Adobe vs Affinity | The Ultimate Guide
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- čas přidán 8. 07. 2024
- As your Adobe Creative Cloud subscription renewal approaches, the thought of exploring more cost-effective alternatives might be crossing your mind. In this video, we'll compare Adobe Creative Cloud and Affinity, two popular suites that cater to different needs and preferences.
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Adobe Creative Cloud, an industry standard for decades, offers a vast range of applications spanning motion graphics, video editing, UI design, and more. On the other hand, Affinity, a newer suite owned by the UK-based company Serif, focuses on photo editing, vector graphics, and publishing.
This comparison will look at Lightroom and Photoshop vs. Affinity Photo, Illustrator vs. Affinity Designer, and InDesign vs. Affinity Publisher. Here's what we'll cover:
00:00 Introduction
00:59 Pricing
02:35 Adobe Photoshop vs. Affinity Photo
03:45 Adobe Lightroom vs. Affinity Photo
04:30 Adobe Illustrator vs. Affinity Designer
06:49 Adobe InDesign vs. Affinity Publisher
09:51 Which should you choose?
11:20 Conclusion
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What are your thoughts on the massive backstabbing from Adobe? I dipped them as soon as I read about them using the stock art being used to train their AI. Knew it was a matter of time for the next step to f their users.
Suddenly this video became extremely relevant.
Yep, with all the controversy affinity is extra appealing now
Sorry... I must have missed the news. Why is this?
@@2020davidg There is a recent controversy with Adobe's terms of service. Depending on how you read them they can basically look through all of your files.
And Serif just pulled a chad move and provides a 50% discount for those who want to make the switch.
@@2020davidgadobe changed policy stealing work for their „ai” and spying on all the things you are doing on your pc boycott adobe!
@@2020davidgParking here for answers haha
I bought Affinity because I deeply resent Adobe going to subscription only. I bought the Adobe suite for about £450 back in the 90's when I had a graphic design studio, then shortly after I closed that business my InDesign was somehow blocked because I was 'out of memory'. I had no choice but to go to subscription. So since then I have been paying monthly which over a year is more than I paid for my last full package. I shudder to think how much I have paid since then. I now write and produce books and I understand that Affinity can create layouts for printed books, I am not sure about ebooks. At 74 I am still learning!
me in da future
Just wanted to say how much I respect a man of your generation keeping up with all these tools. It scares me sometimes to think that this stuff gets harder as we age, but you give me a lot of hope!
Great review. We completely switched to Affinity Suite in 2021 and have never looked back. DaVinci Resolve is what we use in place of PP and AE.
Ditto. But for photo editing, I use Photoshop and Lightroom. I like Da Vinci
I detest Ransome ware.
Affinity took some getting used but I adjusted my thinking and it allowed me to radically upgrade my workflow and client offer. It is very fast and deals with very large PDFs that are larger than Adobe allows.
The compatibility of the files and consistent user experience in the three programs is excellent.
For my work it is a superior product.
Now that Adobe has asserted what amounts to infinite rights over its users work product I think a lot of us are looking more and more for an effective escape from the Adobe ecosystem. It’s a shame to see this happen but I’m thankful that we now have some excellent alternatives.
You forgot to mention that if you’re are a designer looking for mobile capabilities affinity is the best option since it has all the tools as it would on the pc version and Adobe creative cloud is limited to certain features
Cancelled my Adobe subscription yesterday.
paid the cancellation fee?
Now it’s worth adding the point that Adobe steals your work and appropriates the rights to it without paying attention to the NDA.
Affinity also has the benefit of having one single file type for all the softwares, and opening and saving the same file in all 3 softwares are lossless, even though not everything is easily accessible in all software.
And I'd say one downside of Affinity is, it's hard to tell the actual size of a pixel layer, which can cause issue when dealing with binary image (as it can create gradient in what's supposedly black and white only image). Photoshop's smart layer can be opened in a separate window and edited like non smart layer, which is kinda more intuitive when needed. But then also smart layer isn't the most intuitive thing to use in Photoshop. Which is made worse when there are still so many schoolbook that don't talk about the use of smart layers.
