Pressure sensitivity

Affinity Designer 2 is fully optimized for use with Apple Pencil which gives realistic pressure-sensitive drawing and painting. Without an Apple Pencil, you can simulate pressure instead.

Whether you're using vector-based Pen, Pencil or brush tools, or pixel-based brush or retouch tools, you can simply connect your Apple Pencil and you've got pressure-sensitive input. If you don't have an Apple Pencil to hand, you can achieve simulated pressure sensitivity just using your finger. The simulated pressure is based on the speed (velocity) of your finger movement.

While you get the response you need from either input, you'll still be able to fine-tune settings for pressure/velocity.

If you want to create a custom pressure profile that can be applied to a previously drawn stroke, you can design it and apply it from the Stroke panel. This can be optionally saved as is, or modified before saving.

Pressure sensitivity while painting

This response is governed by the brush controller (input type) which varies brush stroke width, flow, etc. as you paint. Types of input are:

Pressure-sensitive painting is governed by the brush controller which is set to automatic by default—it senses the type of input device and varies brush size, flow, etc. as you paint according to a particular input:

If set to 'None', the brush is always a fixed size, flow setting, etc. Otherwise, the brush stroke properties will vary from a minimum to maximum amount (e.g. the full brush width).

Jitter options

To create a custom pressure profile:
  1. On the Stroke panel, using the displayed Pressure chart, do one of the following:
    • Drag either end pressure point downwards, then tap halfway along the profile line to add a point which can be dragged upwards to taper the stroke according to the curvature of the chart.
    • Drag either end point downwards, then tap repeatedly along the profile line to add multiple points which can be positioned vertically and horizontally to form a variable width stroke.
  2. Begin drawing your strokes.
Pressure profile
Uniformly reducing stroke width (A), linear tapering of stroke (B), tapering of stroke at both end points (C) and modulating stroke width (D).
To reset the pressure profile:

Do one of the following:

The profile reverts to its default.

To simulate pressure-sensitive pen strokes:

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