I started using Affinity Photo about 5 years ago and added Designer and Publisher as they were released. During the 5 years I have used Affinity products they have been upgraded on a regular basis and adding features without a single payment required. I gladly paid for the UNIVERSAL LICENSE because I want to support a company that is truly giving their customers value at a reasonable price. I’m a former Adobe user (25+ years) but the subscription was way to greedy for me. Some people are disappointed because they wanted more features, but I’m really impressed with all the they have added. Since Affinity gave us several years of upgrades for free I think some of these missing features will make an appearance in the near future! If you are a good designer there are always work arounds for just about everything now! I do however appreciate you pointing out the still missing features. Your videos are well done and professional - Thank you!
Yep. Affinity's website basically describes the plan as free updates within major versions and no subscriptions/expirations. Assuming the schedule/timeline continues we will see a lot of new features before anyone has to worry about paying for V3. The best part is, unlike a subscription with an "end date", for those who don't need new features, you don't have to pay anything until the software becomes obsolete... you can keep using V1 for a long time!
I like that they took the time to perfect the tools they have before implementing new ones. But I feel like its still missing something. But I'll continue using it for now.
To erase you can do it a different way by drawing your shape and then in the layers panel you set the blending to “Erase” and it will erase anything below it. Then if you only want it to affect the one shape under it, you just drag it into that shape. This is a non-destructive way to erase things.
Thanks! How long it is there? I was looking for it maybe two years ago as AD was incapable of substract object from group. Setting stroke color to erase would be even better. My missing features is set UI scaling (AD has smaller fonts and icons than most of the apps) and dark checkboard for transparency below white icons. I also discovered global colors.
Bitmap tracing is definitely one feature I’d hoped for. The other is the ability to create fillable forms in Publisher. Just formatted text fields would be nice, but auto calculating fields would be great for order forms!
It's easy to want a lot of additional tools, but in reality, Affinity has a much smaller development team. I would rather see 4 new features that work properly than 10 features that sort of work.
Yeah, pity even those 4 are buggy. App just feels in beta phase.check the forums for all the complains. Can’t save to external ssd, constant app crash when export persona, bleed in this app is a joke, selection issues with objects in v2, and so on. It’s an OK app if you are not serious about design.
@@norbinw I can't recall too many pieces of software that didn't have bugs in their original release. I've been fortunate, I've not had any issues with my copy of Designer V2 yet. I'm sure the first update will be a major bug fix.
@@PBryanMcMillin it's been like this since a whole year 😂 in fact, all V1 major bugs are present in V2 with some more, worse bugs. Depends on your work flow. I use it daily and looks in beta phase. Also, support and response time on forums is bad to inexistent.
This is a really good summary of missing features. I could complete with missing optimizations, the pixel persona is still laggy and the pixel burses are still very counter intuitive.
I think this video was very clear. Just a list of features and whether they are in the new version or not. I think it depends on what kind of work you do and what your budget is. I just purchased the new versions of all 3 because I want to get the discount. I don't know how much I will use all of these (I also have Photoshop and Microsoft Publisher, but not Illustrator so I know I will use Designer more than the other 2). But I want the most current version and if I ever get an iPad it's nice to know I could use it there without paying extra. I was dreaming of some version that would work on Chrome OS or Android (even if it was a scaled-down version) -- but at least this is not a subscription model. That is the one thing that would have clinched it for me, I would have stayed with v. 1 then. I'm new to this channel but looking forward to tutorials on the new versions. You present in a very clear and easy to understand way.
To be honest I would rather have a selection to curve than autotrace feature or why not both. I want to have control over what becomes a vector. I've tried autotrace when I work with topographic maps for example with a lot of detail and it never does what I want it to. The vector erase I think they kind of have that with the vector mask. The biggest Affinity paradigm is to be non-destructive if at all possible. This is so that effects may be built up and then turned on/off to see differences. Lastly they have had mesh gradient since version 1.8. Its just not called mesh gradient its the Appearance panel. You can apply more than one gradient point and just set the right side to transparent and use a blend mode of average or try others for neat effects and they will blend with one another... So I would say the mesh gradient has been closed for a while.
The warp too has two catches: 1. No precision: you cannot move two nodes at the same time and cannot lock the movement to a certain axis, so if you move a node up, it is practically guaranteed to be slightly slanted. 2. Only the quad warp has sharp straight nodes, every other setting has round nodes, so if you want to make your warp sharp and precise, you are out of luck In fact, I find it faster to make certain logos in Blender than in Affinity Designer just because Blender's functions, features, and hotkeys value proportional precision
Im faster in Maya than Designer so I start with 3D and then trace over it in Designer. Cool thing with 3D is that you get perspective and lighting without having to guess.
The two things I miss the most right now are 3D and real vector brush, as well as some kind of way to vectorise images (I guess that’s the auto trace feature). The rest is great too, but if we got these 3 features it would be amazing. Thanks for this video, always interesting to do the « inventory » if I can say it like that haha. Just to be sure to not miss any feature.
As grids and 3d designs are concerned a real perspective grid with 2 vanishing points is a major win for Illustrator. Drawing realistic buildings and streets is so much simple with those grids
When I quit using Adobe and went full Affinity, I was ready for the challenge. After a lot of practice and real life scenarios, I managed to do everything I used to do when using Adobe. It wasn't as easy as when using Adobe, and in some cases I use little app helpers to achieve my goals, but it was doable. I won't go back to Adobe, and now with this update I am sure I will still be pleasing my costumers for a long time. (When I say Adobe I mean Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. I know Adobe offers a lot of apps, try to keep this conversation in the same topic.)
I would add warp envelopes and tangent snapping. In the what's new info on their website, they use an example of a guitar made using shape builder. Just try and align 3 circles tangentially. Inkscape can can tangent snap a line to a a circle, not sure if it can do 3 circles. I will have to try. I have done this in the past using CAD software.
