Category Archives: iPad Journal

Affinity Publisher for iPad Review

Easy scanning and OCR with Notes and Files on an iPad

I recently came across this thread on TidBITS looking for an app for scanning and OCR. The solution comes with every iPhone and iPad: Both the Notes and Files apps can scan and perform OCR automatically. Open Files and look to the top of the sidebar and tap the circle ellipses then “Scan Document”. The scanning app will autodetect each page and snap the scan for you then wait for the next. When you’re done tap save. Text detection is automatic and can be searched for within the Files app by opening the PDF.

Alternatively, using the Notes app, open a new or existing note and tap the camera icon in the toolbar to bring up the scanner menu. Choose the option to Scan Documents.

The difference between these two methods is that documents scanned into the Notes app are also indexed by Spotlight on the iPhone and iPad, and so are searchable both within the Notes app and just using the systemwide Spotlight feature. PDFs created by the Files app are not searchable in Spotlight.

It’s also worth noting that this is also a feature in the same apps on the iPhone. Additionally, almost any app can take advantage of what is, essentially, system–wide document scanning. The Notebooks app that I have been using recently allows for scanning documents, and importing with the OCR. So does Apple’s default mail app. And I’m sure there are others.

A simple but effective photography workflow on the iPad

Once upon a time, I was a happy user of Apple’s Aperture. I briefly tried Adobe Lightroom, but switched back to Aperture and used it until it was discontinued in 2015 at which point I transitioned to Apple’s new Photos. I’m not a professional photographer, photography is something I do for fun. By 2015 I was mostly just importing my photos, adding keywords, deleting and just doing a bit of minimal editing. And in 2023 that continues to be my process. Which is to say, I don’t spend a lot of time editing photos.

All that said, let me contradict myself. I do love photography and I enjoy sharing. 15 years ago that was primarily through Flickr. 2 years ago it was Instagram. Now it’s via my own blog at micro.blog. I’m taking the time to write this because a couple months ago I decided that it was finally time to start pulling in older images from my old Aperture Library that never made it into Photos. A few years worth of images, some jpgs and quite a few RAW files.

I suspect that many people working from an iPad will either use Photos or jump straight to Lightroom which is an excellent option for people that have the budget for a monthly subscription. I avoid Adobe because of the subscription model so Lightroom isn’t an option. But I wanted a few options not offered by Photos. So, after copying the photos over to an external SSD drive I turned to Darkroom and Pixelmator Photo to fill in the gaps left by Apple’s Photos app. Here’s the workflow that’s working for me.

For importing jpg images I just use Files to save to Photos. Quick and easy to do. For the RAW files I want to reduce the size of the file and convert it so I import from Files into Photos. But then I open Darkroom which allows has an option for exporting file quality and format. I’ve set it to jpeg 80% which typically results in files that are 800k to 1.2 mb. Perfect for my needs. The metadata remains intact. In my case with an older Canon it’s the date of photo, lens and exposure info and often location if I had added it. I select a group of images in Darkroom and then use the export option which saves them into Photos right along side of the RAW files which I delete. I’ll keep all of the original RAW and jpgs on the SSD as a back-up.

Next is to edit. Mostly I’m just using Apple’s Photos app for this. For images that require a bit more work, say, a photo of a bird that also has a portion of a bird feeder at the edge of an image, I’ll use Pixelmator Photo’s Repair tool which looks like a little bandaid up in the top right corner of the window. This tool is great for small imperfections but also works pretty well for even larger objects. Both Pixelmator Photo and Darkroom offer all of the other standard tools for photo editing such as saturation, highlights, shadows, etc. I’ve dabbled with them a bit but mostly just rely on Apple’s app.

The last step is the only step that currently requires the Mac and that’s batch adding metadata like keywords or captions. Photos on the iPad doesn’t do keywords at all and only allows captions to be changed one photo at a time. So for this step I’ll use Screens to connect to my Mac and use the Photos app there to add captions and/or keywords to groups of photos.

