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Turn Your iPad Into a Designing Tool: Figma on iPad Pro

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Created by Matías Martínez, a third-party app called Figurative for iOS has really set the golden standard for using Figma on iPad Pro. It has easily emerged as the best option for using Figma on iPadOS 14.5 and higher. Being the game-changer that it is, Figurative completely eliminates the need to access Figma through Chrome or Safari for iPad.

Table of Contents:

• Figurative performance 
• Figure works best with an external keyboard 
• Other use cases 

This app has really made life easier for us over at our web design agency. Whether we are relaxing by Lake Michigan or returning from the gym, Figurative has enabled us to be more mobile and efficient on the go. These are some of the features we have found to be the most prominent:  

• Custom fonts – Before Figurative, the only way to access custom fonts in Figma on iPad was through a Figma enterprise account. Using this app allows you to access all the fonts previously installed from custom profiles. This has opened a world of options for iOS interface designers.
• Export options – The familiar iOS share panel that Figurative uses for exports give you more flexibility.
• Optimized screen design – Figurative supports multiple tabs while eliminating the need for a URL field, which significantly saves your screen real estate. Incorporating mobile-first web design enables screen scaling. This allows users to see more of the canvas, equally benefiting, regardless if they’re using a smaller screen like an iPad or connecting to an external monitor. 
• Apple Pencil compatibility – Figurative makes using Apple Pencil with Figma on iPad flow seamlessly. It easily beats the option of using Chrome for iPad and requesting the mobile website for Figma.
• Touch shortcuts – The app provides quick touch-friendly shortcuts for useful actions like deleting and duplicating objects. Though it is very helpful to have a keyboard, it makes work much easier for those that have to edit something on the go by using Figma on iPad.
• Undo and redo gestures – Before Figurative was developed, users often struggled with accidentally moving objects around. Figurative overcame this problem by incorporating a simple multi-finger tap to undo or redo actions.

Figurative performance

Though Figma relies heavily on the GPU, the iPad Pro has proven to be powerful enough to handle tasks, such as rendering, without too much trouble. However, one of the downsides we faced while using Figma on iPad Pro is Figurative’s need to occasionally reload tabs in the middle of work. Though Figma announced at Config Europe that it was improving file size memory, this has yet to translate into better performance on iPad.

Another thing that Figurative struggles with is handling large files. For example, 145,000 layers and 0.19 G memory files fail to load properly. Truth be told, this is also the case with both Chrome for iPad and Safari, so maybe Figurative is not the one to blame. To overcome this problem, you will need to manage file sizes and split your work into smaller chunks.

The desktop app is still necessary if you plan to code your own plugins. Though many plugins run like a charm, those that require a desktop interface to function properly won’t work with Figma on iPad. 

As we have already mentioned, Figurative supports the use of Apple Pencil. This makes it the only app that allows using Figma on iPad without a mouse or keyboard. Figurative easily recognizes whether you are using your fingers or the pencil and will respond accordingly. The app doesn’t allow you to create and edit objects by using just your fingers. However, we suggest turning off the Scribble feature to provide the best possible performance.

We were amazed by freehand drawing performance with near-zero latency on iPadOS 14.5 or higher during our testing.

If you wish to use Figma on iPad Pro connected to an external monitor, USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter might be just what you need. This adapter lets you mirror the display to an external HDMI-compatible monitor and charge your battery at the same time.

Figurative supports both wired keyboard and mouse (if you have a USB-C to USB adapter) as well as Bluetooth. However, the Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro is much more mobile form. 

Figma works best with an external keyboard

Here is why we strongly recommend using an external keyboard with Figma on iPad:

• Actions such as nudging objects or copying and pasting are much easier to do via keyboard commands
• External keyboard eliminates cases of moving objects around accidentally
• The external keyboard maximizes canvas viewing space in contrast to the on-screen keyboard
• It makes it easy for you to access the modifier keys
• It is easier to select multiple items or view context menus

We, designers, love keyboard shortcuts. An external keyboard will allow you to manage multiple aspects of Figma design that you simply can not do with touch controls.

Other use cases

By logging into Figma on both your desktop and iPad, you can use the latter as a Wacom tablet. Though we have noticed a slight delay for the desktop screen to update, this gives you the option to use the iPad Pro along with the Apple Pencil as a second input device.

