Should you use Affinity Designer, Photo, & Publisher?
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 มิ.ย. 2024
- In this video, I want to help answer a lot of questions I've been getting about the Affinity applications by Serif (Affinity Designer, Photo, and Publisher). We're going to be covering what each of these apps do, their main features, the pros and cons of using them, and how they stack up against the competition.
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CHAPTERS:
00:00 Intro
02:09 A bit of history
03:28 Enter Affinity
04:54 How I found Affinity
05:48 Affinity Features
06:45 My old workflow
07:41 My new workflow
08:10 More Affinity Features
09:17 App connectivity
11:02 Portability
12:01 Let's talk cons
12:56 Con 1
13:48 Con 2
15:01 Con 3
15:30 Con 4
16:08 Con 5
17:20 Other Affinity apps
17:42 The ultimate question
19:23 Some advice
20:35 Outro
We need to start using more things from other companies instead of considering normal to give such a big control of an entire industry to a single company. This kills the evolution of that industry
100% this! Couldn't agree with this statement more!
I call that as Monopoly, We should not stand with that, you need to own anything you pay for.
Happy to have discovered Affinity as someone who's new to graphic design.
Definitely a good place to start if you're new. Good luck on your journey! :)
Yes! Used Adobe for 22 years. Switched myself & my company to Affinity this year & not looking back. Love it! Thanks for the video!
You definitely can use Affinity for professional purposes. I do so. On my workflow I use Davinci Studio, Blender, Affinity photo and design. Never looked back!
Such a fantastic combo you have going on there! Love all of these apps so much :D
I wish I could get away from Adobe :( Everyone around me is using Premiere so it's hard to get away from the ecosystem. I'm actually still using Fireworks heavily and I'm finally looking into switching to Affinity.
What about Ai files?
In future updates, I dream of adding animation functionality to Affinity Designer and Photo, just like in Krita and Clip Studio. Other than that, the Affinity ecosystem has everything I need. And with the release of the second version, it has become even faster and more streamlined.
I like the Affinity programs very much. If you catch them at the right time they go on sale a couple times a year. I bought my Affinity Photo for $25 and Designer for $25 last year during a sale. You cant beat that!
I'm waiting for one of those sales 😂
V2 is currently on sale.
Love Affinity products! I own all three
Nice. I'm hoping to make a couple of eBooks with Publisher some day.
Interesting video. Thanks for taking the time to share. I have used Photoshop for a long time. As a student - not of graphic design - I bought Photoshop CS2. Alas, I ordered it just as CS3 came out, and Adobe kept me waiting for about 6 weeks before shipping the software.
I contacted them on several occasions, hoping to upgrade to the newest version. However, Adobe were unwilling to compromise.
Now, back then, many of the people using Adobe products were doing so on pirated copies. So, you can imagine, I was rather disappointed with Adobe's attitude.
Anyway, as a non-professional, I didn't really feel that I'd missed out on too much, as I was able to carry on with CS2 for many years.
That is when the next crunch moment came. When I upgraded my computer and version of Windows, I was unable to install CS2. When I contacted Adobe, I was told that I'd have to upgrade to the latest version.
As it happened, I was able to find a workaround, by changing some of the settings in Windows.
So, I was able to continue editing my photos with the 'crappy old' version of Photoshop.
By now, of course, I was working, and could easily have purchased the latest copy of Photoshop. Alas, the subscription model had been introduced. No thanks!
Luckily, that is when Serif started shipping Affinity photo. I downloaded the trial, and within days decided to purchase the full product.
Like you, I'm no Apple fan, but I actually purchased an iPad just so that I could use Affinity Photo when I was out and about.
As I write, version 2.0 has been released, and here in the UK, the whole suite - Photo, Designer and Publisher are available across all platforms for just £89. Well, I probably don't need the new features of version 2.0, but I have been excited about the release of Publisher on the iPad, so thought I may as well go for the intro' price for the whole package.
For anyone out there, wondering if it is worth taking a punt on Serif's Affinity suite, I suggest taking advantage of the free trial period: I'm sure you will not be disappointed.
This is a helpful video. 👏🏼The financial implications you cover are on point. I love Adobe, but it has been hard to keep up with the subscription model. I have not tried affinity yet, the more I learn about it, the more I want to try it. Also, it’s so good when I find a video from Australia, ❤ kudos to you, love your videos!
Thanks so much! Yeah, I completely agree. I guess the only good side of Adobe's price point is you have more to claim on tax if you're running your own business, but aside from that, it's still an awful lot. I think the AI integration has definitely helped justify some of that cost in recent years though, but I'll be sticking to the free Stable Diffusion for now.
I am super new to graphic design and I bought all three programs and I bought their workbook for affinity photo as a starting point. I struggled to find an affordable training program where I could watch and learn how to use the affinity suite. I am very happy with the book so far but very much not an expert but very eager to learn. Thank you for your input and all that you do. I appreciate you.
Thank you so much for saying that, I really appreciate the kind words. I guess that's another thing I forgot to mention in my videos - That there are fewer learning resources out there for these apps. Illustrator courses are everywhere, but Affinity has a ways to go yet.
My primary focus is on photography and video production often related to my political activism. I use the Affinity suite along with DaVinci Resolve (studio version) for my video editing and motion graphics.With motion graphics I often first construct the graphic elements with Affinity designer and animate them in the Fusion module of DaVinci.
I am about 8 months into a job at a photo lab that has been around since before I was born. At work, I have access to Adobe CC for free. As a freelance graphic designer, I use the Affinity Suite exclusively and have been doing so for the past 2 years. It is nice to have access to Adobe's Creative Cloud and all the apps; however, when I switched to Affinity 2, I bought the option that gives me a license on all available platforms. I can use Affinity for my business at home on my Mac mini, on my iPad pro, on the go, and on the PC I use at work. I still use Adobe CC at work when I have to. Affinity has spoiled me with its speed and efficiency and makes my workday more seamless.