There are two iPad apps that offer options in this area of photo metadata. Hashphotos allows for adding keywords but unfortunately they are only stored in the Hashphotos database and not written into the photo files or the Photos app. That said, Hashphotos has some other, useful features so I wrote a mini-review. The other option is EXIF which offers a free and paid version. The free version will allow adding keywords and captions to photos but again, only one at a time. The paid version will do batch adding of keywords and captions. Exactly what I want except that it writes the info to the file itself which requires making a copy/duplicate of the file and for HEIC files from the iPhone it also requires that they be saved to jpg to change the meta data. I’m not inclined to do that.

So, for batch editing of metadata I’ll just continue using my Mac via Screens. It’s easy enough to do. Hopefully Apple will add these features to Photos for iPad.

The iPad works better if you learn how to use it

Continuing with my theme highlighting recent examples of Mac users having difficulty with the iPad. This was a recent thread over at the MPU Forums: My next iPad is going to be a MacBook Air! that consists primarily of disgruntled Mac Users who have, to some extent, tried making the iPad work as a Mac laptop replacement. In one of the most recent posts a user wrote this:

I was trying to create a presentation with PowerPoint pulling slides from different presentations. Very unintuitive and laborious. The iPad doesn’t need to be a Mac (or vice versa) but it does need to provide a smooth experience where I’m not focused on the device mechanics at the expense of what I’m trying to produce. I can’t help but agree with the group that says the device is hobbled by Apple.

That, to me, is an example of someone who’s not as familiar with iPadOS as they are with the Mac. His wording expresses exactly what seems to happen with folks who spend far more time with a Mac and less time with the iPad. When they do, on occasion, try to use the iPad they have to think about it more, they have to focus on the mechanics and as a result, it feels more difficult. For those of us that fully switch, there’s a moment in the process when the mechanics of the iPad become 2nd nature, like walking. The only time I have to think about the mechanics of the iPad is when Apple makes a big change like Stage Manager or when I start using a new app that does things differently.

A screenshot of an iPad showing to side by side windows of the application Keynote, in which a presentation about astronomy is being edited

I can’t say a whole lot about PowerPoint as I’ve only used it a couple times on the iPad to check the export of a Keynote presentation to confirm everything was working before handing it over to a client. I do all my presentation work on Keynote and in that app it’s possible to open multiple files at the same time and simply select a slide from the sidebar, control click or long press to copy, then in the new presentation control click in the sidebar and paste. Or, even easier, just drag and drop a slide from one presentation to another and the slide is copied over. Stage Manager allows for 4 windows so I can have 4 presentations open. I’ve never needed to do that but it would be possible.

I only have the free copy of PowerPoint which doesn’t allow for editing but from what I can tell based on reading the Microsoft user forums the kind of multi-slide selection for copying or dragging and dropping between presentations isn’t possible. Sharing content between files in this way is easy in the various iWork apps on iPad and on the Mac too. Regardless, in the case above, the user was quick to blame the iPad rather than consider the possibility that the fault might be with the application lacking important features fundamental to the iPad experience.

It’s a long thread dating back to January 2022 and is full of examples of users for whom the iPad was never going to be a good fit because of their particular work flows or of users for whom the iPad, especially the iPad Pro with a keyboard/trackpad, would likely work well if the user had only taken the time to become proficient with the device and its OS. Proficiency and comfort with an operating system take time and effort and I would speculate that in many if not most cases the user simply is not making the necessary effort to switch. This is especially true with the latest versions of iPadOS which increasingly offer the features long requested by “power users”.

Exploring the Files App on iPadOS 16

I mentioned recently that I’d noticed a post on Mastodon by someone who was complaining how difficult it was to resize an image using iPadOS. I replied to point out that it was the exact same process and done with the same ease as it is on the Mac using the same app. With Files it’s simply two taps (or clicks with a trackpad). It seems a fairly common thing for Mac users these days to complain about the many ways that the iPad is not a Mac or is otherwise lacking. But what’s frustrating is that often times such critiques are coming from a lack of experience and knowledge as in the example above. Users simply haven’t taken the time to use the iPad and learn that many of the same features they use on the Mac are also right there in the same apps on the iPad. The Files app is an excellent example so I thought I’d explore it a bit.