Sidecar is a feature that allows you to manage multiple Figma windows since it significantly extends your screen real estate. Besides, Apple Pencil shows better performance when the iPad is in Sidecar mode.

You can also run a prototype and editor at the same time simply by running Figurative in multiple windows (either split or float on top). All of the changes you make to the editor on iPad will be reflected on a prototype in real-time.

Final thoughts

For a device not officially supported by Figma, thanks to Figurative, it is very encouraging to see that it can function so seamlessly on the iPad. Another big boost that Figma has on iPad Pro is the inclusion of top-of-the-class mouse support on iPadOS. It seems that we have finally come to the point where we can put our laptops aside and rely on iPads and iPad apps for most of the work on the go. However, there are still some issues such as large files and browser memory limits. Let’s all keep our fingers crossed for this to be addressed in the near future. We hope that this article has given you yet another, among other reasons, why to get an iPhone or an iPad.

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How to Use Figma on an iPad: A Comprehensive Guide

Master Figma on your iPad with this comprehensive guide. Go mobile with your design work.

Figma is a popular design tool known for its collaborative features, but one limitation has been its lack of a native iOS app for iPads. If you find yourself needing to use Figma on an iPad, however, you're not entirely out of luck. With the right operating system and accessories, you can run Figma in a browser and perform most of its key functions. Here's how to make it work.

Requirements

• iPad with iPadOS : Make sure your iPad is running on iPadOS, or at least iOS 13 or later, as Figma's browser compatibility relies on these versions.

Using Figma on iPad’s Browser

Open figma in safari.

• Launch Safari : Open the Safari browser on your iPad.
• Navigate to Figma : Go to the Figma website and sign in as you would on a desktop.
• Open Your Project : Navigate to your desired project or file. Figma should work mostly the same as it does on a desktop.

Navigation and Controls

While Figma in a browser on an iPad functions similarly to its desktop version, there are some limitations when using touch controls. However, these can be mitigated with the use of accessories.

Using Your Finger

Navigating Figma with your finger can be cumbersome. Precision tasks, like selecting small elements or manipulating anchor points, are particularly difficult. While possible, this method is generally not recommended for detailed work.

Using a Mouse

If you want more precise control, you can connect a mouse to your iPad . This will allow you to perform tasks with the same level of precision as on a desktop.

• Pair Mouse via Bluetooth : Go to your iPad settings and pair your mouse through the Bluetooth settings.
• Use as Desktop : Once paired, you can use the mouse as you would on a desktop, providing a far better experience than using touch controls.

Using an Apple Pencil

An Apple Pencil offers another precise way to interact with Figma on an iPad. The stylus can be particularly helpful for tasks that require detail and finesse.

• Pair Your Apple Pencil : If you haven't done so already, pair your Apple Pencil with your iPad.
• Natural Designing : Once paired, you can draw and design more naturally than using your finger, making it a useful tool for more intricate design tasks.

While Figma doesn't offer a native iPad app, running it through Safari on an iPad with iPadOS can be a viable option, especially when using additional accessories like a mouse or an Apple Pencil. It may not be as smooth as the desktop experience, but it's certainly useful for those moments when you're away from your computer and need to make quick changes or collaborate on the go.

If you'd like to learn more about Figma, see our comprehensive buyer's guide on Figma pricing and plans .

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Design, collaborate, & mirror

• #60 in Graphics & Design
• 4.6 • 11.7K Ratings

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Description.

Collaborate on the go with the Figma mobile app for iPhone and iPad. Bring your creations to life, wherever you are, for convenient and immersive viewing. View, collaborate, and share your designs with just a few taps. With Figma for iPhone, you can: - View files and prototypes then leave feedback via comments - Receive notifications for new comments - Quickly share files with others - Navigate team and project folders - Playback prototypes without being tethered to your desktop - Mirror selected frames from desktop onto your mobile device On tablets, you can also use Figma for iPad to: - Sketch with the Apple Pencil to explore and iterate on ideas more fluidly - Share and riff on early thinking with your team - Annotate designs to share feedback - Jot down ideas whenever inspiration strikes We’re excited to release more features soon! If you have any feedback you can report issues in-app from your account settings.

Version 24.8.0

Updates and bug fixes.

