Affinity Designer vs Affinity Photo vs Affinity Publisher
Vložit
- čas přidán 11. 07. 2024
- Check out my tools for Affinity Users
daveconrey.com/collections/gr...
I get this question ALL THE TIME! If I had to pick just one Affinity program to buy first, which would it be. The answer is simple... It Depends.
In this video, I break down all the different types of designs projects that I could possibly think of and tell you which program I would use for them. I also discuss style, necessity, and the reality of how all of the affinity programs compare to Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign.
00:00 - Adobe Bros Attack
01:39 - Breaking down the different apps
02:55 - The main thing that separates Affinity from Adobe
04:51 - Which app is best for digital art
06:10 - Business, branding and logo projects
08:13 - Which is best for poster design
08:52 - Books, zines, catalogs, and calendars
09:19 - Affinity Designer is best for Merch... or is it?
09:59 - What about lettering, typography and fonts?
11:08 - Clip art and stock imagery
12:00 - Quick recap
12:36 - There can be only one!
#affinitydesigner #affinityphoto #affinitypublisher
=== === === ===
My Shop:
www.daveconrey.com/
=== === === ===
My Patreon:
/ daveconrey
=== === === ===
Social Media:
CZcams:
/ daveconrey
TikTok:
/ davemakesthings
Instagram:
/ daveconrey
Twitter:
/ daveconrey
Twitch:
/ daveconrey
Special thanks to these RAD Patreon Members:
Christine S.
Catherine G.
Heather T.
David M.
Stephanie H.
Sharon M.
Kevin H. - Věda a technologie
So glad I came across this. Already have Affinity Designer but have been wondering whether to get Affinity Photo or Affinity Publisher, or both. This has helped in answering a lot of my questions. Thank you!
Did it would be the day. I believe you have until midnight Pacific standard time to get them for 35 bucks each.
@@DaveConrey Yes, had until the 7th December. Got it.
Considering that, in the UK at least, buying designer and photo versions of Affinity outright costs the same as 1 months subscription of Photoshop alone... is there even an argument? Even taking into account the few minor shortcomings of Affinity compared to its Adobe counterpart.
Thumbs up if you think Affinity has a chance against Adobe.
Right now, it's a SLIM chance. Once they address some of the very basic features that are still missing, then it will be a slam dunk. Plus, there are still a lot of people that have never even heard of Affinity. They need to promote themselves a little better. I have two graphic artist friends that had no idea that Affinity existed.
I've been using affinity because its a one time payment with unlimited updates. But most companies want you to use adobe.
For me, as an independent artist building my career, Affinity Designer absolutely rocks. It's brilliant for what I need it to do - and I don't have to pay monthly for it. Adobe /is/ the industry standard, and it'll take a long time to change that, I agree. I think Affinity is definitely a future contender though. It can only become more established and more accepted. I'm already seeing folks who make brushes and textures etc. releasing Affinity Designer versions alongside their Illustrator versions.
I think they could. All depends on if they continue to grow their software and gain more followers. They have a lot of support from the creative community.
I was using Adobe for well over a decade when I switched to Affinity Photo. I don't miss Adobe at all.
Same here
Bought all three a few months back and can honestly say I love them. As a relative newbie I had played around with photoshop and illustrator and found them difficult to work with, yet the Affinity suite is so intuitive and so much easier to get to grips with. The ability to switch between apps on the fly is a game changer for me. And for the one-off cost I couldn't recommend them enough.
Agreed.
Being basically a one-man band I have found I can do all my Book layouts in publisher without any problems and being able to move between Photo and Designer personas to change things quickly so I can see my changes within my layout is fantastic. Yes, there are certain things I miss from Adobe but have found I can do most of what I want easily in the Affinity programs and what I cant I have found a workaround on youTube. One thing I don't miss from Adobe was the constant crashes and lock up's. Yes, they still happen with Affinity but nowhere as often. I use Affinity Photo for my art and photos and Affinity Designer for Vector Graphics. But I did move between both programmes all the time when putting things together for things such as flyers and adverts for FB and Twitter but now do everything within Publisher.
Right on. Thanks for sharing.
This was the EXACT video I needed to help me decide which program to get and learn! Very well done! I appreciate the "depends on your style" approach!