Before I dig in I’ll just say that the Files app on the iPad did indeed start out as a pretty basic app (iOS 11, 2017) that was far, far short of the Finder on the Mac. But with each new version of iPadOS it has gained new features, slowly bringing it closer to feature parity with the Finder. I suspect that many mistakes are made by people who simply have not kept up. They used Files 2 or 3 years ago and not much since then.

It might be helpful to start with a comparison of the Files app on iPad to Finder on the Mac. I tend to use the column view the most.

While not identical, two apps are very similar in 2023 and in terms of functionality they are nearly the same. Both share most of the same elements with variations. The most noticeable is that everything on the iPad is larger because it’s optimized for touch so less is visible in a full screen window. But take a look at the sidebar in each. Aside from the difference in the order they contain the nearly the same elements: Locations, Favorites, Tags (not visible on the iPad due to size constraints) all of which can be customized in both apps. One interesting difference is that while Locations on the Mac is drive based, on the iPad Locations also includes app providers. So, for example, FE File Explorer on the iPad, if selected, reveals a list of FTP servers I use for connecting remotely to file servers to update websites. I can browse to any remote server from within the files app. Other apps do similarly. In the various screenshots below the Files app is on top, the Finder below it.

In the primary pane of the column view, again, nearly identical with variations in size and differences in the tool bar and presentation of the details in the right-most pane. Each has the same representation of file metadata but there are differences in the tools available. On the iPad, when viewing an image the tools are: Markup, Rotate, Convert to PDF and last the button to reveal more tools. On the Mac the default is Convert Image, Create PDF and reveal more tools.

Upon tapping into the Reveal more on each we see that by default the iPad has a few extra options that are placed differently on the Finder (see 3rd screenshot below). Also, there are many additional customization options for sharing and Shortcuts that are not visible in the screenshot. On the Mac there are three defualt actions with the option to add more.

You’ll note that at the top of the Finder window is another Action button that reveals options:

For the most part the two apps are offering the same options and actions but in different locations. Here’s the contextual menu for a file on the iPad. As expected and similar to the Mac, it’s many of the same actions that are available in other locations:

And, not surprisingly, other options are the same between the two devices. For example, the space bar brings up Quick Look.

But the Mac Finder remains the better of the two in at least two areas. One, the customization of the top tool bar. The iPad toolbar cannot be customized and some of the options that we see on the Mac, while available on the iPad are only accessible by tapping the 3 column icon which reveals list view, icon grid view, sorting and grouping:

Also, the list view of the iPad is still really limited when compared to the Finder on the Mac. Currently there are three columns available with no possibility for additional columns. If a user chooses to sort by kind or date the column that is displayed changes to reflect the sort. On the larger iPad it would seem there is room for a 4th column.

One advantage the iPad has over the Mac is the additional options in Quick Look on the iPad when viewing a pdf. These options are on the Mac in the Preview app but on the iPad a pdf can be edited right from the Files app Quick Look, a nice convenience:

In previous years one complaint about the Files app was the lack of proper external drive support. That was remedied in iOS 15:

So that’s Files on iPadOS 16. It’s come a long way since the early days. I think it’s fair to say that for most users it’s just as easy and functional to use as the Finder on the iPad. While it can feel cramped on a smaller iPad screen or on a 13″ iPad when using 2 Files windows, this is a limitation due to the increased size of the touch interface I don’t see that as something Apple will be able to change.

I would like to see a more customizable tool bar and additional options for the columns that are visible in list view. Possibly an option for smaller touch targets, a kind of Files specific “Show more” view that would shrink the size of icons and text. Lastly, more consistent indexing of the content of files. Currently searching the Files app returns a mix of results depending on the content the app resides in. Some apps seem to provide an index that includes content, other apps only Filenames.

