# Crazy good deal on art and design apps



## steelplayer (Jun 17, 2020)

If you're looking for a design app, this is one hellova deal! I have a background in 3d animation and had been a Photoshop user for decades -- since PS 1 Beta.  A couple of years ago, I canceled my Adobe subscription and bought Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer.  The regular price of these is a _one-time payment_ of $49.99 US. They're running a half-price sale and again, this isn't a subscription, it's a _one-time payment_ of $24.99 for Designer or Photo.

Photo is a Photoshop replacement and produces raster art, jpegs, png, tiff, etc. It can also read native, layered Photoshop files and can use most Photoshop plugins, notably, Filterforge. Designer is a replacement for Adobe Illustrator and it produces vector-based art, eps, SVG, pdf, etc. It will open _most_ Illustrator files. Each of these apps crosses over somewhat between vector and raster, so it really isn't necessary to buy both. I own both, but if I had to choose one, I'd go with Photo.

So why these apps? First and foremost, they're so damn cheap for how good they are! If you're looking to ditch your Adobe subscription, these are perfect replacements. As for the freebies out there -- I really wanted to love Gimp, but just never bonded with it. Inkscape is good, but for $25 bucks, Designer is a no brainer and has Illustrator functionality without the byzantine vector interface.

To be clear, I'm not affiliated with Affinity in any way, just pointing out a great deal.  And yea, I'd like to see these guys succeed by offering killer software at a great price that doesn't lock you into a subscription --like the Adobe mafia's model.


https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/?u...aign=Content_Sale_June_2020&mc=CONTENT0620E02


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## Robert (Jun 17, 2020)

I _highly_ recommend the entire Affinity suite.   

I've used Adobe software forever, but the subscription model just doesn't work for me.      Last month I decided to start making the transition towards Affinity and couldn't be happier.  I went ahead and purchased all three (Photo, Designer, and Publisher) because each one serves a different purpose.

Photo for product images and the usual photo / graphic editing.
Designer for drill templates, wiring diagrams, and mockups
Publisher for build docs

There are a few _very_ minor quirks here and there, but overall they're doing exactly what I need..... in some cases better (and faster) than the Adobe equivalents.

Check out how quickly a drill template can be put together:





Also worth noting all three of the programs launch in a fraction of the time and perform much better than their Adobe counterparts.

Compatibility surprises the hell out of me, so far everything has "just worked" without a hitch.


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## Gordo (Jun 17, 2020)

I'm taking a serious look at this.  Thanks for pointing this out.  I've been a PaintShop Pro user from the very beginning (used to be JASC and was Shareware back in the day).  Since Corel bought them it's been a steady decline in customer support and I get pestered with product beg screens that I'm barely able to get rid of.  It's a great product but Corel's approach is pretty heavy handed.


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## Robert (Jun 17, 2020)

I know someone is going to ask what the "quirks" are that I mentioned, so here we go:

*Photo*

*Doesn't save to BMP format* (but can open them) - Not really a deal breaker, if I _really _needed to save as BMP I can just open/save the image in MSPaint or similar
*Designer*

*Objects aren't automatically aligned by the origin point *- By default objects are positioned/aligned by their top-left corner, even if you set an origin point.   You have to click the "Enable Transform Origin" button to position/align by the origin point.   This is important for proper positioning of drill template objects.    I don't completely understand the logic behind this, why would you ever want to transform by anything _other _than the origin? If I want to transform by the top-left corner I'd make the top-left corner the origin.... (see below)


*Doesn't have Image Trace functionality like Illustrator* - This is the _only _function I have found so far that is missing from my usual workflow.   When needed I will fire up Inkscape or Illustrator, but it'd be great if Affinity Designer had this function.
*All Three Programs*

*Certain interface options aren't persistent *_- _Some settings have to be set every time the program is run.    For example the "Enable Transform Origin" button mentioned above, or when using tools like the Magic Wand selection tool in Photo the Tolerance percentage or Contiguous options reset to default every time you run the program.   
These are all minor annoyances at worst, and for $75 for a perpetual license of the entire suite I can certainly live with them all... and the team is actively updating/improving the software so the issues could all be fixed any day.


