Pressure sensitivity

Affinity Designer is fully optimised 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 Pencil or brush tools, or pixel-based brush 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.

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

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

For Pencil, Pen and Vector Brush Tools, you can create a custom pressure profile in the Stroke Studio that lets you manually taper your stroke. This will be remembered the next time you use the tool.

To create a custom pressure profile:
  1. On the Stroke Studio, using the displayed Pressure chart, do one of the following:
    • Drag either end handle downwards, then tap halfway along the profile line to add a handle which can be dragged upwards to taper the stroke according to the curvature of the graph.
    • Drag either end handle downwards, then tap repeatedly along the profile line to add multiple handles which can be positioned vertically and horizontally to form a variable width stroke.
  2. Begin drawing your strokes.
Pressure profile
Example pressure profiles superimposed with expected stroke.
To reset the pressure profile:

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