Preferences

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).
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.
Import PSD text as text (not pixel layers)—Attempts to import editable text from PSD documents instead of rasterizing it. Enabling may affect accuracy of text.
Show tutorials and samples—Displays the two additional support categories below projects on the main menu.
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.
Language—Sets the UI language independently of the operating system. Select from the pop-up menu.
Default Save Location—Allows you to specify where documents are saved to:
- On My iPad stores them locally on your device.
- iCloud Drive stores them on your iCloud Drive in a directory named "Affinity Designer", and they will automatically sync and backup.
Assistant Options—Configure the feedback provided by the Assistant. See Assistant for more information.

Interface

Background Grey Level—Controls the grayscale level of the canvas background (not the document background).
Left handed mode—Reverses the layout so the Studios are on the left and the tools are on the right.
Hide UI—When enabled, automatically hides the interface when brushing on the canvas near the sides for a clearer view. Double-tapping on this button hides the context toolbar as well.
Show selection in layers studio—When enabled, jumps to the layer's position in the layer stack when it is selected on the document view.
On-screen modifier keys—Additional buttons are made available on context toolbars to act as on-screen modifier keys. See On-screen modifiers reference for more information.
Text in points—Display text size in points by default.
Lines in points—Display line width in points by default.
Show Undo and Redo Buttons—Displays undo and redo icons in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen.
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 grayscale.

Color

Import ICC Profile—Import your own ICC profiles from cloud storage to use in Designer.
You can set up your default RGB, RGB32 (HDR), Grayscale, CMYK and LAB color 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 color space to scene_linear. The source color 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 color space to the working color space or retain the opened file's color space.

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.
Synchronize 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 Hand Tool for accessibility—When enabled, allows the user to turn on a Hand Tool as an alternative to using two fingers to navigate the canvas.
Move tool aspect constrain—Toggle constraining behavior when using the Move Tool to transform and scale layers:
- Automatic (based on selection)
- Always constrain
- Never constrain

Pencil

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.
Tool—Select the tool to be affected by the double tap gesture.
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 and Previous tool 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.

Fonts

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

Shortcuts

Persona—Select the Persona whose keyboard shortcuts you want to customize.
Apply to all Personas if available—When enabled, customizing 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, customizing 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 customize 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.

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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