Great overview about what's missing. I find the "Vector Brushes" to be a lot like the equivalent in Clip Studio Paint. Sorta vector but once again, you can't expand into a proper vector object.
I think there is another way to do erase non destructive. You create group inside the shape (or in the same group) and use the blend mode subtract (I do not remember if the name is this). After this you can create shapes inside that group and they will erase the shape
Listen, I was almost buying VectorStyler for $99 to have all the features I need. But hey! Same price for all apps is a deal that I don’t want to miss!!
I have a question regarding the knife tool, specifically the scissor functionality. I know that the ability to cut a line/curve segment is there, but can you use it to cut/break existing nodes? Can't find this info anywhere. Thanks!
Well, after Affinity released v2. They changed their file architect from EXE to Windows App structure. Made a lot of people mad, including myself. You can no longer install to any drive you want. All of Affinity programs are now apps. Very frustrating.
AND Inkscape is FREE! Which is always a PLUS! Inkscape has EVERYTHING you need. There’s a guy on TH-cam named “Logos By Nick” who is AMAZING and well educated about every tool and facet of Inkscape and has some AMAZING tutorials. Which brings me to another point. Sometimes Inkscape’s vast and amazing features are a bit hidden or at least not easily and intuitively found. Nick helps A LOT with that. He knows the software like back of his hand. I know I learned a lot about not only using Inkscape and all it’s features (including finding them lol) but I learned a lot about design IN GENERAL. I, however, switched from Inkscape and sought out something different because, AND I PREFACE THIS BY SAYING THIS MAY DEFINITELY BE VAIN AND A BIT PETTY LOL BUT, Inkscape isn’t aesthetically pleasing to me. I was looking for an application that was more “professional” looking and aesthetically pleasing design/UI wise. That’s just a preference and desire for ME. I wanted something that could replicate the feeling you get when using Adobe products without paying Adobe prices lol. And correct me if I’m wrong but, sometimes Inkscape could feel a bit clunky and I was also looking for something that felt a lot more seamless and smooth. I’m glad that we live in a world where we have many options to make our own choices tho!
Color Blends (the key to creating realistic vector art) are missing, as is the Gradient Mesh from Illustrator. And what--? Do we have to wait till v3 to get Vector Trace? :(
I have a high hope that those features will be added. But unfortunately I have to use alternatives like Inkscape for auto tracing, and in the case of my iPad the vectornator(since they added the auto tracing in that app). At least we can give those software a chance since I like the affinity, is my best option since Adobe has expensive subscriptions.
I am new to Affinity Designer. I want that when I make a new layer for it to be a parent layer, not always going to child layers. Per Google research, it says that is determined in the Assistant Manager section that is supposed to be in the View dropdown but I don't have that. Does anyone know where it is or how to make new layers you add by copying and pasting a layer be a new parent layer instead of always going to a child layer. Thanks for any help.
Vectorstyler has all the missing tools, Image Trace, a Blend Tool, real Vector Brushes, Erase and Gradient Mesh. And also there is a Pattern tool and a Half tone tool (repeaters). The only missing tool is 3d. But if you really want 3D I would suggest Blender.
Just another big series of feature missing: parametric filters/modifiers like "transform(repeat/duplicate)" etc.. Affinity's knida fell behind in those areas. However considering the features that V2 added, it seems that Serif just want to release thoes tools util when they're pretty polished. That is a good point though. Plus, V2 still doesn't allow any plugin.
Indic language fonts support.. it's been discussed at length in affinity forum..i hoped they would implement it in this V2..sadly They haven't... They are missing a huge market in india because of this language issue alone...
Limit of only 90 Degrees in FOV for equirectangular live projection. My drone from Autel cant shot most of the zenith and so is most of the sky area missing. Inpainting that part is done through live projection but 90 Degrees FOV is quite limiting. I would need 120-140 FOV
Dear Santa, I would like to see a Trim to Stroke feature. Or maybe be able to trim lines to a shape. Also a Step and repeat dialog box. Christmas is almost here.
Good video! Just for your information, I think you may have spelled 'Warp' incorrectly. You have it as 'Wrap'. If that was intentional, I do apologize.
@@KruMark No probs! I just thought you ought to be aware. All the best to you! I have subscribed and looking forward to learning more about Affinity applications.
I'm on a touchscreen. There is no gesture canvas rotate! I'm definitely happy about the improvements, but I'm flabbergasted by the lack of gesture rotate.
Version 2 still doesn't support touchscreen gestures on Windows?! I have two systems with touchscreens and the lack of touchscreen gesture support in the Windows app is unforgivable. Especially when the iPad version has them. I wish the Windows version could be configured to work like the iPad version. That shouldn't be too hard to do but my guess is that the Serif developers are all Mac users so they treat Windows as a 2nd-class citizen. If Macs supported touchscreen then the feature would be added I'm sure.
@@TerminalJack505 Yeah, it's ridiculous. And I reached out to them to make sure that I wasn't just overlooking the feature. Someone from Affinity confirmed to me that the feature was absent. I love that the company is creating an competition for Adobe, but I just do not understand an oversight like this on such a basic standard feature.
I guess it depends on personal habit. I personally would almost never rotate the canvas (but rather, myself, instead), but I can see how it can be distracting when someone expects such feature but it wasn't there.