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## steelplayer (Jun 17, 2020)

Gordo said:


> used to be JASC and was Shareware back in the day


Yep!  Was a cool app. I bought a shareware seat of that years back.  Hate to hear that it's in decline. I'm afraid Adobe really cornered the market and a lot of the smaller companies are gone or on the way out. and I'm actually shocked at how long Corel has survived!  I'm hoping Affinity can hang in there, so I try to promote them whenever I can.

Here's a screencap of just how easy it is to mock up a pedal design in Photo after importing the drill template. The Pop-Top I just finished will live in something like this:


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## Robert (Jun 17, 2020)

Gordo said:


> I'm taking a serious look at this.



They're offering a 90-day free trial on all three right now.   Certainly enough time to check them out and see if they work for you.








						Affinity – Professional Creative Software
					

From the smoothest, fastest photo editing and graphic design software to the most powerful publishing software, Affinity apps are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with creative technology.




					affinity.serif.com
				




I started looking for a replacement for Adobe about a year ago and tried everything I could get my hands on... I even considered switching to Apple if they had something that would work.     I couldn't find _anything _that even came close to what Affinity offers, even for 10x the cost.

BTW Affinity is made by Serif, they were pretty popular back in the 90's for Serif PagePlus.

I'm also not affiliated, just overly satisfied with what they offer and hope they do well.


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## Barry (Jun 17, 2020)

Thanks for the heads up, been looking to replace illustrator myself


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## jubal81 (Jun 17, 2020)

Wow, thanks for the heads up. This looks like the last piece of the puzzle for me to finally get a little windows box for diptrace and design.


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## Harry Klippton (Jun 17, 2020)

How easy/difficult would a transition from inkscape to designer be? Is there any benefit?


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## Gordo (Jun 17, 2020)

You guys should be getting kickbacks.  I picked up Designer and Photo.  Very impressed and at this price!!!

Jubal81, ironically the first graphic I did with Photo is The Cliff.


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## Gordo (Jun 17, 2020)

Here's my first Affinity Photo decal


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## Barry (Jun 17, 2020)

I signed up for the trial


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## steelplayer (Jun 17, 2020)

Harry Klippton said:


> How easy/difficult would a transition from inkscape to designer be? Is there any benefit?


I wouldn't think it would be too difficult to make the jump. I don't know Inkscape well enough to offer any thoughts on benefits. Aside from the super reasonable price, one of the best benefits for me is the interoperability of the whole suite - Designer, Photo, and Publish all work extremely well together and it's super easy moving files between the applications to export for print and the web.


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## steelplayer (Jun 17, 2020)

Gordo said:


> Here's my first Affinity Photo decal


Sweet! Great looking design!


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## twebb6778 (Jun 17, 2020)

I've been using Gimp and Inkscape for a little while now, I've got more experience with Photoshop/Illustrator but couldn't justify the ongoing cost.

My main beef with Inkscape is the UI. It's quite clunky and not very intuitive. I feel like every time I use it I have to google instructions because the functions are never where I expect them. The lack of tracking in Designer sounds like a huge drawback, I much prefer working on vectors wherever possible. But I can always trace in Inkscape and then open the vectors in Designer.

I'll be checking this out, thanks for the heads up!


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## lcipher3 (Jun 17, 2020)

looks really interesting.   they've come a long way.
I think I'm going to try them out - looks very nice
what sort of license is it in terms of authorization /install?  Keycode, etc?  How many installs (computers) etc  

In "Designer'  - how close can it work like a 2D CAD program?  I use an old version of AutoSketch - but I'm always looking for something better.


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## steelplayer (Jun 17, 2020)

twebb6778 said:


> The lack of tracking in Designer sounds like a huge drawback, I much prefer working on vectors wherever possible. But I can always trace in Inkscape and then open the vectors in Designer.


That's my workflow exactly and tracing is the only thing I use inkscape for these days.