Glad it was helpful!
Thank you! I've really been wanting a video exactly like this!
I already have Designer and I absolutely love it. Will probably get Publisher next.
Now is a great time because everything is 50% off.
@@DaveConrey Yeah! It's great. Got myself Affinity Designer during last year's 50% off event.
It's a really smart business move on their side. Would probably have never gotten Designer if not for that sale and now here I am very loyal to their brand!
If you have all 3 then publisher all the way because designer and photo tools become available in publisher. This is the best feature of affinity software
Absolutely
Amazing video, breaking down and comparing to Adobe suite. But then also breaking down and comparing to Affinity suite. And even going so far as to breakdown and give examples of different work flows and which program would be "better" suited for which program. Great vid and well thought out, thanks.
Thank you
Love this. And Affinity. I have been working with A. Photo for years now. Just before Christmas, I bought all three programs. Worth every cent/krone. Having a blast with Designer. And I have not even started with Publisher yet.
Thanks for sharing!
Great video! I love how energetic and passionate you are when discussing different ways to help others! And if any one else loves your energy as much as I do, please make sure to come over to twitch and watch Dave’s art lives! Always a great time watching the process of creativity! And make sure you say, “Hi!”
Thanks for the boost, BG.
@@DaveConrey always D.
Very entertaining and also informative...glad I found you...
Thanks and welcome
god thank you. this is so far the only thing i've found earnestly talking about the different programs and what they DO in depth. This actually answered my question. I would use Photoshop if they weren't subscription based, but....they are, so. Heck that, I'm not gonna spend $140 or whatever each year to poke at something I'm not personally gonna use much, and even then only for fun.
Cool. What did you ultimately choose?
BROTHER, YOU ARE THE BEST!!! You oooh really helped me!! THANK YOU VERY
Glad I could help
Thanks a lot for sharing man,..!!! Excelent vid,... I already have photo and designer, learning the basics in photo and more than amazed with it. With the publisher I will have a powerful and versatile team!!! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Glad it was helpful!
Incredibly helpful, thank you!!
You’re welcome. Happy to help.
Dude excellent review of Affinity!
Thank you
good work king, love you
Thanks!
I like Adobe and still looking into Affinity as a newbie this year. It's good to see people's passion for either or both. Competition is a good thing.
absoutely.
I've been using all 3 Affinity programs almost exclusively for the past 4 yrs and have never been happier! Sure, they may not be as feature packed as Adobe products overall, but that also means they aren't as bloated either.
Great content!
Thank you
Thanks for You Video, I find what i need, Enjoy your Video From Indonesia 🔥
Happy to help!
I already have Affinity Photo on Mac + PC, this just sold me on getting Designer for my PC - it's currently 50% off, too. I need to make less sucky branding for my channel, and the first versions were made in either Affinity Photo or spat out from Davinci Fusion. Cheers!
Yeah, that 50% goes away next week, so you got in at a good time.
Just the info I was looking for of Affinity Designer verses Affinity Photo. thanks........
Happy to help!
This popped up on my CZcams (what do they call it? Recommended Videos?) and as always your videos are the shizznit when it comes to passionate and informative quality content.
This is an old video, but like I said, it popped up on recommended videos, and I recently bought Photo and Publisher (I already had Designer), so I watched it and I’m glad I did.
Thanks, as always, Kyle.
They are doing a sale right now for each at 50% off.
That’s cool. They seem to do that deal a couple times a year now.
Very good video. Though I might not agree entirely with the view that "grungy and painterly" style work is best in Photo vs Designer. As a Designer user, I can say that you can achieve very high end painterly work in Designer if you have the right brush pack and as far as I know almost any brush pack that's available for Photo you can also use in Designer. As far as I'm concerned you can do any type of illustration style in Designer.
Thanks for sharing!
great video!
Thank you
OMG Live trace would be awesome!!!!
Indeed. We'll see what happens with version 2.0
They’re cheap enough to own them all. I mostly use designer which has replaced illustrator for creating my designs.I also illustrate so use Designer for that too. Occasionally use photo for editing and often get confused where everything is coming from Adobe. I just did something in publisher which I need to spend more time with. I was designing multiple social media posts for a branded series for LinkedIn and Instagram so making a template master worked really well.