The way it adds dashed borders to objects is faulty. Try adding any kind of non-solid border to a rectangle and it JUST DOESN'T WORK. There are no brush patterns. There is no form of blending objects which is not that hard to do. Nor can Designer do blends on a curve or decorative borders on a curve. These are important functions for packaging design. I also hate how the Layers pallet automatically expands as you draw objects. You end up with enormous lists of objects which make it a pain to navigate. While I applaud Serif's fee structure, I really don't think they're listening to the program's users. As to autotracing... they should add it but there are inexpensive utilities which do a decent version of it so it's not key point on my wish list. IMO, Designer continues to lag behind Publisher and Photo. :(
Why do I have to press space bar first then control to zoom . Every other major software that uses this combination to zoom lets you press control or space in any order
it's up to you. There's only a small handful of new features so far, but some are quite significant (new UI, non-destructive RAW) ... more importantly there will be more features and you can purchase it at any time and use it as long as you'd like.... the beauty of non-subscription software. Worth noting the launch discount is pretty big though, so if you anticipate needing it later now is the cheapest price.
You are getting 6 apps (3 desktop apps and 3 iPad apps) for $100. Including the brand new Affinity Publisher for iPad. So making a version 2 is absolutely fine, especially with the updates this did do and when they haven’t charged for an update in 8 years and there is no subscription. You said you’re fine with paying and they can’t keep doing version 1.9.x.x.x forever. Illustrator has added fewer new features than this app and Adobe makes it a new version number.
I did have a problem with this as well. But I purchased it yesterday anyway 🤷🏽♀️ My only hope is that they add all these missing features SOON in upcoming updates for free
Affinity designer and photo should add in the same "smart layers" as Photoshop. Affinity can do things like this, but they need to make an official smart layers feature.
@@titovalasques I understand, but I'm not referring to non-destructive editing. I'm not really talking about things like smart layers, but I'm actually referring to the exact thing. There's certain softwares that I use alongside affinity which seems to require the specific function of smart objects/layers that photoshop has.
it sounds easy to implement we already have embedded documents support in AD and a smart layer is the same thing, they just need to add a button so we don't need to drag and drop one Ad file into another manually
@@KruMark Yeah, that might work. It's a minor thing, but it does seem to matter. Perhaps they should allow the public to develop plugins for the software like they do in Adobe. I guess the reason why they wouldn't do that is because people would not purchase their updates if the public improves on the software well enough. Anyway, I hope they work on it.
Illustrator is also over 30 years old. Affinity Designer is only about 8 years old. So, yeah, of course Illustrator will have more vector tools. But also, Illustrator runs WAY slower than Designer.
@@timz9862 Well... a bit of a straw man, I doubt transferring quality algorithms and routines would have been that hard from windows to Mac, most likely C or C++ code, unless their codebase was a mess earlier or using a lot of dependencies they couldn't brought to new products (they do say on their page they started from scratch with Affinity line of software).
@@322ss Yes, but they are trying to make their tools work for both Macs and iPads in an intuitive fashion. So, even if they copied old code, they would need to re-think the entire tool to have it work for both regular and touch screens. You can’t take code from a Windows app created in the 90s and just transfer it over for touch screens. Part of Adobe’s problem is they refuse to re-write their apps for modern operating systems and just continue to use an old, bloated codebase, leading to slow performance and bugs. I have to use Adobe software for work and I feel like I am beta testing their software for every new release, even though we are paying a subscription for it.
Live paint bucket like in AI. Selecting things WITH all the same line weight, opacity etc? I wolud love to ditch Adobe for my work and would do in a heartbeat if designer had just those things added.
They added 'Select Same' functionality in a 1.X update. It's got a big range of criteria to select from but it doesn't have the tolerance settings that Illustrator has - eg if you want to select all objects with a 1pt stroke and 0pt and 2pt at the same time. I still can't switch to Affinity Designer from Illustrator personally.
Sounds interesting. You can apply the same line width and fill colour with groups. In photoshop I have to select every damn shape to make them match. Been years since Ive used illustrator so cant remember how it works exactly but more selct options is always better.
@@Xirpzy The 'Magic Wand' tool in Illustrator is fantastic. I use it constantly. The Magic Wand tool in Photoshop just selects areas of colour within a certain tolerance but it selects attributes in Illustrator.
No, no, around 6mo ago I made 2 videos where I share my workarounds for AD V1 missing features reported by my viewers, in this video I have revisited the same 10 missing features to see that we still need to rely on workarounds or they have been added to V2
@@timz9862 It's there, but it's nowhere near as good as the Width tool in Illustrator unfortunately. In Illustrator you can just drag the scale of the strokes on the line itself to get really precise control of the path at particular positions that is hard to do with a curve graph. It's not a deal breaker though really.
@@KruMark No problem. I was annoyed with Affinity, watching your video, about how many features they didn't include. Thank you for pointing this out. I might still buy the upgrade, but I think there are better apps out there. I have Vectorstyler - I would recommend that one.
i bet 1 or 2 years they release v3 and you need to buy the app again. im gonna wait for future versions theres just not enough reason to buy. all the ui chances and stuff, you know im not paying for them to make graphics that i do my self. worthless. only thing i like is the shape builder tool.
Personally Warp tool was the one that I need to have to be happy with Affinity Designer and now it's here ^_^ I'm sure there will be few interesting updates for V2 before we will have to pay for V3
They haven’t charged for an update for any of their apps in 8 years and you’re complaining about paying for 3 desktop apps and 3 iPad apps for $100? How much would you have paid to Adobe in that amount of time if you were using their software?
@@thisismyalias I dunno - Apple went from 60+% of tablet sales in 2010 to less than 40% in 2022. Samsung tablets are a big part of that and any art app ignoring that market is just chucking away possible sales. My source is the statistic website. Edit again: another Statista article suggests Android vs Apple iPad sales is 72% Android vs 28% iPad. Not niche at all.
@@fablewalls Oh ok, that might just be my bias then. My perception ratio is basically 100 to one for iPads vs Android Tablets. I’ve seen exactly one Android in „the wild“.