Oh, and I’d love to see Files renamed to Finder or, at least given the Finder icon. I understand that the Files name and generic icon matches the actual use of the app better. You may have noticed I’ve created a Shortcut for opening the Files app and have given it a proper Finder smiley face where it resides in my Dock. It’s as it should be.

Notebooks 12 Reviewed and Compared

I’ll admit I have a habit of collecting text/notes apps. It’s one of my most used categories of apps because it’s what I use for blogging. I’m fairly certain, based on posts over at MacPower Users as well as on blogs I read that I’m not alone in my habit of collecting such apps. That said, I do try to settle into an app for awhile. I don’t actually want to switch all the time, I just enjoy trying the different possibilities.

When it comes to text/notes apps I generally have four jobs in mind.

A general collection point for miscellaneous, often short lived text that might also include an attached pdf, scan, or photo. For a good long while Apple’s Notes app has served this purpose and will continue to do so. While some report problems with iCloud synching it’s never been a serious problem for me. So, I’ll stick to that for those kinds of notes. I’ve currently got just under 500 of these.
Website coding and management
Podcast transcripts
Blogging and journaling. This is where I go when I intend to write something that will likely end up on one of my two blogs. This is also a space where I’ll only use an app that is based on distinct text files that’s capable of syncing via iCloud. All of my blogging is done in Markdown and any Markdown editor can open up a folder of files. Very nice for trying different apps and for easy backing up.

For context, here’s a list of text/markdown apps I’ve used over the past few years, beginning with most recent favorites and how I use/used them. Note: When I first started this post I considered writing reviews of all of these apps but then I realized, I’ve written about all of them at least once before, many of them I’ve likely mentioned in numerous posts so there’s probably not much point.

Textastic – My primary tool for managing client websites: editing html files and uploading those to various servers.
Apple Notes – My general go to for quick notes, shared notes or notes that might have a pdf attached.
Notebooks – The newest addition and my current primary for markdown files. More details below!
iA Writer – In the past this has served as my primary markdown editor for blogs and podcast transcripts. The only markdown app on iPadOS that also has a built in publish to WordPress and Micro.blog.
Taio – Another excellent, more recent markdown editor that I’ve been trying out. Added support for tags and wiki style links. I’d been using this for most of 2021 as it’s a well built native app, often updated and supports iPadOS features. Interacts well with Shortcuts for receiving Safari content and sending to Micro.Blog.
Obsidian – This one has gotten a lot of attention the past year. Very powerful, lots of plugins and offers wiki style links for creating digital gardens. This one does offer publishing via plugins. Something about the UI of Obsidian bothers me. It’s not a bad looking app, it just seems off regardless of the theme I try.
1Writer – Like iA Writer this one’s been around a long time and has similar features to both iA Writer and Taio. An excellent app but my least used of the top five.
Drafts – Used by a lot of nerds to capture text and then push to other apps. Been around a very long time. I don’t use Drafts for much because it does not work with individual text files in iCloud but rather keeps it’s files in it’s own, siloed database. It does have a built-in audio transcription feature which is what I use it for these days.
Byword – My introduction to markdown was Byword. An excellent app but not updated in two years. Publishes to WordPress.

I came across Notebooks in late 2022 in a thread on the above mentioned MPU forums. I wasn’t looking to change and had been fairly happy with Taio. So why did I make the move? As a markdown editor Notebooks is very similar to Taio and iA Writer. On that alone I could just as easily stayed with either of the other two apps. The additional features that initially prompted the change:

Notebooks does more with with pdfs. Specifically, pdfs can be added to Notebooks and their content is indexed and searchable.
In addition to plain text and markdown, Notebooks also does rich text formatting stored as html.
Sketches, voice memos, scans/photos, web page bookmarks or full webpage archive imports.
Tasks, reminders
Notebooks even allows “importing” of other files for preview and will point to original for opening: Apple’s Pages, Numbers or Microsoft Word

With those five features Notebooks might also be a gradual replacement for Apple’s stock Notes app and even the Reminders app. A sort of bucket-app for referencing and indexing a variety of files.

