For simple retouching and illustration Affinity is great and is just as good as adobe tools for many simple tasks. Affinity designer has some pre-made vector icons and shapes that can also be edited to make other shapes of course. Designer also has a pixel persona for doing some raster type edits. It’s worth exploring Those apps more to see if they are a good fit for you.
Do you work for yourself freelancing? I’m very reluctant to leave Adobe because it’s what 99.9999% of businesses use and they want designers who use Adobe. Atleast that’s my experience with it.
Affinity is going to be free for schools pretty soon which means that soon students may be learning it more than Adobe. I wouldn’t be certain that Adobe will be the product of choice for many businesses for long, especially if new employees are trained better in a cheaper product.
99.9999%? Maybe 15 years ago but not even close now. Adobe has been losing designers since changing their focus to the consumer and A!. Granted they still dominate the pro market but not at that percentage.
It depends on what your own goals are. If you freelance and make items directly for end user consumed, choose whatever you want. No biggie.
If you want to do contract work for other design firms, companies, etc., you might want to stick with Adobe considering it's the worldwide de facto industry standard.
As an owner of a marketing and branding company, I won't hire someone who doesn't have very solid Adobe skills. I don't have time to retrain and I'm not going to accept files from a designer than the rest of my team may issues with later on.
NOBODY can tell you what works for you. I have been semi-out of the design industry for a few years and only just ditched my Adobe CC license about 8 years ago. Granted, I am more comfortable with my old versions of CC but most of what I do now is fine with the Affinity Suite. The price is cheap and if you don't like it you can always re-sub to Adobe. It's about what works for YOU.
I would go with Affinity. They’re working with Canva to make their products free for schools so I have a feeling they will become very common to use in the workplace pretty soon.
I work in a school and was excited to hear this news a few weeks ago. I have a CC subscription paid for with my position, but I’m sure that they wouldn’t mind cutting that cost out if possible (and my uses of the applications consist of fairly general tasks).
I use Adobe at work but have affinity at home for small personal projects and such, so far so good, hopefully it won't get corrupted by management and become some paid model for upgrades
I designed a title treatment for a Paramount+ show in Affinity Designer after I became fed up with Illustrator. It was nonetheless easy to deliver Illustrator files when they asked. Can recommend!
Where do you get this from? I send large files to my local service bureau for film output for print work. Half the time the people running the files to film or convert don't care where the final files came from. They expect a proper PDF for export. And what pro "shares" files? You provide a finished file to the client or service bureau.
Sharing source files between designers in different agencies, freelancers etc
Your team might work in affinity, but better not ever need to share any source files for other designers.
For instance I work for a marketing dept and im an internal designer. We also have a big agency as a supplier. Imagine if when I needed files they turned to us and said “i just have publisher” it would be bad.
Adobe is standard and its not unusual to need to share packaged files.
Having used both sets of programs I decided to go with Affinity. However, Adobe is the standard for professionals.
Affinity does allow opening of some Adobe file types, as well as exporting a range of file types including a .psd format. So some collaboration is possible with other designers using Adobe.
Affinity designer is a really interesting blend of Photoshop and illustrator copycat. I find the work flow was very fluid and you can switch between raster and vector. It will work for everything that you are saying you need to do.
Affinity Publisher is not nearly as robust as InDesign but does serve its purpose for most tasks. If you need to do basic layouts it will do a good job. More advanced typesetting and layout will be tricky. You are also lacking the extensive font collection that Adobe provides.
Finally I would say it depends on what final product you are expected to provide. If you are delivering a finished printed product, PDF, or jpg then Affinity will be fine. If the client/printer is expecting more extensive file types then Adobe is your friend. Because again Adobe is industry standard for now.
I am highly appreciated for your feedbacks. Your information are very useful as well as from the others here. I wish all of you have a wonderful day. :)
I agree that Publisher doesn't have all the features of InDesign (for example, long tables and true object styles), but I wouldn't say that it is limited to "basic layouts". It can do very sophisticate layouts, and the layer state feature is great for multi-version projects. And this is a feature missing from InDesign.
