Affinity Designer Cheat Sheet 2026

The 30 highest-yield Affinity Designer facts, distilled from real exam questions. Print it, save it as a PDF, or study it here — free, no sign-up.

1. How do you reorder an object to be in front of all others in Affinity Designer? → Use Arrange > Bring to Front or press Ctrl+Shift+]
2. In Affinity Designer, what is an Artboard? → A named canvas region within a document that can be exported independently
3. What is a Spot Color in Affinity Designer used for? → A named ink that prints as a single premixed color rather than a CMYK mix
4. In Affinity Designer, what does the Inner Glow effect create? → A soft glow effect that appears inside the object's edges
5. In Affinity Designer, which node type creates a perfectly smooth curve where both handles remain collinear? → Smooth node
6. Which Affinity Designer export format is best for high-quality raster images that support multiple layers and 16-bit depth? → TIFF
7. In Affinity Designer, how do you export a file at 2x resolution for Retina/HiDPI screens? → Set the scale to 2x in the export dialog or slice options
8. In Affinity Designer, what is the advantage of using the PDF/X-4 preset for print export? → It supports transparency and live color management for professional print workflows
9. Affinity Designer has a wide array of what? → Color selection tools
10. How do you update a saved Style in Affinity Designer so all objects linked to that style reflect the change? → Right-click the style in the Styles panel and choose 'Update Style from Selection'
11. Which tool in Affinity Designer is used to place and edit text on the canvas? → Artistic Text Tool
12. What does pressing Alt while dragging a node handle in Affinity Designer do? → Breaks the handle symmetry, allowing independent adjustment of each side
13. What does enabling 'Soft Proof' in Affinity Designer allow you to do? → Preview on screen how colors will appear when printed using a specific output profile
14. In Affinity Designer, what does the 'Spell Check' feature do to help maintain text quality? → Underlines potentially misspelled words and offers correction suggestions in real time
15. Which effect would you use in Affinity Designer to create a soft colored glow that radiates outward from an object's edges? → Outer Glow
16. What are the basic steps to changing a color in Affinity Designer? → First, you can name styles
17. Which Affinity Designer feature lets you apply a color tint across an entire group by adjusting the group's color setting? → Color Overlay Effect on the group
18. What does the Screen blend mode produce in Affinity Designer? → A lighter result by inverting, multiplying, then inverting again
19. What does Affinity Designer have in common with Adobe Photoshop? → History panel
20. Which Boolean operation in Affinity Designer removes the top shape's area from the bottom shape? → Subtract
21. What is the name of the application that allows users to create vector art? → Affinity Designer
22. What can Affinity Designer export to? → PSD files
23. In Affinity Designer, which panel is used to create and manage named color swatches? → Swatches panel
24. What does the 'Expand Stroke' operation do in Affinity Designer? → Converts a stroked path into a filled closed shape matching the stroke's visual outline
25. What type of files can Affinity Designer export? → PSD
26. Which color model in Affinity Designer is most suitable for print projects requiring CMYK output? → CMYK/8
27. What does the 'Alignment' toolbar allow you to do with multiple selected objects in Affinity Designer? → Align objects to each other, to the selection bounds, or to the artboard/page
28. What does the 'Tracked' or tracking value control in Affinity Designer's Character panel? → The uniform spacing added between all characters in a range of selected text
29. What happens to objects that were using a Style after you delete that Style from the Styles panel in Affinity Designer? → Objects retain their visual appearance but are no longer linked to the deleted style
30. How do you save a new style to the Styles panel in Affinity Designer? → Drag the styled object into the Styles panel or click the Add Style button