Before I dig in I’m just going to note that there’s a great deal to this app so what I’m writing here is just scratching the surface and is based on the things I’ve enjoyed or found useful in just a couple weeks of using the app. So, really, it’s just a mini-review. For the a more full description I’ll point again to the Notebooks website.

The sidebar, organizing and browsing files
A pretty typical UI element in these sorts of apps is a sidebar showing folders and files. I consider it to be an important part of the UI because it’s something that is used often and is looked at often. iA Writer does the sidebar really well. Functional and visually pleasing. The sidebar in Taio is functional but feels a bit clunky. The sidebar of Notebooks is between the two. Not quite as compact or clean as iA Writer but it does offer more functionality with several default Smart Books for Favorites, Recent Items, Contexts/Tags and at least one dynamic list that will show up at certain times for due tasks but disappear when there are no due tasks. There’s also a helpful sorting header for quick sorting of folders and files. Finally, a global documents search at the very top. So, while it takes more vertical space it is more functional and still looks very nice. In addition to marking a file as a favorite for display in favorites smart book it’s also possible to pin files for quick access.

I’d initially missed that Notebooks offers tagging. It’s presented as “Contexts”, sort of in the GTD (Getting Things Done) realm of organization. But in an exchange I had with the developer Alfons (who, by the way has been very helpful in a series of email exchanges) he kindly pointed out the feature so I’m adding it to the review. I’ve turned it on and as I have no use for the contexts I’ve removed those and am adding my own to reflect my needs as a blogger/writer. Now, to be honest, I’ve tried tagging off and on with numerous apps and have always struggled to develop a system that works for me. So, I’m not sure if this will stick.

Files can be set to default to editing mode or in the more visually attractive rendered appearance. I’ve chosen the latter as it makes for a more enjoyable experience when looking through documents. With just a tap or click in the text area of the file it switches to editing mode with the cursor at the position of the tap or click. Another benefit is that if you choose the other option, to default to editing mode, you’re making extra work because to view your rendered document you have to click twice to switch to that mode. May not seem like much but I find that it’s much easier to just click once into the document and type than to click a button then another button.

I’ve set up several “Notebooks” in the app which, when viewed in Files are just folders. Currently I’m using a generic Blog folder for published files. Other folders correspond to several blog archives, podcast transcripts, help documents that pertain to the Notebook app and two to-do lists (more about that later). If you click into a Notebook and create a file then of course the file will be created in that Notebook. I generally start in the default, general area and move files via drag and drop as needed.

Getting content into Notebooks
This is fairly easy and can be accomplished in a variety of ways. From the Files app select a file and, using the share tool, select Notebooks. The file will be copied to the default Notebooks folder. It’s possible to copy and store iWork documents: Pages, Numbers and Keynote or Microsoft Office docs. The same for pdfs, images, movies, or audio. Once in Notebooks tapping a file in the sidebar will open it up as a preview in the main window. Tap and hold the file name or select the share icon from the top right of the window allows for “Open in” to open in the default app. Any changes made will be reflected in the Notebooks app once the file is saved and then opened again in Notebooks.

I’ve also set up several shortcuts for sending quoted text and links from Safari to new files in Notebooks for easy and quick linked posts for blogs.

I tend to publish a lot of photos on my two blogs, and one of the benefits of Notebooks is the method for adding and organizing photos to blog posts. Whether the photos in my photos, library, or something I have saved to the Files app, I can simply locate it and choose copy. Then using Notebooks “Extra Keys” which are tappable buttons above the keyboard I choose the option to add photo, which detects images on the clipboard and offers an option for Picture from pasteboard. Notebooks manages images by placing the image into a folder, and then a link to the image in the document. Even better, Notebooks quietly manages these images in the background so if I move a post to a different folder, the image is moved as well maintaining the link.

For actual publishing, I either use a shortcut which opens up a new post on Micro.blog or, if the post contains images, I simply tap over to iA Writer, which has the option for “Added Locations” outside of the default iCloud location for iA Writer files. I’ve added Notebooks as one location so I can easily tap into all of my Notebooks folders. With a tap I’ve got my document open, and then with another tap I publish from iA Writer which auto uploads images and then opens up the draft on Micro.blog or on WordPress.

Tasks in a note app?
Yep. Notebooks has a pretty interesting and powerful system for tasks built in and I’m giving that a try. I’m not a heavy user of task apps and I’ve gotten by pretty well with Apple’s Reminders app for tracking a handful of repeating tasks. I’m giving the feature a try in Notebooks and so far I like it.

Is there a benefit to having to-dos in Notebooks? With Apple’s Reminders app I am restricted to the predetermined format for every reminder. It works pretty well but it can be a bit cumbersome when using the little pop-up window with set fields. Notebooks offers a variety of more flexible ways to create and track tasks.

One step for getting started with tasks in Notebooks is to set a default task list. Usually this as an Inbox but you can use any name for the default. This is where tasks will be sent when using Siri if you don’t specify where to send a to-do. It’s also possible, in any current text document in Notebooks to select text and then, using the pop-up context menu, select Add to Inbox. Whatever text is selected will be added as a task to whatever list you’ve designated as the default task list.

A second option: Designate any notebook as a task list. You can have as many of these lists as you like. Within each list any markdown file becomes a list item that can be given a due date/time, an alarm, etc. When you navigate to that Notebook/list you’ll see your markdown files but they have a small open circle button next to them indicating that they can be tapped to be checked. A single tap puts a dot inside to indicate that it is in process. A second tap puts a check inside to mark it as completed.

With Notebooks a markdown file in a notebook specified to be a task list is tracked as a to-do. This can be as simple as a one line description or, if a task is somewhat complex, a small document can be written as a detailed note with embedded photos, linked files (pdfs, Pages, Word Docs, etc), links to web pages. Almost anything. The task can be assigned a due date/time with an alarm as well as be marked as repeating. Siri works with Notebooks generally and this includes adding items to task lists.

A second way to set-up a task list begins with a setting in preferences to tell the app to actively search for tasks created in any regular text file outside of a designated list. So, this document is just a standard markdown document but in the below bit of text Notebooks will see three tasks and add them as three separate tasks to a new list based on the title of this document. It’s automatic based on an optional preference that can be set. The list updates as soon as I type in the specified trigger and any text after the trigger.

✓ A first thing to do
-task Order needed item on http://amazon.com
✓ another thing to do

So, typing those three lines created a new list and three new tasks. I can see how it might be useful for some folks or certain multi step projects.

As you do those tasks and mark them completed they will be updated in the original document with a check mark. So, in this way, a document could serve as a kind of project manager that can update a list of tasks and which is updated as those tasks are marked as completed.

Or, if you’re working on a document and decide you’d like the whole document to be converted into a series of tasks you can choose to do that with a couple of taps.

There are a lot of options for the tasks features and several settings. I’d at first assumed that the task feature was something simple that would be a nice to have but have since realized that it’s really quite a powerful set of features. For someone spending a lot of time in Notebooks it probably makes a lot of sense to switch to the app for task tracking.

PDFS
I mentioned above that Notebooks indexes the content of pdfs making them searchable. It’s also possible to link to pdfs from within a markdown document. And, lastly, when opening a pdf in Notebooks there is full support for all of the features one gets when opening a pdf in the Files app. In the pdf sidebar it’s possible to tap on a page and rotate, add new pages, remove pages, import new pages from another document, etc. Markup is also available on pdfs right in Notebooks.

Getting content out of Notebooks
When it’s time to do something with content you’ve created Notebooks has quite a few options which are locating in the “Process” menu. For exporting a non editable document there are two options: PDF, ePub. It’s also possible to “duplicate as” these file times which creates a new document that can continue to be edited as plain text, html, Latex and RTF. All excellent options.