That's awesome to hear! Hope the job is going well, and glad to hear you're still getting the most out of Affinity even with access to Adobe :)
OMG, it really worked. Thank you so much!!
I bought CS5 and CS6 packs ages ago for my Masters in Fine Arts, and U hung on to those for the longest time, but there came a time when, to update and reinstall those I still had to be on the CREATIVE CLOUD, even though I was not subscribing to any current Adobe Apps. So last year I decided to look around for replacements.
I revisited Paint Shop Pro - which I used to use before CS4 and 6 - but it hadn't improved much. Besides, the big things that I liked about PSP were its customisation, and that you could mix pixels and vectors, to a certain degree. I had also used FIREWORKS to produce a webcomic constructed from screenshots made from virtual worlds. It was quite good for placing images, creating speech balloons and text (spellchecker), and exporting. But FW was discontinued almost a decade ago!
When I looked at Affinity Photo and Designer, I found that I could load and save to/with PSD files and AI, almost seamlessly. I loved the mix of pixel and vector tools, had spellchecker, and numerous exporting options. I bought both and retired my CS6 Adobe apps. Haven't needed them yet.
But yes, there were a couple of functions that would be handy, like an Illustrator Trace, and transparency gamuts that you can customise with colours and size. There's work-arounds for all of these of course, but they would be nice.
Definitely agree with those extra features, I want them in this suite so badly. Glad you're able to save some money with them though :)
Great video! I agree with your logical and practical analisys!! Hi from São Paulo, Brazil. I use Affinity Designer on iPad a lot and love the App!
Thanks so much! Absolutely love the iPad version, they did such a good job porting it.
Really appreciate your honest opinions based on years of experience. It shed new light for me on the industry.
Happy to hear it helped :)
That was a very clear talk. You included a nice medium level of detail. You didn't look as if you were reading, but there were almost no "ummm"s, "like"s and "I mean, you know, it's kind of like"s, which not many of us can dispense with when talking off the top of our head. I wish I could present like that. Even if I manage to avoid filler words, my delivery is very jerky because I keep stopping to choose my next word.
Thanks for the kind feedback! I actually do a tonne of retakes. I have Tourette's and choose to edit my tics out of my videos, and aside from that I just stuff up a lot. I have my notes, and just wind up doing the same take again and again. By the time it's all done, it looks really clear and consise. Needless to say - if I can do it, so can you haha. :)
@@RSKT_art Hey, thanks for replying RSKT! If you can do it, maybe one day I will be able to too! And yes, the end result in your video is really clear and concise, and I know from experience that must take a LOT of work.
Excellent! A very concise yet nuanced comparison of Affinity and Adobe. I am on a trial of Designer 2, and am testing how adaptable I am to using it instead. So far the look and feel is _extremely_ similar so I will probably ditch Illustrator. No love lost!
What I found with Affinity Photo and Designer: They use effectively the same file format! Extensions are different, but you can work on them with the other app without problems. Features differ, so AP is better with image editing, AD is better with vector work - and that's the beauty of it: Just switch between both on the same file whenever you need! (Haven't tried it with Affinity Publisher, but maybe it would work there too.)
Great comments!! There are 3 lacks we miss on AD from AI. And yes, the last professional issue you mentioned at the end. I guess u read my mind before the video. Thanks for your honesty also. Tx!!
No worries! Thanks for tuning in :)
I appreciate your honesty ♡👍
Thankyou :)
Ive been trying to find a way to warp in afinity.... glad you made this. I agree with all of what you said. Its a great suite of software really.
You can now warp vector art in Version 2! :)
Thank you, very helpful video!
No problem! Thanks for tuning in :)
This is a super thoughtful and mindful comparison! I have always used adobe, but am looking to switch. Thank you for you breaking it down!❤❤
Your welcome! Glad it was useful to you. Thanks for watching :)
I have years of experience with Adobe since the days of Macromedia. Adobe software is not the only industry standard. Each program ranks differently in certain arenas. Programs like Davinci and Corel dominate. I also tell people to jump to Affinity depending on the goals.
I wasted so much money on Adobe software
👎👎👎
I'm using Affinity (Designer mostly, as you) in my professional work for about 5 years now. And there's still A LOT that I'm missing in Affinity (most of them have you covered in your list) and I came across several bugs and some crashes over the years. That said, I'm still a big fan of the Suite and think they are on a great way and have some KILLER features and workflows. And they are especially great for beginners for that unbeatable price. And even if you later have to switch to Adobe (in your job for example) it shouldn't take you long to learn the ropes.
I just hope Affinity gets back their old update cycle as new features and bugfixes take AGES these days, which is kinda heartbreaking for me. I suppose they keep some features back for a 2.0 version (which I kind of understand).
You're right - if they want to be competitive - they should speed up a lot. perhaps the pandemic slowed them down a bit.
@@MarekSzulikowski That's what I was thinking. Everything started to slow down a lot during that time. Hopefully the updates get better and better as time goes on.
As a non proffessional, totally relying on teaching myself with youtube ( your contant is very helpful👏), I am very happy about the Affinity suite. I do still struggle with a lot of stuff, but I think one can get a decent Illustration just using a few basics. I keep on trying to introduce some more steps you use, to learn more. I tried Adobe, but got frustrated very soon and affinity keeps me going, so that alone is huge thumbs up from me.
Thanks so much for the kind words, I'm really happy to hear my vids have been helping. Definitely check out Affinity's TH-cam channel. I have a video up on there that goes into a lot of detail, and there are so many other artists who have great tutorials on there too. :) Best of luck on your journey!
