the way the Double tap action setting is configured for each tool.
Show Brush Previews—With the Apple Pencil Hover feature, the option (when enabled) displays a circular preview of the current brush's nozzle; disable the option to hide the nozzle preview if the preview obscures existing page content. When Force pressure on the brush tool's context toolbar is enabled, previews are automatically disabled.
Tool—Select the tool whose double-tap action you wish to configure.
Double Tap Action—Determines what action is taken in response to a double-tap when the tool selected in the Tool setting is active. Choose from the pop-up menu. All tools offer Undo, Zoom to fit, Previous tool and Quick Menu actions. Some tools offer additional actions and tools that you are likely to need in conjunction with the selected tool.
Pressure—Use the spline graph to control Pencil input pressure sensitivity.

Fonts

Installed Fonts—A list of all imported fonts.
Remove Font—Select a custom font from the Installed Fonts list, then tap this to remove it.
Import Font—Opens a file browser window allowing you to import custom fonts from storage. You can also drag and drop fonts into the Installed Fonts list from the Files app.

Shortcuts

Persona—Select the Persona whose keyboard shortcuts you want to customise.
Apply to All Personas if Available—When enabled, customising a keyboard shortcut for a tool/feature that is available in multiple Personas sets it to be the same in all of them. When disabled, customising a shortcut affects only the Persona selected from the pop-up menu above.
Shortcuts List—A list of keyboard shortcuts for many Affinity Designer tools and features. Tap an entry to select and customise it.
Reset—Immediately resets the selected tool/feature's keyboard shortcut back to its factory setting.
Clear—Removes the selected tool/feature's keyboard shortcut.
Reset All—After confirmation, resets all of the selected Persona's keyboard shortcuts to their factory settings.

Linked Services

Use these options if you use multiple personal devices to edit documents that contain linked resources from cloud storage. See the Linked Services topic.

Reset

Your Assets, Brushes, Object Styles, Fills and many more features can be reset to factory defaults. Set the switches as required, then select Reset.

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