Hey there, nice comparison. My 2 cents as a professional freelance illustrator using mostly Affinity Designer for client work since 2014. Designer is what I use most and it has everything I need to get the job done. There are a few free or inexpensive vector tracers solutions available if I require that for a job once in a while and I don't miss those features that Illustrator has like blending or the ability to work with gradient meshes. In fact Designers ease and ability to work in raster format replaces the need for some of those "missing" Illustrator features most people bring up. The transparency tool is a big plus for my workflow with Designer and the way the layers panel works with nesting and masks is much less clunky than the layer mask workflow I remember from Illustrator (not sure if that has changed). I guess like you say it comes down to what type of work you do and if that pricing structure and working in a cloud is something you are okay with. For me I don't miss anything crucial and the Affinity line not only is up to the challenge, it often exceeds it.
Hi! Can you please recommend a vector trace tool? I use Affinity myself, but for tracing I use an old Corel Draw I've got
@@steionescu inkscape
I have been thoroughly roasted (though my tone has been 'guns blazing' so I guess that's part of it) elsewhere for raising the point of why isn't Adobe taking notes from Aff. Designer with regards to ease of use/ user experience with some fundamentals such as layers, masking etc. I just came back from Designer over to Illustrator to see if anything changed and nope, it's still the same incredibly clunky and convoluted way of working with layers, masks and gradients. People roasting me seemed to equate a software being hard to use as more advanced. Designer is so gracious in simply letting you reach the result without having to think much about the process. With Illustrator I feel like my focus is always on which panel and tool to use in which order for it to even work. I'm certain most of them just watched or read a quick recap on Designer and dismissed it as a sandbox app for amateurs to play around with, and being feature starved. It's true that it lacks a number of things from Illustrator but it's also vastly improved the workflow and Illustrator seems to be intentionally turning a blind eye. Perhaps this is to cater to the old audience that's so used to it that they're inflexible to having a snappier workflow..
Please do more tutorial courses frequently for how to use affinity suite more efficiently it will be more helpful
One area where Affinity Publisher runs rings around InDesign is optical margin alignment. I'm actually a little astounded at just how primitive this feature is in InDesign: first it's buried in an unintuitive location and then it's basically one check box and a numeric setting. And it simply cannot cope with centred text, nor does it allow any custom settings or nuanced adjustments. Publisher, on the other hand, has full-featured control over this aspect of typesetting. You can use the built-in settings of your font, or you can choose to manually adjust some or all of those, for both left and right margins. And it works with centred text as well as left-aligned and justified text. Basically if you care about niceties of typesetting or if you want your headlines and display type to look visually aligned without mucking around with tabs, etc., then Publisher is the way to go. I currently use both apps, since some clients need me to work in InDesign, but when it's entirely up to me, I opt for Publisher, for this and many other reasons.
I was never a fan of adobe.. so much features which i do not use, it just makes the software slow, clanky and unstable.. Affinity is truly a God send to me.. since i started using Affinity i never looked back..
Fed up with Adobe's many games, so changing to Affinity now, but will use DxO CameraRAW for RAW processing. I'm using DaVinci Studio for video work, so well covered on all fronts.
As always, lack of competition has given Adobe the ability to charge whatever they want, so the fact Affinity is a fraction of the cost and is clearly pulling customers away, might make them rethink this in time.
I have the Adobe Creative Suite but also bought Affinity when Adobe put their prices up (again). The main thing that's prevented me from going full Affinity is that Publisher can't import native InDesign files. It needs the .idml file which is automatically created if I package a document, but not otherwise. As I have work going back several years including Indesign files which haven't got the .idml version, this is a problem, especially as I have often have clients who want an old document updated.
