Michal Ždanský After four years of hard work, the British developer studio has released a brand new application – Affinity Designer graphic editor. Serif, the team behind the application, has ambitions to compete with the current Adobe monopoly, not only in the field of graphic design, but later also in photo editing and DTP. They start their chapter with a vector editor with a bitmap overlay, which aims to replace not only Illustrator, but also Photoshop, which is still the most common choice of graphic designers precisely because of the combination of a bitmap and vector editor.
After all, Adobe has not had it easy lately, it has had a lot of competition in recent years, at least on the OS X platform in the form of the Pixelmator and Sketch. With the Creative Cloud subscription model too expensive for many, more and more graphic designers and other creative professionals are looking for an escape route, and Affinity Designer caters to these users.
From the user interface, it is clear that Serif was partly inspired by Photoshop. However, they took only the positives from it, such as working with layers or dark UI, and did everything else in their own way, intuitively and for the benefit of users. For example, the application allows you to have individual elements scattered around the screen in the style of Photoshop, or to have them arranged in one window, as is the case with Sketch.
Affinity Designer includes virtually all the tools you'd expect from a professional vector editor. Serif is particularly proud of the speed enabled by the new modern framework. For example, it can zoom up to 1000000 times magnification at 60 frames per second. It also has no problems rendering demanding effects in real time.
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However, working with bitmaps is fascinating. Affinity Designer more or less works in two layers in parallel, where bitmap additions do not affect the original vector base. In addition, different brushes can be used to create a texture that is still based on vectors. The application also offers other functions for bitmaps, such as basic movers for editing photos.
However, what makes Affinity stand out is its alleged 100% compatibility with Adobe formats. Import/Export of PSD or AI files and the support of common PDF, SVG or TIFF formats for bitmaps make it an ideal candidate for switching from Photoshop. Unlike other independent competitors, it fully supports CMYK, Grayscale, LAB and color ICC profiles.
We'll probably save listing all the great features for the review, but if you're interested in Affinity Designer, Serif is offering an introductory 20 percent discount until October 9th. You can purchase it for €35,99 in the following days. In 2015, Serif also plans to release a DTP equivalent called Affinity Publisher, and Affinity Photo will be a competitor to Lightroom.
[app url=https://itunes.apple.com/cz/app/affinity-designer/id824171161?mt=12]
It looks very good.. Especially no subscription! Strange times, dear Adobe and Microsoft!
That's right, Adobe is ripe for extinction. Leaving aside the mess with CC, I have exactly the same reason for leaving, thanks to a bunch of errors in their programs, but mainly the inability to unify the controls, the tools for using the programs within the package. Just the paradox that it is better to work with curves in PS or ID than in Illustrator itself, not to mention the fact that Illustrator still hasn't reached the quality and functions of FreeHand.
Yeah, Aldus Freehand on my Classic's 9″ BW monitor while creating business cards in the early 90s... T602 acquaintances were rolling bulbs back then.
For me, Freehand is the reason why I still stay on 10.6.8, it can no longer be started on higher versions of the OS. :-(
So I'm very curious about this...
It looks really cool. Too bad there's no demo available.
Demo? The beta version has been available for testing for the past few months. :) Great deal and for the money? Without a doubt, a great buy…
Yes DEMO! How do I know there was a beta test? It's nice that the starting price is lower, but they could have given the demo for just a few days.
That's right, I hope they release a demo, because some 1000 is not so bad, but it's not so little that you buy something that might not be quite the same. I don't understand how demo versions are not available as standard in this price range. It's one thing to buy iOS apps for a few bucks that you've barely scratched the surface of.
Exactly!!! This should be a normal standard!!!
Just do the work and search their forum. There you would find that the Trial will be available in a few weeks.
And I don't know what kind of problem it is today to go and download something from a torrent to try and then possibly buy it. But why search when I can complain. :)))
ps: don't take it personally, it just pisses me off that you immediately took it as a personal attack!
