The Truth About Affinity 2.0: What You Need to Know
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- čas přidán 9. 11. 2022
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I love the Affinity suite. Thank you so much Serif. I’m an amateur designer. I don’t publish anything, I just love playing with text, winding up my friends and sending birthday, christmas and celebration greetings. The affinity suite has enabled me to do all of this. Keep going guys and gals. I’m not saying that your software couldn’t be better but what in the whole of life can we say couldn’t be better? Your single pricing structure enables me to be able to afford to tickle the small amount of creativity I have. Thank you so much.
Not sure they'll get this note. They don't like me much.
You're spot on. And the price reflects their software's capabilities. Does anyone think that the Affinity apps will be that cheap if they had all the bells and whistles? That being said, the fact that we have an Adobe alternative with 90% of the features which is good enough for 90% of the people out there for a fraction of the price is awesome! For my work, I've found that the Affinity apps do that job perfectly well so I don't need any of Adobe's apps. So I happily upgraded to V2. I think that Affinity is still growing. They are a small team, not a corporate giant like Adobe. It will take some time to catch up to them on the innovation front. This takes a lot of time and money.
Yes, If I had to exist on version 1.10 for the rest of my life, I could. I'm happy for the updates strictly for making my life a little easier.
@@TNBR-gl4pc you're putting way too much pressure on Serif. There's other developers who could have stepped up and taken over that space entirely but that too costs money and the right management to deliver the goods to match Lightroom. Everyone had been pushing for a digital assets manager by Serif but there's already a few apps out there that deliver that don't have to already take away from Serifs development team. I use EAGLE for my digital assets and I find that it works well with the Affinity file formats. Eagle is just $30.
@@TNBR-gl4pc additionally your saying their throwing away an opportunity but in my eyes, it's best not to put all our eggs in one basket. We should all learn that lesson from what has taken place with Adobe. If and when they have the resources, I'm certain Serif will work on additional apps to tie in with the suite, they just proved that ability with the launch of Publisher last year and now with the ipad app. Give them time.
@@TNBR-gl4pc they choose to ignore a Lightroom alternative?? You really think they’re ignoring it? Things take time and they are a small team with limited resources.
@@TNBR-gl4pc Have you tried freeware alternatives like darktable & RawTherapee? Some people like them, some find them far inferior to Adobe products. But they've been around a heck of a longer time than the Affinity line. Have you been asking *them* for features or UI fixes & have they been ignoring you? Affinity's purchase fees are low, they are new, & they do not have market share to compensate. So check them all out & ask all these developers for what you want.
Great quick review, Dave. Thanks! I'm a traditional artist, not a graphic designer, but I have been using Affinity Designer to create embroidery patterns from my sketches. I love it. However I won't be in a rush to upgrade simply because there is no vector trace. I love that they have a way to warp in the new version (it's about time!) but vector trace would have been the thing that swung it for me. Hopefully they will bring that along soon.
Glad it was helpful!
Thanks for the honest opinion Dave. As a photographer and graphic designer there's only one tool I was hoping for and that was auto trace. Illustrator has had it for years and I feel it would be the actual game changer people were looking for. I have to seriously think about whether the upgrade is worth it now.
Yeah, I’m really perplexed as to why that wasn’t part of this package.
@@DaveConrey It's either really, really hard to do (althpugh several online programs now do it), or they don't see the value in it.
@@GavinParsons Or they’re saving it for V3 😅
They’re waiting to put it in Affinity 3 and then charge us another $100😊
Auto trace has been around for decades, but it's hard to do well. If that's *all* you need, use Inkscape, it's free. I like Inkscape for lots of other reasons, but other people don't. But learning to use a *single* feature shouldn't be a problem. It's tricky to get good results, but that's do to the nature of the task. Results are better when you tweak the photo in the photo editor of your choice w/ tools like curves. Results also vary w/ input resolution. Where Affinity could have the advantage is through better integration of Photo & Designer. Perhaps that's what they're really waiting for.
Content aware and AI aside, I think the majority of professional design work can be done in Affinity.
One thing not mentioned was the ability to share assets, brushes and palettes seamlessly among all three Affinity products. I think that is a major step in the right direction and something I will definitely use. I have yet to do the upgrade but it will be interesting to see how well it works and if you can identify the harddrive location for these shared resources. It's great for a single user on a single computer but if you have a design team working on multiple computers then I think you need to be able to point your computer to a server that stores the shared resources (brushes, assets, palettes, etc). This would allow teams to work more effectively rather than having to export the assets and palettes and brushes.
There's definitely nothing that I would normally design that can't be done in Affinity. It's these incremental improvements that help boost productivity for me.
I still have a lot of issues working in Affinity and having clients in the Adobe loop. it is not matching
When I saw the mesh warp filter, I immediately upgraded. The ability to edit text after applying the warp sold me. Then seeing the displace filter in Photo after that felt like validation. Image trace would be nice for some things, but I really don't have a huge need for it. Plus, there is always so much clean up to do after an auto trace that just using the pen and pencil tools are much quicker in the long run.
Good choice!
The new live masks really do go beyond what Photoshop can do. The luminosity range mask is an excellent example. In photoshop you have to play with the apply image tool to get a static mask. Typically you will repeat this to get a refined mask. In affinity, you add a luminosity rage mask, adjust the curve whatching the image update in real time or the preview. And it is a live mask. It will update if anything changes. You can even readjust it anytime.
I haven't dug into those yet, but I do think those are a neat concept. Not sure how much I'll use them, but time will tell.
And on top of that you can let the mask intersect (subtract or add) with other masks such as a mask based on colour information. The possibilities are endless. And as you said, all these masks are Live and update with further adjustments you make to the image. Mindblowing!
Love your honesty. It’s super refreshing and although I’m not yet entirely sold on this upgrade just yet, I began realizing the benefits that it brings.
Thanks so much. I’m happy to lend an honest perspective where i can.
I think what a lot of folks don't consider is that Affinity products are a work in progress. This is only their second version of their software. There have been 20something versions of Photoshop, each with a handful of major changes. Adding a new feature requires a lot of work, so in Affinity's case, they have to pick and choose which new features to add. I'm sure they could add a ton of new features, most of which would have mediocre functionality, at best. Better to add a few new features that work they way they are supposed to than a lot of new features that sort of work. It will take more than a couple of new versions to get close to being on equal ground with Adobe. I think you'll see more and more innovation as time goes on, but right now they are still playing catch up.
