iPadOS: external display support via Stage Manager

[Matthias]

I think the Affinity Suite on iPad is THE predestined candidate for utilizing the external display feature via Stage Manager. In fact that is why I bought an iPad Pro, falsely assuming this just works.

No idea how tricky it is to implement the feature but I think it should have high priority going forward. I for one would love to work in Designer/Photo/Publisher on iPad seeing my designs in all 5k glory.

[3ddie]

On 2/17/2023 at 10:37 PM, Matthias said:

I think the Affinity Suite on iPad is THE predestined candidate for utilizing the external display feature via Stage Manager. In fact that is why I bought an iPad Pro, falsely assuming this just works.

No idea how tricky it is to implement the feature but I think it should have high priority going forward. I for one would love to work in Designer/Photo/Publisher on iPad seeing my designs in all 5k glory.

I agree. This whole February I challenged myself to switch to 100% iPad Pro + External Display with Stage Manager. Many apps work without issues on the external display, but the entire Affinity Suite, after selecting what type of project on which one intends to work, all the menus and tools are gone. Move the window to the iPad screen, it’s all there. Move the window back to the external Display, and the menu and tools, buttons, and widgets are all gone.

20 days in, I’d really like to remain on this new iPad Pro workflow if at all possible. It’s a bit much to expect the Affinity team to fix this in the next 8 days, so returning to macOS is inevitable, but it’d be nice to know that it the near future this will be fixed.

Eddie

[Matthias]

On 2/26/2023 at 3:31 AM, Red Sands said:

Are you sure you need the new stage manager for this?

With Stage Manager enabled an external monitor can be used as a true second display with its own content on display. Without Stage Manager external displays merely mirror the iPad screen, aspect ratio and all. It’s a whole new paradigm.

 

[Navian]

I am also very interested in this. Stage Manager is a requirement to make real use of the external display, and being unable to use the Affinity suite in this set up keeps me from using the whole suite more fully. 

Affinity in Stage Manager is the last piece in a fully iPad workflow. WIll pay again for the privilege. 

[Kaleb Cadle]

On 2/19/2023 at 9:30 PM, 3ddie said:

I agree. This whole February I challenged myself to switch to 100% iPad Pro + External Display with Stage Manager. Many apps work without issues on the external display, but the entire Affinity Suite, after selecting what type of project on which one intends to work, all the menus and tools are gone. Move the window to the iPad screen, it’s all there. Move the window back to the external Display, and the menu and tools, buttons, and widgets are all gone.

20 days in, I’d really like to remain on this new iPad Pro workflow if at all possible. It’s a bit much to expect the Affinity team to fix this in the next 8 days, so returning to macOS is inevitable, but it’d be nice to know that it the near future this will be fixed.

Eddie

I use the iPad Pro as my primary computer as well.  Go to the Settings menu within the Affinity apps, then under General there’s an option that says “present on external monitors”.  That setting will only show the image you’re working on on the external monitor.  If you toggle that setting off, you should be able to use the full UI on the external monitor.  I’ve used my iPad with an external monitor before, and it worked with the full UI before, but I originally had the same problem you’re describing until I toggled that setting off.

[Navian]

9 hours ago, Kaleb Cadle said:

I use the iPad Pro as my primary computer as well.  Go to the Settings menu within the Affinity apps, then under General there’s an option that says “present on external monitors”.  That setting will only show the image you’re working on on the external monitor.  If you toggle that setting off, you should be able to use the full UI on the external monitor.  I’ve used my iPad with an external monitor before, and it worked with the full UI before, but I originally had the same problem you’re describing until I toggled that setting off.

Thank you for this! Affinity can be used on the external display!

[Schnak]

5 hours ago, Navian said:

Thank you for this! Affinity can be used on the external display!

Sorry but no, even with this option off it is not possible to have Affinity in full screen on the external screen. (There is even a bug with the toolbar that sometimes doesn't appear when you switch from one screen to another)

[Garth O]

I just tried, once again, to extend my Affinity iPad apps to my external monitor under Stage Manager. I had given up a while ago. Tool bars, etc., kept disappearing. Anyway now they all seem to be WORKING right. When did that happen?? With the new versions 2.2 or maybe the latest iPadOS 17.02? Anyway keeping my fingers crossed. Now if you all can just get Publisher from shrinking all my letter-size prints.

[Schnak]

Unfortunately, the full-screen mode is still missing on Stage Manager

[Garth O]

Yeah, “full-screen” or smaller, until yesterday I simply could not get any Affinity app to work at all when using Stage Manager to extend my screen/display to my Dell Ultra Sharp. They would run ok when I had my Dell set to mirror my iPad display. I just did try to set Designer to full screen on my Dell, and that did not work, but right how I have Designer taking up most of my external display and overlapping another app. And I have another app running on my iPad display, and they all are working fine. Since they were not working at all, I have updated all my Affinity apps and my iPad OS to the latest versions. I suppose it could have been Divine intervention instead, but I would guess He/She has bigger fish to fry.

