Ameture or pro, if you are an aspiring graphic designer you really need to try Affinity Designer. In our minds the only true competition to Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. Sure it does not have the extensive set of features adobe illustrator has but what good features when they don’t work well? or slow down your workflow to a crawl?
Here are some of the reasons why we love affinity designer:
- Our very top reason: It is about 300% faster in Illustrator. We’ve often noticed a massive lag in files that are graphically or vector heavy. Especially when applying shadows in Illustrator can be a pain. Not with Affinity designer.
- It is easy to use: Somehow affinity designer maybe because of its high-performance factor is easier to use. The layout of the software is very similar to illustrator so long time illustrators like ourselves will feel right at home with this software. They have just made some of the tools way easier to use and operate, lesser clicks and intuitive settings make the workflow amazingly simple to use.
- Export engine/image output: We’reWere not really sure if were doing something wrong or different in illustrator but we’ve noticed a massive improvement in the quality of our images with a lower file size when using the Affinity exporter. Our .JPG’s are now so much crisper and much smaller in size, which always puts a smile on a web designer face. Adobe seems to have neglected this side of things, I guess it thinks that everyone has fiber optic connections running at home.
- Vector drawings: Using the vector tools in Affinity are quite different to Illustrator. However, once you get used to the workflow, oh boy are you going to fly through creating some stunning artwork. This tool is a true vector designed software in every way, and its the most noticeable thing in Affinity designer.
- Guides and rulers: Affinity designer takes guides and measurements to the next level. Now accurately align objects on the fly, no more guessing. And it does this right out of the box, measures distance aligns to objects are all features that just make designing a breeze.
- Cost: Did we mention that this costs about $100 AUD via the App store? that compared to Adobes overinflated cost of $47 AUD per month for a single app (not on a monthly contract) is an insane difference in cost.
And that’s why we totally love Affinity Designer. As a company who predominately uses design software to create website layouts and graphics, we LOVE Affinity Designer, we advise if you are trying it out to give it some time. The first time we tried it out just a few months ago, we got a bit lots. But after experiencing a lot of downtime with Illustrator, and their overinflated monthly membership rates, we took another look. And this time we invested a lot of time in watching tutorial videos and we fell in love with this software.
Try it before you buy it, they have a 14 day trial on their website.