Ratings and Reviews

11.7K Ratings

Figma has been the one app I go to for doing any kind of initial design work. Once you’re there with all the shortcuts the speed of delivery is better than any other I’ve tried. The ease of sharing a link with an end user and watching their cursor on screen when giving notes is unparalleled imo. Clearly I’m talking about the desktop app but the ability to see notes on iOS is very useful.

Buggy and lacks essential features

I love Figma on desktop but the mobile app on phone and iPad fall short in a big way. I use it almost exclusively for the mirror function and I would have given it 3 stars if it weren’t so buggy. Bugs I have found while using mirror include: - Loses connection periodically - Freezes often and needs to be restarted - The prototype doesn’t always appear exactly as on screen. For example, I had an icon with a transparent container around it and layers that had shadows. It looked fine on the computer screen but on the phone, the container background appeared white and the shadows were applied to the container instead of the objects inside it. - It would be nice to have an option to turn on/off status bar and home bar if they are already on your designs. - Animations are not very smooth. Aside from the mirror feature, I wanted to view and respond to a comment while I was on the go, but I can’t see the comments. It seems all that I can do view my frames. I would really love editing capabilities, especially for iPad. If I could design in Figma on iPad it would save my hand so much from all the mouse clicks. In the meantime, I’m just trying to learn all the shortcuts keys!

Major design flaw

Converted to figma from sketch. Program is a nice upgrade. But one huge design flaw that I can’t get over. When I run my prototype to present, figma loads my assets one by one, it causes an issue because assets should be completely loaded before starting a presentation. Common sense. When you first run the presentation let the loader ACTUALLY load the assets then start the presentation. It is embarrassing. What is the point of showing you are loading a prototype if your assets are not actually being loaded.I don’t want to have to tell my client oh wait for your assets to load. That’s unprofessional. Doesn’t matter if the asset is large or not. Load my assets first before presenting. This is huge because if I am presenting to a team, they should not see anything in the presentation other than the intended first frame not have the prototype assets load one by one like a website they can click on things before ready. Doesn’t matter if I have large assets or not. When you load a presentation. Load it. Show a spinner. But don’t show the actual assets loading. Automated actions fail to show and overall is not good practice. If this is fixed this program will allow me to stop my subscription to my other programs. It’s too embarrassing to load my prototypes to my clients right now. I hope this is fixed so I can centralize my programs I use to figma.

App Privacy

The developer, Figma Inc. , indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .

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The following data may be collected and linked to your identity:

• Contact Info
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• Search History
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• Diagnostics

Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More

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Previously the available resources focused solely on key operating systems like iOS and iPadOS, visionOS, and macOS. Now, nine new cross-platform feature templates are available.

Apple’s Figma resource additions

The full list of added design templates is as follows:

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Historically, Apple has tended to favor Sketch users with its allocation of developer and designer tools. Figma support just arrived for the first time last June. As a result, it’s great to see this continued push toward supporting Figma as evidence that the service’s users are a real priority for the company.

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Ryan got his start in journalism as an Editor at MacStories, where he worked for four years covering Apple news, writing app reviews, and more. For two years he co-hosted the Adapt podcast on Relay FM, which focused entirely on the iPad. As a result, it should come as no surprise that his favorite Apple device is the iPad Pro.

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Can't switch pages in-browser on iPad Pro

Hello! Not sure if this is me being daft or if it’s an implementation bug, but… I’m using Figma on the 2021 iPad Pro; running Safari in iPadOS 15. Figma works like a charm (game changer!) but I can’t switch between pages in my projects…

Has anyone else experienced this?

(I’ve a video of it but the forum won’t let me upload!)

This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.

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location wrong on ipad and how do i fix it

the loction is wrong on my ipad, shows me in a different state...how do i fix this?

Posted on Jul 12, 2014 5:29 AM

Posted on Jul 12, 2014 5:57 AM

Is your iPad wifi only or wifi + cellular?

Try this - Reset the iPad by holding down on the Sleep and Home buttons at the same time for about 10-15 seconds until the Apple Logo appears - ignore the red slider - let go of the buttons. (This is equivalent to rebooting your computer.) No data/files will be erased. http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1430

iOS 7: Understanding Location Services

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5594

Maps, directions, and location-based apps depend on data services. These data services are subject to change and may not be available in all geographic areas, resulting in maps, directions, or location-based information that may be unavailable, inaccurate, or incomplete.