Very good advise
Hi. You have listed all the features that I also miss most in Affinity. I know Adobe support, but when I design a flyer or a business card, I will do it 10 times faster in Publisher without launching the colossal Indesing interface. In addition to the vector distortion in Desinger, I wish they would introduce more features regarding the composition of the text in the Publisher, which I like very much. In any case, all the cooperation of all applications is simply poetry, and if we add incredible convenience and cooperation with the Ipad versions, there is nothing more to want. I hope the package will evolve (they could speed up a bit).
Those are some good points you raised about Publisher. Definately going to be looking into that more sometime in the future. I guess it's still early days for these guys yet. Really hope they get the ball rolling on some more features soon.
Same thoughts. I love affinity apps.
They are pretty great!
Yoooohooo, i know art cant be clocked but man, i really really miss yor content, so please make more ☝🏻😁
Thanks so much for saying that! I actually have a big art project on the go at the moment which I will eventually be able to shared, but it's for a client can't t be shared right now. I took a break from this channel to do a series on my music channel to help grow it, and it's going really great. It's nearly finished, so I'm hoping to jump back in with some more art projects soon. Might do a quick "sketch with RSKT" episode to help fill everyone in. I've got biiiig plans for both of these channels, so don't worry, this one isn't going to stay quiet forever.
Awesome Stuff!
Ayy thanks mate! Means the world coming from you :)
Love Affinity !!!
It really is great, isn't it? :)
I'm a scientist, and i need vector based applications for making and arranging my diagrams and figures. I use Affinity Designer, and I'm absolutely happy with the outcome. I'll never go back to Adobe. They're expensive, and we need to support alternatives for keeping a healthy competition in the market.
Definitely! I feel like it's best to learn multiple pieces of software, find their strengths and weaknesses, and then choose what route you want to take after that. Glad you found what works best for you! :)
As UX designer I find myself having to sporadically use some graphic or video editing software, the learning curve with Affinity is really low coming from the Adobe suite and now I won't have to install sketchy pirated software on my pc or wait days before the client or my agency gives me access to a shared account that I will be able to use for maybe a day or two because it gets passed around more than a joint...
I will live with the limitations and if I ever get to do some specific work that requires the capability of the Adobe suite I will of course get the access in advance and won't have to beg for it, for all the small work on weekly basis I can count on Affinity
Affinity photo is amazing, being a long time mac user. i bought my first windows pc a couple years back. on mac i use pixelmator pro, thats not on pc so i tried photoshop. i liked it an the neural filters was fun but i never really used them in my work. i think they're more of a party trick. a friend told me about GIMP. "YEA NO" lol so i heard about Affinity photo on youtube, it took a while to learn. but i like how it and how frequency separation is done. an layers an the heal tool i like the preview it gives
I definately agree with you on those features. Affinity Photo is pretty awsome for what it is :)
Well this was so much about Designer. I use Designer much less than Publisher and Photo. I so love Publisher and studiolink. You don't have to open photos and edit and save it and then put layout. Edit just in Publisher. Photo has plugins available and you can do more. Well hope that Serif develop Designer too.
Yeah, sorry about that. I guess I should have geared this whole thing to Designer as I use that the most. I still think the overall point makes sense across all of the apps though, but yeah, my bad.
I have the Affinity Suite and use Designer nearly daily for the last few years. I'm not a graphic designer, so this isn't part of my professional life. Instead, I use for personal/hobby ventures so I'm really happy to have a non-subscription alternative to Adobe that meets my needs. I wish they would make a DAM and give me Lightroom-esque RAW photo editing.
I'm right there wishing that with you mate. Would be such a life saver. Thanks for watching :)
Is there a color separation workflow for screenprinting/transparency screen exposure in any Affinity program?
I'm not too sure to be honest. You might be better off asking around on the official Affinity Forums. Sorry I'm not much more help.
I'm a software application designer and manager. I'm always trying to talk people out of using Adobe products because they are bad, buggy and a mess to make work together. And damned expensive. Krita for the artists, Affinity for the graphic designers, DaVinci Resolve for the video editors and FX people. Still, it's as hard to get those to change package as to get developers to program in a different language. So much "I'm not changing; learning is hard"
That's quite an interesting point you bring up there. I myself always love opening a new program for the first time and learning the ins and outs of it, but I never thought about how other people might not like to do that haha. I guess my biggest concern when learning a new app is "what new tools do I gain and what ones do I have to leave behind?"
You have no idea what you're talking about. You don't even mention production work. In each of those areas, there's production work. If you're an artist working at home and selling a digital image online, then you are probably fine using low cost software. Send you work to a print house to have it printed with pantone colors and the shop will send it back to you to fix it. But you won't know how to fix it, nor will you have the tools to fix it. Unless of course, you call up Adobe or other expensive software company and regain access to the tools that have been doing that work for decades.
There's plenty of truth to people not wanting to learn new tools, but Adobe opened the door wide for Serif to walk in with their newly branded Affinity products when Adobe became a subscription model. If it were possible to simply switch from Adobe to Affinity, more people would do it because most people would prefer to pay 50 bucks, 1 time than to pay hundreds of dollars forever. People who stick with Adobe and Corel and Quark, etc are doing so because they must, not because they are lazy or stupid. The problem with the comparisons is that it suggests that these are comparable programs. They're not. Yes, they have some overlapping tools but the difference between Adobe and Affinity is as big as the difference in cost. I'm not a fan of subscription pricing. When Adobe first went to the subscription model, I stuck with Adobe CS 3, which bought in 2008 for about 11 years before finally subscribing to Adobe. But, if I had to choose between Adobe Photoshop/Illustrator CS3 and the current version of Affinity Designer/Photo, I'd be forced to use CS3. Adobe has features and functions that are never going to appear in Serif software because Serif doesn't target that kind of customer. Nor should it. They're doing great with a very different kind of consumer.
