Canva today released Affinity for iPad, bringing its free all-in-one design app to Apple's tablet alongside a new Sketch Studio built for touch and Apple Pencil. The release follows last year's desktop app relaunch, which combined Affinity Designer, Photo, and Publisher into a single app for Mac and Windows. Canva says the interface has been designed specifically for iPad rather than scaled down from the desktop.
Users can switch between Sketch, Vector, Pixel, and Layout studios while working in the same .af file, which can also be opened on desktop. Sketch Studio adds freehand drawing with a customizable brush library, while Sketch to Shapes turns hand-drawn forms into editable vector shapes. Photo tools include RAW editing, non-destructive adjustments, and a Mask Tool designed to help trace difficult edges such as hair and fur.
Layout tools support multi-page documents, master pages, and print-ready output. A free Canva account is required to use the app; the core tools are free, but AI tools are locked behind a premium plan. Paid features include Generative Expand, image upscaling, noise reduction, and Decompose Layer.
Despite the shared file format, some desktop features are missing from the iPad version at launch, including Books, Batch, Data Merge, Quick Adjustments, Info and Scope panels, macro recording, and Astrophotography Studio, with more features planned over time. Affinity by Canva is available on the App Store as a free download with in-app purchases and requires iPadOS 18.0 or later.
Source: MacRumors · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing