Affinity Designer VS Illustrator | All You Need To Know
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 ก.พ. 2023
- Affinity Designer and Adobe Illustrator are currently the two heaviest hitters in the world of premium vector design software. Despite the fact that they both function in a way that is fundamentally similar, they also have a lot of differences between them, and those differences are significant enough to make choosing between them a real dilemma. In this video we'll be comparing the two.
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I'm changing from Adobe to affinity. I had to use the Adobe Cloud for the last 4,5 years for college. Almost 1000€ spend at this time as a student with the 50% discount.
Got affinity in a sale last month for 120€ for the universal license. So basically InDesign, illustrator and Photoshop with lesser specialized features. Which a lot of people don't use.
Illustrator had a lot of features I won't use anymore or haven't used in all the time. For the 3d part I will learn an other program. Which one I don't know yet. Maybe blender, maybe something on the iPad.
For the missing tracing tool...I haven't had really good experience with it. It was easier and faster to redo the object that to clean up after the tracing.
But it seems like affinity is really a good alternative for private use. And I'm happy to finally go away from Adobe.
I’m with you on the image tracing. It doesn’t have much use for me, but it’s always the biggest problem users seem to have with affinity whenever I make these videos. For what it’s worth, Inkscape is free and open source and has an image tracer just as good as illustrator. For those who need image tracing they could just download that and use it for nothing else.
Affinity is great, a bit of a learning curve but worth the time
@@DesignMadeSimpleFor Image tracing, you either need it or you don't. I use Illustrator's image tracing every day, but I also own the standalone image tracing software called Vector Magic which costs $300.00. So when people try to diminish the usefulness of it, all they're really saying is that they don't need it. There are many tools that I don't use personally, but I certainly understand that those tools are important to other people. And when you've been doing this work for awhile, you also understand that sometimes you will need a tool that you've never needed before and it is wonderful when you actually have that tool in the toolbox. In the case of Illustrator or Adobe software, those tools are in the box waiting for you. In the case of low cost software those tools are missing and probably will never be available.
@@DesignMadeSimple The thing to understand about vector tracing is that people use it for different reasons. For me, there are two things I can do with it. I can use it to try to reproduce a logo with highest possible accuracy, or I can use it to give a piece of art a "vector" look. Most of the time I'm using it to reproduce a logo with highest quality. Every vector tracing software is different. You mentioned Inkscape. If you were trying to recreate something accurately, Inkscape will yield about the worst results of anything I've tried. Adobe Illustrator is pretty decent, but not great. It does a good job with black and white logos but wants to round corners and has trouble if you try to get nice sharp corners. Coreldraw is not as good as Illustrator, but it does better with sharp corners. The problem with Corel though is that it yields bizarre results sometimes that don't make sense. The best that I have is Vector Magic which costs $300.00. So, like with Illustrator, if people are willing to pay $300.00 for a software that does nothing but vector tracing, there must be a reason for that. It would be great to just grab Inkscape for free and save money. Same with Affinity vs Adobe.
I switched from illustrator to affinity design and I don't regret it, simple to use but powerful, long live affinity
Same here. I love Affinity Designer, especially on the ipad
The shape builder tool was the only true must-have for me. Thanks to Designer V2 I'm all set now. Having said that, true vector brushes, a blend tool equivalent, and vector pattern creation would be *extremely* nice to have.
Affinity 4ever
E agora?
Great comparison, thanks. I've never had Illustrator, but I'm currently learning Affinity Designer, and I kinda like the program.
I love Affinity! Period. Their design workflow for standard stuff like even copy paste and other things are so well thought through and intuitive. They have not only come out with something more cost effective but also better thought through at the same time. The one-time purchase model is so so affordable and realistic. I really wish they start to make video editing apps. Huge fan!
I just got Affinity recently, and the two most important tools that are missing for me are the blend tool and the gradient mesh tool. I don't care about image tracing since the results are often pretty meh, but was really disappointed when I found out that Affinity didn't have those two tools. Granted, I don't use them that often, but they really come in handy when needed.
It's not too surprising that a fairly young app from a small developer (@ $70 all in, one time) doesn't have all the power features of THE seminal, juggernaut graphic design app. But you can bet Affinity devs have been exploring such capabilities for years now, and will eventually bust them out when they're satisfied (and will have put their own innovative spin on them, ta boot).
@@pbasswilSerif is not that small, and Affinity Designer is not that young. You may not know it but Serif has been around for as long as Adobe. And Serif has been developing software like AD for all of that time. The more interesting thing is that Serif did have vector tracing in their old software. The software they were developing just before suddenly discontinuing it and releasing Affinity branded products. The majority of the features in AD are taken directly from Serif's older DrawPlus. Serif also had PhotoPlus and PagePlus. So, as you can see, Serif has been doing this stuff or 30 years. They had vector tracing decades ago. I still have the last versions of their discontinued software. DrawPlus had vector tracing and a number of other features that did not make it into Affinity Designer. The problem, and probably the reason those features never made it into the new software is because they were terrible quality. The vector tracing was a comedy of unpredictability.
I really appreciate this video! I'm looking for cheaper alternatives to Illustrator and wanted to know exactly what I'd be "missing" with affinity. This helps a lot and I'm going to go check out your article now. Thank you!
You are doing great content for AD community.
I love Affinity, but it really needs a brush expand option. I tend to use affinity for social posts, detailed illustrations and things like letterheads. Anything like logos or complex vector shapes, I make in illustrator and they can be used in both. Affinity is so close to replacing Illustrator for me, then I can be done with Adobe once and for all, except photography where lightroom still makes life so much easier.
Brushes can´t be expanded cause they are png based, if you use pencil tool instead of brushes, you can expand it. First you have to set up a stroke press profile, save it, and you have a "brush".
@@vector-modus Yes that's my point. The brushes can be expanded in illustrator, so they need this functionality.
@@fullnerd7975 he gave you the reason why they cannot add this time of feature, it will require a massive rewrite în order to achieve such thing. The workaround is enough imo
Getting more and more familiar with your channels and I have to say they have been wonderful so far. Learning a lot of stuff. But I have a question, one of the reasons that I use Photoshop currently is that, with the addition of an Intel plugin, you have the ability to save as a .dds file for import into Madden 24. I am a modder and that file format is a must have. Does Affinity have ability to both read and save a file in the dds format?
Affinity Designer for illustration is great :), I like this program very much.
Affinity rocks! I still have one copy of Illustrator for plugin support for printers and plotters, and that's about all I use it for anymore, they still kind of have you locked into their environment with that yet. I use Affinity for everything, have been for a few years now, it's quicker and more efficient, as a designer it has all the tools I use daily. If you get the universal license you have access to all Affinity software for any device, including ipad. If equipment manufacturers ever get on board with adding support for their devices with Affinity, there won't be much of a need to pay that subscription price. V2.1 is in beta and should be out soon, even more features that were once only found in Illustrator.
Looking forward to 2.1!
the only reason why I chose affinity products is because when you spend money on it, you actually own it, adobe made big mistake and I'm sure they'll regret it because competition never sleeps
The low cost software and free stuff tends to focus on creative work. Expensive software tends to include the things necessary for production work. That is why Adobe, Quark, Corel etc are able to get a steep price for their software. Affinity just did something crazy though. They doubled the price of their software from version 1 to 2. That's nuts, but it shows that at the end of the day, they are exactly like any other company. If they felt that they could charge more they would do it in a heartbeat. Realistically they are never going to catch Adobe and really aren't even trying. They are doing great business in the lane they are currently in, the same lane they've been in for 30 years. This is the problem with these comparisons. It makes it seem as if these are comparable products. They're similar in the way that a 18 wheeler is similar to a small pickup truck.
@@KuttyJoe I've been a designer since the mid 90's, and until just a few years ago I was all about Adobe. It all depends on what you do. I'm in the sign industry, and do large format printing, so I don't need most of the features that comes with that subscription price, 98+% of what I do is straight up vector. Like most shops in this field I don't do photography, don't do video editing, large format printing needs to be as much vector as possible for clarity, and Affinity fits every aspect. With Adobe I'm just paying for features I'll never use, and have to wade through them for what I do need. Less clicking, less menu surfing, and less software bloat saves time.
I'll never say Adobe isn't good, but it's like buying that 18 wheeler to haul groceries home, the pickup is a better choice, and more economical for much of the industry. I don't use tracing, by the time you edit what it does to make it printable I can do a better job drawing than it does, so even those features don't make it better. In most production design scenarios Affinity is a great choice, and well suited for production work.
As far as pricing goes, their staff needs to get paid too, it's a business. Even if they doubled the price again, it would still be a fraction of what Adobe charged way back in the 90's when you could still buy it.
@@longroth4882 It's good to see comments from people with long experience. Yet when you speak of wading through things and paying for features you'll never use, it doesn't sound like someone who has been at this for decades. I've also been at it for decades and I've never had a thought like, "wading through features". I don't know how that works. What I do experience is needing tools that are not in the toolbox and Adobe tends to have all the tools I need even if I can ignore the ones I don't. If you're clicking and menu surfing, then it still sounds like pilot error. The last thing I want to do is surf menus and why would I ever do that when everything in Adobe software can be accessed without ever digging into a menu? Like I said, this is pilot error. But if I had to dig into a menu for a tool vs not having it at all then it would still be an easy choice. In Affinity software, I dig through the menus only to find that actually the tool just isn't there anyway.
"I'll never say Adobe isn't good, but it's like buying that 18 wheeler to haul groceries home, the pickup is a better choice, and more economical for much of the industry."
I make a similar analogy all the time and you explain it almost perfectly. The better explanation is that there 18 wheeler is for people who need 18 wheelers. The pickup is for people who need pickups. The problem is that we are trying to compare the two as if they are comparable. And many people get the impression that they are comparable and one is just a big old dumb giant truck that I don't need to pay for. That is a mistake and one that is inspired by all of the comparison videos by people who probably have little actual experience with Adobe software. These are people who just draw or digital painting and they think, "Affinity Photo does that. People should dump Adobe." It's a mistake.
"I don't use tracing, by the time you edit what it does to make it printable I can do a better job drawing than it does"
OK, you've just jumped the shark. LOL I don't know if you know what that means or not but you probably get the idea. Come on buddy. Now you sound ridiculous. At first you just seemed a little too motivated to believe what you're saying but now you're really getting ridiculous. Illustrator has a pretty good vector tracing solution. I uses it specifically for print work so I know what I'm saying here. I also own Vector Magic which costs about $300.00. Sometimes Illustrator yields a better result and sometimes Vector magic does. This is not something I take lightly because I'm making money off it, but you're talking out your nether region now.
" In most production design scenarios Affinity is a great choice, and well suited for production work."
Wow. If that were remotely true, I would have dropped Adobe years ago. And probably the rest of the world of production. There has to be some reason why we are still paying a lot of money for Adobe.
"As far as pricing goes, their staff needs to get paid too, it's a business. Even if they doubled the price again, it would still be a fraction of what Adobe charged way back in the 90's when you could still buy it."
And you still get what you pay for. Back to the 18 wheeler vs the pickup truck is again a perfect analogy here. I don't know what a 18 wheeler costs but I imagine it is far more expensive than the pickup truck you're driving to get groceries. Nowhere in this world do you get more than you pay for. Serif is getting in where they fit in. And where they fit is that space where people don't need an 18 wheeler and aren't interested in paying that kind of money. It helps Serif's bottom line that they are also delusional in thinking that they're still getting pretty much the same as the 18 wheeler for pickup pricing.
Affinity Designer ❤️
Is your affinity designer course for desktop or iPad version?
It strikes me as kind of weird to hear that Affinity Designer does not have an equivalent to gradient meshes, seeing as Inkscape, a totally free vector graphics program, does actually have that tool! But I guess it might be missing because the devs figured that for any kind of complex gradients, you're probably gonna want to switch over to the raster workspace anyway.
Honestly Adobe is no stranger to patenting tech
Inkscape has been around for a decade longer, so I'm not surprised.
Over 20 years ago I bought both PS and AI for Windows for expensive money. Then came the cloud, I didn't like this version at all. A little over 2 years ago I quit and gave away my laptop. A month ago I bought a Macbook and just wanted to do photo editing. Somewhere there was still a love for graphics and somehow while searching I found Affinity Designer as well as Photo. Bought both and very happy with them. practice a little and have fun with it. A really good software and the price/performance ratio is very decent. When I think about the fact that I paid the equivalent of around €600 each for the two CS6 versions around 20 years ago. really recommended and independent of the cloud!