 Cheers, Tom 😉

Loading page content

Page content loaded

Jul 12, 2014 5:57 AM in response to ranger103

Jul 12, 2014 5:54 AM in response to ranger103

If you have the WiFi-only iPad (which does not have GPS) your location is determined by the mapped location of nearby WiFi routers.

Without GPS location-finding is done by using a Apple location database which contains the MAC addresses of routers and their physical location. A MAC address is a unique number which is built-in to all network devices when manufactured.

The Apple database is built and updated by Apple GPS-enabled devices (primarily iPhones) actually seeing routers and then adding/updating the router's locations into the database.

Note to be used for location determination, a device does not need to be actually connected to a router, it just has to see the router. More precise location determination can be done if several nearby routers can be seen. When a router is moved from one location to another erroneous locations can sometimes be reported until the router's location is corrected in Apple's database.

Google Chrome on iPhone and iPad could be about to borrow a popular Safari feature by adding multi-profile support in a future update

Profile support inbound?

When Apple announced profile support was coming to Safari on iPhone and iPad as part of the iOS 17 update last year it was immediately well-received. The feature allows people to create a profile under which they can do specific types of browsing, like for work for example, and now it seems a similar feature is coming to Google's Chrome as well.

While Google is yet to confirm the feature it's reported that a basic profile-switching mechanism is currently being tested in Chrome for iPhone and iPad. It's notable that the same feature is not yet available on Android, suggesting that it could either debut on Apple's platforms first or a wider launch across all mobile platforms is in the cards.

It's still unclear what timescale Google is working to, and it's possible the plans could be nixed before launch. But fans of profiles in their web browser could be about to get a whole new option.

Keeping a low profile

As mentioned, Google has so far kept its multi-profile plans to itself but a MacObserver report suggests that those plans are very real.

"Google is currently working on a basic profile-switching mechanism for Chrome on iOS," MacObserver explains. "Once implemented, they will top it up with more advanced features. Thus, the item is aptly titled 'Implement rudimentary profile switching.' The report goes on to say that "Google is testing the UI, and it is currently behind an experimental flag. Even the name or title of the feature has yet to be decided."

That would suggest that any launch is unlikely to take place any time soon, so we wouldn't start holding your breath just yet. In the interim, Apple's Safari might be worth checking out. Maybe you've heard of it?

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Master your iPhone in minutes

iMore offers spot-on advice and guidance from our team of experts, with decades of Apple device experience to lean on. Learn more with iMore!

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.

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Google Paid Apple $20 Billion in 2022 to Be Default Safari Search Engine

Google paid Apple $20 billion in 2022 to be the default search engine for Safari on iPhone , iPad , and Mac, reports Bloomberg . The information was revealed in court documents Google provided in its antitrust dispute with the United States Department of Justice.

Google has been the default search engine on Apple devices since 2002, though the deal has been renegotiated several times. Apple and Google have worked to keep the terms of the search engine agreement under wraps during the trial and before, but it has been well known that Google is paying Apple billions per year .

Last October, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella testified that the agreement between Apple and Google has made it impossible for search engines like Bing to compete. Microsoft at one point wanted Apple to buy Bing, but Apple was not interested . Microsoft blamed Google, but Apple's Eddy Cue said that Apple was concerned that Bing could not compete in "quality and capabilities." Cue claimed that Apple uses Google as the ‌iPhone‌'s default search engine because Apple has "always thought it was the best."

Google is the default search engine on Apple devices in most countries, but users can opt to swap to Yahoo, Bing, DuckDuckGo, and Ecosia as alternatives. Changing browser engines requires opening up the Safari settings.

In Europe, the Digital Markets Act has required Apple to make changes to how browsers work. Users are able to choose a default browser when setting up their ‌iPhone‌, and there are more options than the handful of providers that Apple allows in the United States.

If Google loses the antitrust lawsuit against it, the deal between Apple and Google could be dissolved. Closing arguments are expected on Thursday and Friday, with the judge's ruling set to come later in 2024.

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There’s a reason for the saying… “Just Google it” “Just Bing/DuckDuckGo it”… Said no one EVER…

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