Touch-first vector editing for iPad Pro

A freelance illustrator or brand designer buys an iPad Pro expecting it to replace or meaningfully supplement their desk setup — then discovers that the vector tools they rely on daily either have crippled tablet versions or no tablet version at all. The moment of reckoning is sitting in a client meeting or coffee shop, opening their vector app on the iPad, and realizing they can't do the one thing they need to do.

This gap persists for a specific structural reason: the major desktop vector vendors built their products over decades around mouse-and-keyboard precision. Retrofitting that interaction model to touch is expensive and architecturally disruptive — it's not a UI reskin, it's a rethinking of selection, snapping, node editing, and pen tool behavior for a finger or Apple Pencil. The vendors have no incentive to rush it because their desktop subscription revenue doesn't depend on iPad parity; the iPad user is paying the same monthly rate regardless.

What existing tools get wrong, per the complaints: features ship on iPad months or years after desktop ('most of the new features are only for iPad, making it frustrating for desktop users' — and vice versa, iPad users get a stripped version). Live preview is missing on mobile. The interface isn't rethought for smaller screens — it's compressed. Users asking for 'a full version on iPad Pro' aren't asking for a new app category; they're asking for the same capability, rebuilt for how the device actually works.

This is a business and not a feature because the need recurs every time a designer picks up their iPad to do real work. The paying customer is a working designer who bills by the hour — every workaround (emailing files to desktop, carrying a laptop anyway, abandoning the iPad for vector work entirely) has a concrete cost in time and friction. The subscription model matches the recurrence perfectly.

What to build

Build a native iPadOS vector editor with full node-level path editing, Apple Pencil pressure sensitivity mapped to stroke weight, and SVG/AI file round-tripping — designed interaction-first for touch, not ported from a desktop codebase.

Where to start

Target lettering artists and calligraphers specifically — they already work with Apple Pencil as their primary input, their files are typically single-artboard with fewer complex effects than brand or UI work, and they're an active online community that spreads tools virally when something fits their workflow.

The hard part

SVG and Adobe AI file compatibility has to be near-perfect on day one — designers won't adopt a new editor if opening their existing client files produces broken layouts, missing fonts, or mangled paths, and getting that fidelity right across the full spec is months of unglamorous engineering before you can demo anything compelling.

How it makes money

Annual subscription per seat, with a 14-day free trial; a one-time perpetual license option at roughly 4x the annual price captures the segment of designers who distrust subscription lock-in.