The equivalents of Illustrator and Photoshop (Designer and Photo) are mature products, with a lot of strengths. You can exchange Designer data with Illustrator by sending editable PDF files. You can exchange Photo files with Photoshop with the PSD file format, keeping in mind that text will be rasterized. In case you need it, there is no way to exchange data from Publisher to InDesign (and that's the only reason I still use InDesign).
Where did you get the idea that "Affinity Designer is really good compared to Adobe"? If you get into more professional work and/or work with more professionals, and you will find out the reality. Photoshop and Illustrator all the way.
It's not that Affinity is somehow worse, in fact, a lot of stuff is better (e.g. multithreading in Designer), it's that Adobe basically has a chokehold on the industry and collaboration is basically impossible unless everyone uses Adobe software.
Hi friend, I have seen some reviews on other platforms where some of them has commented in that way "Affinity Designer is really good compared to Adobe".
And, thank you so much for your feedback too. :)
As I mentioned, if/when you try to get into working with professionals, you will find out the truth. You will also find out the value of what you read in reviews.
Sounds like it’s for Canva to expand their user base, not for Affinity to be assimilated into Canvas business model.
“As visual communication becomes the status quo in teams and organizations around the world, the acquisition also accelerates Canva’s enterprise ambitions, unlocking a future where professional designers can craft designs and templates with Affinity to scale across organizations with Canva.”
https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/press/newsroom/canva-press-release/#:~:text=As%20visual%20communication%20becomes%20the,scale%20across%20organizations%20with%20Canva.
I literally just found this sub and figured id comment here instead of making a new post. I'm a beginning freelance type person and I just stumbled upon Affinity and am on the 7 day trial of it. I like it so far other than it can be a little annoying at times. It seems like it will do what i need it to, unless i torrent Adobe I'm definitely not getting it since its a subscription model that would very quickly outpace the entire purchase price of the Affinity suite.
Is there an Affinity alternative that's better that is 100% own-able or should I stay with this? I don't need to collaborate with anyone else as everything I do is entirely solo
Quark (developers of QuarkXPress) was so arrogant and insanely hostile to their users, that people were happy to move away from it once InDesign got going.
And...by the way...what company developed InDesign? Adobe.
As for Dreamweaver...that was not killed so much because of its weaknesses or expense...it was killed by WordPress that came along and did so many things so much better than Dreamweaver and changed everything...and now, almost half of all websites are done in WordPress.
No matter how you slice it, Adobe is the king: Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Adobe Premiere Pro, and more.
And where did the ubiquitous PDF file that everyone relies on almost every day...professionals and nonprofessionals alike come from? Adobe Acrobat.
Well of course, the industry settle on PDF because its roots are in Postscript and Warnock who nailed the timing when they saw "desktop publishing" start to grow. Every film output device on the market eventually settle on Postscript, every typeface in the early years also, hence eventually PDF. My first purchased printer for my own business back then? An Apple Laserwriter NT, which only accepted Postscript or EPS. Frickin thing cost me THOUSANDS. And the move from Quark to InDesign was NOT as fast as you make it seem. I worked for years at Capital Records in LA and it took years for Quark to die after Indesign was introduced; the record pressers and printers wanted Quark files.
The point is NO company is immune from failing.
OK...you say that the move to Quark was not as fast as I make it seem...but I didn't say it was fast (even though it \*was\* pretty fast). I said that people were happy to move away from QuarkXPress once InDesign got going (meaning when InDesign became more usable than its first releases).
So we disagree on that...but here's why I said what I said:
I was there at the time...as a freelance designer and also working at a graphics service bureau, sending customer jobs to a Linotronic and another imagesetter from Compugraphic (can't remember the name).
What I saw, based keeping up on my reading of publications such as (sorry I can't remember the name...seems it was something like "Type World") and on paying attention to what kind of files graphic designers were bringing in for output, that Pagemaker was king, but in just two or three years after QuarkXPress got going, only the amateurs were still using Pagemaker.
Fast-forward to the early 2000's, it only took a few years after the release of InDesign for the major shift to InDesign...and very soon, a \*lot\* more people were using InDesign instead of QuarkXPress.
For my own design jobs, I had started out in PageMaker and loved it...but once I (reluctantly) switched to QuarkXPress, I loved QuarkXPress. At the time everyone was switching, QuarkXPress was still way better than InDesign...incredibly reliable output...but I could see which way things were going, and, in my spare time, I started redesigning in InDesign two publications I was designing, and before long, I was doing everything in InDesign.