I used to use Vectornator which became Curve which then changed into a ridiculously limited app now unless you pay a monthly fee. I think Affinity might be a good choice. I wonder if you could do a comparison with Curve?
I purchased the Affinity suite for £119 which is great value. Designer now has a shape builder tool and vector flood fill tool which places it very close to Illustrator. However, it's missing gradient meshes - which I can live with. I would love Affinity to come out with an Animate CC killer. That would be the icing on the cake.
Inkscape is good with filling the gaps between Illustrator and Designer. It has mesh gradients for example. It's free and open source too.
I am looking to replace the Adobe creative cloud, suite and have come across affinity for the one time payment for the V2 license. Does that include all the affinity products?
Yup, all of them
I want to know, is there like donut tool in Illustrator ?
My mother told me: Success is a bright sun, no matter how long the clouds and winter last, and this explains the idea that (most human and alien beings have not heard of Affinity )
For the few differences that can be achieved in a free software like Inkscape for me there is no justification to pay that amount of money for using A Illustrator. With some months of payment you can get the whole set of Affinity in one payment and create whatever you desire. And complement with plugins that are amazing.
Exactly. I mean, why buy a big diesel truck when all you need is a economy car? But, the big diesel trucks exist for a reason.
I worked in Illustrator for over 10 years. When using ai generated art not theirs, it continually gave me an error unknown. This has never happened before. I have done some complicated art. So I have tried AFD2, and find it rewarding but very slow and tasks are bogged down. It’s frustrating. But since Ilustrstor continues to error, I will continue using AD2 for some projects. I think it needs to step up to the plate and get some adrenaline pumped into it. I like the art I have made using it but it is too slow at least for me.
Affinity Designer definitely needs an image auto-trace function.
i have a new 2022 ipad pro and illustrator lags and bugs out so bad i cant use it.
I have the same problem! Everytime I open Illustrator or photoshop and try to open a new canvas, the screen starts bugging out bad.
@@chronicfish affinity designer works really well so far. I’m giving up on illustrator, wasting to much time and I’m not paying a subscription for something that bugs out so bad
Anyone can tell when the next Affinity discount will start?
Good question.
today
so is designer the illustrator competition and photo is the photoshop competition?
I use Inkscape for image tracing, blends & pattern along a path, which allows bending & stretching a blend along a path. Not ideal, but I don't need to subscribe to Adobe.
This video missed answering a very important question: If you are used to using one, can you easily get used to using the other? How different are the user interfaces and menus?
It depends on how motivated you are.
sibilance
Affinity Designer is ALMOST a professional vector tool. But the lack of an image trace feature is an embarrassment. Even basic FREE vector software has this feature. Until Affinity gets off their butts and includes such a feature, they are not ready for prime time.
@Fredddy We don't need BETTER. we just need the basic functionality. And since open source software has the basic functionality, we're not talking about having to come up with new algorithms. Furthermore, I don't care how small they are. Since they want to take on the big boys, they can't whine about being a small company. If you crawl into the ring with the heavyweight champ, you don't get to whine about being smaller and not having the resources to train properly.
@Fredddy I'm not having a go at you. But I'm not impressed with a company that wants to compete with the big boys and then complains that their products don't have basic functionality because they are a small company. And the fact that they already have the code makes it even worse.
Sure, we have other alternatives. But why should we pay for their product when it lacks the basic functionality that Inkscape has?
This is the downside of closed source programs. If it were to free open source software, anybody could contribute to it to implement such functions. With closed source, all you can do is hope it will get implemented soon.
@@CCoburn3Serif never wanted to compete with Adobe. They wanted to give the appearance of wanting to compete with Adobe. It was all just marketing. Serif has occupied the "home user" space for 30 years. They did not change this business model when they came out with Affinity, but they capitalized on Adobe's subscription pricing and convinced a lot of people that they were gunning for Adobe. 6 years later and they are as far from Adobe as they were from the first day they released a product. They are not trying to catch up with Adobe, and if they did the price would be similar to Adobe pricing. Or worse. When Serif released version 2 of Affinity, the price was DOUBLE! How often do you get charged the full price of software for a small upgrade? Or even a large upgrade? It doesn't happen. That should tell you how Serif thinks.