My issue as well. I've decided to continue with inDesign as my only Adobe cc software, $29 Canadian vs. $72 Canadian monthly. I'll continue doing that until i'm completely comfortable with Publisher, also spending some time each day converting old files to .idml files. Photoshop and Illustrator are used in a much more primitive fashion by me and Infinity's versions should be fine.
I hadn't even thought about it till your outro, but affinity really is SO much more stable. I've had many a session working multiple items in both photoshop or illustrator, only to have the application send me to the blue screen of death. Affinity really is quick and clean.
Same experience here. My first project in v2 was _huge_ and I was a bit nervous knowing how large and complex the files would be. ZERO problems/slowdowns/crashes. Happy days.
Today was strange. I woke up and as about to get started working and I had an idea. I'd just learned about this new feature in Affinity Designer 2 where you can align/distribute/ and resize objects to the same size about a week ago and it crossed my mind. I thought to myself, Serif makes these features that nobody asked for while not doing the ones that people want. I got started on my work in Illustrator. I never use Affinity Designer although I do have the software for a rare few things. One thing that I do typically is take a handful of objects and do align/distribute on them. Today, I had a ton of them to process in this one document and they also were different sizes. So guess what? On the same day that I wrote off the feature that Serif makes that nobody asked for, I actually needed that feature. I jumped over to AD and gave it a shot and it worked, although I still needed to go back to Illustrator for 1 particular distribution feature that AD wasn't able to do, it still saved me a lot of time.
hi, it's more helpful content i felt affinity is more handy as a graphic designer. could you do more content for affinity tools
Terrific review, made the plunge to Affinty recently, haven't had to look back (yet). Very impressed thusfar.
Very helpful, thank you and great work as always!
I think I'm finally ready to try to get away from Adobe. But, honestly there's nothing out there as powerful as Adobe. But Adobe is just getting so buggy right now, and they're not able to resolve the issues, while the software continues to get more expensive. Things are even worse because I'm making good use of Astute Graphics plugins and I would only get those through Adobe Illustrator. But, if I could get away from Adobe, I would save all of that money, plus the monthly fee for Astute Graphics as well. The challenge is in maintaining my fast workflow as I switch over to using several programs to make up for 1.
Thanks for this video for the comparison- I have both and want to learn Affinity
I have an annual relationship with Adobe of breaking up, waiting for Adobe to beg me to come back and giving me a $25.99/month rate for 12 months. I'm very open to trying new tools though and Adobe's recent EULA scandal find me looking at alternatives more closely. I've downloaded Davinci Resolve to try it out and videos like this, give me pause to consider changing over the rest.
I use adobe creative cloud but I am definitely planning my move to affinity
As much as I dislike Adobe's pricing model and bug-filled updates, there are some features that Adobe has that Affinity doesn't quite match. I hope Affinity keeps going though, as Adobe needs some actual competition. About a year ago I decided to cancel my Adobe account as I was paying $60 a month for the full suite, just to access 4 apps. They then offered me a discount code to only pay $30 a month for the whole suite. Recently that discount expired and I changed to only use Lightroom and Photoshop for $20 a month. For video editing I use Davinci, which is way better than Premiere.
I'm looking at getting Affinity publisher to design some books.
I'm really sold to Affinity now. Though my main concern is the library of filters that it has, because I use a ton of them in Photoshop but I need to find the equivalents in Affinity to fully transition to the new app 🥺
I have been using Adobe photoshop since 1992. As a graphic designer and photographer I use adobe a lot. Is the time for a change now?
can you do a tutorial video for kittl design software tool
I'd rather give the money to open source developers. Those guys are the Robin Hoods of the software world. Kden Live, Gimp, Krita, Inkscape, Blender, Natron, Darktable, Scribus & so many others are great, but could be so much better with our support.
Hey. What about the update to licensing from Adobe. It appears they can 'use/own' any of your content. Does Affinity have a similar licensing structure?