Right on. Enjoy the journey.
you know it's funny, the first thing I thought when those fan boys went off.... we don't have to destroy Adobe... Adobe will do that to it's self, lol. The more word gets out about Affinity and companies look for cost savings, you see the pattern and this is an awesome program for a great price.
now, correct me if I'm wrong but can't you save a file in EPS (vector) in A.P? under export.
seems I have to go looking to see if you posted a new video since now YT doesn't care sending me an email that you posted something new, :)
love the energy and look forward to whatever the next topic is, oh and nice seeing you on twitch even if I can't spend the time watching I will have you on.
Yes, you can export as EPS out of all programs, and specifically vector eps from Designer.
@@DaveConrey so saving something in EPS doesn't mean I saved it in vector?
I've been on the wall trying to decide should I spend the money and get designer, although I pretty do everything I want in Photo.... or do I spend it on the book to get awesome in A.P. .... the logos I have were produced in Photo. maybe spend more time looking at videos for design but what's opinion? get design or the book for photo?
I'd love Live Trace in Designer too. It will probably take a LOT of programming to create and test and make sure it's fully functional, etc. So many people have asked for it though, I'm willing to bet it's on the cards in the future.
We're all hoping it's available for version 2.0
A viable, free and really quite good auto tracing option if you really need one is built into Inkscape. Give it a try, you might be surprised! ☮
I work for a fast food company in graphic design and 85-90% of my graphics work is done in Designer. I use Photo for retouching the food with clone and stamp tools. Designer has enough in adjustments layers that I can do most of the color retouching (white balance, HSL, color balance, etc.) in that! It's all awesome. Not used to creating single documents in Publisher yet as I don't see why I would do that but I've noticed that almost all design firms will use Indesign to layout a single piece of artwork which I think why? It's what they're used to doing when using photos type and vector.
I build most of my docs in Publisher, and InDesign before that, because of things like master pages, type styles, and often the flexor of the column grid layout. Not always necessary in a single page, but it became a habit over time, so I stick with it.
thank you
You're welcome
Thanks man...
My pleasure
Thanks very much for this, Dave. I appreciate how thorough you were. I currently have Photo and Designer and I'd like to start getting into printing printables for Etsy, Teachers Pay Teachers, etc. Just not sure if I should invest in Publisher, because I'm wondering what Publisher can do that Designer can't (other than the master layout, etc). Your input would be valued.
My pleasure. If you’re only doing single page layouts, then Designer will likely be enough. I would say Publisher is more for if you wanted to make multi-page (more than 2) projects.
@@DaveConrey Perfect! I hadn't thought of that. Thank you.
For fonts, make charachter set and export then bring into font program like Pyrus Fontlab or Font Forge or DTL FontMaster
Noted, thanks
Get all 3 and use the link function in Publisher, have all 3 programs at once and use features from all without saving and opening in other programs. Top that Adobe 💥💥💥
Yep, agreed.
Thank you so much
I have procreate already , I was thinking something related to book cover design + logos
Which app is the best for me ?
Most welcome. Depending on the level of photo work you want to do on the book covers, you can probably get away with Designer only, but if you need to do heavy photo manipulation, you're going to need Photo too.
Thanks, Dave. This video really helped me understand each program's functionality a bit better! Thanks for the concise overview :)
If working with a client that has InDesign, can Publisher files be opened in InD, and vise versa? Also, can layered Affinity Photo / Photoshop files be opened by each?
Lastly, does Photo or Designer have an equivalent to PS Smart Objects?
Thanks!
Glad it was helpful. By nature all layers are "smart" as long as you're using Live Filters, Adjustments, Effects and styles. The only time they aren't is in Photo if you are working on a Pixel layer and you add a standard filter instead of the LIVE equivalent. Also, you can apply all of the above elements to grouped items. Finally, you can import other native Affinity files which come in as single layers, but when you double-click the layer, it will open the original file as well. That way you can make alterations to the layer without doing anything destructive to the original document.
@@DaveConrey Thank you for taking the time to reply! :) Much appreciated.
i've used designer for a long time, haven't had a chance to buy or try the other 2 titles.
The one thing I miss is a setting for my WACOM tablet to open a color pallet or brush pallet on my cursor. In designer the default is brush properties and all of the settings and adjustments i've tried to customize will not pull up the colors or brushes (as a selectable option where my cursor is, I can still move my cursor over to select what I need with the pen)
I could see how that would be helpful for sure. I sometimes resort to having a color palette pasted directly onto my project so I can grab colors from it, and then delete it when it's done. Heck, I've even left the palette in the art a couple times because it kinda worked with the layout.
What would be best for making thumbnails, Designer, Photo or combination of both? I use gimp at the moment, but looking for something a litte more powerful and easy to use. Great content by the way, subbed!
Either one would be good, unless you anticipate using a lot of photo filters and rendering, then use Photo. If you have all three apps, you may consider doing them in Affinity Publisher because you can quickly move between all the programs easily, integrating aspects from each as you work.
@@DaveConrey Thankyou so much for the quick reply. I think I might grab the free trials and take a look!
Like the Avatar, very Robert Freeman -)
Thank you.
Which is best for creating a cover (front, back and spine on single pdf) for KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) with a photo on the front cover and text description on the back cover of each. Thanks!
Publisher
Making the trip to Affinity. The Black Friday deal is pretty good
Yup, totally worth it.
I plan to get all 3 of the Affinity program but I would like to know which one to start with. I make graphics with my Wacom Pro tablet which is medium in size for graphics. I use these graphics for machine embroidery designs by placing them into my embroidery software. Would I go with Designer first?
For embroidery, I definitely would go with Designer. The vector art works better with embroidery, from what I understand.
Nice video Dave
The Adobe Bros are real, but the worst of them are the AfterEffects Bros!
I do almost everything in Affinity Publisher currently because I love StudioLink so much!
Yeah, that is probably the coolest feature ever. Thanks for sharing
Sir Dave, thank you for your insights. May I ask what are your thoughts about Affinity on iPad?
The apps are almost identical on the ipad, but I do have a couple issues with them. First, because I'm old, and everything is relatively small on the interface, it's really hard to see what I'm looking at. More importantly, the interface is significantly different, so it takes a bit of hunting to find the tools I need.
@@DaveConrey i just bought the app. It’s great!
@@DaveConrey thanks sir!
What about advertising banners that is metres across? Something on the shopping mall?
I know that the maximum size for an Affinity 70 ft. square, but I also know that advertising banners don't necessarily need the same resolution as standard print projects. So you can create at 300 DPI and then the printer will readjust resolution to fit.
That said, my first goto would be Affinity Designer, because of the scalable vectors.
Jeeeez, this was suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuper compreehensive hahahaha
You’re welcome. 😉
What would you recommend for children’s book illustrations?
Probably Affinity Designer. It's the overall best at illustration work, especially because you can work in both vector and raster within the same image.
@@DaveConrey thank you so much for your speedy response! I also would like to say I love your take and approach to your videos and appreciate the content! I noticed affinity was having a 50% off sale on all the programs so decided to take your last bit of advice and see how they all work together. I bought all 3, lol. Beats the price tag on photoshop, illustrator, Indesign any day though!
Thanks again!
Tell Affinity you deserve a cut, lol. Seriously you sold it for me. Great videos!!!
i have designer and photo i was wondering if i should buy publisher . im using my free 90 day trial ill buy after my trial. this help knowing the difference
Glad I could help.
With several artboards multi-page layouts are easy in Designer. Only problem: they never get exported in the right order, fixable
That’s an interesting bug. I haven’t used multiple art boards much.
icons for software I do in designer on the pixel canvas
That makes sense
I use Procreate for my designs. Procreate doesn't really do great with text though. I'm debating between Affinity photo or designer to simply add some cool text to my Procreate designs to be used on T-shirts. However, if I went with designer is there a steep learning curve for vector graphics because I know nothing about vectors... Which would be best for this situation? Thank you!
Designer will give you the most flexibility, and there’s still plenty of functionality for raster images. The learning curve will mostly be on how you draw images, but there are lots of tutorials here on YouTub that should help get you sorted.
@@DaveConrey Thank you. I ended up getting all 3 since they are on sale. I've only used designer so far but I love it. It's very user friendly and I've already made some designs with it.
