The ability to visually warp vector shapes was one of the most attractive features found in Macromedia Freehand (yes, I remember). It was the reason I began using (transitioned to) Illustrator at all. When the iPad Pro Revolution occurred, Envelope Distort in illustrator on my laptop was actually my only reason for maintaining an Adobe CC subscription at all. As workarounds for the effect were discovered, I dropped Adobe CC altogether in favor of iPad-based solutions.

There are times when Envelope Distort on the desktop version can be used in a way to bog things down or even crash the application, especially when users don’t ‘expand’ or ‘bake’ the results. So even if ED were implemented in such a way that the user is taken to a sort of temporary Isolation Mode that creates a point of no return for the operation, sort of like the way the Shapebuilder Tool currently does on the iPad version, that would be okay. Currently, Envelope Distort is the one tool that a lot of less expensive and very powerful iPad apps do not offer. Without it, there is not a lot of reason for those of us who have become very comfortable/work exclusively using our iPads to go back to Adobe.

1. Instead of having that "alt button"you have to visually search for, just make placing fingers anywhere on the canvas mean the same thing. 1 finger means shift and two fingers mean alt. "Shift" click should always constrain to 45 degree angles while using the pen tool, similar to desktop version. Affinity Designer on iPad does this really well.




2. The ability to customize the quick menu. Make blending modes available along with the transparency option.




3. Long press finger should always give you an eyedropper.




4. Pen tool should give a preview line, like on desktop version.




5. I shouldn't have to use a modifier to pull a line after creation while using the direct select tool. Just let me drag the line to change the curve.




6. There is only two view modes, preview and outlines. Make that a simple button to toggle back and forth instead of the extra step of the drop down menu.




7. Need skew option!




8. As in Affinity Designer simply swiping your fill or stroke color on the menu bar should set the fill/stroke to "none".