No, Affinity siempre respetará a sus usuarios, por éso también aclararon que no incluirán Inteligencias Artificiales invasivas o que puedan resultar en daños a los derechos de autor de nadie.
No, that’s why people are switching. Non of the dystopian BS like adobe and once off cheap purchase and you get to decide when you want to update if they’ve any available. Also I see affinity is having a 50% discount on right now.
Definitely Affinity Used to LOVE Photoshop and Lightroom, but since Adobe dropped perpetual licenses, no thank you. To each their own but I'm not paying a fee every month just to 'rent' their software, even if it does come with free updates.
I still use my old Adobe illustrator, until my system upgrade will not enable it anymore. Further I use Affinity Photo and Publisher. Publisher used to take ages to open a file, but since I embedded all images, it opens lighting fast. There is not much difference between Adobe and Affinity, but the price difference is huge.
Nice video! I will have a look into the affinity software right now. I’m just afraid of taking the plunge and whether my learning curve will be steep or not. As a solo designer, it would be huge savings for me.
i you good at using photoshop or designer i garantee the learning curve will way easy
It’s a much more simpler and intuitive interface. You won’t have a problem.
thank you!
As a freelancer myself, I have tried the Affinity way, but it bites a lot when i work with other teams. Outside my office, it is all Adobe minded. It was time consuming solving issues. So keep this in mind! Also, the AI impact in the Adobe tools is kinda high. Specialy in Photoshop these days, it can save up time. Also the huge bennefit in Adobe is the CC library system. So, from a professional point of view.. tha 50 dollar ish a month for tier 1 tools is not that much. But, having no subscription at all is interesting from Affinity. There is no win/win sadly.. so, be aware of that!
Yeah. I actually missed a job opportunity because I couldn’t work very smoothly with Adobe apps. For example, just adding a simple shadow to a PNG requires me to manually enter digits into photoshop and preview it until it’s right, whereas on affinity photo, what you get is a slider. I wonder why PS interface is still so sucky.
With the recent issues Adobe is having, you'll see a lot more people switching now. So you'll be ahead of the pack soon.
Thank you
So I’ve been recently trying to make the Affinity Photo thing work for me but can’t figure out the major hurdle of accessing huge amounts of image catalogs. As in, there seems to be no cataloging/ DAM solution for Affinity files. I’m baffled by the fact that Afffinty doesn’t have an Adobe Bridge equivalent. Neither Capture One nor Adobe Bridge reads the .afphoto files. The Apple Photo app is pretty much garbage for any professional level workflow such as editing a wedding, etc. Anyone found a great DAM app for Apple desktop that previews full size images in .afphoto format?
Does Affinity Publisher open InDesign files or should they all be exported to IDML?
Affinity Publisher does not natively open Adobe InDesign (.INDD) files directly. However, it can import Adobe InDesign Markup Language (.IDML) files, which is the recommended way to bring InDesign projects into Affinity Publisher.
I went into this thinking this would be one big company shilling for another big company but I was thankfully proven wrong
Great presentation! minimal and clear.. and beautiful.... thank you
Now days i use Affinity software
The biggest problem for me as a beginner graphic designer is that I want to make good looking mockups and that seems almost impossible without adobe photoshop. Sure some files work kinda in affinity photo aswell but its very limited and often doesn't work as smoothly. So even if affinity designer works good for creating logos I have no good way of making mockups. If anyone has tips for me I would appreciate it very much! :)
You can totally do whatever mockups you need in Affinity Photo. There are TONS of great how to videos here on CZcams. I'll all Affinity, and I was 100% Adobe for _many_ years.
A lot of my files are too big for psd so I have to use psb . Dies affinity have a file size cap ?
As far as I know, there’s no limit to the file size you can load into Affinity. The canvas size is limited to 256,000 x 256,000, but it should be able to handle any .psb file you create with Photoshop. Some features and effects don’t convert 100% though.