In just 2 yrs you saved $452 by getting Affinity Designer over Adobe Illustrator... The only 2 things that are worth mentioning here are Auto Trace and Blend. HOWEVER money is king... PRICE! Affinity Designer V2 will probably last 2 yrs for $49 and you will get it also in iPad... Adobe Illustrator will cost you $21 monthly which is $501! ...are those few features worth $452 every 2 years? Now imagine you are a small studio and need a few licenses... Imagine if you just want to learn and you can get a student discount because you are not in college...
Your mouse cursor shake too much. Please next time slowly move mouse cursor thanks. I have deaf and low vision and I am look around what you are move your cursor mouse slowly move without shake.
@@KruMark Sure no problem. I did send Report a Ticket about miss feature. I am goal same what you said. They must add feature on Blend, Auto Trace, Gradient, and etc. I will wait for them to answer and add feature.
Still an improvement over anything Adobe's ever done. It used to be $600 for a license and a $40-50 upgrade fee IIRC. Now with Affinity it's $60 for both a license or an upgrade ($30-50 on sale now). You're basically getting a perpetual license for close to the same price that Adobe used to charge just for their upgrade fees. On top of that, unlike Adobe's current subscription model, your old version still works fine if you don't feel the new features are worth upgrading for.
11/12/22 MY FAVORITE PROGRAM ONLINE OR CAN PURCHASE TO CONVERT BIT MAPS AND OTHER IMAGES INTO VECTORS IS VECTOR MAGIC. BEEN MY GO-TO PROGRAM FOR 15+ YEARS AND CAN EXPORT IN A FEW DIFFERENT STANDARD FORMATS. ANOTHER FREE PROGRAM IS GIMP TO DRAW AND EDIT CONTAINS A LOT OF THE FEATURES THAT AFFINITY IS MISSING.
Jesus Christ, it’s $100 US for windows/Mac and ipad OS, so what if things are missing? Do you really expect a full blown Adobe copy for this money? I have Adobe sub as well for work but the speed of the affinity apps loading and the switching between them leaves Adobe in the dust. If it had pshop plug-in support it would be next to perfect but I’ll take whatever comes for the price thanks. We should stand behind the non sub model, stop griping.
I would tend to agree here. So for context, 2 years ago, I bought Designer for $50 for my PC. A year later, I bought a new Mac and started using it as my primary for work. So then bought it again for MacBook Pro. I then need bought photo shortly after. Yesterday, I went ahead and got the V2 full suite for $100. So in two years, I’ve spent approx $250 on Serif software. I’m a graphics and print professional, so it’s obviously worth the expense, and I need the updated features. That said, I also need AI feature that PS has, as it will improve my workflow. My hope is that Affinity will release these, even if they do it as add-on” pricing. I would be willing to pay for it. So to your point, I really think everything depends on usercase. The same people complaining may not use these programs for work (or to generate income). Some may, but can’t/don’t want to pay subscription prices. In my case, I refuse to go back to Adobe because of the drain the Bs tasks that run in the background and basically act like malware!
@@NOT_A_TOP_FAN Yes some specific addons that not everyone needs is a good idea. Bloatware is definitely how Adobe has become, the time it takes to load pshop and illustrator and the resources it uses makes Affinity a Ferrari there.
Learn More about V2 www.udemy.com/course/whats-new-in-affinitydesigner2/?couponCode=GUMROAD
I started using Affinity Photo about 5 years ago and added Designer and Publisher as they were released. During the 5 years I have used Affinity products they have been upgraded on a regular basis and adding features without a single payment required. I gladly paid for the UNIVERSAL LICENSE because I want to support a company that is truly giving their customers value at a reasonable price. I’m a former Adobe user (25+ years) but the subscription was way to greedy for me. Some people are disappointed because they wanted more features, but I’m really impressed with all the they have added. Since Affinity gave us several years of upgrades for free I think some of these missing features will make an appearance in the near future! If you are a good designer there are always work arounds for just about everything now! I do however appreciate you pointing out the still missing features. Your videos are well done and professional - Thank you!
Yep. Affinity's website basically describes the plan as free updates within major versions and no subscriptions/expirations. Assuming the schedule/timeline continues we will see a lot of new features before anyone has to worry about paying for V3.
The best part is, unlike a subscription with an "end date", for those who don't need new features, you don't have to pay anything until the software becomes obsolete... you can keep using V1 for a long time!
I like that they took the time to perfect the tools they have before implementing new ones. But I feel like its still missing something. But I'll continue using it for now.
To erase you can do it a different way by drawing your shape and then in the layers panel you set the blending to “Erase” and it will erase anything below it. Then if you only want it to affect the one shape under it, you just drag it into that shape. This is a non-destructive way to erase things.
Thanks! How long it is there? I was looking for it maybe two years ago as AD was incapable of substract object from group. Setting stroke color to erase would be even better.
My missing features is set UI scaling (AD has smaller fonts and icons than most of the apps) and dark checkboard for transparency below white icons. I also discovered global colors.
@@pavelperina7629 Pretty sure it's been there for more than 2 years, but not really sure. I don't use it that often.
Bitmap tracing is definitely one feature I’d hoped for. The other is the ability to create fillable forms in Publisher. Just formatted text fields would be nice, but auto calculating fields would be great for order forms!
waiting for fillable forms too
It's easy to want a lot of additional tools, but in reality, Affinity has a much smaller development team. I would rather see 4 new features that work properly than 10 features that sort of work.
Yeah, pity even those 4 are buggy. App just feels in beta phase.check the forums for all the complains. Can’t save to external ssd, constant app crash when export persona, bleed in this app is a joke, selection issues with objects in v2, and so on. It’s an OK app if you are not serious about design.
@@norbinw I can't recall too many pieces of software that didn't have bugs in their original release. I've been fortunate, I've not had any issues with my copy of Designer V2 yet. I'm sure the first update will be a major bug fix.
@@PBryanMcMillin it's been like this since a whole year 😂 in fact, all V1 major bugs are present in V2 with some more, worse bugs. Depends on your work flow. I use it daily and looks in beta phase. Also, support and response time on forums is bad to inexistent.
Thank you for this video. I thought i was the only one who noticed these missing features.
This is a really good summary of missing features. I could complete with missing optimizations, the pixel persona is still laggy and the pixel burses are still very counter intuitive.
I think this video was very clear. Just a list of features and whether they are in the new version or not. I think it depends on what kind of work you do and what your budget is. I just purchased the new versions of all 3 because I want to get the discount. I don't know how much I will use all of these (I also have Photoshop and Microsoft Publisher, but not Illustrator so I know I will use Designer more than the other 2). But I want the most current version and if I ever get an iPad it's nice to know I could use it there without paying extra. I was dreaming of some version that would work on Chrome OS or Android (even if it was a scaled-down version) -- but at least this is not a subscription model. That is the one thing that would have clinched it for me, I would have stayed with v. 1 then. I'm new to this channel but looking forward to tutorials on the new versions. You present in a very clear and easy to understand way.
To be honest I would rather have a selection to curve than autotrace feature or why not both. I want to have control over what becomes a vector. I've tried autotrace when I work with topographic maps for example with a lot of detail and it never does what I want it to. The vector erase I think they kind of have that with the vector mask. The biggest Affinity paradigm is to be non-destructive if at all possible. This is so that effects may be built up and then turned on/off to see differences. Lastly they have had mesh gradient since version 1.8. Its just not called mesh gradient its the Appearance panel. You can apply more than one gradient point and just set the right side to transparent and use a blend mode of average or try others for neat effects and they will blend with one another... So I would say the mesh gradient has been closed for a while.
The warp too has two catches:
1. No precision: you cannot move two nodes at the same time and cannot lock the movement to a certain axis, so if you move a node up, it is practically guaranteed to be slightly slanted.
2. Only the quad warp has sharp straight nodes, every other setting has round nodes, so if you want to make your warp sharp and precise, you are out of luck
In fact, I find it faster to make certain logos in Blender than in Affinity Designer just because Blender's functions, features, and hotkeys value proportional precision
Im faster in Maya than Designer so I start with 3D and then trace over it in Designer. Cool thing with 3D is that you get perspective and lighting without having to guess.
vector eraser is possible with clipping the curve into object , then change the layer blend to erase.
The two things I miss the most right now are 3D and real vector brush, as well as some kind of way to vectorise images (I guess that’s the auto trace feature). The rest is great too, but if we got these 3 features it would be amazing.
Thanks for this video, always interesting to do the « inventory » if I can say it like that haha. Just to be sure to not miss any feature.
I would also add the BLOB BRUSH as an important missing feature
As grids and 3d designs are concerned a real perspective grid with 2 vanishing points is a major win for Illustrator. Drawing realistic buildings and streets is so much simple with those grids
When I quit using Adobe and went full Affinity, I was ready for the challenge. After a lot of practice and real life scenarios, I managed to do everything I used to do when using Adobe. It wasn't as easy as when using Adobe, and in some cases I use little app helpers to achieve my goals, but it was doable. I won't go back to Adobe, and now with this update I am sure I will still be pleasing my costumers for a long time. (When I say Adobe I mean Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. I know Adobe offers a lot of apps, try to keep this conversation in the same topic.)
I would add warp envelopes and tangent snapping. In the what's new info on their website, they use an example of a guitar made using shape builder. Just try and align 3 circles tangentially. Inkscape can can tangent snap a line to a a circle, not sure if it can do 3 circles. I will have to try. I have done this in the past using CAD software.
Afaik illustrator can't do it
That would be a neat thing to add. And would not require much coding I would think, just figuring out how the interface would be modified to do it.
Great overview about what's missing.
I find the "Vector Brushes" to be a lot like the equivalent in Clip Studio Paint. Sorta vector but once again, you can't expand into a proper vector object.
Yup, I guess "Raster Brush on the Vector Path" was a too long name for a tool
Ffs… that’s why I could never expand to a stroke.. Yet they presented it as vector brush..
cant wait to completely switch to Affinity now finally
I think there is another way to do erase non destructive.
You create group inside the shape (or in the same group) and use the blend mode subtract (I do not remember if the name is this). After this you can create shapes inside that group and they will erase the shape
Nice workaround thanks for sharing! I think that blend mode is literally called "Erase"
Listen, I was almost buying VectorStyler for $99 to have all the features I need. But hey! Same price for all apps is a deal that I don’t want to miss!!
For auto trace... there are also a couple of Figma plugins that do raster to vector.
Interesting, must check it out thanks
I have a question regarding the knife tool, specifically the scissor functionality. I know that the ability to cut a line/curve segment is there, but can you use it to cut/break existing nodes? Can't find this info anywhere. Thanks!
Yes I agree this is a very important feature that I do not see in Affinity Designer 2.
A missing feature that you didn't mention that would be very handy for many is persistent measurements/dimensioning.
Well, after Affinity released v2. They changed their file architect from EXE to Windows App structure. Made a lot of people mad, including myself. You can no longer install to any drive you want. All of Affinity programs are now apps. Very frustrating.
This is most likely a db for me.
AND Inkscape is FREE! Which is always a PLUS! Inkscape has EVERYTHING you need.
There’s a guy on TH-cam named “Logos By Nick” who is AMAZING and well educated about every tool and facet of Inkscape and has some AMAZING tutorials. Which brings me to another point. Sometimes Inkscape’s vast and amazing features are a bit hidden or at least not easily and intuitively found. Nick helps A LOT with that. He knows the software like back of his hand. I know I learned a lot about not only using Inkscape and all it’s features (including finding them lol) but I learned a lot about design IN GENERAL.
