iPad Vector drawing app advice

[r_stranger]

Hello. I'm new to the iPad Pro, and I'm looking for an app that excels in vector illustration. I have Affinity Designer for MBP, and I do like it. However, I keep hearing how the iPad version is very buggy and crashes without saving work, so I hesitate to spend the $20.

Are there any worthy alternatives to this app? I do simple line drawings in an overall flat design. It's essential that I'm able to edit my pencil/pen nodes to transform curvature, etc. Also, I would need to be able to load an image on a separate layer so that I can trace it.

Any ideas or recommendations? If there is an alternative, hopefully it would also play well with Affinity desktop version. Maybe this is a long shot, we'll see. Thanks so much!

 

[casperes1996]

Vectornator is a nice free app that also has a Mac version. Since it's free all you'll be spending is time if you try it out.

For demanding work, I do think you should probably just get Affinity actually. I've only heard positively about it also on iPad, and Affinity Photos works great on iPad Pro as well as macOS, but I have no experience with Design.

Vectornator is really quite nice though, and I've used it a fair bit for UI design.

There's also Adobe apps, but eh. Not really my cup of tea - I think Full Illustrator will be coming at some point though, similar to how they're doing Photoshop now, so that could be cool

 

[r_stranger]

Thanks casperes, for taking the time to reply. I'd never heard of Vectornator, and I'm glad you mentioned it. Certainly looks promising, and I'll spend some time with it once my Apple Pencil arrives.
I'll probably end up getting AF Designer for iPad, but I'm hoping to hear more about its issues before I spend the money. The desktop version is pretty solid, though.
Yes, I left Adobe a while back as well. I'm glad they have stronger competition these days!

 

[casperes1996]

Thanks casperes, for taking the time to reply. I'd never heard of Vectornator, and I'm glad you mentioned it. Certainly looks promising, and I'll spend some time with it once my Apple Pencil arrives.
I'll probably end up getting AF Designer for iPad, but I'm hoping to hear more about its issues before I spend the money. The desktop version is pretty solid, though.

You're very welcome
Vectornator is pretty good, though sometimes the workflow can feel a little slow to me, though it's also improved a lot since release, and is rather remarkable for a free product. For light needs it's great, but I am someone who has very light needs for a vector graphics application, so can't really comment much beyond that. - With how good the Affinity team has been with their other stuff, whatever issues there may be I'm sure they'll sort out in no time though . When I first got Affinity Photos it was super slow on my Mac. I think the Metal rendering pipeline wasn't working right with my GPU. After writing them about it they solved it super fast and now the program flies

Yes, I left Adobe a while back as well. I'm glad they have stronger competition these days!

Indeed. I've never used anything other than Photoshop from them, but I'm not a big fan of subscription services, so after CS6 I was out. Affinity Photo took its place and I'm fairly. happy with that. For other stuff I've always relied on other tools anyway, like Final Cut. Though I still recognise that they make high quality software, Adobe. Though also sometimes un-focused software, where they start a hundred new projects instead of fixing what they already have
Anyways, that was a side rant; Hope you'll be satisfied with Vectornator and/or Affinity for iPad

 

[motulist]

Arcsite is the best. I do all my vector drawings in Arcsite. It's designed for architecture drawings, but don't let that fool you, it's fantastic at doing almost any kind of drawing.

 

[r_stranger]

You're very welcome
Vectornator is pretty good, though sometimes the workflow can feel a little slow to me, though it's also improved a lot since release, and is rather remarkable for a free product. For light needs it's great, but I am someone who has very light needs for a vector graphics application, so can't really comment much beyond that. - With how good the Affinity team has been with their other stuff, whatever issues there may be I'm sure they'll sort out in no time though . When I first got Affinity Photos it was super slow on my Mac. I think the Metal rendering pipeline wasn't working right with my GPU. After writing them about it they solved it super fast and now the program flies



Indeed. I've never used anything other than Photoshop from them, but I'm not a big fan of subscription services, so after CS6 I was out. Affinity Photo took its place and I'm fairly. happy with that. For other stuff I've always relied on other tools anyway, like Final Cut. Though I still recognise that they make high quality software, Adobe. Though also sometimes un-focused software, where they start a hundred new projects instead of fixing what they already have
Anyways, that was a side rant; Hope you'll be satisfied with Vectornator and/or Affinity for iPad

I was a big Photoshop user as well, and over time the software became too bloated, and I'm with you on subscription services. Affinity Photo has been a decent replacement, though I'm also very satisfied with Capture One for photo work. Thanks again casperes, all the best. I believe I'll put my faith in the team at Affinity.
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Arcsite is the best. I do all my vector drawings in Arcsite. It's designed for architecture drawings, but don't let that fool you, it's fantastic at doing almost any kind of drawing.

Oh, interesting. Thanks for the tip, motulist. I'll have a look at it...