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If you were a Mac user, I would recommend the iPad, in part because it has a better screen & is (at least arguably) a more powerful machine. See for example this (now somewhat dated article) for more about the similarities & differences between the two devices. However, since you are a Windows user I think the Surface Go would clearly be the better choice for you because (a) it runs an OS you are already familiar with & (b) the iPad can only run the iPadOS version of AD, which is a feature-reduced version of the desktop app & requires purchasing a separate (if inexpensive) license.

FWIW, as of the versions 1.7 in all 3 Affinity apps, it is possible to create inline images in text frames using the method @carl123 mentioned in this post, like this: Inline in Text.afdesign was created completely in Designer version 1.7.3 on a Mac.

Your write about that. It's hard four mi too no witch word two use, to.

I am not a master of many things but one of the few I have mastered is the difference between "your" & "you're."

Keep in mind that a color swatch can contain a gradient with two or more color stops so there must be some way of specifying which (if any) one of them a user wants the dragged color to apply to.

I am still trying to figure out why Santa always seems to visit one house & then flies away high into the sky instead of just going to the next nearest house; or how he, his sled, the gifts, & the reindeer don't burn up from atmospheric friction at the speeds he must reach to visit all those home in one night. More seriously, I believe that while a great many things are within the realm of possibility, most of them turn out to be far from the "magic bullet" solutions their proponents hope for them to be.

The same could be said for several other common vector app features like a scissors or knife tool or some sort of stroke width tool.

The forum would most certainly not remain the same. Adding anything to it that even suggests that one or another of the apps is likely to be the "appropriate" one for some topic (which surely will mean different things to different people) would significantly change its focus. There is a compelling reason for avoiding that: the apps are much more alike than they are different, even to the point that any of them can open documents created by any of the others without conversion or loss of any data. Besides, considering all the new topics that are started per day, week, or whatever, what specifically do you mean by "numerous"? What fraction of them actually require a which program? -- or for that matter a which platform? -- reply before other users can or should begin to offer help or otherwise contribute to the discussion? What fraction actually are started by users new either to the Affinity apps or to graphics editing apps in general? Topics posted to this forum are started by people ranging from absolute beginners (including those with very little knowledge of the basic features of the OS they are using) to users with decades of experience with this kind of software, & everything in between. Moreover, people besides the OP's often post replies to existing topics (including ones that have seen no activity for months or years) that may include content that ranges from completely unrelated to the topic's original focus to at least as relevant to it as any existing replies. There is nothing simple about any of this, nor do I think there can be anything that simplifies it in the way you or other users suggest that it could.

I think the focus should be on all users, not just new ones, & on any information relevant to their questions, regardless of which (if any) Affinity app they currently own (or are trialing). Besides, there are so many features, functions, & techniques that are common to all three apps that which app is being used is often irrelevant, & new users in particular are less likely to be aware of that than more experienced ones.

Are you sure you have these labeled correctly? I ask because to me the Photoshop one is the worst because it has the most visible halo effects, particularly along the edge transitions between the black pants & skirt & the lighter colors, & slightly more stair-stepped blouse sleeve edges than even the Photo (Lanczos Non-Separable) version.

Perhaps it is related to this FAQ topic?

Make sure the View > Studio > Hide Studio menu item is not ticked. You don't say if you are running on a Mac or PC but on Macs the default keyboard shortcut to toggle that is Shift+CMD+H.

Same here, using the 1.7.3 Mac retail version: I downloaded the .afpub & the 2 linked files to the same folder, so I did not get a warning about missing resources. The .afpub file opened without issues (other than the missing font warning) in about 4 seconds on my old & underpowered iMac. I only exported to PDF using the 'for export' preset (which worked fine) but I tried each of the export preset options & for each of them the file size calculation took no more than 2 seconds or so.

Considering how many features & functions are common to all the apps, it equally well might result in users missing some of the best/most relevant topics if they restrict their searches to one app only. Contributing to this, the advent of StudioLink in Affinity Publisher means a lot of topics that might be viewed by many as clearly only about AD or AP & marked as such might actually be equally relevant to some but not all APub users.

So basically, according to one Adobe employee, variable fonts are not (yet?) ready for prime time? Anyway, I replied mostly to mention that the Adobe About fonts help article the announcement one links to is probably the best article I have seen for a summary reference for the features of all the different font types/kinds that at least some apps support. Well worth a bookmark, I think. Thanks!

The way it works (in all the Affinity apps & for any object selected with the Move Tool) is if you hold down the Alt key before you start the drag, a duplicate will be created & then for as long as the key is still held down, snapping will be disabled. However, if you start the drag & then hold down the key, no duplicate will be created.

I can't find a reference to it right now, but somewhere on Apple's community support site someone posted an AppleScript app for Apple Photos that will set the same absolute date and time for a group of selected photos.

If you are a Mac user & manage your photos with Apple's Photos app, you can use it's Image > Adjust Date & Time menu item for this. As shown in section 3 of this article, the adjust sheet includes a world map divided into time zones you can click on & a popup to select a city in that time zone (although the city does not matter, as long as it is in the appropriate time zone). If you select multiple photos, all are changed by the same relative amount, which usually is what you want if all the photos were taken in the same place, like when traveling.

As shown in the video tutorial, the Paint Brush Tool & its Symmetry & Mirror options are available in the Pixel Persona of Affinity Designer:

So did I, but that had no effect.

Considering that changing any brush properties (width, opacity, hardness, etc.) from those set as the brush defaults means we are no longer painting with that named brush, I wonder how this could be implemented.

I am not sure if it is due to a bug, something I am doing wrong, or what, but it may have something to do with the inclusion of a "(Pixel)" layer in the parent "(Layer)" container object. Consider the attached Stroked Layer issue.afdesign file, which has a relatively simple layer structure: As the Transform panel shows, Layer1 itself is smaller than the 600 x 600 px canvas: But when I select it in the Layers panel & apply either a stroke or fill color to it, not only is the "(Pixel)" layer completely filled with that color, in the Transform panel shows that it has grown much larger than the canvas size: ???? Setting the stroke or fill of Layer1 itself changes the stroke or fill properties of the text, curves, & shape child layers as expected, but I don't understand why this changes the size & position of Layer1 itself, or why setting the stroke color has any affect at all on the pixel layer.

So we still do not have an explanation for why @walt.farrell gets an effect. Curious.

What are you using to view the png file? Not all apps 'know' to display transparency as a checkered background, but most do. For example, when I open your png file in Apple's Preview app, the checkered background is there, confirming that it does indeed include a transparent background:

Do you mean this topic? Please post a reply there, with a screenshot of the full contents of the View menu items, like the one @h_d posted.