I, however, switched from Inkscape and sought out something different because, AND I PREFACE THIS BY SAYING THIS MAY DEFINITELY BE VAIN AND A BIT PETTY LOL BUT, Inkscape isn’t aesthetically pleasing to me. I was looking for an application that was more “professional” looking and aesthetically pleasing design/UI wise. That’s just a preference and desire for ME. I wanted something that could replicate the feeling you get when using Adobe products without paying Adobe prices lol. And correct me if I’m wrong but, sometimes Inkscape could feel a bit clunky and I was also looking for something that felt a lot more seamless and smooth.
I’m glad that we live in a world where we have many options to make our own choices tho!
Ye that was so stupid. Thought I missed something at first. Not a deal breaker for me but who ever thought that was a good idea...
The biggest missing feature, I think, is the vector trace functionality. What are others using instead?
I'm testing Inkscape with no good results. There are very expensive alternatives online (Vectorizer, Vector Magic) but I can't afford them.
Color Blends (the key to creating realistic vector art) are missing, as is the Gradient Mesh from Illustrator. And what--? Do we have to wait till v3 to get Vector Trace? :(
I have a high hope that those features will be added. But unfortunately I have to use alternatives like Inkscape for auto tracing, and in the case of my iPad the vectornator(since they added the auto tracing in that app). At least we can give those software a chance since I like the affinity, is my best option since Adobe has expensive subscriptions.
I am new to Affinity Designer. I want that when I make a new layer for it to be a parent layer, not always going to child layers. Per Google research, it says that is determined in the Assistant Manager section that is supposed to be in the View dropdown but I don't have that. Does anyone know where it is or how to make new layers you add by copying and pasting a layer be a new parent layer instead of always going to a child layer. Thanks for any help.
Where is the Assistant Manager? I do not have it in the View section or anywhere else that I can find.
Still missing vector or pattern fill. Even inkscape has this. 3+years and waiting. Check out the forum threads
Vectorstyler has all the missing tools, Image Trace, a Blend Tool, real Vector Brushes, Erase and Gradient Mesh. And also there is a Pattern tool and a Half tone tool (repeaters). The only missing tool is 3d. But if you really want 3D I would suggest Blender.
Just another big series of feature missing: parametric filters/modifiers like "transform(repeat/duplicate)" etc.. Affinity's knida fell behind in those areas. However considering the features that V2 added, it seems that Serif just want to release thoes tools util when they're pretty polished. That is a good point though. Plus, V2 still doesn't allow any plugin.
Indic language fonts support.. it's been discussed at length in affinity forum..i hoped they would implement it in this V2..sadly They haven't... They are missing a huge market in india because of this language issue alone...
Indeed they could easily challenge CorelDraw if they have better support for Indic/Bahasa/Arabic languages
Limit of only 90 Degrees in FOV for equirectangular live projection. My drone from Autel cant shot most of the zenith and so is most of the sky area missing. Inpainting that part is done through live projection but 90 Degrees FOV is quite limiting. I would need 120-140 FOV
nice
Thanks
Where is the regular brush in Affinity 2?
Dear Santa, I would like to see a Trim to Stroke feature. Or maybe be able to trim lines to a shape. Also a Step and repeat dialog box. Christmas is almost here.
you did not include DWG/DXF import and export, major benefit for technical illustration
DWG/DXF support is nice! I will cover it in a separate video, this one was more about feature people have always been complaining about in AD V1
I don't think there's any export option though... Maybe I have overlooked it but at least it's not in any intuitive position to be seen.
Still can't overlap objects outside the artboard is still a huge loss for me post-Illustrator.
I have one festure, that i miss: simplify paths.
The other is to draw out measurements.
Like smart reduction of nodes?
Good video! Just for your information, I think you may have spelled 'Warp' incorrectly. You have it as 'Wrap'. If that was intentional, I do apologize.
My bad, sorry!
@@KruMark No probs! I just thought you ought to be aware. All the best to you! I have subscribed and looking forward to learning more about Affinity applications.
I'm on a touchscreen. There is no gesture canvas rotate! I'm definitely happy about the improvements, but I'm flabbergasted by the lack of gesture rotate.
Version 2 still doesn't support touchscreen gestures on Windows?! I have two systems with touchscreens and the lack of touchscreen gesture support in the Windows app is unforgivable. Especially when the iPad version has them. I wish the Windows version could be configured to work like the iPad version. That shouldn't be too hard to do but my guess is that the Serif developers are all Mac users so they treat Windows as a 2nd-class citizen. If Macs supported touchscreen then the feature would be added I'm sure.
@@TerminalJack505 Yeah, it's ridiculous. And I reached out to them to make sure that I wasn't just overlooking the feature. Someone from Affinity confirmed to me that the feature was absent.
I love that the company is creating an competition for Adobe, but I just do not understand an oversight like this on such a basic standard feature.
I was wondering how AD2 will perform on MS Surface Devices, no gesture for canvas rotation is not a good sign
I guess it depends on personal habit. I personally would almost never rotate the canvas (but rather, myself, instead), but I can see how it can be distracting when someone expects such feature but it wasn't there.
Saya menunggu Affinity Designer V10 saja 👍🏿
Bile je lah
haha
The way it adds dashed borders to objects is faulty. Try adding any kind of non-solid border to a rectangle and it JUST DOESN'T WORK. There are no brush patterns. There is no form of blending objects which is not that hard to do. Nor can Designer do blends on a curve or decorative borders on a curve. These are important functions for packaging design. I also hate how the Layers pallet automatically expands as you draw objects. You end up with enormous lists of objects which make it a pain to navigate. While I applaud Serif's fee structure, I really don't think they're listening to the program's users. As to autotracing... they should add it but there are inexpensive utilities which do a decent version of it so it's not key point on my wish list. IMO, Designer continues to lag behind Publisher and Photo. :(
Why do I have to press space bar first then control to zoom . Every other major software that uses this combination to zoom lets you press control or space in any order
i think next update in affinity V2
So, it’s worth buying affinity’s V2??
it's up to you. There's only a small handful of new features so far, but some are quite significant (new UI, non-destructive RAW) ... more importantly there will be more features and you can purchase it at any time and use it as long as you'd like.... the beauty of non-subscription software.