Edited October 2, 2023 by Garth O
Misspelling

[fernelius]

I would strongly request/recommend this feature, also.  Having a larger space in which to work with photos, drawings, and publications would be a great aid to my workflow.  I’ve had the same issues as above (along with crashes from time to time when using stage manager on iPad Pro 12.9” M1).

[Meliora spero]

As far as I can tell, some things have improved over time regarding support for external screens. I just notice that full screen doesn't seem to work, which is annoying, but manageable with an 11" iPad Pro M1 (there isn’t much screen real estate that goes unused). However, is there any advantage to the 12.9" iPad Pro in terms of screen resolution, screen utilization, and Affinity?

[Kaleb Cadle]

1 hour ago, Deperditus Cliens said:

As far as I can tell, some things have improved over time regarding support for external screens. I just notice that full screen doesn't seem to work, which is annoying, but manageable with an 11" iPad Pro M1 (there isn’t much screen real estate that goes unused). However, is there any advantage to the 12.9" iPad Pro in terms of screen resolution, screen utilization, and Affinity?

The fullscreen option doesn’t work on your iPad’s display, or an external monitor?  Fullscreen works fine on my iPad’s display, but I don’t think it worked on my desktop monitor last I checked.  I think mainly the 13” iPad Pro just has a bit more workspace.  Older 12.9” iPad Pros had an edge over the 11” iPad Pros because the 12.9” iPad Pros had MiniLED displays (which got similar results to OLED with better blacks and contrast).  But with the current M4 iPad Pro models, both the 11” and 13” use the exact same display technology (a dual layered OLED display that gets amazing contrast and with the dual layered design allows for greater peak brightness levels than other OLED displays offer).  With the current M4 iPad Pro models, they both have equal quality displays.  So the main difference would boil down to workspace.  From what I’ve seen, the Affinity apps use the exact same UI on the 13” as the 11”, so I don’t think much is different in terms of screen utilization.  You just have some more workspace in the middle.  But I don’t have a 13” iPad Pro, so maybe I’m wrong, I’m judging from all of the tutorial videos I’ve watched.

[Meliora spero]

14 hours ago, Kaleb Cadle said:

The fullscreen option doesn’t work on your iPad’s display, or an external monitor?  Fullscreen works fine on my iPad’s display, but I don’t think it worked on my desktop monitor last I checked.  I think mainly the 13” iPad Pro just has a bit more workspace.  Older 12.9” iPad Pros had an edge over the 11” iPad Pros because the 12.9” iPad Pros had MiniLED displays (which got similar results to OLED with better blacks and contrast).  But with the current M4 iPad Pro models, both the 11” and 13” use the exact same display technology (a dual layered OLED display that gets amazing contrast and with the dual layered design allows for greater peak brightness levels than other OLED displays offer).  With the current M4 iPad Pro models, they both have equal quality displays.  So the main difference would boil down to workspace.  From what I’ve seen, the Affinity apps use the exact same UI on the 13” as the 11”, so I don’t think much is different in terms of screen utilization.  You just have some more workspace in the middle.  But I don’t have a 13” iPad Pro, so maybe I’m wrong, I’m judging from all of the tutorial videos I’ve watched.

Full screen doesn't work on an external monitor with Affinity. Works fine with everything else. Trying to make the most of my external display using an iPad Pro (which is why I bought it). It's easy to say that I haven’t gained any clarity about the possibilities of Stage Manager, the iPad, and an external monitor with Affinity - just irritation and confusion.

What I’m looking for is for an external monitor to work exactly as it does with a laptop: the screen resolution should be fully utilised, if supported by the iPad itself, and full screen (understood entirely as "maximize window") should be supported, so I can bloody work.

The entire strength and flexibility of the iPad Pro is lost without full support. It’s fine to use the iPad Pro alone while in transit, but when you occasionally have a monitor available, you must be able to use it fully.

[Kaleb Cadle]

35 minutes ago, Deperditus Cliens said:

Full screen doesn't work on an external monitor with Affinity. Works fine with everything else. Trying to make the most of my external display using an iPad Pro (which is why I bought it). It's easy to say that I haven’t gained any clarity about the possibilities of Stage Manager, the iPad, and an external monitor with Affinity - just irritation and confusion.

What I’m looking for is for an external monitor to work exactly as it does with a laptop: the screen resolution should be fully utilised, if supported by the iPad itself, and full screen (understood entirely as "maximize window") should be supported, so I can bloody work.

The entire strength and flexibility of the iPad Pro is lost without full support. It’s fine to use the iPad Pro alone while in transit, but when you occasionally have a monitor available, you must be able to use it fully.