Honestly, I think they'll be playing catch-up for a while.
@@DaveConrey Agreed. Still, if they can take two steps while Adobe takes one, they'll eventually get there. Also, depending on what a person needs the software for, it can still be perfect for them. I use it for cartooning, and it is more than adequate for that.
When Affinity tries to innovate on something, people still says (yeah, but they lack on A, B, C...". So, it's a never ending struggle for them (or any other small company that does something associated with big corporations)
This is true, and honestly, it's those conversations that help the companies know which direction to take their apps in the future.
@@DaveConrey The think is that after you have had conversations with X number of persons and all of them had different perspectives, what to do then? It's a hard decision to make
For my personal, and undoubtedly simplistic, use (I'm not a professional graphic designer) Affinity Designer 1.x was able to solve nearly all my problems and crazy without a monthly fee. I'm excited to try 2.0. It doesn't sound like they added an Offset tool - too bad. I'll have to investigate the DWG support, which could be useful since I'm a Fusion 360 user.
Oh you may dig that dwg functionality
Innovation, yep you nailed that. It seems like they are still trying to catch up to some basic adobe features. Shape builder, knife and warp do look nice but I was hopping for some stuff in Designer we didn't get like vector trace, better vector brushes, scattering and controlling many vector objects with parent objects. And I've been looking over the release notes and I'm not sure if 2.0 has objects/text along a path or a true vector erase brush but I don't think it does. Anyway, I think I will hold off on buying 2 unless they drop more of those features in a later release.
Thanks for the excellent work covering Affinity, art, business and design!
Text on a path has been available for a while now, but they still don't have vertical text. There's no vector erase, but technically you could use the shape builder tool for that, depending on your needs.
You are always providing that healthy does of truth and reality to the situation. Totally agree with you! and yes I will probably update my affinity apps and Laos continue to pay the $15CDN for the photoshop/lightroom bundle
Yeah I don’t think affinity has any motivations to compete against Lightroom at this point
Thanks Dave! = totally love your authentic review of 2.0. Matched many of my observations, both cons as well as the pros. In watching a lot of these 2.0 launch reviews, I'd have to say it seems like a universal reaction everywhere (in videos as well as in their comments below) a sense of of surprise and disappointment that there still is no auto-trace tool (yet). For all the other things that were missed, many of them are wanted by certain people who do specific kinds of work (while others aren't bothered by their absence) and usually it was also tied to which of the 3 apps is your favorite workspace to design in. But on the other hand, auto-trace is different = seems regardless of which app you spend most of your time in, or what kinds of design work you tend to do most, everyone universally really wants the auto-trace feature. I think if they had just made sure that this was included in the 2.0 launch, then there would be far less disappointment. After all, there really is some other very great stuff that they just added -- but it's just been shadowed by a glaring missing feature which we all just assumed and were expecting to be there whenever 2.0 got released.
Yeah, of all the things missed, Auto Trace or a similar feature is the one I am most shocked didn't make it on the list of must-haves for the development team.
It's good to listen your impressions. I'm wainting more detail in future and how this suite affect your workflow. I'm personaly glad with the footnotes and some improvements in publisher, to me it is very fun to lear how to make things diferently with affinity.
Yes, I probably will do a follow up later down the road.
As always great perspective on the Difference between Adobe and Affinity.🤘
Thanks Kevin.
I think you make a good point! If you can’t design without all of Adobe’s bells and whistles, perhaps you don’t know how to design. Sure I miss a couple of tools from time to time (especially warp mesh that has arrived in 2.0) but I still prefer Affinity’s workflow before Adobe’s heavily bloated software. I’m a bit disappointed that Serif didn’t develop at least one feature that did not only catch up but went beyond what Adobe offer. I still wonder what thing Ashley Hewson were unable to tell us about in the Something Big is Coming-teaser, “I can’t say that yet *smug laugh*”. No feature Serif has added matches that smugness.
Studio Link is what i would call a beyond Adobe feature?
I agree with @StainX. Studio Link and the way the apps work so well together is definitely Affinity's innovation and Adobe can't touch that.
Tbh it really depends "what" you're designing though. I much preferred Affinity compared to the unintuitive messy workflow nature of Illustrator, but freeform gradients and meshes were just a pivotal tool for my design style. And it looks like that feature is still missing from V.2.
Sure, I could find ways to make a similar outcome in Affinity that I can get in Illustrator, but theoretically why should I when there's a tool for the job. What's considered a bell and whistle to others is a core component for someone else.
@@raho2005 Sure is! There are definitely features that surpasses Adobe's. But I'm missing the killer feature that justifies the smugness delivered in "Something Big is Coming"-teaser. It's a bit late to announce Studio Link, it's been available since 2019(?).
The biggest thing I took away was the price for value is there. To me the new productivity tools and new features are really great for the equivalent of a couple of "payments" to Adobe I was able to outright buy 3 products I use to create. * _If you go ahead and take advantage of the 40% off for the Affinity V2 Universal License._
Definitely worth the value
@adam1762 This is also very true! Serif bring it to Adobe.
@@DaveConrey sell out
Color Mesh or Gradient mesh was added back in 1.8 as the Appearance panel. Actually it is more like free form gradient in Illustrator but can achieve the same thing. In the Appearance panel you can add more than one gradient fill and then set it as a circle or ellipse making the right side of the gradient transparent. Then set the blend mode to average or try the other blend modes for weird effects. Then move the points around and they will interact with one another.
I'm going to have to check this out.
Yes, the appearance panel is great for combining gradients fills (would love to see it also in Photo) but the gradient mesh tool on Illustrator can do a whole lot more such as using it with effects to create some truly extremely distorted points / twirled / crackling points and gradient colors, I can't see anyway of achieving that with the current appearance tool.
I think in the majority of cases comparing Adobe and Affinity isn't really sensible--at least not in the way that many people do. With Affinity (insert program) we have a program that costs $40 one time (and has perhaps around 8 years of support given the initial release); with Adobe (insert program) we have a program that costs probably on average about $240/year. So even if we only compare 5 year costs there's a massive difference, i.e. $40 vs. around $1200. (No need to attack me on the math if it's off because regardless the difference will remain percentage-wise massive.) I think it's unreasonable to expect the same level of performance from Affinity. Adobe has a lot more revenue which translates to more personnel resources that can make things happen (including innovate). Affinity may never "catch up" with Adobe, but I'd argue that they have sure made up massive ground. Affinity is for those of us that don't see the value in an absurdly expensive subscription. Adobe is for those that do. For many professionals, $700/year for the suite is absolutely justified and worthwhile.
It’s fair to note that the $700 (albeit expensive) covers the entirety of Adobe’s programs and all the additional resources (Adobe images, fonts, etc.). That said, most people don’t need all the extra apps the come with Adobe cc. Which is where Affinity can shine.
Thanks for your honest review. I made the upgrade to Affinity 2. (I have been a long time Adobe user). I found Affinity 2 to be just much more intuitive and it has everything I could possibly need at the moment.
Glad it was helpful!
I’m not a designer, but when it came to pass that I had to create covers for my books and meditations, it was a nightmare. Couldn’t get anything going in any of the old programs. Nothing. Could make nothing happen. Then I found Serif (this was many years ago), and I could make something happen right away. It was really easy to learn for someone who knew nothing about graphic design and book layout. And it was affordable. Really glad I found them. And it took some research because way back then no one had heard of Serif. I’m glad they’ve grown and continue to grow.
Glad you found a good solution with Affinity.
Thanks for letting us know about Affinity 2.0. Like you said they haven't really innovated much so I don't think I'll be upgrading and buying the new versions until they do. I will confess that I got a new job since I was last using Affinity so I'm using my Adobe license instead and it's just a better experience. The only reason I use Affinity now is for the tone mapping persona or if I need to access an old document I made in Affinity and since I have access to what I need, it's not really worth it. But, it's a great cost effective alternative and you can work with it so nice!,
I think some of their updates are worth the upgrade, depending on how you work.
This is awesome.
Thank you.
I was being promoted to the new graphic design job at the casino I work at, replacing a company we paid a lot of money to do for us, and the general manager had mentioned that he hates subscriptions when asking me about what software to buy. Looking at what they did, which is print ads, postcards, mailers, and digital signage; I told him I could use Affinity. So since May I have been doing an entire casino's design work and it gets the job done very well. I already put in a requisition for v2 for its improved productivity and the Shape builder and Vector Warp tools will help so much for more complicated graphics. I have Apples Final Cut, and Motion for our video projects as needed....avoiding subscriptions has made him very happy thus far.
I can imagine, definitely a much more reasonable expense.
Thanks for the review. It was one of your videos that convinced me to buy Affinity in the first place. And I do most of my personal design work on it now. I still use CorelDraw (!) for precise designs and tracing. And Adobe? I only use it for work because they have CC license. (And I use DaVinci Resolve for editing.) I think Affinity is perfect for smaller organizations, charities, non-profits, etc, that need design software but don't have the budget for Adobe.
Great to hear. Thanks for watching.
Great Video and honest take. :)
Thanks for watching!
Great review. I think more than innovation what we needed was accessibility to Applications that can to a certain extent do what adobe can do at a fee every designer (especially freelancers) can afford. Some of us are not keen on pirating software (adobe) we feel much better having advanced features on an application that despite its limitations is worth the once-off price. I love affinity and for what features it has I feel their price is very modest and gives me the exact tools I need for design. Even V1 was good enough for me. But like you said, a good designer can utilise any tool and that’s what makes the difference.
Indeed. Thanks for sharing.
I just did a 100-plus page book design with Affinity Publisher V1. (Thanks, Dave, for your help!) It worked just fine for me, and I'm about to go to press.
@@martharetallick1150 that’s wonderful, it’s as I thought, Version 1 by itself is already that good
@@SimonHakai_ Thank you!
And, to be perfectly honest, book design is one of the more conservative areas of visual design. It doesn't have to be super graphic-design-y like, say, posters. So, I don't need the latest and greatest software to get the job done.
Maybe I've just been doing this too long, but I'm one of those who doesn't need all the bells and whistles, so I'm not disappointed in 2.0 at all. The new tools are ones that make sense, and are ones I'll use. I also do and handle a lot of engineer drawings, so the addition of formats to incorporate those is great. Things like image trace, I don't use it, a designer should be able to draw/ trace things with better and more accurate results. Does it take longer? Yes, but to have something you created, that you can easily edit and tweak to your project needs because you placed every node, it's always worth the extra time and effort. Having true vector brushes would be way more useful than trace. I think they're doing great.
I'm the same, get along without any fancy things. A little blur, some blending modes, and a healthy dose of halftone texture and I"m golden.
Great review, agreed with most of the points. Hits my ego that clearly my Affinity tutorials channel is not on the Serif radar that I didn't receive an invite to look and check out the beta but I was quite happy to purchase it, the whole set / universal (clearly looking at the comments on here, you have 100s more comments than I ever get). I agree, Affinity is not innovating but I am also happy with productivity and tools that work in the way that I can use them quick and easy to achieve my results. I still use Photoshop, I don't think I would ever give up Photoshop to just move to Photo but I really like the application. Some of the new features are very useful but there was so much more that I really wanted to see in the applications (video for me)
Honestly, I'm shocked they reached out to me on this because I've been more critical than some of how they operate.
Very good review. I have just bought the upgrade package but haven't used it yet. I'm old school Designer, pre computer era 😂. Adobe lost me at the subscription model, so I still use CS6 for all my work and Affinity for jobs it can do. For example, isometric illustration in Designer is excellent. As for the price of Affinity - has everyone forgotten how much we used to pay for their products? Thousands! And if you wanted to do anything exceptional you had to buy third party plugins because the software had limits. But we always found a workaround.
You're right, it's just a tool and I think an outright purchase of 3 key design tools (at current discount) for the price of 3 months adobe is a fair price. Plus I get to retain all my files, fonts etc on my dystem and not in the cloud. Hopefully this new upgrade will give me the extra tools so I can finally drop CS6.
Fingers crossed. Thanks for watching.
Thanks for the review. You nailed it by saying it’s about productivity. The reason I deleted Affinity and swore I would never use it again is I lost 2 hours worth of work when the program crashed on me. Do you know if the new version does backups? I know Adobe does backups now so it’ll auto save that way if it crashes you don’t lose all you’r your work
I’m my opinion, auto save works pretty well on Affinity now and I believe you can set the auto save duration. I’ve had crashes and when I reopened the apps, my projects were intact.
you know AS SOON as affinity 2 dropped. I IMMEDIATELY thought of you Dave. Lol
I came to your page yesterday and didn’t see a response video and was just waiting for your response!
Yeah, I spent the day watching everyone else's videos because I wanted to see how people were talking about it, and I wanted to do it different.
Great review!
Thanks! glad you enjoyed it.
Something that people need to realize is that Adobe launched Illustrator back in the mid 80s. Serif released Affinity Designer in 2014. There are at least 30 years of development time between these. Adobe has been working on refining their tools for DECADES. Serif has been working on their current offerings for maybe 10 years. Why do people think that just because Adobe has specific features that Affinity should be able to have those same ones in less time? Adobe also has SIGNIFICANTLY more money. Hell, they literally just bought Figma for $20 billion. BILLION. Now of course, there is probably some debt financing done there for that, but they have the means to make a $20 billion acquisition. Serif likely hasn't even cracked a quarter billion in profit, so what are they going to use to fund all of the hiring and R&D required to build the same features that Adobe has?
It's asinine to think that Affinity will be 100% on par with Adobe anytime soon. And anyone complaining about that is either ignorant or just plain idiotic. Give Serif the time to develop these features. We are still getting these amazing programs at 1/6 of the cost that it would be to have an Adobe CC sub for a year. The fact that we have a low cost alternative to the predatory model that Adobe has is great. Any designer who refuses to support a company like this and instead continues to spend money every month for Adobe is part of the problem. (Obviously, there are some caveats here including niche features in Adobe products as well as access to things like Premiere and AE). Everyone has their preferences, and I am not trying to say that designers NEED to use one thing over another. But designers have for too long been held hostage by Adobe because it's the standard and it works really well. We should be pushing Adobe to make changes that benefit US, not the other way around. In my opinion, Serif is doing what benefits designers as a collective. Giving us affordable, really great software that we can use to realize our dreams and make a living.
I don’t think anybody believes that affinity designer should be on the same level as illustrator, but there are things that definitely should’ve come to fruition by now. Just as a history lesson, Sarah F. was the very first company to actually have a vector trace tool. So it’s logical that they would have this technology already, but it hasn’t showed up.
Also, there’s something to be said about the speed of technology especially once a certain company has done the innovation. It’s safe to assume that other companies could come up to speed a lot faster because Adobe already did the work. For instance, nobody had designed a smart phone at the level of an iPhone until Apple did it. Shortly after, all these technology companies start building smart phones. we know these technologies exist and we know the potential, so it’s much easier to get up to speed because somebody already paved the way.
@@DaveConrey What you aren't accounting for though is programming differences and money. Just because Serif had the first vector trace tool 20+ years ago, doesn't mean they can copy and paste it into Designer. In an ideal world, they would have the know-how to implement a feature into a new program, but it really isn't that easy. Speaking as someone who works at a company developing software and applications, I can't tell you how many times our engineers have told people "It's going to take a while to implement this one feature we have in this application into another", it's never as easy as it seems.
From the innovation standpoint, you are right. When one entity innovates, others should follow suit, but this is also where money comes in. In your smartphone example, you are talking about companies like Apple, Samsung, LG, Motorola, Google. All of which have money. As a Motorola, it's easy to buy some 2007 iPhones when they released and spend time and money to reverse engineer them to come up with your own versions. Software developers don't have that luxury. They can't just buy Adobe and dig into the code. It isn't like it's open source.
For the most part, I think you are right. Even though these things aren't "easy", we live in a world where technology is moving so fast and as a company, if you aren't at least keeping up, you are getting left behind. I will be curious to see where Serif brings 2.0 to before 3.0 comes out and how closely aligned to their Adobe counterparts they are.
The bells and whistles in Adobe are for more efficient workflow and experimentation...kudos to Affinityfor getting Publisher on iPad
👍
Hi Dave,
I'm a small publisher. I need layers-accross-the-PDF functionality, so that PDF customers can disable graphics layer accross the document with one click. Sort of a deal-breaker for me and it's not about my ability; I need this for my customers. The app is called "publisher" so... I would think there would be tools for digital publishers. No epub export either. For collaboration, I really would like to have PDF pass-through, so that an edited (forms and mark-up) PDF can be placed in a document.
I'm working on Photoshop and inDesign right now with a borrowed account. The ability of Photoshop to select a subject and select out the sky is an amazing time saver. The built in artistic filters just are incredible.
Yeah, there are going to be some specializations that Affinity just won't go after.
Im not a professional Designer, but I do design a ton of logos for fun and Affinity is to me what a video game is to a basement dwelling kid. The one thing I appreciate most about Affinity is the one time payment and not a huge monthly fee like the other guys. The new improvements are HUGE for me but again, Im no pro. I hope they continue to add great features which I personally dont mind paying a small fee for as long as they dont lock me out and force me to pay big bucks every month. If the program was paying my bills every month it would be a different story. There was a time back in the day when you could buy Adobe off the shelf and you were good to go but times change and everyone wants to get on that credit card and make you pay their rent to live there. Thanks Affinity for being a better solution for the little guy like me. Great video!
that's a great take. thanks for sharing
Appreciate the review! Been an Affinity user for years (before they changed the name to affinity)
Got busy when I downloaded the trial version of 2.0 and didn’t get a chance to check out the updates.
Everything your saying is true and spot on! 10,000%
I’ve been saying it for years you don’t need all the bells and whistles to get the job done.
All you need to know are the fundamentals of art and design and understand the universal essential tools of the programs: if you decide to upgrade to the bells and whistles later or temporarily that’s fine.
But I recommend Affinity and hope they eventually get a vector trace feature and other things you suggested.
As for now I just use my tracer in Corel Draw that I bought 2 years ago while I was a student at school finishing my BA for graphic design media arts. I had 2 associates before that(just to note I’m not a beginner lol)
Great stuff here!
Thank you. Glad you enjoyed the video.
@@DaveConrey welcome! Keep up the great work!
This was the review I was waiting for, thank you Dave! I was always going to purchase V2 as I've more than had my moneys worth from V1 and want to help fund the continued development of the suite. Totally agree with you, as far as innovation goes they'll always be playing catch-up as they're still perfecting the day to day tools themselves but I'm 100% with you in the belief if you are a real designer you can work with any tool. Affinity though, wins handsdown for me with their distribution and pricing model and its not like people can't continue to use V1 if they don't feel ready or arn't able to pay for V2 at this time.
Adobe SHOULD be more innovative. Subscribers pay about six times more, right?
indeed
agreed, thanks for watching and the commiseration.
Thanks for the input on Affinity 2.0 Dave. I'm just recently getting the hang of affininity 1.0 now that I have some time since Christmas break from school is approaching. I am definitely going to be waiting for awhile to upgrade to 2.0 while it gains newer features that I might wanna get when I get the hang of this new software. It's been fun though learning the process of how vector art works.
Great to hear! Thanks for sharing
I agree, Affinity is the 'value' option alternative to Adobe. AND you still need to learn/know/use design principles no matter which tool you use! - Well said Dave!
thank you.
I was not approached by Serif. I purchased because I like what they did with the software. I have been using all apps since yesterday and I am having a blast. I already did a client job with the apps.
That's awesome. I'm rebuilding a project in AffPub2.0 right now too.
Great Video, but wanted to let you know in V1 you have been able to copy FX for a while, but only through a key command. You had to hit Command+C on the layer with the effect you wanted, then Paste with Command+Ctrl+V. So if anyone is still using V1 remember that.
Yeah, someone shared that with me. Affinity should have made that more prominent, but glad they made it more clear.
Hey Dave, do you know Regarding the number of computers I can install it on... it states on their site:
"As a private individual, you can download, install, use and run for personal use, one copy of the Serif Software directly on each computer running either (depending on your purchased license) Microsoft Windows (“Windows Computer”) or macOS (“Mac Computer”) that you personally own or control." I own/control Mac's but my kids also use for school. Do you know IF I may I install it on the one I use & the ones they use for school (even if they're in different states)? I am a private individual, this is for personal use, not a commercial enterprise. TKS
I'm pretty sure it's one license per computer.
Serif did a no no with the windows verion they decided to package the software in a MSIX file which is a microsoft store package so many business users are unable to install the software and now other applications cant reference the executables and you cant spesify the installation location like you could previously also the online only activation is bull when you could activate V1 offline now the software can no longer be installed and activated when the company someday either doesnt exist or the activation servers dont exist making it possible for them to kill the V2 whenever they want and this looks like they are slowly going towards subscriptions as you shouldnt need to activate online which also those business users are unable to do due to security and them using the LTSC version of windows 10 where the store doesnt exist so MSIX wont work and the activation wont work on those business versions of windows
oh wow, that's kinda nuts. I hope they get it fixed.
@@DaveConrey And the software goes into Program Files/WindowsApps folder which is protected by Windows systems. You'll have to go through special steps to even get to that folder... like open task manager, find running app (Affinity Designer or Photo), then unfold that task, and right click to open file location. Or, if you actually want to be able to browse WindowsApps folder with file explorer (instead of getting access to single sandbox folder), you'll have to alter WindowsApps folder rights as administrator. Otherwise you can't even get into folder. Also custom install path is now out of question, you could change the drive where Windows App installs, but IIRC it still will go to a path MS decides.
Vector trace is the single reason I can dump CorelDraw for affinity designer. In my opinion, Serif needs to catch up before they can really innovate. There are still basic features users needs that the apps lack. So many feature requests.
Innovation takes a lot of work and time. If they spend so much time trying to innovate and users wait too long to get those basic tools, they may move on to other software.
I’m not sure how that one got skipped over, strange for sure
So is this just a promotional introductory price for a short while that I need to act on soon or is this going to be the price if I wait to upgrade for a few months?
Yes, and I'm sure that price probably goes away by the end of the month or the end of the year at the longest
Allways funny to listen to you... without any affinity capturings.. great
Thanks for watching
Hey Dave, what are your thoughts on the software Vectorstyler? Did you use it? I see it has autotrace, more selection options, a blend tool, etc.
I've heard of it but never tried it.
Since I can't be considered a professional or a designer, I'm pleased with what I bought. I've seen plenty of innovation from Adobe, but this is fine for people like me, who use it somewhere between a pro and a hobbyist. I've never been spoiled by half of the tools that people keep shouting about. Vector trace sure would be excellent. Of the tools that I have used to do it, so far, they have been crap. Too many nodes, Too many layers, and too much of anything except a clean SVG to work with. Thankfully it has forced me to get really good with the Pen tool.
The Affinity Suit is the set of tools I'm using, so I'll see how far I can go with the toolset I have.
I agree completely. Affinity is definitely pro-level software for most of us, but it's also a great entry point for new designers and hobbyists.
Can we copy adjustments from one photo to another? by clicking copy whilst photo selected then selecting the photo you want to paste to and select command v? i used to be able to do this in lightroom but cant currently in version one of affinity.
If you mean copying from one document and pasting it into another, yes you can. You can also do this with live filters, masks, and anything that will generate a layer.
Honestly this software is the best. The biggest problem with subacription is access. The whole pantone stuff is a great reminder of why this own nothing aproach is madness.
Yeah, that Pantone part was a killer... however, that could end up biting Affinity too.
Thank you very much for this honest video review!. I don't like bought influencers.
You got it. 🤜🏻💥🤛🏻
I'll buy the full bundle (an absolute bargain, as I will get all three apps on all three platforms), just to check on some not so easy to spot problems that make them more or less useless in my line of work. Still useful to solve the one or other problem. Sadly I can't switch from my old Adobe CS6 AI/InDD/PS to Affinity apps … maybe with version 3.0 …
Yeah, I think Affinity will always be a second choice for power users and people who have really specific needs
@@DaveConrey There's one thing that Affinity apps do better than others, Adobe apps included: Gradients are dithered when rendered to pixels (no banding)! Yes, Photoshop can do dithered gradients (when using the fill tool), but if you try to render vector graphics, it doesn't, and worse, gradients are at best rendered with 9 bit per channel (even if you open the file with 16 bit per channel), which is not enough to get them properly dithered by color conversion to 8 bit. One of the special cases where Affinity saved my bacon 😁. (On the other hand: Affinity apps failed in importing and exporting gradients with complex settings from and to PDF - this is really bad, as it visibly alters the look of objects. This will be my first test with 2.0 …)
After watching the changes, that revolution makes just a nice update to the current version of Affinity programs. Just like you said Dave, Adobe i just too far a head. I currently can't afford the full subscription plan, so that where Affinity steps in. I can do the job I need to do and move on, but if I had to choose, I would go with Adobe every single time. It is just easier to work with.
I think that’s what a lot of Affinity users believe as well.
I was completely bamboozled by the update and how to install it. Is it App Store? Is it separate? If so how does it update and how the heck do you get iOS to update from an external purchase? Kinda sussed it now. iOS apps just need you to log-in once you've downloaded them, they're free to download. I guess that's the same for the Mac apps too? My Mac is running on 10.14 so I can't upgrade yet... and I'm in the middle of a job so upgrading is not an option right now. (10.15 broke my partner's laptop!) so I'll be updating after this job and installing the apps then. BUT, will buy today so that I can install them later. Will just have to wait but not missing out on 40% off - bargain! Thank you for the advice, appreciated. Knew you would have an opinion on this and you've saved me trawling through a million other videos! If it's good enough for Dave, it's good enough for me! 🙌
Thanks for watching and I hope you get it all worked out.
I like what you said about getting the job done with the basics...because one thing that's hard to miss on CZcams: there are a whole lot of people trying to sell "green-horns" things they don't need. And on CZcams there is a sucker born every 2.3 seconds! So thanks for your honesty. (and "greenhorns": stop trying to impress and just learn your art! Then you won't need to be dropping to your knees yanking on Adobes zipper)
Now that's a visual I won't get out of my head for a while. 😂
When I look into applications, I read and read, research and research, and often at some point I encounter the kill switch or the go for it confirmation. Thank you. Vector trace. Without it, no go.
Yeah, I can see how no vector trace would be a deal breaker.
9:28 I can't imagine who would complain about the price. Especially with the current V2 launch special. But even full price is crazy reasonable compared to Adobe's extortion strategy.
Agreed
I'm afraid to switch from Adobe to Affinity because I need a fast workflow. Is there a way to customize the keyboard shortcuts to make it easier for Adobe users to find their way around?
Yes, I’m the preferences you can change keyboard shortcuts to be whatever you want.
I instantly bought the complete package, tbh it is a steal for that price. The things they added to Designer are enough to justify the purchase for me personally. If they only added mesh gradients, image trace and something like the blend tool I couldnt even ask for more tbh. At least when it comes to my workflow. The best thing about affinity is that it is more fun to use than adobe. And I dont expect them to catch up or overtake them. Adobe getting 50 bucks a month from millions of designers. While affinity asks for a one time payment for a lifetime purchase per version. And at a reasonable price at that! 120 bucks for the full package including win/mac and ipad version... damn.
Right on, Thanks for sharing
Can you do a video on how you create a account to purchase. I have yet to find a Setup new account button. I want to buy v2 while it's 99 but I can't find anywhere to create my account on affinity serif main screen!
At check out, you should be given a choice between New or Existing Customers. I just did it and it worked fine. Once you add your email, it will take you to the check out where you add your information. You may need to verify your email address.
I haven't had much of a chance to play with v2 yet but so far the thing I like is the price. For a variety of reasons (mostly ability to quickly move to other applications without having to boot up another machine and transfer files) I need to be able to work on Windows, Mac and iPad. Previously that meant buying the applications 3 times, once for each platform. If I'm understanding the license correctly I buy it once and install it on all three.
Looking in the comment sections of videos about the new release the main theme I seem to be seeing is people not happy about the lack of AI tools. No Serif Sensei. I suspect that AI tools, particularly the ones that need to phone home for heavy lifting processing, will mean moving to some sort of subscription, maybe to keep the main product, maybe as an added extra to use the off device processing tools (possibly wrapped into the purchase price for the first year then upgrade and get another year wrapped in, subscribe or turn off the tools that use off device processing). When it comes down to it Serif are a business, same as Adobe, Corel et al are businesses, they need to make money to pay their people and bills. If they've got to provide a service to provide processing then that has to be paid for.
I think you nailed it on the can do but the tools make it quicker vs need the tools to do it for you. Reminds me of a phrase I saw in a job-hunting book years ago, "Yellow Pad Head". It referred to people who had a Post-It note with the instructions of what buttons to push to get a result, but they never learned what those buttons actually do so if those buttons disappeared or they had to do something a bit different then they're lost. That's the extreme case, but I've seen people not much short of that presenting themselves as designers, photo-editors &c (e.g. they'll design your brochure, so long as it fits one of the 5 templates they have).
Yellowpad head, never heard that one before, but I totally get it. Not that Adobe is going away anytime soon, but what would they do if suddenly AI and Content-Aware capabilities disappeared?
Having bought all three programs a few weeks back, are they now unsupported / obselete now 2.0 is out?
No, they are still supported and probably will be for quite some time. You're good.
You can still buy Serif DrawPlus X8 which has stopframe and keyframe animation. Dedicated animation software is overcomplicated and painful to look at tiny icons.
good to know.
I agree that there is not a lot of innovation in Version2. It would be nice if the innovations came alongside the continued catch up to other design program competitors - so a focus on adding what are already common in competing programs but finding a more innovative way to do so. One of the moderators on the Affinity forum mentioned this update was largely a re-write of the code because it was initially a mac only program and branched out after to windows and iOS.
Now that a new baseline is established with this updated code, hopefully we''ll see features added in the next few releases. Building a vector trace is very complex, so I don't see that coming until version 3, but I'd love to be wrong. I am pretty sure Adobe purchased the vector trace code for that to make their version.
No one program is going to solve everyone's needs - using several programs and taking advantage of their unique strengths is a great way to get around the predatory Adobe subscription. I use vectorstyler alongside affinity designer, clip studio pro alongside affinity photo, and I have a handful of smaller one trick pony apps I use to fill in other needs
That's an interesting take. I guess we'll see where things head from here.
@@DaveConrey nowhere 9 months later v3. U will come out as u not interested then give in yes get it buy buy buy u prob lying and got ur free copy top in a email dont front homie
I like the apps. They take me back to early 2000’s era design apps! Simpler times.
Indeed
I didn't hestitate to update to Affinity v.2 (all 3 apps). I am a professional graphic designer and I've worked with Adobe software since the very start (way, way back). I'm currently using Affinity for almost all of my current design work. I think Affinity represents superb value (compared to its most obvious competition). What would I like to see improved? Easy. Tables! Publisher isn't quite as table-friendly as InDesign, and I work with complex tables a lot - but mostly still in InDesign, as that is where I find the most flexibility (very important, when clients are continually changing their minds and asking for amendments!). This means - I'm still financially tethered to InDesign for the foreseeable future. Hopefully Publisher gets there soon. But £90 (launch discount) for the complete Affinity v.2 suite? It's a steal, and if you're using it to work for paying clients it will pay for itself real quick!
I agree with this. The tables are a bit clunky. I used to use them a lot in my former life and whenever I use them in Publisher, I find myself thinking that it was easier in InDesign
Love your whiteboard. 'Don't Make Me Think' should be rule number one for any software designer (not just the UI, either).
The title of one of my favorite books on design, albeit old, by Steve Krug
@@DaveConrey Was his focus software? I remember reading a book called something like 'the design of everyday things,' also about not making people think.
I'm really happy with what V2 is, but I agree about the way it was marketed. Lots of people were taking the hype in the messaging to mean something absolutely radical, even imagining an Affinity Premiere or After Effects, and those people were left disappointed for no good reason. All that secrecy, too: they could have told me exactly what was coming for yesterday's relaunch, and I still would have been there with my credit card the moment it went live.
Agreed, Joe.
sadly the market dictates these kind of click bait marketing
Biggest thing lacking for photographers is the lack of a proper asset manager (photo library) for culling images on the fly. The only viable solution that I can find is using Adobe Bridge. Otherwise, an amazing product suite with good capabilities. Agreed that if you can’t come up with a “good design” using this software (meaning vectors, layouts, etc) then maybe you shouldn’t be in a different business.😀
A digital asset manager would be ideal for sure.
I think one good and valid point you brought up was how innovative Adobe is. Adobe has been in the game for years and years, whereas this team is probably a lot smaller and trying to catch up. Adobe has become nothing more than the Amazon/Walmart of design software-just swallowing everything in its path. Like Substance for example. Use to be a buy and own program per version. Now they sold their souls to these elder gods who lurk in the proverbial darkness holding us and our wallets by the balls. You want to hate them and for good reasons, but like you said--they are innovative and doing crazy cool things too. Who knows how small their development team is, so that could potentially be making them catch up more painful and sluggish. I think they have the potential to eventually get there, the problem is WHEN. Until they do, we're paying more money for very little bang and/or continued to be held hostage to our Adobe Overlords per month, while we wait and pray for Affinity to rescue us once and for all, haha.
Good perspective. Thanks.
I bought the affinity publisher suite with designer and photo with the hopes of importing my Microsoft Word Book of 200 pages with at least 800 pictures with ease. I tried their import or place function it didn't work but then again I am completely new to the software and do not know what is possible with it. I'm not sure if I have to create 200 pages blank and then copy and paste each item from my word document into affinity I hope it doesn't have to be that it's extremely labor intensive I hope there are ways of just throwing everything in and then just manipulating stuff with drag and drop and resize
Sorry for the late reply. I hope you found your answer.
Just grabbed the universal license they offered for the three 2.0 programs. Really hard to say no to that sale. Just figured I like the programs enough, and they've paid for themselves early on through professional work of mine. If they're giving me more features, I'm down to support them further. Especially since it's a one time purchase where I don't need to be using the programs or new features every week to feel I'm getting value.
Got in just in time. I think it goes away after this week.
Yeah, what you said, Dave.
Here’s an innovation I’d like to see: A "shape hugger" tool, where a shape can be configured to share borders with one or more other shapes. In this environment, one could reshape shared borders without having to worry about the layer hierarchy of the involved. This would be very useful when editing busy graphic images. My 2 cents.
Hmm, I’m not sure I know what you mean, but it sounds interesting.
Thanks again Dave for your quick and to the point reaction to V2 - I know Adobe have a much bigger dev team, but what we got yesterday is a good point to build from. Question is, why am I still using DrawPlus X8 from 2015 for features that should be in Affinity Designer today?
Damn good question.
Lol
what features are these?
@@delightfulsquirtle316 Has a great Raster to Vector (trace) feature which I still use...
@@atariexplorer1545 Nice, I miss that feature too. Hope image trace, mesh gradient, text wrap and a blend tool will be added during the V2 lifespan. Couldnt ask for anything more tbh.
Hi Dave, Thanks for the video. Although I do agree with many of your points I don't share your point that Affinity lacks innovation. If you purely look at features on a per app basis, you might be right, but when you look at it from a perspective of a full design suite, I think they are innovating.
What distinguishes Affinity is that they offer a suite of programs that integrate very well with each other, now even better than in v1. As an example, the resources are now shared between the 3 programs, so all the brushes and assets etc are available in all programs. This was a bit of a problem with v1, but they nailed it now. Also the ability to place and edit raw files in Publisher is quite unique. Adobe does not have this level of integration. The new Adobe update added ability to copy/paste text between AI & Indesign and retain formatting, so they are really just playing catch-up in this regard.
As for features, I think Affinity is not at the forefront of Innovation, but this is quite normal. The big industry leader Adobe has huge resources to invest in new features, whereas Affinity needs to really consider where the money can be spent. If they can implement the key innovations Adobe makes in due time, I am quite happy. If you look at it from a financial perspective, Affinity actually offers a lot of bang for a buck. Just check out the latest updates to Illustrator, InDesign etc, and you will find they might introduce one nice feature every 2 years or so, and the rest is actually pretty ordinary stuff if you consider the subscription cost vs. the cost of Affinity.
I will definitely concede the point on how the apps work together. They built them all to be integrated from the start, where Adobe had to piece things together from all the apps they bought from other companies. This is definitely Affinity's strong suit.
Their update are good especially on affinity designer.. Make more easy for my productivity as u said u dont need lots of tool if u really wanna design something the new update almost cut all my process making vector graphics like 70% the mesh tool is a blessing now i can make simple mock up.. The trace thingy ucan get it on inkscape but i dont know things like thet inkscape already make it.. Why affinity didnt do it.. Do they need more time to perfect it
Thanks for watching.
Ya, could of been cheaper maybe but I paid early. So adobes best value plan for 2 months equals that so…I also went all in the beginning, so if I just kept the original trio then no more updates (tools, I’m guessing).
I believe it's still a bargain for sure.
Does Afinnity Publisher handle Data merge/ variable data in their documents?
The short answer is yes, but I have not personally used this. What I’ve seen though, it works well.
Well, I have Affinity Photo and Designer v1 for iPad, and it seems like you have to buy v2 if you want the new features.
Good to know. Thanks for that update.
Big fan of the full bundle price, especially with the launch discount. Also glad they’re (so far) not going to subscription. Illustrator’s convert to vector and the DocsFlow plugin for Indesign (which enables placed linked google docs with easy auto-update of changes) are the two anchors really keeping me stuck with having a few Adobe apps installed.
The vector trace is a big one and I'm shocked it didn't make the cut this time.
@@DaveConrey I wasn't aware an older Serif product included trace. Is there a reason they can't just port that code?
Hi Dave! Question: How can I export my pdf to print with color separations. I'm trying to send the pdf file to the printer but they keep telling me that the body text and grayscale images appear in CMYK, as the colour images. I'm not sure how to fix it. Any ideas? Thanks man!
Sorry I got to this comment a little late, but what's likely happening is that you're using a "rich black" or CMYK black. I recommend you go through all your text and make sure the color is set to only 100% K, with no other color in it.
Unfortunately, no, you can't export to separations. It's a bit annoying that this isn't a thing, and I can only assume that the reason Affinity didn't make it a priority is that most print shops do their own separations from PDF these days.
@@DaveConrey Dave thanks a lot man! I double checked as you wrote and went ok. It also helped me to sync the profiles for the images / artworks whether these are vectors or photos, and the profile use in the print house.. and with this applying the "embed profile" option to get a pdf with normal cmyk for colour and only black plates for grayscale images. It worked great (: Again, thanks so much for the advices and also this amazing channel! Keep it up and sorry for my late reply!
Dave, what file extensions can you create with Affinity? Thanks.
Aside from the native formats, png, psd, jpg, tiff, pdf, svg, eps, and a few others I cant think of off the top of my head.
@@DaveConrey Oh ok, that’s plenty for t-shirt logos. Thanks Dave!
How well will the old tutorials hold up as a reference if you get the new version. Has the UI changed enough to nullify the old videos?
I think they hold up well except for some aspects of the User Interface. They did move some things around, but old tuts should still work well.
@@DaveConrey Thank you. I have Publisher and Illustrator V1 (I haven't used either) And a bunch of videos for a very specific project. Most likely I'll be getting the new version as well. It's too good of a deal right now.
I thought it was worth the upgrade price for the full bundle. Good improvements all around.
Definitely worth the price.
I'm really not sure if there is a disadvantage in not upgrading. There isn't anything in the upgrade that I really need.
The only disadvantage would be missing out on the current price because I can't imagine they will have it that low ever again... but I've been wrong about that before.
Thanks for this, and especially for your free-from-paid-influence views! I'm not sure there's a big enough benefit for me to pay for the upgrade .. but mostly because I HATE the new interface! No matter what I change in UI Preferences, I can't get the light look I have in 1.0. Even at the lightest settings, it's not as light and readable for my eyes as 1.0 And I hate the dark dropdown menus in Studio in 2.0!! Unless there is SOME way to change these that I'm missing??
There should be a setting for that. Is it possible the rest of your system operates in “dark mode” and the app is borrowing from system settings?
Thanks @@DaveConrey ! That was a good thought, but I checked and my system "Appearance" is set to light. I realize a big part of what I don't like are the dark drop-down menus in Studio and the dark buttons on the Toolbars. I definitely do not see any way to change those. (hope I'm wrong.) I do really like the Style Picker, though. I have a few more weeks left in my trial, so I'll continue to try out all 3 programs, but at this point it's quite unlikely I'll upgrade. Thanks again for a great review and for responding to my question!
Is version 2 designer glitchy and do weird things or is it that I just bought a new ipad? my old ipad and version 1 of designer worked great, but now I struggle with things like layers changing mysteriously etc.
I've haven't really tested the ipad version, but the desktop version definitely has some glitchiness to it. I haven't experienced those specific issues, but maybe that's a function of the touchpad interface.
I thought you've been able to copy any layer, and paste only the FX - am I wrong on that or am I misunderstanding the feature being described as "absent" here?
YOu couldn't copy paste outright. Someone told me here that you can copy and then there's a second step you do to paste it, but it's absolutely not evident by sight. This new process is WAY easier and more intuitive.
Game changer on the IPad. Looking more like Desktop.
I just downloaded it last night, haven't dug too deep, but I do like the interface better.
With the Vector Mesh you're talking about in Illustrator is call Gradient Mesh Tool. I would have liked to seen that too! :)
Yes! Thanks for that.
How do you open a image in iOS photos.
You can either download from IOS photos, or if your setup is similar to mine, from the open dialog box, access them via the left sidebar (usually located toward the bottom). Sorry, I can't share a visual.
Dave, i am facing a lot of craches in Affinity Designer lately. I see my Desktop wallpaper more than once while working and that is with a deadline no fun. With the -40% off with Adobe cloud.. i am considdering going back to Adobe again :(
Might have something to do with the settings. Have a look at the Affinity forums. Plenty of knowledge base there.
Colourmesh can be achieved with gradient and vector warp to a degree
I tried it. It doesn't work like I hoped though.
waiting tracing indeed, hope v2 did on upcoming update..
I was totally expecting vector trace to be part of this package. I'm shocked it's not.
Sounds like it's worth the promo price for sure.
Yup
As a hybrid UX Designer and developer, I am still missing an open file format as well as a plugin API. It's requested since ages by users as they say themselves, but they seem to give not a single dime about making an ecosystem of 3rd parties a thing like sketch started so many years back (and Figma). This would completely change the game for me. I'm also split if I should update or better wait. Such a missed opportunity!
If you're functioning well enough now, and don't have an immediate need for the upgrades that came, then waiting is ok. They will still support v1.x for some time.
I don't really need a ton of bells and whistles, but I probably use Image Trace on at least a third of my work, that's a bit of a deal breaker for me. We have artists submit work to be turned into fabric patterns, so it needs to look more like their hand than mine, and it usually needs to be re-sized and re-colored. It's a critical feature. I'll probably get it anyway just to get used to it and wean myself off Adobe, but I'm bummed...
late reply, but thanks for watching.