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Affinity Designer – Illustrator alternative

affinity.serif.com

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Re: Affinity Designer – Illustrator alternative

#51

Post by nness »

err4nt wrote: post #42
Osmium wrote: post #21

I'm looking for something with solid EPS import and export. So far, I've found Sketch flakey (some things imported incorrectly, other things cause visual glitches), OmniGraffle great except when I export a document as EPS which has other EPS-imported elements embedded in it, they appear to be rasterised (which defeats the point). And that's pretty much it–Pixelmator, despite becoming more of a vector tool, doesn't su…

I work with vectors a lot and I'm wondering why you're set on EPS as a format instead of using something like SVG. Does ElementaryOS support retina? It works well as a dual boot!

In my experience, EPS is far more preferable when it comes to print production workflow. I couldn't imagine sending anything else than a PDF or EPS to a printer for the first run.

Re: Affinity Designer – Illustrator alternative

#52

Post by michaelbuddy »

hnha wrote: post #28
teilo wrote: post #15

What with the Adobe CC subscription fiasco, my company is already looking for alternatives that we can use wherever it makes sense. Adobe, as part of their new subscription model, is trying to force us unto paying 40% more per seat than an individual license would cost. At that price we would be paying significantly more than we did when we just purchased upgrades. (We have upwards of 80+ seats.) So far I have manage…

with that much money, have you thought.about paying inkscape developers to accustom your needs?

though I'm sure inkscape devs wouldn't refuse some funding, they aren't necessarily pimping their services for custom work on the project. It seems to be slowly evolving, so who knows how long it would take to get somebody who could code what he's after.

Re: Affinity Designer – Illustrator alternative

#53

Post by michaelbuddy »

pavlov wrote: post #4

Serif, the company behind this product, was founded in 1987. It's cool to see innovative new products from people who have been around for a while. In the software business, too many companies older than a decade just end up milking their installed base forever with lame feature upgrades wrapped in an ancient GUI.

It's smart they going this direction, perhaps a result of them getting some key players in their staff. I haven't played with Serif since probably 2002. Back then the interface didn't seem all that smooth, but they do a lot of work in the education marketing area, so their products are probably evolving reasonably well. It's interesting your mention in the last sentence, because that's how Xara Designer Pro feels in a way for me after yet again buying their latest app. Where as they are adding useful things, some core stuff is still not addressed and GUI is a bit haphazard.

Re: Affinity Designer – Illustrator alternative

#54

Post by MattP_Affinity »

cageface wrote: post #37
nyar wrote: post #14

It isn't an alternative. Illustrator runs on Windows and Mac, this runs on Mac. I don't have a mac, nor do I want one, so this is unusable. Now tell me about how design has to be done on a and how the sleek $2000 plastic encasing the computer helps you do it.

I suspect that the reason that apps like this and Sketch are Mac-only is that the OS X provides APIs like Quartz and CoreGraphics that do a lot of the heavy lifting for drawing apps. So there's a lot less code to write for an app like this.

Affinity supports RGB8/16, CMYK and Lab colour spaces - but Quartz/CoreGraphics does not. We needed to make sure we produced a pro level application - which necessitates pro colour support so there's no way to do this if you're limited to what the OS provides: That's why we have our own renderer which took a lot of development to make so powerful and fast.

Re: Affinity Designer – Illustrator alternative

#56

Post by MattP_Affinity »

radley wrote: post #7
radley wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's Adobe. Illustrator is buggy and inaccurate with UI flaws that have existed for years. Plus the subscription model really messed with pro indies who paid for CS. We're looking for a big change ASAP. Really interested to see if this works. Most indie vector apps have not been ready for production use.

It won't open .ai files, even thought the home page says "Full support for AI". I had to look in the forums and found an apology. Since they're not playing straight, here's the direct download so you don't have to give them your personal info: https://affinity.serif.com/beta-download/

I understand your sentiment, but to be fair, the released product will have everything the website says it will. You're testing a beta version that may have any number of things missing at this point, so please don't judge too harshly as 'not playing straight'.

I could've included the current state of the AI/PDF import in the version you have - but it isn't ready yet, so instead of 'it doesn't import AI files' the comments would be 'AI files don't import properly' or 'why doesn't this attribute work?' because people may assume it's finished.

The personal info we ask for is nothing except an email address and your name so that we can send out updates about new betas - complete with an unsubscribe link.

This is a work-in-progress and it is very quickly evolving :)

Re: Affinity Designer – Illustrator alternative

#57

Post by 8bithero »

michaelbuddy wrote: post #49
jwatte wrote: post #41

Illustrator needs disruption, true. But Photoshop needs disrupt even more! (And don't get me started on only two computers for the full subscription install!)

Yes sir. I thought Krita was going to be a good new alternative for Photoshop, being open source but sadly it's got basic things missing. You can't even nudge a layer using arrow keys you have to drag layer content with the mouse. Laggy too. GIMP is well, always GIMP. Paintshop Pro, Corel Draw, Painter those don't really hit the mark. UI is always just odd. I feel lost honestly. I'm glad I have cs6 master collection…

At least for Linux, Xara Xtreme is quite nifty [http://www.xaraxtreme.org/]. It's now been abandoned but it definitely had lots of potential.

Re: Affinity Designer – Illustrator alternative

#58

Post by wooster »

MattP_Affinity wrote: post #54
cageface wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect that the reason that apps like this and Sketch are Mac-only is that the OS X provides APIs like Quartz and CoreGraphics that do a lot of the heavy lifting for drawing apps. So there's a lot less code to write for an app like this.

Affinity supports RGB8/16, CMYK and Lab colour spaces - but Quartz/CoreGraphics does not. We needed to make sure we produced a pro level application - which necessitates pro colour support so there's no way to do this if you're limited to what the OS provides: That's why we have our own renderer which took a lot of development to make so powerful and fast.

Quartz does have some support for those color spaces and depths. Is there support in particular that you found lacking?

By the way, nice app!

Re: Affinity Designer – Illustrator alternative

#59

Post by wsc981 »

I've been looking for an affordable Adobe Illustrator version for quite a while. I really hope this app will fill the gap that Adobe neglected (why is there a Photoshop Elements and no Illustrator Elements?)

As others have noted, tools like Pixelmater, Sketch and Inkscape each have their own problems, making them an unsuitable Illustrator replacement.

Re: Affinity Designer – Illustrator alternative

#60

Post by radley »

MattP_Affinity wrote: post #56
radley wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It won't open .ai files, even thought the home page says "Full support for AI". I had to look in the forums and found an apology. Since they're not playing straight, here's the direct download so you don't have to give them your personal info: https://affinity.serif.com/beta-download/

I understand your sentiment, but to be fair, the released product will have everything the website says it will. You're testing a beta version that may have any number of things missing at this point, so please don't judge too harshly as 'not playing straight'. I could've included the current state of the AI/PDF import in the version you have - but it isn't ready yet, so instead of 'it doesn't import AI files' the co…

Why not just say EPS on your home page instead of AI or PDF?
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