Personally, I think that the problem of test versions should be solved systematically by Apple - for example, by making a trial available on the App Store for every application above 20 dollars. It's nice that I can request a refund within 24 hours, but I don't think that's a real trial, and I don't consider a solution like illegally downloading an application from a torrent to be a solution at all.
Personally, I will wait for the trial and then see. Although the app will no longer be in action, I personally would rather try it properly than buy something I don't want.
on the Mac Store I feel there is a possibility to return the money within 24 hours, so there is no reason to have a demo :P If I'm wrong, excuse me on iOS it's been a long time...
It doesn't work for Mac apps like it does for iOS, and Apple only allows refunds once or twice a year. Buying and then claiming the application is definitely not the optimal way to try it.
The demo will be in 4 weeks.
To try it out, you can download it illegally on kickass torrent as a full version.
Thanks for the tip. But I don't like this kind of downloading, a virus is always downloaded with it. This is how I fight viruses on my Mac.
It looks damn good. Good luck. It's about time Adobe was flooded (I mean kicked them a bit), their ridiculous subscription (paying for 20 apps I'll never use), ossification and prices no one cares about anymore ;) I'll wait for the InDesign equivalent and I'll be done with it think.
Massacre! I applaud the developers because they literally had to sweat blood. The Price/Performance ratio is obviously perfectly mastered!
I think they could make it more expensive, but I need a userbase :)
For photobanks, I need a quality export to .eps in version 10. How is Affinity doing with regards to exporting to other formats? Have you tried it?
All I need is Illustrator. I have a subscription but it's too much. Also, I don't understand why the price in the EU is so much higher than in the US.
I don't have one, but I'll look into it when I get home.
Because the EU is willing to pay more for software and Adobe does not have an equivalent pricing policy, so the price varies depending on the state and it is also a price with VAT.
So don't read too much here, then write me on twitter what exactly you would like to try
It's so sudden, I'm buying it right away, it's a shame when such bombs can do it. Unreal!
I have CC, I like this, but I'm kind of worried that the advanced retouching tools won't have it. I think it's more for designers and typesetters.
I recommend that you go to the forum and tell them what specifically you would like in an update and how to improve it. I reply very quickly on Facebook and I definitely make a roadmap based on user feedback :)
They are also preparing Affinity Photo, which will be intended exclusively for photo editing.
It looks very decent. I'm especially curious about the promised speed and fluidity of the UI. I am even more looking forward to the expected Affinity Photo. Since Apple is about to cut support for Aperture, it could be an interesting alternative.
I applaud :-) for the mess Adobe made with the cloud, I really wish them the best :-)
Does any "professional" graphic designer have experience with this program? My point is that I understand that this is enough for the average user. But since I use a lot of features in Ps and Ai, I'm not sure that Affinity Designer can replace it all…. (Even if the website clearly says that this is a program for professionals, I don't know...)
I believe that it will not be able to replace everything, but in some cases it may be faster and maybe even more precise, if not better quality, but since it is still under development, I recommend that you take a look at the forum and certainly suggest features that you specifically lack, or what you like about them the competition bothers the boys to be able to do it better when they have the opportunity :)
Why is this crap only on Apple?! You have very fancy fonts, but I believe that it is displayed correctly on your Apple device. I want to kiss all of you (all in one!) an apple and smell a pear. You can suck my bag, here.
come up with something you genius. again some kind of bitter, who only envies the clever ones
It's noticeably faster than illustrator. BUT. It still needs a lot of improvement and Illustrator still has a huge lead. In any case, I would be very happy if there was one capable of competing with Adobe. Their prices are pretty crazy.
Otherwise, the import of things stored for AI works very poorly for them, because all the lines covering the object are imported as the vector itself, so from one object covered with a line you have two in affinity, so any longer work improted in affinity literally crumbles
Well, I have to say that I was afraid to go into it (demo nowhere, etc.), but it runs incredibly fast, so we'll see how it goes (after all, illustrator is almost unusable - I'm used to Camera Raw and Photoshop, lightroom, etc... But illustrator is weird).
It's a shame that more people don't talk about the fact that it can save to iCloud, which not every Mac software can do, and I think that's pretty cool +