6 Things Affinity Designer does better than Procreate

Procreate is amazing for digital art but Affinity Designer offers some standout features that perfectly complement its strengths. Today we're exploring six tools, aside from vectors, that make Affinity the ultimate creative sidekick for iPad designers. Let's start with Power Duplicate. With this feature you're not just duplicating an object, you're also repeating the last transformation. Perfect for creating patterns or aligned designs. Next up is a feature that's a total lifesaver for logo or poster designs. The ability to create text on a curved path. To do this let's use a circle as an example. Just select the text tool now and tap directly on the path. As you start typing you'll see the text automatically follows the curve. If you want to fine-tune it you can use this green triangle and adjust the starting point. This is something Procreate just can't do and it opens up so much creative flexibility. So let's stick with text for a moment and talk about alternate characters or glyphs. Many fonts, especially premium ones, offer stylistic variations on letters that add extra flair to your design. But most iPads apps, including Procreate, only give you access to the standard character set. Affinity Designer's glyph browser gives you full access to these hidden treasures. Just make sure you choose a font that has alternate characters. They're usually delivered as open type format and then highlight the letter you want to change. Open the glyph browser in the text panel and you'll see all the options for that font. Double tap the letter you want to choose and it swaps out instantly. This is perfect for anything that calls for a unique touch. So on to feature number four, margins and bleed. So this is crucial for professional designs. Affinity Designer makes it incredibly easy to set these up right from the start, ensuring that your designs are print ready with no extra hassle. When creating a new document you can define margins to keep important content in the safe zones and set bleed areas to extend your artwork out beyond the edges. This ensures that there's no unwanted white borders appearing after printing. It's a must-have feature for creating any kind of print design and it's another reason Affinity Designer pairs so well with Procreate. So feature number five, adding strokes to shapes and text. One of the easiest ways to add depth and style to your designs is to add strokes. Affinity Designer makes adding strokes to both shapes and text incredibly simple. Select any shape or text and you can instantly apply the stroke, adjust its thickness, change its color, customize it with dashed lines or gradient effects. This gives you creative control without needing messy or complicated workarounds. And because Affinity uses vectors, both your strokes and designs can be scaled infinitely without losing any quality, which is perfect for anything from social media graphics to large format prints. And not to be forgotten, feature number six, the live pattern preview. A feature that completely transforms the way you create patterns. Unlike Procreate where you need to save your design out and test it in a separate app, Affinity Designer lets you preview your pattern repeats in real time. As you work, you'll see exactly how your design looks when tiled. This makes it easy to spot blank areas or refine your pattern without leaving the app. This feature isn't just a time saver, it's incredibly intuitive, making it easier to create seamless professional patterns for everything from wallpaper to fabric design. Don't get me wrong, Procreate is still an amazing app in its own right. Its intuitive interface and amazing tools make it a favorite for digital art. But when you pair it with Affinity Designer, you unlock a whole new level of creative possibilities. If you're ready to dive deeper into what Affinity Designer can do, check out my full Affinity Designer walkthrough video. I'll guide you through the interface and tips to get you started right away. Thanks for watching and if you found this video helpful, like and subscribe so you never miss a video. I'll see you in the next one.