Worth noting the launch discount is pretty big though, so if you anticipate needing it later now is the cheapest price.
Hint: Next video, you should take the wool blanket off your microphone.
heh I just need a new mic I think ;)
im fine with repay for version 2. But I feel these new features don’t deserve to be called version 2 major update.
You are getting 6 apps (3 desktop apps and 3 iPad apps) for $100. Including the brand new Affinity Publisher for iPad. So making a version 2 is absolutely fine, especially with the updates this did do and when they haven’t charged for an update in 8 years and there is no subscription. You said you’re fine with paying and they can’t keep doing version 1.9.x.x.x forever. Illustrator has added fewer new features than this app and Adobe makes it a new version number.
I did have a problem with this as well. But I purchased it yesterday anyway 🤷🏽♀️
My only hope is that they add all these missing features SOON in upcoming updates for free
Hi Mark.
Where are yu from?
Hey! I'm Polish but I live in Thailand
Affinity designer and photo should add in the same "smart layers" as Photoshop. Affinity can do things like this, but they need to make an official smart layers feature.
If you're talking about non-destructive editing then Affinity already is non-destructive without smart objects.
that's called non-destructive it's equal to smart layer/object in adobe photoshop
@@titovalasques I understand, but I'm not referring to non-destructive editing. I'm not really talking about things like smart layers, but I'm actually referring to the exact thing. There's certain softwares that I use alongside affinity which seems to require the specific function of smart objects/layers that photoshop has.
it sounds easy to implement we already have embedded documents support in AD and a smart layer is the same thing, they just need to add a button so we don't need to drag and drop one Ad file into another manually
@@KruMark Yeah, that might work. It's a minor thing, but it does seem to matter. Perhaps they should allow the public to develop plugins for the software like they do in Adobe. I guess the reason why they wouldn't do that is because people would not purchase their updates if the public improves on the software well enough. Anyway, I hope they work on it.
There is no autosave...
I want a notes feature - so I can leave notes for myself about where I'm upto / thoughts
Well, just leave a text box outside the art board should do, you can still see it but it won't be exported.
Thanks! Quite disappointing. I still have the ancient Adobe CS6, and even illustrator that old has way more vector tools available.
Illustrator is also over 30 years old. Affinity Designer is only about 8 years old. So, yeah, of course Illustrator will have more vector tools. But also, Illustrator runs WAY slower than Designer.
@@timz9862 AFAIK Serif was making vector tools way before this Affinity software branding... as early as 90s.
@@322ss But not for Macs
@@timz9862 Well... a bit of a straw man, I doubt transferring quality algorithms and routines would have been that hard from windows to Mac, most likely C or C++ code, unless their codebase was a mess earlier or using a lot of dependencies they couldn't brought to new products (they do say on their page they started from scratch with Affinity line of software).
@@322ss Yes, but they are trying to make their tools work for both Macs and iPads in an intuitive fashion. So, even if they copied old code, they would need to re-think the entire tool to have it work for both regular and touch screens. You can’t take code from a Windows app created in the 90s and just transfer it over for touch screens. Part of Adobe’s problem is they refuse to re-write their apps for modern operating systems and just continue to use an old, bloated codebase, leading to slow performance and bugs. I have to use Adobe software for work and I feel like I am beta testing their software for every new release, even though we are paying a subscription for it.
Could Affinity just give us a damned dedicated line tool?
Why do we need it? ^.-
@@KruMark To streamline the process for new users.
Live paint bucket like in AI. Selecting things WITH all the same line weight, opacity etc? I wolud love to ditch Adobe for my work and would do in a heartbeat if designer had just those things added.
They added 'Select Same' functionality in a 1.X update. It's got a big range of criteria to select from but it doesn't have the tolerance settings that Illustrator has - eg if you want to select all objects with a 1pt stroke and 0pt and 2pt at the same time. I still can't switch to Affinity Designer from Illustrator personally.
@@chrisp2588 Thanks Chris. Yeah I need that detail too sadly. Wish they would add them.
Sounds interesting. You can apply the same line width and fill colour with groups. In photoshop I have to select every damn shape to make them match. Been years since Ive used illustrator so cant remember how it works exactly but more selct options is always better.
@@Xirpzy It's very easy to select stuff of similar attributes Illustrator. As it should be with vectors.
@@Xirpzy The 'Magic Wand' tool in Illustrator is fantastic. I use it constantly. The Magic Wand tool in Photoshop just selects areas of colour within a certain tolerance but it selects attributes in Illustrator.
???? so, if a certain feature isn't in A2 it's "missing". using that logic the the number of "missing tools " will number in the hundreds. ridiculous!
No, no, around 6mo ago I made 2 videos where I share my workarounds for AD V1 missing features reported by my viewers, in this video I have revisited the same 10 missing features to see that we still need to rely on workarounds or they have been added to V2
Missing "Width Tool" ;)
You mean for strokes? That is the pressure option in the stroke panel.
@@timz9862 It's there, but it's nowhere near as good as the Width tool in Illustrator unfortunately. In Illustrator you can just drag the scale of the strokes on the line itself to get really precise control of the path at particular positions that is hard to do with a curve graph. It's not a deal breaker though really.
The pedant in me says - Warp not wrap!
Nah, this one is on me I have butchered the pronunciation, lesson learned :)
I don’t know how they can still call it “vector” brushes :) I’m dreaming that Affinity have such brushes as in Fresco, sigh…
Do they? They have removed it from V1 announcements about 2 years ago.