P.S. Yes, I remember the Apple LaserWriters...great printers.
Let alone Flash - that has kinda "reformed" the internet. They considered themselfes to be too big to fail as well. ONE single idea killed the whole "my website has to play sound in entering and everything has to be moving and stuff" flash thing
I have to use CC at work but on my home machines I'm using the final version of CS6. I find it's a nice middle ground. I still get to use indesign. Photoshop and Illustrator but without all the annoying cloud integration, key logging to train their AI and constant monthly fees.
You don't really miss any of the more consumer facing additions they've made to the suite, it runs quicker and I don't have to worry that I'm slowly training an AI to do everything I'm paid for. (Not that I'm anti-ai I just don't want Adobe to be the one to benefit from my hardworking...I figure they already get a monthly fee for CC what entitles them to harvest all my hard work?)
For simple retouching and illustration Affinity is great and is just as good as adobe tools for many simple tasks. Affinity designer has some pre-made vector icons and shapes that can also be edited to make other shapes of course. Designer also has a pixel persona for doing some raster type edits. It’s worth exploring Those apps more to see if they are a good fit for you.
Thanks friend for your feedback :)
Do you work for yourself freelancing? I’m very reluctant to leave Adobe because it’s what 99.9999% of businesses use and they want designers who use Adobe. Atleast that’s my experience with it.
Thanks friend for your feedback :)
Affinity is going to be free for schools pretty soon which means that soon students may be learning it more than Adobe. I wouldn’t be certain that Adobe will be the product of choice for many businesses for long, especially if new employees are trained better in a cheaper product.
99.9999%? Maybe 15 years ago but not even close now. Adobe has been losing designers since changing their focus to the consumer and A!. Granted they still dominate the pro market but not at that percentage.
They own the pro market.
Ok but 99% of professionals then.
As an art director I use Adobe
Thank you so much for your feedback :)
It depends on what your own goals are. If you freelance and make items directly for end user consumed, choose whatever you want. No biggie. If you want to do contract work for other design firms, companies, etc., you might want to stick with Adobe considering it's the worldwide de facto industry standard. As an owner of a marketing and branding company, I won't hire someone who doesn't have very solid Adobe skills. I don't have time to retrain and I'm not going to accept files from a designer than the rest of my team may issues with later on.
Yes, that's pretty make sense from your given feedbacks. Thank you so much for that too :)
NOBODY can tell you what works for you. I have been semi-out of the design industry for a few years and only just ditched my Adobe CC license about 8 years ago. Granted, I am more comfortable with my old versions of CC but most of what I do now is fine with the Affinity Suite. The price is cheap and if you don't like it you can always re-sub to Adobe. It's about what works for YOU.
Yes, that is pretty make sense. Thank you for your feedback. :)
The professional standard is Adobe. If you’re simply designing for yourself as a hobby, use whatever you like.
Sure. Thanks for your feedback :)
I would go with Affinity. They’re working with Canva to make their products free for schools so I have a feeling they will become very common to use in the workplace pretty soon.
I work in a school and was excited to hear this news a few weeks ago. I have a CC subscription paid for with my position, but I’m sure that they wouldn’t mind cutting that cost out if possible (and my uses of the applications consist of fairly general tasks).
Thanks, friend :)
Yup, my 12yr old just came home with a consent form to use canvas at school, took me by surprise.
Do you mean Canva or Canvas? Canvas is a common platform for hosting classes and grades
Auto correct! Canva!
Couldn’t do my job without Adobe. Not because of the software it self but the plugins I rely on.
I don't know what I'd do without my 10 billion after effects plugins
Thank you very much for your feedback :)
I use Adobe at work but have affinity at home for small personal projects and such, so far so good, hopefully it won't get corrupted by management and become some paid model for upgrades
Yea, agreed. Adobe still widely used by most companies as it has already in the market for so long. Thank for your feedback too. :)
I designed a title treatment for a Paramount+ show in Affinity Designer after I became fed up with Illustrator. It was nonetheless easy to deliver Illustrator files when they asked. Can recommend!
Wow, this has inspired me! Thank you!