For something as well featured as Notebooks I wish it had publish features. Being able to output to WordPress or other blogging platforms would be great but that’s not exactly an expected or common feature.

Notebooks is available on the App Store as a one-time payment and is universal between iPad and iPhone. The Mac app is a separate purchase.

Some iPad users really should just use a Mac

And so it goes, Federico Viticci continues to be unhappy with the iPad. With that article as wall as his other recent posts and podcasts and I can’t help but conclude that it’s probably time for him to move on to the Mac. Same for many of the other comments I’m seeing on Mastodon, etc. There’s also this post by Hey Scotty, a fellow micro.blogger.

And really, I don’t think it’s all that confusing. The initial iPad was meant to be a casual, easy to use device that sat between the iPhone and a Mac. Mostly for consumption but Apple also sold the Keyboard Dock and had the iWork apps available from day one (at least Pages, not sure about the others). So even then they knew it had potential.

Fast forward 6 years and the device is getting more powerful and they release the larger iPad Pro. And it just goes from there that the hardware is obviously very powerful and Apple, noticing at least a small group of users are increasingly enthusiastic about the device as a full-on computer.

From there it’s just a process of Apple protecting the ease of use for the vast majority of iPad users that want that easy, casual, non threatening computer while, at the same time, offering new features for the “power” users. Year by year adding those features pretty steadily,

The “problem” is that the tech enthusiasts tend to have the loudest voice. Thanks to his website and the many podcasts he’s hosts, Federico’s voice and opinions are greatly magnified. And over the past couple of years he’s become increasingly disgruntled. The iPad simply does not meet his very particular needs, preferences, tastes. But again, his disgruntlement is the loudest opinion.

Setting aside all of the users the iPad was originally aimed for, I’d guess that there are lots of very satisfied “pro” users of the iPad today who are actually quite happy with the device but who’s voices are greatly muted in comparison to the very opinionated guy with the bullhorn.

I really love iPadOS and the iPad form factor. I’m not conflicted or angry about the state of Stage Manager or multitasking. I’ve been watching with great appreciation as Apple has, year-by-year, increased the features found in important apps like Files, Mail, Safari, iWork, etc. For me it’s only getting better. And now, with Stage Manager and full external display support, it’s the mobile touch tablet that can be a laptop or a desktop computer in seconds. Attached to an external display I’m able to see more and do more as I’m doing in the photo above working with two Numbers spreadsheets, each of which has a lot of columns across and thousands of rows. Stage Manager on an external display makes my hours of work on these documents more efficient. It’s a huge win for me.

It’s a shame that the iPad isn’t doing it for Federico and others. For them it would seem the Mac is the better choice. That’s fine. It’s can’t be for everyone. Just as the Mac isn’t for everyone.

HashPhotos Review

One of those tasks I’ve never been consistent at doing is culling duplicate or near duplicate images from my Photos library. It’s been on my mind recently that I need to tidy up and bring in some older photos stored on a backup drive in my old Lightroom and old Aperture libraries.

HashPhotos was mentioned on a recent episode of the iPadPros podcast and it’s proving to be a fantastic compliment to Apple’s Photos app. I’m not a fan of Adobe’s subscription model so I don’t use Lightroom which many use for this kind of management.

HashPhotos is an ideal tool for finding exact duplicates and very similar, near duplicate images. The app will scan your photos library then present what it found allowing you to browse through with similar images side by side with the option to enlarge them for magnified comparison. It works very well for zooming in both images to the same spot and same magnification at the same time allowing you to determine, for example, which images have the sharpest focus.

HashPhotos can also be used alongside of Photos with it’s own, additional metadata options such as Memo and keywords. Unfortunately this metadata seems somewhat limited in usefulness. The keywords assigned are not written to the photos database so it will only work in HashPhotos. But it is very easy to add keywords to batches and navigating the library with keywords in the app is helpful. I’m not sure what the memo field is useful for.

What is far more useful is batch metadata editing for location and photo date. Perfect for older digital or scanned photos and easy to apply to large numbers of photos at once.

