Glyphs for iPad?

I left a reply here in Nov 2022, and still nothing happened. The iPad is getting more powerful with each model where you can use it with the Pencil or plug a keyboard and mouse for a desktop experience. Meanwhile:

—Affinity apps are almost a carbon-copy of the desktop version and they are becoming more complex with every update. Working graphic designers can deliver full branding projects with the Affnity suite. This signifies the importance of the iPad platform for graphic designers, a segment which I imagine overlaps with typeface design and thus Glyphs.

—Professional woodworkers, jewelry designers, industrial designers, and engineers rely heavily on Shapr3D with a significant portions of the users being iPad based. That signifies the seriousness of the iPad Pro as the device of the future for professionals, and explains why Shapr3D is still investing in their iPad platform.

—Hand-lettering artists work entirely with Procreate and Adobe Fresco. I can imagine these guys would love to turn their hand-lettering projects into typefaces.

—Even Blender 3D teased a few weeks ago that they are bringing their software into the iPad platform because they see the massive potential of it thus yet again solidifying the iPad as the device for future designers and creatives.

—And even FontSelf, a peer in your field, took the first steps and is recognizing the importance of investing in the iPad platform. I purchased their relaunch app to start prototyping fonts on my iPad Pro.

We’re not asking for a massive undertaking here. And we’re not asking for a carbon-copy Glyphs desktop. Introduce it as a lite version first with the fundamentals typeface design tools and a clean professional UI, and improve upon that with future updates. The people at Glyphs have the chance to take the 1st steps and recognize the important of the iPad platform like every design software developers I listed above.

Much love,

Why do you assume we are having no iPad app on purpose? We are a small team and are happy with the progress we have on the mac app …

Have you done a conversion of a Mac/AppKit app to iOS? The programming language is similar but the API is quite different. All UI needs to be redone (in a quite different way). That means a big percentage of the app needs to be rewritten or at least adjusted.

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Totally understand the small team constraints. I just thought I’d note that with the recent release of iPadOS 26, iPad apps now support a traditional menu bar, removing the need for a UI redesign for Mac-centric apps.

I’m finally doing 90% of my paid design work on the iPad using Affinity Designer, Affinity Photo, LumaFusion (video/motion graphics), Linearity Move (motion graphics), and Figma (through the web).

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Hey everyone!!

so I just found out that if you have a Mac or a MacBook you can plug your iPad into it and use it as a secondary screen. And if you have an Apple Pencil it will also work with any app on your Mac. This has been a HUGE game changer.

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I’d totally love and would pay for an iOS-based Glyphs even without editing options, just to open .glyphs files, review and make comments.

Have you tried Glyphs Viewer?

I’m not sure what the app’s status is.

the iOS app only works as an external display. Useful if you don’t have a retina display.