@@Thargoran They call it the “vector brush” tool :) This might be misleading
Yup It's misleading :)
Yes, I want vector elements in my vector drawing tool. Real vector brushes should be a high priority
Why can’t a graphic design tool not do 3D?
Isn’t that weak?
WE NEED TO BE ABLE ABLE TO USE HEX CODES IN DESIGNER FOR CHRIST SAKE
It's NOT WRAP TOOL - it's WARP TOOL.
Warp like warp drive from Star Trek got it! and sorry for my mistake
@@KruMark No problem. I was annoyed with Affinity, watching your video, about how many features they didn't include. Thank you for pointing this out. I might still buy the upgrade, but I think there are better apps out there. I have Vectorstyler - I would recommend that one.
i bet 1 or 2 years they release v3 and you need to buy the app again. im gonna wait for future versions theres just not enough reason to buy. all the ui chances and stuff, you know im not paying for them to make graphics that i do my self. worthless. only thing i like is the shape builder tool.
next discount is probably on black friday and so on. ppl should know how this works.
Personally Warp tool was the one that I need to have to be happy with Affinity Designer and now it's here ^_^ I'm sure there will be few interesting updates for V2 before we will have to pay for V3
@@TomiBorchert Black Friday offers won’t match the current discount, their official twitter announced
They haven’t charged for an update for any of their apps in 8 years and you’re complaining about paying for 3 desktop apps and 3 iPad apps for $100? How much would you have paid to Adobe in that amount of time if you were using their software?
Would have liked an Android version. 😤
Android Tablets are probably way too niche
@@thisismyalias And trash
Android tablets came back during the Pandemic. They still quite well now. At least the Samsung ones do.
@@thisismyalias I dunno - Apple went from 60+% of tablet sales in 2010 to less than 40% in 2022. Samsung tablets are a big part of that and any art app ignoring that market is just chucking away possible sales.
My source is the statistic website.
Edit again: another Statista article suggests Android vs Apple iPad sales is 72% Android vs 28% iPad. Not niche at all.
@@fablewalls Oh ok, that might just be my bias then. My perception ratio is basically 100 to one for iPads vs Android Tablets. I’ve seen exactly one Android in „the wild“.
In just 2 yrs you saved $452 by getting Affinity Designer over Adobe Illustrator...
The only 2 things that are worth mentioning here are Auto Trace and Blend.
HOWEVER money is king... PRICE!
Affinity Designer V2 will probably last 2 yrs for $49 and you will get it also in iPad... Adobe Illustrator will cost you $21 monthly which is $501!
...are those few features worth $452 every 2 years?
Now imagine you are a small studio and need a few licenses... Imagine if you just want to learn and you can get a student discount because you are not in college...
Your mouse cursor shake too much. Please next time slowly move mouse cursor thanks.
I have deaf and low vision and I am look around what you are move your cursor mouse slowly move without shake.
Noted, thanks for your feedback :)
@@KruMark Sure no problem. I did send Report a Ticket about miss feature. I am goal same what you said. They must add feature on Blend, Auto Trace, Gradient, and etc. I will wait for them to answer and add feature.
How do I Convert Bitmap to vector ???
You’ll have to wait for V3, for even more money. No upgrade price for V1 users now that they’ve made V1 obsolete? I’m done.
Still an improvement over anything Adobe's ever done. It used to be $600 for a license and a $40-50 upgrade fee IIRC. Now with Affinity it's $60 for both a license or an upgrade ($30-50 on sale now). You're basically getting a perpetual license for close to the same price that Adobe used to charge just for their upgrade fees.
On top of that, unlike Adobe's current subscription model, your old version still works fine if you don't feel the new features are worth upgrading for.
crazy whinger.. get a life
Dude, 100 for something that probably will be updated for 5 years in 3 platforms….. man….
good luck with that.
Wholly worth the price for years of use, but you do you.
11/12/22 MY FAVORITE PROGRAM ONLINE OR CAN PURCHASE TO CONVERT BIT MAPS AND OTHER IMAGES INTO VECTORS IS VECTOR MAGIC. BEEN MY GO-TO PROGRAM FOR 15+ YEARS AND CAN EXPORT IN A FEW DIFFERENT STANDARD FORMATS. ANOTHER FREE PROGRAM IS GIMP TO DRAW AND EDIT CONTAINS A LOT OF THE FEATURES THAT AFFINITY IS MISSING.
Jesus Christ, it’s $100 US for windows/Mac and ipad OS, so what if things are missing? Do you really expect a full blown Adobe copy for this money? I have Adobe sub as well for work but the speed of the affinity apps loading and the switching between them leaves Adobe in the dust. If it had pshop plug-in support it would be next to perfect but I’ll take whatever comes for the price thanks. We should stand behind the non sub model, stop griping.
I would tend to agree here. So for context, 2 years ago, I bought Designer for $50 for my PC. A year later, I bought a new Mac and started using it as my primary for work. So then bought it again for MacBook Pro. I then need bought photo shortly after. Yesterday, I went ahead and got the V2 full suite for $100. So in two years, I’ve spent approx $250 on Serif software. I’m a graphics and print professional, so it’s obviously worth the expense, and I need the updated features. That said, I also need AI feature that PS has, as it will improve my workflow. My hope is that Affinity will release these, even if they do it as add-on” pricing. I would be willing to pay for it. So to your point, I really think everything depends on usercase. The same people complaining may not use these programs for work (or to generate income). Some may, but can’t/don’t want to pay subscription prices. In my case, I refuse to go back to Adobe because of the drain the Bs tasks that run in the background and basically act like malware!
@@NOT_A_TOP_FAN Yes some specific addons that not everyone needs is a good idea. Bloatware is definitely how Adobe has become, the time it takes to load pshop and illustrator and the resources it uses makes Affinity a Ferrari there.
i wanted a paint bucket tool!!!
We kind of got one now, you can fill empty spaces between lines with colors using shape builder tool