In general the HashPhotos provides a helpful and enjoyable alternative Photos browsing experience. It’s also worth mentioning that the app offers photo editing though I’ve not explored this yet.

What I wanted was an app that would help me work more quickly to find and remove duplicates as well as a way for adding location data and for changing image dates and HashPhotos does exactly this. I’m satisfied!

Talking Affinity 2.0 on the iPad Pros Podcast

Tim Chaten invited me to join him on his podcast iPad Pros to talk about the new Affinity 2.0 creative suite. Affinity is notable for bringing its Photo and Designer apps to the iPad several years ago. In contrast to Adobe, Serif’s apps were fully featured and equal to their desktop apps. They set the standard for design apps on the iPad and the new Publisher 2.0 for iPad raises the bar even higher. It was a fun conversation and my thanks to Tim for inviting me on!

Affinity Publisher for iPad mini-review

Serif recently released the long anticipated major updates to it’s Affinity suite of creative apps bringing them up to version 2.0 and adding in a new Publisher app for the iPad bringing it up to full parity with the desktop app suites.

A screenshot of Affinity Publisher for iPad

I’ve used Affinity Publisher for the iPad for a week during which time I’ve imported several of my regular, client projects, mostly, newsletters. And yesterday I just finished off a marketing one sheet and a newsletter. For the newsletter importing from the Mac version of Publisher 1 was easy, no issues. Importing from a pdf also worked very well with various images, text, shapes, etc mostly intact. Exporting the final pdf was fast and as expected. Exporting a Publisher package also went without a hitch with the expected folder of linked images, fonts, and the package file.

Publisher on the iPad works exactly as it does on the Mac with the exception that instead of the top level menu the iPad has the touch, optimized tools and what Affinity refers to as “Studios” on the right side of the window: Layers, Pages, Colors, Text, Stock Photos, Assets, Text Wrap, etc.

Using the “more space” option in the display settings on the 13 inch iPad Pro has the effect of making some of the touch points fairly small, even in full screen. Fine for using with a trackpad or Apple Pencil, but a little bit difficult with the fingers when, for example, selecting layers.

Somewhat surprising to myself is that I did most of the two projects yesterday in tablet mode using the Apple Pencil and my fingers to select text from documents provided by client to place or paste into the publisher document. It works very well and I am reminded why I enjoy using the iPad so much for this kind of work. It’s a very smooth and quick experience alternating between a pencil and fingers as needed to select, move, copy, drag and drop from Files, est. Oh, and notably, moving between pages, and using touch to zoom in and out of details on a page was super smooth just as it’s always been on the Photo and Designer apps by Affinity.

Looking forward to trying it out on an external display when 16.2 is released. I tried the trackpad a bit while importing and updating some of my other projects and it also works very well (as expected).

Not too much of a surprise for a new app there are a few issues. In my case I noticed a few font issues which others are also reporting. I also had a few app crashes though I’m using Stage Manager so it’s possible that might have been related. With the next project I’m going to use it without SM to compare. Oh, and the top toolbar is hampered by Apple’s 3 dot window dropdown widget which gets in the way of any button underneath it. Hoping I do find that 3 dot window widget useful but hope Apple increases the window chrome just a small bit at the top of windows because it’s something I accidentally tap far too often in many apps. Guessing I’m not alone there. So, not really an Affinity app specific problem.

All in all, I think Serif has done an excellent job and, with Publisher on iPad, my full workflow is now possible on that device. My Mac will be officially retired to file/media server backup. For Mac users I have no doubt that the 3 new Mac apps are all solid upgrades. And I expect Serif will be fairly reliable in releasing bug fixes for all the platforms as they’ve done so in the past. For a one-time purchase it’s a fantastic deal if you’re someone that needs these kinds of apps.

Quick Start Guide for Affinity Publisher 2 for iPad

The Universal license provides access to all the V2 apps on all the operating systems: Mac, iPadOS and Windows is 40% off for a few weeks, only $100. A bonkers good deal!

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