Summary

• Affinity Photo and Photoshop have similar interfaces + tools, with Affinity offering more organized tool placement.
• Affinity Photo is a one-time purchase for $19, while Photoshop is part of a more costly monthly Creative Cloud subscription.
• Affinity and Photoshop on iPad offer touch gestures, but Affinity's are more customizable + may speed up workflow.

Adobe’s Photoshop tool is one of the most famed image-editing tools on the market. Until Affinity Photo came along in 2015, there was barely any competition. There’s a strong comparison between Photoshop and Affinity Photo for the desktop apps, but both tools are also available on the iPad. Editing on-the-go is possible with the iPad and Apple Pencil integrations, but which is the better image-editing iPad app?

Affinity Photo vs. Photoshop on the iPad: Interface

Photoshop on the iPad has a similar interface to its desktop companion. If you’re a longtime Photoshop user, this makes for an easy transition with on-the-go editing. The standard toolbar sits vertically on the left and panels and palettes sit in icon lists vertically on the right — tapping any of these icons opens the panel for use. Long-pressing any icons with small arrows opens the nested tools for selection. Photoshop’s iPad interface is familiar and easy.

Affinity’s workspace looks different from Photoshop’s, but overall, it follows similar patterns in terms of where and how to find tools. Affinity offers something called Personas, which provides different tool views for different editing types - this isn’t offered in Photoshop.

Personas include:

• Photo persona
• Liquify persona
• Non-destructive develop persona
• Tone mapping persona
• Export persona

The tools in Affinity are nestled in a way that keeps them tidy and organized. They’re labeled well, so you won’t get lost trying to find the tools you need. You’ll find panels like layers, effects, color, and more, which are nestled under their icons in the toolbar. Tapping an icon opens the panel to use, then you can close it in the same way to free up space. This is the same design as Photoshop, with its nestled tools and panels hidden away when unused.

Affinity Photo vs. Photoshop on the iPad: Price

The price is one of the biggest considerations when choosing between a variety of editing tools. Photoshop on the iPad comes under the same Creative Cloud subscription plan as Photoshop for desktop, which starts from $20 per month for an annual plan. Creative Cloud All Apps subscribers get it within their app bundle from $60 per month.

Affinity Photo 2 for the iPad is a separate software from the desktop version; therefore, it comes with a separate price tag. If the Photoshop subscription prices make your eyes bulge, you’ll be happy to know that Affinity Photo for the iPad costs just $19. There’s no subscription, that is a one-time fee — you get the whole app for life for that price.

You can purchase the iPad version as part of Affinity’s universal bundle package, which includes all three Affinity software —Photo, Designer, and Publisher — available for both desktop and iPad. The universal license is $83. You will own all the software outright, and other than occasional (and optional) upgrades every few years, you don’t need to worry about putting any more money into Affinity Photo.

Affinity Photo vs. Photoshop on the iPad: Text tools

Photoshop’s iPad text tool isn’t as efficient as the desktop version — this is largely due to a lack of real estate space on an iPad screen compared to that of a computer. I don’t use an external keyboard for my iPad, so the keyboard overtakes nearly half of my iPad screen when I need to type. This leaves limited space to navigate where in the image I wish to apply the text, and it can be tricky to customize any of the text tools and options. It’s a little too fiddly.

Affinity’s text tool allows you to tap and drag wherever the text will be placed. As with its other tools, everything stays nested until specifically selected, so even though the iPad keyboard takes over half of my screen, the rest of the screen is still available to place and edit my text. If I need to edit using any text tool — such as font, style, size, alignment, or other text features — tapping any icon will drop down a small menu where I can choose the option. This is less intimidating than Photoshop’s text tool which tries to display all the features and choices at once.

Affinity Photo vs. Photoshop on the iPad: Gestures and shortcuts

Many Photoshop desktop users utilize its famed keyboard shortcuts. The benefit of using Photoshop from an iPad is the integration of touch gestures using your fingers or an Apple Pencil. Photoshop on the iPad offers keyboard shortcuts too, although unless you connect an external iPad keyboard, it likely isn’t an efficient shortcut option. The iPad keyboard shortcuts are the same as Apple desktop shortcuts.

There are seven touch gestures embedded in Photoshop from the iPad:

• Undo: 2-finger tap
• Redo: 3-finger tap
• Move: Hold and drag
• Reveal more: Long press icons
• Zoom, rotate, or pan: Pinch, twist, or drag with two fingers
• Fit to view: Quickly pinch two fingers together
• View at 100%: Double-tap one finger

Affinity on the iPad uses some of the same gestures as Photoshop, such as 2-finger tap undo, 3-finger tap redo, and pinching to zoom in or out. But there’s also a handy guide of extra touch gestures for Affinity Photo 2. The further gestures include long pressing to display colors, directional dragging to swap or scrub items, double-tapping to set fill, and many other gesture options.

Affinity’s gestures are more involved and may take longer to learn. But having a large choice of gestures, once learned, will speed up your workflow a ton.

Affinity Photo vs. Photoshop on the iPad: Cloud and storage

Photoshop users likely already have Creative Cloud accounts, in which case, upon opening Photoshop from the iPad, your cloud documents will appear to be opened directly. These may be documents created within a variety of different Adobe software, like Adobe Fresco (the iPad drawing tool) or Photoshop on the Web. Likewise, Photoshop from the iPad automatically saves your work as a cloud document, so you can easily open it across other Adobe software you subscribe to with other devices as well.

Adobe Photoshop on the iPad includes the option to share your project via email or the Creative Cloud. Sharing for review lets other users comment or view your project, whether or not they have Creative Cloud memberships.

Images created in Affinity on the iPad do not automatically save anywhere. When opening the app, you’ll have the option to open recent projects, even though they’re not saved locally or in the cloud. There’s no Affinity cloud storage option. You can export your images in many different formats and have the option to share in a variety of ways too. The sharing options are traditional — such as via AirDrop or Messages and Mail — compared to Photoshop’s built-in sharing tools.

Both Affinity Photo and Photoshop on the iPad have power

There’s no questioning the power of the tools in both of these iPad apps. There’s a reason that Affinity Photo is a strong opponent against Adobe Photoshop. The tool layout and interface available in Affinity Photo 2 is more streamlined and provides more breathing space when working, compared to Photoshop’s iPad interface. However, Photoshop’s interface is more traditional and easier to work from if you’re a previous Photoshop desktop user.

• Affinity Photo

  $19 at Apple

• Adobe Photoshop

  See at Apple