@@KuttyJoe You have no idea what you're talking about. You don't even mention things I'm interested in.
Were you someone who didn't start your posts with an insult I might bother to speak to you. Happy New Year.
@@Anti_Woke Even your avatar is an insult, yet you accuse me of being insulting. FOH. You're a clueless amateur trying to talk about things that you know only a little about, while being as insulting as possible.
@@KuttyJoe You open your comment with an insult. As you even manage to pretend offence at anti totalitarianism, it's clear you're just a bigot who cannot tolerate any diversity of opinion or experience. That'll be why you can't understand the concept of change.
i just got my hands on Affinity during the sales.
i'm an indie game dev and looking for a non subscription plan art software that is somewhat decent.
but then again.. i ran into the same problem u had.
I got too used to photoshop and illustrator that it kinda feel uncomfortable to use Affinity photo and deisgner...
and i had some expereince using clip studio paint too..
may be cuz i'm too new to aff.photo that i'm doing things wrong, but clip studio paint gave me a better experience on color mixing.
And clip studio paint is also a one time purchase product.
so for me... the only sector that Affinity wins is that it offer all 3 platform for their software, pc, mac, ipad.
and is very easy to set up.... but then again...i use procreate for ipad...clip studio paint on mac, and photoshop on pc...
That's fair enough. Tbh, I still have Adobe, Procreate, and Affinity. I spend 90 percent of my time in Affinity (just faster), but yeah, there are just some things I can't go without. Fortunately, Affinity 2.0 has adressed a few of the issues I mentioned in this video, mainly the Vector Warp feature.
Either way, at the rate AI is going right now, I think the next 5 or so years is going to make this discussion fairly obsolete. So many options and workflows being developed right now. It's a very exciting time to be alive :)
You mentioned a work around vectorizing photo/pixel artwork. What might that be outside of the Adobe world? Really appreciate your creativity.
So there isn't really one that I'd recommend, but if you Google "vectorize any image" there are lots of websites that do it. There are free and paid sites, but honestly I found the paid ones did a better job. Ultimately you get a lot less control than you do in Illustrator, but it's better than nothing I suppose.
@@RSKT_art Thank you.
@@cliffdickinson7091 no problem :)
Inkscape can
Its amazing that no one ever mentions that affinity photo can open heic files (photos taken on an iphone) and photoshop just cant
Wow really? I didn't even know that iPhone photos were that file type. Never owned an iPhone. That's really good info to have. Thanks for sharing :)
Good to know!!!!! 🎉
I know it's a very minor thing but I wish Affinity would put in a "preview" button like Adobe has. Yes I know you can do split window to see before and after but I dunno I miss the simplicity of a preview button. Also a "revert" option would be nice too.
Is not Revert History? Every step you give you can go back.
What is the speed comparison to Corel. I’m frustrated to death with PSP locking up and stalling between layers.
I am learning the Affinity suite and like you I miss Adobe's warp function. I do like the Affinity suite and going forward I will be using it exclusively.
One other limitation I have found with Affinity is there are less resources and tutorials than with Adobe.
Yeah that's very true, however I've found about 80% of Photoshop tutorials can be followed along using Affinity Photo. I'm working on a pretty neat tutorial right now about lighting, and I haven't really seen much of this method used, so very excited to share it. :)
@@RSKT_art Looking forward to watching the tutorial. I like the way you explain things and of course it helps that you share the same accent as me.
@@IndyIndie59 haha nice to have a fellow Aussie tuning it :)
...hang on; give it a little time -- trust me
I'm trying to learn graphic design to make polished board game prototypes and any of the pricing options for Adobe are incredibly cost averse to use.
A program suite that may take a little more time for the same results and you get to outright own it for $165? That's what I thought Adobe Suite was going to be! The choice was a no-brainer for me.
While Adobe are trying to limit SVG support in Photoshop (presumably to force people onto the full Creative Cloud subscription), Affinity have Studio Link that gives you publishing, vector and raster grpahics advanced features all in one package for a fixed fee.
If Affinity added the warping, tracing, blending and real vector brushes affinity designer as well as tonal selection ranges and artistic effects in photo it would far surpass adobe.
Hopefully it continues to grow in that direction :)
Can Affinity Publisher open the old Timeworks Publish it 4.7 files (DTP). I have a new computer with windows 11 but Publish it does not work. I'll wait to hear from you before making up my mind for purchasing new software. Thanks
Sorry for the late reply. I don't have the answer to that question, sorry :/
Affinity on ipad will make you never look back to other tablet, it brings me my more productive side.
Completely agree!
@@RSKT_art Btw I only have ipad pro, sony mirrorless camera, and an old xiaomi. I have no notebook or PC at all. For this condition, can you suggest me which one should I choose below:
a. Mac mini m2 Pro 16GB 512 or MBP M2 8GB? I hope that I can get a good performance when I run Topaz Video AI and Topaz Photo AI. Mac mini btw could be combined with ipad pro as display.
b. Samsung S23 Ultra or Iphone 13 or 14 pro? it is to replace my old xiaomi and as a handy video recorder for B Roll or street interview. In my country, many iphone 13 and 14 products are getting blank white or green screen even before one year of purchase. S23 ultra is a best choice but I will have to depend to flash drive to move files between ipad and samsung.
Amazing video my dude. i switched to affinity suits yesterday and I'm super happy with my choice, i don't need the unnecessary advanced features adobe has for my web design & development work so affinity is a breath of fresh air, and its just waaay smoother without the bloat adobe has, overall i really recommend affinity suits to everyone who isn't forced to use adobe in his workplace, specially for freelancers like myself. ofc its good to know both like i did but at the end, Fuck Adobe.
I hear you man. I still find myself using these apps every single day. Photoshop is doing pretty great in the AI front, but you can pull the same thing off in stable diffusion for free if you really need access to something like that.
Honestly, I find Affinity products alot easier to learn compared to Adobe products. I struggle to learn phototshop many times with overwhelmed accumulated controls and settings which has been inherited for many years .
Affinity is easier and took me a day to familiar alot of its basic controls..
There's also the whole production side of things that are fully supported in Adobe software and not even dabbled in with low cost software. That alone could explain the difference in cost.
On a smaller note, regarding stroke profiles. You could create a stroke with it's special characteristics, then use the eyedropper tool to simply copy that profile to a new stroke. Ironically, the old Serif software was much, much better in terms of these tools. You could draw strokes, with particular profile. Then if you wanted to use that profile on a new stroke it was easy. While still holding the brush tool, you could control Click on a stroke, then begin drawing a new stroke and it would draw with the characteristics of the stroke that you last touched. AD doesn't have this functionality, nor does it have some of the other functionality that used to feature in Serif's brush and drawing tools. The problem with Serif's software though is that it was unbelievably buggy and unstable. I find Affinity Designer to still be very buggy and unstable.
Hey! Sorry for the late reply, Christmas holidays has been a busy time this year. So, the original notifications I got when you commented showed that you had more said here, but for some reason, I can only see this comment. I'm not sure where the others went, but I'll do my best to reply to this one. Sorry.
You definately do make some interesting points (mainly in your original comment), especially when it comes to the production side of things. At the end of the day, you are right. Adobe is industry standard for a reason. However, I still feel like there are comparisons to be made between Affinity and Adobe. Obviously they're completely different workhorses, but there's a lot of similarity in the UI, workflow, tools, and what can be achieved by using them.
The main reason I made this video was because I get comments every day from people asking which one they should use. There's no right answer, each app is going to be used by people for different purposes. I understand that a lot of my subscribers are beginners, and therefore I think it's a no brainer to start with Affinity, because their wallet depends on it.
I get what you mean about the stroke tools aswell, and I guess Affinity just doesn't have a perfect solution for it yet.
All that said, I'm not trying to disagree with you in any way. All of the points you made in this and your previouse comments are valid. At the end of the day, comparing these apps is like comparing apples to oranges, but there are still comparisons that can be made. I definately have a lot less bugs and more stability when using Affinity's apps though.
I really appreciate you reaching out and adding your two cents because this sort of dialogue is what my subcribers need to see in the comments section. My word is not gospell and it's important to get a wider range of viewpoints from other individuals.
@@RSKT_art Well thanks for replying and thanks for the very thoughtful reply. I think your perspective is that of an Illustrator while mine is that of a production artist. Creating art is only half the job in production work, or, none of the job. You could have a career production using Photoshop without creating any art. Just editing customer art, or preparing for output. The expensive software has been handling that work for decades. While Serif has existed for 30 years it has never attempted to support any of that work. So people working in these other fields only need 20 seconds to determine that they have not much use for Affinity software, except as possibly a creative tool.
One thing you mentioned though that I found to be true, but ironic. What you said about Adobe making programs then abandoning them. Adobe also bought out great programs like Freehand and abandoned those too. But the irony is that Serif had it's 3 main programs, Serif PagePlus, DrawPlus, and PhotoPlus. And you know how this story ends. One day we woke up to the message that Serif was full stop abandoning these programs and releasing 3 new programs! It would have been fine if the 3 new programs were just big upgrades of the old programs but that wasn't the case. Even though they copied over many of the features, the old programs were incompatible with the new programs. Serif did the same thing that Adobe did.
@@KuttyJoe It's funny, I only found that out about Serif around the same time I made this video. Didn't even know they had other apps until then. Either way, I definately hear what you're saying mate and thankyou for sharing your experience with the rest of us. I hope itproves valuable to other people who are reading through all of this.
I am just possibly switching from CorelDRAW to Affinity after using CorelDraw for nearly 30 years... trialing them now... and I like what I see... very similar to Corel. I will miss the CorelDraw image Tracer as well even InkScape can trace
Nice man! Yeah, image tracing has been a long requested feature. Hopefully it's implemented some day
Coreldraw 2021 on mac is awesome that im unable to switch back to Illustrator, i even tried affinity but i didnt like much.
I was browsing Corel's website while making this video, and it looks awesome! The only experience I've had with it was back in the days of Windows 95, and then a version on Windows 7 back in 2012. I don't have a lot of experience with it, but would love to jump back in when I get the time.
I have purchased the big 3 from Affinity but there are just a handful of small details that prevent me from using them full time. Simple, small things that Photoshop users are so accustomed to and would seem easy to add, things like a "Revert" option. There are many more, but it's tiny things like this that can surprisingly trip users up when working fast.
After using PS for so many years, muscle (and brain!) memory are second nature in my workflow process, why not just copy these small details to make the transition smoother? BTW, I still use PS CS6... I refuse to use Adobe's "rental" software. Love Affinity, hopefully they continue to evolve.
Yeah, that's a fair point. There's definitely more features in Adobe's app. I think Serif is a relatively small company in comparison, and I'd we wanted them to catch up to Adobe more quickly, they'd have to switch to a subscription model. Hopefully that doesn't happen but the app continues to grow. I think personally they need to allow for some AI integration with Stable Diffusion myself, or else I think they're going to get left behind.
@@RSKT_art Given the heat Adobe took (and still takes) on the subscription model, I really doubt they'd go that way. While I appreciate some of the loftier bits they're looking to add, I still think for users like myself, having the interface morph more towards a PS look and function on some of the basic things would be more important at this time. Of course I'm biased in what I want, but when I need to get basic work done quickly... I still fire up PS CS6.
The warp is in..The blend tool was best in Freehand. I really miss it.
Loving the warp so far!
Hi I am not sure if you will see this but would you advise Affinity for someone (i.e. me) who is completely new to design. As someone who doesn’t own and has never used any of Adobe’s products, I can dive into the Affinity suite and pretend Adobe doesn’t even exist and develop my design skills and journey totally inside Affinity alone. Is it good enough for that in your opinion. Does this plan make sense. Thanks.
100% yes! A lot of the tools, short cuts, and workflows are essentially the same, so if you ever wind up using Photoshop or Illustrator later down the track, you'll feel right at home with only a few minimal changes.
At the end of the day, most employers care more about your portfolio that the software you use, but it doesn't hurt to have a play around in Adobe's apps for some experience points ;)
@@RSKT_art Got it, makes sense, thanks!
To your first contra: I use "Super Vectorizer" to convert pixel images to vector images. The tool is for Mac. It is not as advanced as the Illustrator interface but the results are comparable and it saves a lot of time. And you have to rework the vectors anyway, no matter which software. Maybe there is a comparable software for Windows. Thanks for the great video and keep up the good work!
Thanks so sharing! I'll have to have a look for a windows equivalent.
If you are familiar with Affinity Publisher you will be familiar with Studiolink where you don’t have to leave Publisher to edit images and vectors.
I haven't looked into it much tbh, even though I do own published. I just assumed it would be stripped back versions of AD and AP. But it's a good point worth mentioning, thanks :)
I personally want to make anime styled art but I don't know whether I should use affinity photo or designer honestly, I'm thinking photo might be the most appropriate as most manga artists use clip studio paint which is raster based
I own both photo and designer
There's a couple of things to consider when choosing. You can do rasterized was rework in either, however, only Affinity Photo had a warp function (which can be incredibly useful when adjusting artworks). Photo also has a few effects that might come in handy (like half tone). That said, you can open the same file in either program and jump back and forth, so you can use vectors from Designer if needed.
I've also seen a lot of anime artists tend to use clip studio though. I think it has a lot of tools that are catered better to that style of illustration, but I don't have much experience with it myself. Hope that helps in some way :)
@@RSKT_art i'm aware of clip studio paint however as i already own affinity photo I feel like it's not really needed to putchase new softwares, lots of anime artists also rely on photoshop and from what i know affinity photo is very close to it minus of course some features
Yeah, I think that's fair enough. Affinity Photo had more than enough features to help get you going. I think colouring is easier in Designer, as it's easier to set up custom shapes for masking, but there are so many different workflows I'm sure you'll figure something out.
@@RSKT_art As I own both I'm thinking maybe both can be used in the same workflow
I feel like affinity could maybe merge both softwares in one for people who purchased both
Like by making one soft with all the features and making photo and designer modules that enable features related to each
The affinity apps seem like they all have the same features, just in a different UI for each. Are they actually the same app just remasked ? Or do each of them actually have different features not offered by the other?
They definitely do have some features that cross over, but not everything. Each one has a bit of its own workflow. For example, there's barely any vector or vector editing tools in Photo, but there's also a lot less photo editing tools in Designer. Publisher sort of has a stripped back version of designer and photo mixed into it. So each ones usually got just enough for what you'd probably need when working in that app. Fortunately, you can copy and paste between them, or even just open your working files in any of them, so jumping between all 3 is never a pain.
Hi! Can someone guide me on whether to go with affinity pub or designer? I design posts for social media platforms on a daily basis. I also design for email marketing and web design.
I'd probably recommend Designer for work like that. Publisher is good for magazines, books, e-readers, etc. You could probably pull of newsletters and such in it as well, but youte going to be able to make all of that in Designer no problem. Just my two cents :)
13:48 Since 2.1 update Affinity Designer has warping for vector objects!
Booyahhh! Was so happy about this when it dropped. Wish you could warp pixel layers in Affinity Designer though. Keep. Having to switch to Photo when I want to do that.
Very nice video and very nice apps BUT and that is a BIG BUT I often have to give my origin artwork to other people like my indesign files+ pictures in a Package or the same with Illustrator!!!! all the stuff in a Package!!! And sorry they cannot do anything with an Affinity files they don't even heard about the app. I can export it to Illustrator or Indesign BUT will that be really the same????? Sooo it is OK until it is ONLY your work BUT what about industry standards???????? That is the prob em with all this next to the fact that you really have to relearn how to use your soft... Soo here people pay for adobe or they use it kind of illegally...
Affinity Designer has the non-destructive warp tools in v2
What about indystry ؟ dosnt graphic studios and client need orginal adobe illustrator files . Can they work with affinity designer files for printing.and i have one other complaint about affinity suite . They dont support farsi or arabic.thats a deal braker for me
You're absolutely right, and I think it's a real struggle. If I know I'm going to be collaborating, I always use the Adobe suite. But for all of my individual clients, I just send them SVGs
How do we script for Affinity? Is it possible?
Not sure to be honest, never looked into it :/
I switched from adobe to affinity
And one more important aspect. I use photoshop and Affinity for photo retouching. And I can use Affinity full functionality on iPad without any problems. What you can’t say about pretty much useless photoshop version on iPad
Definitely a good point! The Photoshop app on iPad is awful.
The problem I has is a lot of the tools in Photo are split apart compared to photoshop. My god the UI sucks too. I can't find the FX menu and it drives me insane.
Hello man, I wonder if you have affinity designer course?
Not yet! Been meaning to start working on a cartoon drawing course for some time and want to make one for affinity designer in the future. It won't be for a long while though, so feel free to shop around while you wait, sorry :S
Cool. Im gonna be waiting for that. Meanwhile im gonna learn what I can from youtube. Really love your art. Its amazing ❤️👍
@@nobsgaming4757 thanks so much! I'm hoping work will die down a bit towards the end of November so I can smash some of this course out over a month or so.