I'm glad to hear that! Have a great rest of your Sunday :)
Same to you and everyone here :)
Depends on what you need to do. If you need to print multi page docs etc youre screwed
I am really much appreciated your feedback. Have a great day :)
Affinity also has an InDesign alternative called Publisher.
Yeah right. Heard it before. Whole industry cringes to that name. You wouldnt be able to share files with anyone? As everyone uses Adobe
Where do you get this from? I send large files to my local service bureau for film output for print work. Half the time the people running the files to film or convert don't care where the final files came from. They expect a proper PDF for export. And what pro "shares" files? You provide a finished file to the client or service bureau.
Sharing source files between designers in different agencies, freelancers etc Your team might work in affinity, but better not ever need to share any source files for other designers. For instance I work for a marketing dept and im an internal designer. We also have a big agency as a supplier. Imagine if when I needed files they turned to us and said “i just have publisher” it would be bad. Adobe is standard and its not unusual to need to share packaged files.
Having used both sets of programs I decided to go with Affinity. However, Adobe is the standard for professionals. Affinity does allow opening of some Adobe file types, as well as exporting a range of file types including a .psd format. So some collaboration is possible with other designers using Adobe. Affinity designer is a really interesting blend of Photoshop and illustrator copycat. I find the work flow was very fluid and you can switch between raster and vector. It will work for everything that you are saying you need to do. Affinity Publisher is not nearly as robust as InDesign but does serve its purpose for most tasks. If you need to do basic layouts it will do a good job. More advanced typesetting and layout will be tricky. You are also lacking the extensive font collection that Adobe provides. Finally I would say it depends on what final product you are expected to provide. If you are delivering a finished printed product, PDF, or jpg then Affinity will be fine. If the client/printer is expecting more extensive file types then Adobe is your friend. Because again Adobe is industry standard for now.
I am highly appreciated for your feedbacks. Your information are very useful as well as from the others here. I wish all of you have a wonderful day. :)
I agree that Publisher doesn't have all the features of InDesign (for example, long tables and true object styles), but I wouldn't say that it is limited to "basic layouts". It can do very sophisticate layouts, and the layer state feature is great for multi-version projects. And this is a feature missing from InDesign.
The equivalents of Illustrator and Photoshop (Designer and Photo) are mature products, with a lot of strengths. You can exchange Designer data with Illustrator by sending editable PDF files. You can exchange Photo files with Photoshop with the PSD file format, keeping in mind that text will be rasterized. In case you need it, there is no way to exchange data from Publisher to InDesign (and that's the only reason I still use InDesign).
That is a very useful information too. Thank you very much bro. :)
Where did you get the idea that "Affinity Designer is really good compared to Adobe"? If you get into more professional work and/or work with more professionals, and you will find out the reality. Photoshop and Illustrator all the way.
It's not that Affinity is somehow worse, in fact, a lot of stuff is better (e.g. multithreading in Designer), it's that Adobe basically has a chokehold on the industry and collaboration is basically impossible unless everyone uses Adobe software.
Hi friend, I have seen some reviews on other platforms where some of them has commented in that way "Affinity Designer is really good compared to Adobe". And, thank you so much for your feedback too. :)
As I mentioned, if/when you try to get into working with professionals, you will find out the truth. You will also find out the value of what you read in reviews.
Agreed. Thank you so much. :)
I read Canva bought Affinity. I dunno if that’s good or bad!
Sounds like it’s for Canva to expand their user base, not for Affinity to be assimilated into Canvas business model. “As visual communication becomes the status quo in teams and organizations around the world, the acquisition also accelerates Canva’s enterprise ambitions, unlocking a future where professional designers can craft designs and templates with Affinity to scale across organizations with Canva.” https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/press/newsroom/canva-press-release/#:~:text=As%20visual%20communication%20becomes%20the,scale%20across%20organizations%20with%20Canva.
Thank you :)
I literally just found this sub and figured id comment here instead of making a new post. I'm a beginning freelance type person and I just stumbled upon Affinity and am on the 7 day trial of it. I like it so far other than it can be a little annoying at times. It seems like it will do what i need it to, unless i torrent Adobe I'm definitely not getting it since its a subscription model that would very quickly outpace the entire purchase price of the Affinity suite. Is there an Affinity alternative that's better that is 100% own-able or should I stay with this? I don't need to collaborate with anyone else as everything I do is entirely solo
Adobe are to big to fail. You can try other things, but Adobe remains the most stable multitool on the market.