@@KuttyJoe I agree that they don't give a big rat's rear about their customers. But that is short-sighted. Already, photo editors with AI have rendered Affinity Photo obsolete. And the vector programs will be the next to get AI. Affinity will drop further and further behind. And since they didn't listen to their customers, I don't think customer loyalty will save them.
I only ever use Adobe products when it's mandatory by the client. Affinity was a life saver for me.
Then you are probably not very good with those tools. When you don't use a tool, you also forget how to use it. Use it or lose it, as they used to say.
@@KuttyJoe I do just fine with "those tools". I simply prefer the Affinity apps as I find them to be more intuitive.
@@EuvariYou don't simply prefer Affinity apps, you simply don't need more. If you simply needed more tools then Affinity apps simply wouldn't get the job done. If you need a screwdriver and all you have is a hammer what will you do? Use the hammer because it's intuitive? LOL. I think you will go shopping for screwdrivers.
@@KuttyJoe I literally just prefer the work flow of Affinity over Adobe. You seem to be taking my preference of apps personal. Use what you like, and I'll continue to do the same.
@@Euvari What I said was a simple fact. You seem to be in some kind of denial of it. You ate free to delude yourself however makes you feel better. I don't get paid by either Adobe or Serif, I'm just stuck in the real world.
Hmm I'd prefer complex logos though. I guess more research is needed...
Well, tbh not having a image trace isn't a problem tbh cuz the one in illustrator is hilariously bad
I saved a lot of money using Affinity Designer way easier and do what I need to do
people doubt me a lot when i say i use affinity ._. like
For anyone learning to become a designer/digital artist: learn your adobe, dont get used to GIMP, inkscape, affinity etc. it dosent matters how much feature affinity has since it is not "industry standard". Yes it make small design work esay but for a junior designer (aka me) it is better off just learning adobe and never touch anything else as most higher up will just ask "Do you know adobe/ use illustrator to make this" and accept no alternative. From my experience, learning AD1 was a mistake as i became more familar with it then Ai/Ph and found myself translating between them. P.S.Sorry if my english sucks
Yes, its true.ADOBE is all the way to go, now and future. Affinity is for kid
I have returned to Adobe. Adobe is superb! I have Affinity, as well. But the cost of Adobe is acceptable!! Very, very good software.
No real perspective grid with vanishing points to draw in perspective, no real vector brushes, no real blend tool, no 3d tools, no realistic materials, no pattern editor, no dimension s tool, no Ai powered tools etc.
What the hell do you need AI powered tools for? Are you actually a designer using Illustrator or just seething bro. I've been using illustrator for professional work for soo long and I have never touched that or even the 3D tools or realistic materials at all.
Drink water before you record next
Hahahaha
Don't forget Adobe is going to also charge you a 40$ cancelation fee even if your doing a month to month subscription. Snakes.
The audio on this video is quite bad. Can hear you lips smacking constantly. I hope the rest of your content is not like this.
Adobe Illustrator is a total rip-off in terms of pricing, but comparing these two programs is a joke. Illustrator is a way more sophisticated and professional program than Designer, which is the weakest of the three Affinity apps. Try creating a dashed border around a rectangle in Designer... the corners are a mess the way they were in Illustrator 3.0 20+ years ago. Affinity has no vector brush function, no auto-tracing, no blending function, no gradients on a curve. Its warp mesh is extremely limited. Designer has a long, long way to go, which is too bad because I'd love to be able to say so long to Illustrator and Adobe.
For many professionals ( or at least those that take their work seriously )
One of the main problems with 'Affinity' is - "the brushes aren't vector".
This is a serious issue. Bitmap images along a vector path is just botched, crude nonsense.
Affinity is the tool for designers and amateurs who can't draw and are on a tight budget.
If you don't like the tool, stop blaming and nameshaming people that use it, just go away and be happy with your workflow, pro.
@@TheMemagNeman Up upon the lights that glow, bow beaten blow, you must follow your own workflow, now to hiss and spit is so below, all is slow, under foot below, for you can only know, as much as your big toe, when you start to cry and crow, for what you owe, is all you have left to show.
@@commonwunder yeah,might be better off rhyming than using graphic tools, good luck!
Adobe are leeches, Affinity is great and it's not even close the price difference over a few years.