I think Publisher right now is as good as InDesign. Affinity Photo is about 90% of Photoshop... it has most of the important stuff in Photoshop and a few good tricks of its own. The one I think is lagging is Designer, which isn't anywhere near as good as Illustrator... yet. There's an awful lot you can do in Illustrator which you can't do in Designer (like, Designer can't even place a dashed border around an object with corners and have it space out properly). Affinity needs to improve that program. For the money, they're terrific.I taught all Abobe programs for over 15 years and now I've jettisoned all of them.
I probably should dive into designer more to see where things are different, but then I was also never big into illustrator either.
Live trace? Get Image Vectorizer on Mac App Store.
I’ll take a look.
Same. Will take a look
Only need one thing : SHAPE BUILDER !
Perhaps I'm missing something here, but Designer has a lot of vector shape tools, all of which allow adjustments.
I’ve never seen a screen printer separate art work in affinity yet is this possible?
You are correct, this is not possible directly out of Affinity. However, most professional screen printers I know use plugins or secondary software for their separations, whether it's for Affinity or for Adobe. If you were still interested in outputting your own screens, the best approach would be to design in Illustrator with very specific Pantone colors, keeping those colors secluded to individual layers, and then exporting out each layer individually.
@@DaveConrey thanks for responding I was gonna get the program for this reason only
The only gripe I have with Affinity is sense they are the new versions of the old Serif software why they would not allow to import there older clip art to Affinity software is a largest issue that I have. I have Serif DrawPlus and Serif PagePlus both have thousands of clip art I want and it would be so easy to copy there clip art folders to Affinity folder and be able to use them.
What is the file format? I know you probably don't want to have to reformat all of the images, but could you do a batch process and convert the files to a format that Affinity accepts?
@@DaveConrey I tried that's a no go but thanks for the help...
it's sad they have no video editing program. it's almost impossible to beat after effects in that sense. it's perfectly integrated with illustrator and photoshop, and it's a great program by itself as well. it devolved in the cc version because up to cs6 you didn't need to use encoder to render... still, i would love to have something to substitute after effects for motion design. open-source or paid (as long as it's not a subscription)
Check out Davinci Resolve for an answer to Premier, and it has a powerful motion graphics editor included.
@@DaveConrey I will take a look! thanks =)
What about mockups?
Depends on the tip of mock-ups you want, but Designer and Photo will work.
How about animations?
I'm not certain how robust of a animation it can handle, but that would definitely be Affinity Designer.
I like Adobe and am open to Affinity but I make a living in 3d CAD
Don’t get me wrong. Adobe is powerful and I made most of my living with them, but their cost prohibitive now for me, since Affinity became a real option.
Which is the best krita alternate?
I don't know what Krita is.
@@DaveConrey its a drawing and digital painting software. For making concept art and fantasy images.
I have been working with APhoto & ADesigner for a month now and I do not miss PS & AI at all.... Flyers, Certificates, Logo's, Brochures, Product Labels, FB Posts have all been things I have been making with no problems. I even found that some things are better, working with objects/layers is supperior in Affinity and I feel that GUI is more intuitive. Just be open-minded.
Right on, Bruce. I agree.
For architecture ?
That’s an entirely different doctrine of design that requires a vast array of different tools, but if you’re forcing yourself to it, then you defines the to use Affinity Designer.
Self Publishing an Illustrated Novel with KDP??- Publisher > InDesign??
Agreed
It's on a 40% discount into the 25th January.
Yeah, they extended it.
he reminds me of Brad Colbow
I’m the punk rock Brad.
its me Landon!how you doing?
What's up bud? We're doing good here. Hope you're enjoying your Thanksgiving holiday.
The only thing Adobe has that Affinity doesn't is image trace. It doesn't matter cause I perfer Affinity over Adobe anyday.
late reply, but thanks for watching.
Affinity or Cubase ??!
Affinity doesn't do audio
@@DaveConrey I know ! 😆
I can type Arabic & Bangla
Thanks for sharing
David Cross has a side gig. Good to know.
🧐
@@DaveConrey it’s awful close...
czcams.com/video/S1wkqZIJOAQ/video.html
Adobe is more complicated imo and the prices are a Joke
The curse that Adobe has is they are continually in need to innovate and add more features to substantiate the cost. The programs continue to get more complicated and slow.