So the Stage Manager feature on iPadOS does allow app windows to fullscreen on an external monitor.  And that’s true for both the 11” and the 13” iPad Pro models.  But currently the Affinity apps don’t support fullscreen on external monitors.  You can, however, have none-fullscreen Affinity app windows open on your external monitor.  So this is an app issue that future updates could potentially address.  The Stage Manager feature on iPadOS can and does make full use of an external monitor’s resolution, and many apps actually do support fullscreen on external monitors.  But the Affinity apps do not yet.

I’m sorry that you’re irritated and confused, but we need to be able to ask clarifying questions to help you.  I don’t know automatically if you’re talking about your iPad’s native display or the external monitor, you didn’t specify which it was in your comment.  I’m trying to be helpful to you.  You asked if there were differences between the 11” and 13” iPad Pro models with the Affinity apps, so I tried to explain the potential pros and cons between the two.  Again, I can’t just automatically know what you’re wanting, and your original comment was pretty vague.

This 100% comes down to being an Affinity app thing.  Stage Manager can fullscreen apps on external monitors.  Affinity apps just don’t fully support it yet.  Hopefully Affinity will improve this to take better advantage of external monitors.

[Meliora spero]

I’m not annoyed at all by your questions, just frustrated that Affinity doesn’t support full screen on an external monitor. Of course, I’m happy that you assist and respond. 😊

I'm just curious whether Stage Manager supports the full resolution of external monitors like a new laptop would. Specifically, whether Publisher on an external monitor is limited in size by Affinity's constraints or something else. For instance, on a 1920 x 1200 screen, the Publisher window is slightly smaller than the screen resolution—maybe around 80% of the screen area. Would it also be 80% of the screen area on a higher-resolution, better external monitor? Or would it drop to, say, 60%?

In other words, I’m curious about how Affinity behaves on high-resolution external monitors with Stage Manager, given that it doesn’t support full screen. Does the issue, so to speak, become more pronounced as the resolution increases?

[Kaleb Cadle]

25 minutes ago, Deperditus Cliens said:

I’m not annoyed at all by your questions, just frustrated that Affinity doesn’t support full screen on an external monitor. Of course, I’m happy that you assist and respond. 😊

I'm just curious whether Stage Manager supports the full resolution of external monitors like a new laptop would. Specifically, whether Publisher on an external monitor is limited in size by Affinity's constraints or something else. For instance, on a 1920 x 1200 screen, the Publisher window is slightly smaller than the screen resolution—maybe around 80% of the screen area. Would it also be 80% of the screen area on a higher-resolution, better external monitor? Or would it drop to, say, 60%?

In other words, I’m curious about how Affinity behaves on high-resolution external monitors with Stage Manager, given that it doesn’t support full screen. Does the issue, so to speak, become more pronounced as the resolution increases?

No worries, I’m glad to hear you’re not frustrated with me. 🙂👍🏻.  I agree that it’s frustrating that Affinity hasn’t improved this functionality yet. 👍🏻

I think the scaling seems to adapt pretty well to different resolution monitors, at least I haven’t noticed any deterioration in image quality.  I have a 23” 4K desktop monitor that I use occasionally, and I can scale it to where the only blank space is off to the sides.  I attached a couple screenshots here to demonstrate how the Affinity windows appear on my desktop monitor when I scale them as large as I can.  Note, I also try to improve my screen usage by overlapping a couple Affinity windows.  It doesn’t make the foreground window any larger, but feels like it’s a little less wasted. 🙂👍🏻

I hope this helps you out. 👍🏻

[Meliora spero]

6 minutes ago, Kaleb Cadle said:

No worries, I’m glad to hear you’re not frustrated with me. 🙂👍🏻.  I agree that it’s frustrating that Affinity hasn’t improved this functionality yet. 👍🏻

I think the scaling seems to adapt pretty well to different resolution monitors, at least I haven’t noticed any deterioration in image quality.  I have a 23” 4K desktop monitor that I use occasionally, and I can scale it to where the only blank space is off to the sides.  I attached a couple screenshots here to demonstrate how the Affinity windows appear on my desktop monitor when I scale them as large as I can.  Note, I also try to improve my screen usage by overlapping a couple Affinity windows.  It doesn’t make the foreground window any larger, but feels like it’s a little less wasted. 🙂👍🏻

I hope this helps you out. 👍🏻

 

World-class answer 🥇  Exactly what I wanted to know! Thank you so much for the screenshots and answers, and have a great weekend!

[Kaleb Cadle]

24 minutes ago, Deperditus Cliens said:

World-class answer 🥇  Exactly what I wanted to know! Thank you so much for the screenshots and answers, and have a great weekend!

Thanks, I’m glad I could be helpful! 👍🏻.  I hope you have a great weekend as well, and a Merry Christmas! 👍🏻

[Meliora spero]

12 minutes ago, Kaleb Cadle said:

Thanks, I’m glad I could be helpful! 👍🏻.  I hope you have a great weekend as well, and a Merry Christmas! 👍🏻

Merry Christmas! 

🎄