@@envatotuts it creates a file that can’t be opened in photoshop so I can’t share layered files with clients . That is a game changer
For Motion Design, Davinci Resolve is a great alternative to adobe.
I heard that many miss after effects in that area, any experience with that?
Love Affinity! If there was a good alternative to lightroom, I'd be even more delighted. Bought LR version 6 and still running it as I hate the 'rent your software forever' model.
Adobe is all about stealing your IP.
If you haven't, give Darktable a try. Different workflow, but very flexible and powerful.
Affinity FTW
lightroom and substance painter + designer is my crux....
Affinity bundle half off as the time of this comment.
adobe just sucks. It is way to expensive in most countries.
Where can i download adobe from bro kindly
It depends on what you're looking for. Regardless it's on their website. He's talking about the company and not the products themselves. A lot of people may not know that Affinity is owned by Serif, so they just Affinity for sake of simplicity.
i'm really surprised you chose affinity for graphic design
Your mind will be blown on how simple it’s UI is. You don’t even have to think.
Affinity > Adobe
Adobe, you messed up, and I’m looking for alternatives.
Go Affinity. Different. Good. Learn it. You _own_ it. You'll be glad.
Perpetual licence > the best product in the world.
For example, if you use adobe fonts to make a logo or some shit, and then cancel your subscription, you no longer have an active licence to use the font, and you may be sued for using it commercially. Do not ever trust adobe. They are there to squeeze every single penny out of you. They want you to be on a subscription model so they can limit the licence to only be active during the subscription, forcing you to keep it active for the remainder of your (or your business') life, or risk getting sued into oblivion.
It sounds great, but after trying the Affinity free trial for a week, I'm sticking with Adobe. While the price point is indeed painful, the Adobe apps are reliable and nowhere near as buggy or temperamental as Affinity. Most of my time during the trail has been spent trying to get Affinity stable and working properly (menus going missing, tools going missing, totally weird screen displays, and solutions to problems poorly documented). Maybe I'll try again when it's more reliable, but even at the current half price sale, I can't justify the expense of gambling with an unfamiliar set of apps with such a steep learning curve..
What about the terms of use of Adobe, and how they can use your work pretty much however they want?
I don’t know if maybe you are on a PC, but my Mac experience has been flawless. And as a result, we are transitioning a group of 45 designers from the Adobe Suite to Affinity. The only Adobe Product we are keeping is the Font Folio we purchased many years ago.
What we’ve discovered is that there is nothing we are not able to do inn Affinity that we could in Adobe’s suite of tools for traditional design work. We had already cut over from Premier to Davincci Resolve, so Video work was already covered.
No way around Adobe - sadly
At the end of the day, In Print, the Adobe ECO System is simply mandatory for Customers and Makers. Affinity is interesting, but when it comes to dealing with bigger projects, Adobe simply is recommended. As long as Affinity does not easy exchange format, projects can be transferred easily to Adobe users, so long it's not an alternative for me and my customers.
Simply mandatory? So very not true. Affinity v2 has replaced Adobe for my shop, and countless others. Our customers could care less what software we use, only what the results are. AI and PSD no problem. INDD has to be converted first, but _rarely_ need those to be re-used or imported. Darktable works great in place of Lightroom. DaVinci Resolve kicks PP/AE to the curb. *_Those who say it can't be done are often confounded by those doing it._*
Infinity Photo is a pile of Garbage. I really wanted to like it since it looks similar to Photoshop and descent UI. Boy was i wrong. If you plan to use layers do not use Affinity Photo!. You can't even merge layers without the program blurring the text,yes you heard right.
I read your comment, and thought, this can’t be true. So, on my iPad while watching this video, i created a document within a base layer, added a text layer, and merged the text layer down to the base layer. The text merged down just fine and is nice and crisp. It’s not blurring anything at all. Does it rasterize the text? Yes it does - because you merged with a Raster layer. The text will inherit whatever resolution the Raster layer is.
Seems to work just fine so long as you aren’t starting with low res raster artwork.