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## steelplayer (Jun 17, 2020)

lcipher3 said:


> looks really interesting. they've come a long way.
> I think I'm going to try them out - looks very nice
> what sort of license is it in terms of authorization /install? Keycode, etc?


They indeed have come a long way. I had a seat of Serif Draw 6 and 8 and in those years, it was clunky and pretty buggy.  The Affinity releases are light-years ahead in quality. It's a keycode authorization that's loosely licensed to the person -- I have it installed at work and at home on the same code.

I suppose it could workd like a 2d cad program, however as the admin pointed out up thread, the origin doesn't default to the center of the object. THAT drives me nutz. I've been working for decades in 3d applications and for the life of me I can't figure out why they wouldn't default the origin to the center of an object.


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## jspake (Jun 17, 2020)

i switched from adobe suite to affinity (didn't nab publisher just yet) about a year and a half ago, and i have to say i agree wholeheartedly with the above recommendation. as a long time professional user of photoshop and illustrator it has taken some getting used to, but my opposition to the subscription model is fierce, so the growing pains are worth it to me. to say that the $50 per app is a bargain isn't even close... and to get them both at half price now? you gotta jump on it!



Robert said:


> I know someone is going to ask what the "quirks" are that I mentioned, so here we go:
> 
> *Designer*
> 
> ...


its almost reassuring to see you mention these two issues because they are my biggest "problems" with designer as well. i had not discovered the "enable transform origin" button, so THANKS for that. i had also assumed that i just didn't know how to find the auto trace function, so i guess i'm not crazy. unfortunately i have not found a workaround, as my latest functioning version of illustrator is too far out of date to work on my current mac OS.


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## Robert (Jun 17, 2020)

jspake said:


> i had also assumed that i just didn't know how to find the auto trace function, so i guess i'm not crazy. unfortunately i have not found a workaround, as my latest functioning version of illustrator is too far out of date to work on my current mac OS.



Inkscape will do it, it's free and there's a Mac version. It's not _quite _up to par with Image Trace in Illustrator, but it's better than nothing...  Then you can save as SVG or copy/paste the vector into Designer.


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## jspake (Jun 18, 2020)

thanks, i'll check it out!


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## Robert (Feb 4, 2021)

Just a heads up for anyone who might have missed it the last time, Affinity is running a 50% off sale on the full suite again.


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## Gordo (Feb 4, 2021)

And just released an update to 1.9 across the board.


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## caiofilipini (Feb 6, 2021)

Does anyone know if Affinity Publisher is able to export PDFs while preserving layers (thinking about Tayda UV printing requirements)? I know Designer can't do that, just wondering if adding Publisher to my toolset would bridge that gap.


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## fig (Feb 6, 2021)

From their website;
"Check out just some of the brand-new features and major improvements below, including a new contour tool and select same in Affinity Designer, package output, data merge and PDF passthrough in Affinity Publisher, and the ability to add non-destructive liquify layers, path text and linked layers in Affinity Photo."

Sounds like it. I was just looking for the bundle


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## Barry (Feb 6, 2021)

fig said:


> From their website;
> "Check out just some of the brand-new features and major improvements below, including a new contour tool and select same in Affinity Designer, package output, data merge and PDF passthrough in Affinity Publisher, and the ability to add non-destructive liquify layers, path text and linked layers in Affinity Photo."
> 
> Sounds like it. I was just looking for the bundle


I don't know that I have a need for publisher


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## Danbieranowski (Feb 6, 2021)

caiofilipini said:


> Does anyone know if Affinity Publisher is able to export PDFs while preserving layers (thinking about Tayda UV printing requirements)? I know Designer can't do that, just wondering if adding Publisher to my toolset would bridge that gap.


Designer does do that. Each layer is preserved. Not sure if that’s newer functionality or not but I use Designer to export for Tayda now.


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## caiofilipini (Feb 6, 2021)

Danbieranowski said:


> Designer does do that. Each layer is preserved. Not sure if that’s newer functionality or not but I use Designer to export for Tayda now.


Interesting, I tried it out with @SYLV9ST9R's help, and he couldn't see the layers when he imported the PDF onto Illustrator.