Affinity + DaVinci + blender + unreal
Hell yeah, great combo! I'd probably go as far to add GIMP to the mix too just because of it's super basic normal map feature.
I have an Affinity vs Illustrator question- What is the Affinity equivalent to Illustrator's AI files? I dont really understand file types. i dnt want to pay 40 a month just to turn files into ai.
You can save as SVG, esp or .ai from memory (might have to double check this). The issue might arise when using bitmap images, or if coming from illustrator if you have used things like the 3D tool, stroke width tool, etc.
The pdf format is considered a kind of universal file format. SVG is only good for files intended for the web. SVG should not be used for print work because there are things needed in print that are not supported. Then again, Affinity programs do not fully support pdf. If you need to save a file in ai, eps, or pdf, then Adobe is the only software I know of that fully supports those formats, although every other software supports these formats to different degrees.
@@KuttyJoe huh. Affinity exports to all those things you mentioned very well.
@@matthewsmith1547 No, its exactly as I said. Serif dabbles in those things. They are not fully supported. I've been testing Serif products for 16 years. You just don't know what is and what isn't supported. Even CorelDraw doesn't fully support pdf.
@@KuttyJoe it does everything I need it to do.🤷♂️
There is one singe most important thing you've ommitted in the video, a major flaw of Affinity suite, that disqualifies it for most of professionals, the single one that is keeping me from switching from Adobe to Affinity. Because all the other flaws you've mentioned, yes they're significant (no warp, no AI, no 3D etc...), but I think they will add them eventually, but this one - they probably won't - because Adobe has PROHIBITED it. It's the Ai file non-compatibility - you cannot export to Ai or open Ai (yes you can use PDF but it's far from acceptable using it for that matter). So this is a MAJOR deal breaker for me. It's very sad because the industry is stuck with Adobe. Otherwise I'd really like to say fk Adobe, but right now I think Adobe is fking us with their crazy rising prices and monopoly act :/. And you could think yeah, I'll buy Affinity, and then just take Adobe Illustrator separately - well, any single Adobe standalone program annually costs as much as roughly 70% of the whole package price - they know what they are doing. :/
Designer needs a tracing feature
They really do, it would make life a lot easier :)
I don't mind the high price tag of Adobe Creative Cloud but their apps are laggy. Their iPad apps are mostly garbage. For Affinity, I know that I can do my work from my Mac and iPad and switch seamlessly with iCloud. That is such a game-changer
I like Procreate on ipad it feels great to draw, where affinity designer feels fake and laggy
Y'know, it's funny you should bring that up. For sketching, I definitely prefer procreate. I find it way easier to paint portraits in Procreate too, and I haven't been able to replicate my painting method in designer just yet. That said, designer had a lot of other tools I prefer using, so I often wind up using a combination of the two.
I completely understand why people prefer Procreate though. It's definitely got a smaller learning curve and some cutting edge features that help it stand out. I don't experience any lag with designer though, what iPad are you using?
@@RSKT_art it's a basic ipad it might require an ipad pro but I say lag cuz it feels unnatural.
@@DarkP1 ah okay, fair enough. I can understand that.
Infinity still doesn’t do object blends - that’s a serious omission, and A K. O. limitation
Affinity needs to have an after effects alternative.
What I wouldn't give for a decent After Effects clone. I like Davinci Resolves Fusion tab, but motion graphics are a bit of a pain in it.
@@RSKT_art yeah, and I don't want to be forced to learn how to use nodes. It would be great if that was an option, but if a person wants to work with layers, I think that option should be available. A person can choose what "mode" they want to work in. Also, it would be great to have an alternative that is touch screen and tablet PC optimized
@@Bi0Dr01d Definitely agree. I don't mind working with nodes though, in apps like Blender. I just don't find the node setup in Resolve to be all that intuitive, but I probably just need more time with it. It's funny, sometimes I kinda wish AE had nodes, because some projects can get super cluttered with things in the timeline. Either way, I hope an alternative comes along soon. I feel like there's a lot of improvements someone could make if they used After Effects as a bit of a building block. Time will tell I guess :)
Anybody have Affinity on android? I have a Samsung tablet. Want to know what to expect
Unfortunately Affinity apps are not available, but oh how I wish they were. I do know that Clip Studio Paint is available on Android though, so at least that's something :)
You also get all the updates for free (so far)
This is true, but my understanding is that this only applies per version. So free updates for V2, up until V3. V3 then requires another purchase. Came across that in the forum's one day and never seen it mentioned anywhere else, so not sure how true that is or not. Basically sounds like what Ableton does with Live. Not a big downside though, since it seems to take years for a new version to roll out.
Yeah I used to be Adobe all the way. Then they pissed me off one too many times.
All in Affinity now. As well as some other interesting programs with AI.
That's fair enough! Funny you say that too, I'm working on a video that goes over some AI tools for creators. Gotta head away for work this week though, so might not have it out for a bit.
Sorry without warp tool and blend (and probably without repeat) it is just not serious. I cannot live without them. Illustrator is OK my biggest problems are usability...that it does not always clicks onto a guide (long time problem) very slow saving and opening files even the communication windows are slooooow. And that idea that every guide is a separate object and you can group a guide and something else (bad idea) and you can put guides inside a group inside another group and you just lost when you cannot delete a guide because of that.... argghhhh... makes you CRAZY!!! And we still have that problem that illustrator and PDF is also native file-format BUT PDF is only if you click that illustrator information goes into the PDF which makes huge PDF files....And while you work on something and you just want quickly send it to the client..and you save a smaller PDF without illustrator information and you continue to work on the smaller PDF it lets you and than when you save it just forgets EVERYTHING that you made since the last PDF saving..... makes you go MAD (I did it several time sand lost many hours of work...). Sooo Illustrator has many many problems but that is the industrial standard and whatever you do you cannot avoid to use it... so SORRILY Adobe have nothing to worry about
Just read through this and your other comment, and yeah, I hear you man. You are absolutely right about all of this. Industry standard is industry standard, but I hope that it can be more collective one day in the future. I still have to use Illustrator, Photoshop and Indesign for a lot of my client work because of file collaboration and certain features. However, I'm still able to get away with using Affinity for a lot of other work I do for people. Each has their pros and cons, but it all depends on the use case for it. I definately couldn't do a lot of the illustrations I do using Illustrator, but I can' exactly get rid of it. I miss the Warp and Blend tools so, so much when using Affinity. Either way, thanks for sharing your input. I had to make this video because I was getting the same questions over and over, so I figured I'd share my thoughts and hope the comments section would do the rest. With comments like yours (and many others) I think it has. People don't seem to ask me which software they should use as much anymore haha.
@@RSKT_art Yeah absolutely right and really thanks for the great video.... It goes as far as that I downloaded Affinity stuff again myself and go take a deeper look into this :-) Even though I know I cannot use it for everyday work. It would be really be great if Adobe would not held my profession in it's iron fist :-) I would be really glad to use Affinity or other software package which I have not to spend a fortune, and have a lot better customer service and if the new version comes out I don't have to realise that almost nothing really serious have been changed... just very minor stuff... !!! If you are a video editor you can choose between Premier, FinalCut and DaVinchi Resolve all of them have strength and weaknesses and they do compete with each other but here in the graphic department we are just not that lucky. I am really rooting for Affinity but since we don't use general file formats like in video and all the programs have appropriate file formats we are cursed with Adobe and their willingness to innovate. (Which is not much why would they without competition??) Thanks!!!!
The background music is too low. I can almost hear what the presenter is saying.
I wish Affinity Designer was on Android 😥
Man, so do I. It's a real shame. Same with a lot of music apps too unfortunately.
I personally can use both apps. But i refuse to pay subscription from my pocket. And if I can I use affinity and its brilliant on iPad. Second part is this auto filters and pictures mashing forcing what everyone calls "ai". I get paid for human interaction and creativity not factory level one clicking applying edits. Photoshop is losing identity with that and costumers to. If me or my clients wanted quick auto filters there is already 10000x apps on mobile and probably browser based to.
Weird AL's SON? lol ;P
Affinity could be bigger and better but they don't seem like they want to be. maybe they don't want to be a TOTAL copycat either. So who knows when or if they improve in the future?
Hahaha, you're not the first to compare me to Weird Al, and I doubt you'll be the last. Guess time will tell with Affinity :)
Rating Scale 1 - 10 | Photoshop is a 10, Affinity Photo is a 9; Illustrator 9, Corel 10, Affinity Designer 7; Adobe InDesign 10, Affinity Publisher 9.5
Of course you can use Affinity software for professional projects. Adobe had it's day and sunk themselves with a subscription and to not let someone who owned a creative suite to download it because their old computer died is nonsense, why should someone have to pay for something they already bought. GOODBYE ADOBE
I suggest renaming the title. There’s not a single word about Photo nor Publisher.
They're actually mentioned around the 3:50 mark, with screenshots too. While this discussion doesn't talk as much about them as Designer, they're definitely in there. This was more of a discussion about switching to the Affinity Suite while highlighting the general pros and cons of doing so.
@@RSKT_art sorry, okay. The topic definitely focused on Designer in the 2nd half, however, still very informative. I’d probably consider Affinity Design over Adobe Illustrator. However, I don’t know if it’s worth switching from the Adobe Photography bundle to Affinity Design+Photo…
I have to agree with this. I much prefer using Designer over Illustrator still, and miss Illustrators extra features less every day. However, while there are some great features in Affinity Photo, I still think Photoshop still outclasses it in the feature department. Piximperfect did a video not long ago on some things Photo does better than Photoshop, and I think it's a really good summary of the pro's for switching, but sadly, Photoshop just has a lot of other features I still really with Affinity would implement. Time will tell I guess.
These programmes were better to use when they were under the name of Serif but since changing over to Affinity you now have to have a science degree to use them......Totally Crap.
I find them fairly intuitive, and extremely similar to other art apps. Granted, I never tried these apps when they were under the name of Serif.
By reviewing the whole suite rather than just an app that the author found useful , and by saying how much it costs! ($89.95!), all credibility went out the window. It's an ad.
That's an easy assumption to make, but I can assure you this was not an ad. This video came about from the hundreds of comments I got asking which software suite to go with, and these are my personal opinions on the matter. Honestly, since this video Adobe has made some huge updates that I think tip the scales back in their direction (even at the cost), but the other points I've made in this video are still things I think are worth considering when choosing. I even have my own pet peeves with their apps and the development of them. All in all thiugh, this is not an ad. The only work I've ever done for Serif was creating a Creative Session for their TH-cam channel showcasing my workflow through their application.
I'm half-way the video and all I heard is Affinity vs Adobe: misleading title, waste of time. Disliked.
Haha fair enough I guess. I dunno, I guess I find it hard to review products without comparing them to their strongest competition. It's like talking about Coke and Pepsi, Sony and Xbox, Apple and Android. Maybe I should have called it something else 😅
@@RSKT_art yeah, if you used the title Affinity vs Adobe or similar I would have had nothing to complain about.
I skimmed through other videos of yours and found them very good, thanks for those ones. 🙏
Thanks for the feedback. I'll keep that in mind when adding titles in the future. Glad you found the rest of my chanel a bit better :)
No offence but Quark is way better than Affinity publisher. if you can't afford adobe price i get it, but it doesn't mean Affinity is better than Adobe. Affinity needs 5-10yrs before it catch up to adobe.
No offence taken, thankyou for sharing :)