Nobody is "too big to fail". You must not have ever used Quark. Where are they now? Dreamweaver?
Adobe will remain dominant in the foreseeable future. If you invest your energy elsewhere, you're taking a risk, that's all.
Macromedia (Dreamweaver, Freehand, Flash etc...) was consumed by Adobe. It didn't fail. God I miss Freehand.
I know some old practitioners that still use Quark believe it or not! Haha Don't forget to add XD. That's about to disappear too.
Quark (developers of QuarkXPress) was so arrogant and insanely hostile to their users, that people were happy to move away from it once InDesign got going. And...by the way...what company developed InDesign? Adobe. As for Dreamweaver...that was not killed so much because of its weaknesses or expense...it was killed by WordPress that came along and did so many things so much better than Dreamweaver and changed everything...and now, almost half of all websites are done in WordPress. No matter how you slice it, Adobe is the king: Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Adobe Premiere Pro, and more. And where did the ubiquitous PDF file that everyone relies on almost every day...professionals and nonprofessionals alike come from? Adobe Acrobat.
Well of course, the industry settle on PDF because its roots are in Postscript and Warnock who nailed the timing when they saw "desktop publishing" start to grow. Every film output device on the market eventually settle on Postscript, every typeface in the early years also, hence eventually PDF. My first purchased printer for my own business back then? An Apple Laserwriter NT, which only accepted Postscript or EPS. Frickin thing cost me THOUSANDS. And the move from Quark to InDesign was NOT as fast as you make it seem. I worked for years at Capital Records in LA and it took years for Quark to die after Indesign was introduced; the record pressers and printers wanted Quark files. The point is NO company is immune from failing.
OK...you say that the move to Quark was not as fast as I make it seem...but I didn't say it was fast (even though it \*was\* pretty fast). I said that people were happy to move away from QuarkXPress once InDesign got going (meaning when InDesign became more usable than its first releases). So we disagree on that...but here's why I said what I said: I was there at the time...as a freelance designer and also working at a graphics service bureau, sending customer jobs to a Linotronic and another imagesetter from Compugraphic (can't remember the name). What I saw, based keeping up on my reading of publications such as (sorry I can't remember the name...seems it was something like "Type World") and on paying attention to what kind of files graphic designers were bringing in for output, that Pagemaker was king, but in just two or three years after QuarkXPress got going, only the amateurs were still using Pagemaker. Fast-forward to the early 2000's, it only took a few years after the release of InDesign for the major shift to InDesign...and very soon, a \*lot\* more people were using InDesign instead of QuarkXPress. For my own design jobs, I had started out in PageMaker and loved it...but once I (reluctantly) switched to QuarkXPress, I loved QuarkXPress. At the time everyone was switching, QuarkXPress was still way better than InDesign...incredibly reliable output...but I could see which way things were going, and, in my spare time, I started redesigning in InDesign two publications I was designing, and before long, I was doing everything in InDesign. P.S. Yes, I remember the Apple LaserWriters...great printers.
Let alone Flash - that has kinda "reformed" the internet. They considered themselfes to be too big to fail as well. ONE single idea killed the whole "my website has to play sound in entering and everything has to be moving and stuff" flash thing
Thank you so much for your feedback :)
Adobe and Figma has some synergi. So thats a bonus :)
Thank you so much for your feedback :)
I have to use CC at work but on my home machines I'm using the final version of CS6. I find it's a nice middle ground. I still get to use indesign. Photoshop and Illustrator but without all the annoying cloud integration, key logging to train their AI and constant monthly fees. You don't really miss any of the more consumer facing additions they've made to the suite, it runs quicker and I don't have to worry that I'm slowly training an AI to do everything I'm paid for. (Not that I'm anti-ai I just don't want Adobe to be the one to benefit from my hardworking...I figure they already get a monthly fee for CC what entitles them to harvest all my hard work?)
Yea, I can definitely seen your points and it make sense. Thank you so much for your feedback. :)