@Danbieranowski would you mind sharing your export settings? Thanks!


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## Robert (Feb 6, 2021)

I'm pretty sure Designer has always preserved layers... (at least since version 1.8.5)

I placed these two knobs, exported as PDF, opened that PDF, and then was able to drag the layers apart.


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## caiofilipini (Feb 7, 2021)

Oh, interesting! I guess I'll just try it out on my next UV print. Thanks!


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## Danbieranowski (Feb 7, 2021)

caiofilipini said:


> Interesting, I tried it out with @SYLV9ST9R's help, and he couldn't see the layers when he imported the PDF onto Illustrator.
> 
> @Danbieranowski would you mind sharing your export settings? Thanks!


It's very possible that I only see the separate layers by re-opening the PDF with Designer. I'm not sure if it would work with Illustrator, I've never tried. But after a printing mishap with Tayda, I asked Hugo if the file was the cause of the issue and he said the files were good. 

How Designer exports the layers is no matter how you "nest" the layers within each other, when Designer creates the PDF, it'll put those layers on the "base" layer list. For example, let's say I have a layer called "COLOR", and within that layer I have a second layer called "DRILL TEMPLATE". When I export that PDF, it will put COLOR and DRILL TEMPLATE in the layers list, rather than keeping DRILL TEMPLATE nested beneath the COLOR layer. This is obviously a 'no-go' for Tayda, as they only want the three layers they request. So to get around this, you have to make sure you don't use any layers other than those, and just use 'groups' within Designer when you want to group things together (like labels, drill template, etc.).

Here's a sample of my export settings:


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## caiofilipini (Feb 7, 2021)

Danbieranowski said:


> It's very possible that I only see the separate layers by re-opening the PDF with Designer. I'm not sure if it would work with Illustrator, I've never tried. But after a printing mishap with Tayda, I asked Hugo if the file was the cause of the issue and he said the files were good.
> 
> How Designer exports the layers is no matter how you "nest" the layers within each other, when Designer creates the PDF, it'll put those layers on the "base" layer list. For example, let's say I have a layer called "COLOR", and within that layer I have a second layer called "DRILL TEMPLATE". When I export that PDF, it will put COLOR and DRILL TEMPLATE in the layers list, rather than keeping DRILL TEMPLATE nested beneath the COLOR layer. This is obviously a 'no-go' for Tayda, as they only want the three layers they request. So to get around this, you have to make sure you don't use any layers other than those, and just use 'groups' within Designer when you want to group things together (like labels, drill template, etc.).
> 
> ...



Thanks for sharing, really appreciate it, @Danbieranowski!


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## Barry (Feb 9, 2021)

So I bought Designer and Photo, having only scratched the surface working with Illustrator I can see I'm going to take a few steps back getting used to the differences, but it's coming along


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## JetFixxxer (Feb 11, 2021)

Might have to give it a try.  Photoshop, GIMP, and what not always kick my ass.. Once I start learning, I end up not using it for a while and I forget what I learned.


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## Barry (Feb 11, 2021)

JetFixxxer said:


> Might have to give it a try.  Photoshop, GIMP, and what not always kick my ass.. Once I start learning, I end up not using it for a while and I forget what I learned.


I know oh too well what you mean!


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## KevTom23 (Feb 19, 2021)

Are there any good ground-up tutorials for affinity? 
I’ve bought Designer, but I’m finding it, erm, difficult to use. 
Gravit seems to be much easier to work out, for a person with zero background in or experience of graphic design.


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## fig (Feb 20, 2021)

KevTom23 said:


> Are there any good ground-up tutorials for affinity?


Here is the official Start Guide, and they maintain a forum. Once you learn the basic terminology and how it relates to your goal, it should get you started. (at least, that's my plan) 

Plus, the folks here are a tremendous resource


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## fig (Feb 20, 2021)

Also,

@dmnCrawler has created a tutorial, on this thread.


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## JetFixxxer (Mar 29, 2021)

Even though I don't use these a lot.  I went ahead and purchased them.. maybe now I will get off my ass and learn.. no no not really, I'm only kidding myself.


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