My review and comparison to original Art Studio

[BRYGMOS]

As huge fan of Art Studio, I have only grudgingly started using AS Pro.  While it has undoubted advantages (see below), it unfortunately lacks several important features of the original.  Developer feedback would be appreciated, particularly if I have missed the new locations of old features I am seeking.

1.    It seems only 20 undo's are allowed, in contrast to an unlimited number.  UH OH!  Bad news.  Undo's also have odd, seemingly pointless pop-out option, redo's tricky, screen must be tapped just right. 
2.    The terrific move/scale/rotate option has been replaced with clunky move option plus, found elsewhere, scale or rotate options, terrible, takes long time to accomplish what original tool did with just a pinch.  THIS NEEDS FIXING URGENTLY.
3.    A copied and pasted selection is not in the same place in the new layer.  Seems obvious bug here.
4.    Alpha lock now takes two steps on layers drop-down, whereas previously just one.  Huh?  Dumb.
5.    It'd be nice to have a custom default for new image sizes.

That said, I will persist with ASP because of much greater number of layers for given resolution / lots more brushes and palettes / easy coordination with iCloud / ability to feather selections.  This new app also has a ton of detailed innovations that are clearly pleasing finicky users (see forum, etc.) BUT IT ALSO NEEDS TO GO BACK TO A FEW VITAL BASICS OF THE ORIGINAL ART STUDIO AS DESCRIBED ABOVE.

[Lucky Clan]

Thanks for feedback, my answers:

1. Number of Undo steps can be configured in Artstudio>Preferences, max value is 100
2. I decided to not add multitouch transforming, because it has one disadvantage - you cannot zoom canvas when transforming.
3. Edit>Copy copies only not transparent area (i mean copied area is trimmed), and after paste it is centered in the selection. To copy-paste in the same place you have 2 solutions: a) use Layer>Duplicate (or duplicate in layer popover), if selection is active it duplicates only the selected area b) copy with trimming: Edit>Copy Special>Copy Without Trim
4. Sorry, there are too many options everywhere to make them "one tap". To Lock Transparency you can also use menu: Layers>Lock>Lock Transparency, or if you have a keyboard there is a shortcut: Command+/. Version 1.4 will introduce Quick Menu with option to configure it to custom actions.
5. We will consider adding this.

[Nighternet]

2. Not a problem when you use pencil for transformation and fingers for zoom. For those who prefer to paint with fingers, there is still a possibility to do a two-finger zoom outside the transform box. No?

[Lucky Clan]

Often transform box uses whole screen. It would be not possible to zoom in this case.

[Kappa]

An intuitive solution to the zoom/pan while in transform mode would be to be able to touch and hold a specific area(button? Tool icon?) with the other hand in order to zoom/pan,
and on realease return to transform mode.

[BRYGMOS]

The best way to overcome the problem cited at #2 seems to be to go to transform, then rotate, an option that enables all three move, scale and rotate.  None of the other transform options do this.  PLEASE DO NOT "FIX" THIS THINKING IT IS BUG!!  Though this is very useful, it's necessary to modify with only the circled points, cannot be done with finger pinch, as with original AS.  Can this please be made operable with finger motion??  BTW, with a lot of representational images, it's necessary to be constantly resizing (at least for me).  Old move, scale, rotate invaluable for this purpose.

[Lucky Clan]

In my opinion the only solution is to add 'Multitouch move/scale/rotate' is to just one more mode to Transform Tool. Currently there are Scale, Rotate, Move, Skew, Perspective, Free. I will consider adding 'Multitouch' here.

[BRYGMOS]

That would be terrific!  I am sure many users would find this addition valuable, especially those who loved original Art Studio.  Incidentally, you might consider changing name ‘free’ to ‘distort’ if you agree that ‘distort’ more accurately describes the action enabled here.