Affinity 2(affinity.serif.com) |
Affinity 2(affinity.serif.com) |
Super easy to start using and great design + functionality.
Just hope Adobe doesn’t end up buying Affinity like it has done with many others.
Just wish they did Linux versions.
> IIRC a long time ago they actually promised a Linux version
Did they actually "promise" it or just didn't outright reject it from the start?
Not happy with that - would advise against it.
I completely agree that continued work needs to be payed and I don't expect to buy a software once and receive updates for it forever. If I was using it in a professional capacity all the time, I would have preferred a cheaper monthly subscription but because I'm using it mostly now and then, pay for the V1 and use it forever and pay again if I would like the newer version works very well for me.
Edit to add link from another comment: https://twitter.com/affinitybyserif/status/15903262690314649...
Serif actually said that this is specifically what happened
All the apps are "free" with in-app purchase. I did the in-app bundle purchase for Designer 2. Now it won't let me apply that to Photo 2, without "activating" (requires registration with serif) or re-buying. Purchasing the bundle again asks for authentication which I didn't complete because I don't want to get charged twice. I was hoping it would recognize my previous purchase and just be a pass-through. I suppose because it's an in-app purchase, it will happily purchase as many times as I click. (As opposed to straight-up app purchases, which you can only do once per apple id.)
"Restore purchase" link is completely unresponsive.
One of the selling points of app store is that I don't give any info to the developer. So even though I could (and always do) use a one-time generated email address, they can still link that to my apple id. bah.
If I had known this in advance I would have paid the extra $20 to buy each individually, rather than the bundle. So maybe this will help a scant few others.
The mac app store can have bundles, so either serif chose not to create such bundle, or the app store simply didn't show that to me. Indeed search doesn't find any of these apps at all. I had to follow a deep link I got from I don't know where. That part also is very mysterious. I believe https://apps.apple.com/us/developer/serif-labs/id536107177 to be the link to all serif apps on the app store.
EDIT: Found the app page, and it states "Requires iPadOS 15.0 or later."
https://apps.apple.com/app/affinity-designer-2-for-ipad/id16...
Assume that means everything that runs the OS?
I'd love for them to do a Lightroom replacement, since it's one of the last tools I'd like to replace from the Adobe subset.
I tried Dark Table but the shadow slider would produce some weird artifacting (halos) so it was unusable for me.
It does not appear that they have added free form and mesh gradients or gradients along a path. I really really don’t like Adobe, but it’s all the little long tail features that makes it hard for me to switch away.
Does Photo finally have a "transform selection" option, which lets you resize the selection marquee? Yes, it was released without a way to adjust the selection... and has stayed that way for years.
Does Photo finally have a crop tool that actually crops the image?
Does Designer finally have a function to trim the canvas to the objects on it?
Do the apps finally have a "do not print" option on layers?
It doesn't appear that Serif has fixed profound UI defects that have hobbled the suite from the beginning...
The gradient-fill dialog hasn't been revised at all; it is still baffling and dysfunctional, and lacks any way to control gradient angle: https://i.imgur.com/OUh5Ase.png And there's only one color well.
The eyedropper's functionality is still backward... or I should say eyedroppers', because they're all over the place. You can have three or four on the screen at once. Why?
You still can't set things to be the same size by selecting them all and then entering dimensions in the transform panel. It irritatingly resizes THE SELECTION BOX around the objects to the size you enter, mashing the objects to unintended sizes within it. WTF?
This is not looking good. Historically they've had a smug, shitty attitude toward defects and sure enough, they persist for years.
https://twitter.com/affinitybyserif/status/15903262690314649...
I’ve been prodding Affinity on their forums with a feature request over the past few years, but other forum-dwellers get weirdly hostile over it… like, yeah, I wish JPEG-2000 had made it too, but it didn’t, and WEBP is here today and it works, should our graphics apps not live in the present?
https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/42372-file...
- Designer and Photo keep asking me to download and install a new version manually every time I open it, rather than just taking care of their own updates.
- Pasting if there's no document open doesn't work. You have to do 'new from clipboard'.
It's super annoying to upgrade, too. If they added an auto updater I would instantly buy v2. But right now I don't really see a reason yet.
However there's another problem: Adobe is still the industry standard. Employers are looking for Adobe on resumes, they provide employees with Adobe products and they expect a certain compatibility between their employees (i.e. Alice and Bob can work on the same files).
Learning the Affinity suite might actually hurt your career as long as this is the case. As a career decision it is still a better move to put your time into Adobe.
And I really dislike Adobe.
Using the keyboard shortcut to select a tool, also changes which subtool is selected. This is infuriating, and a magnificently stupid UI design.
I really wanted to like Affinity Photo, and I certainly use it as a photo editor, but every time I do I just wish I'd paid for Photoshop instead. It's pretty bad.
$99 for the universal license is an amazing deal. Well done Serif!
AP1 was a lot closer to the PageMaker style of things. (I don't have a use case for vector graphics, and my limited bitmap needs are more than served by Pixelmator, Gimp, ImageMagick and Paint Shop Pro 7 via wine)
I only use Affinity software casually every now and then, but it's a lifesaver when I do need it. Paying $100 every several years for a new major version is absolutely a worthwhile cost, and it's especially nice that it's not required (cough Adobe)
I found v1 frustrating. They’ve been touting their “precision” from the get go, but in my experience it was anything but precise. And I mean going into the transform panel, inserting exact values by hand, and then the software moves it 0.1 points to the right.
Making separate shapes then connecting them was also a fool’s errand. When it works at all, it often leaves two connected points in the same location, as opposed to merging them. Even if you insert their locations manually and exactly. I’ve wasted many many hours due to their imprecision.
With all that out of the way, I’m trialing v2 and am cautiously optimistic. I haven’t been able to trigger any of the bugs so far. Doesn’t mean they’re not there, but maybe they’re fixed.
I gave QGIS -> Affinity a cursory look the other day and had no problem taking my results from an Overpass query and exporting it from QGIS as SVG and bringing it into Affinity. So, that gave me a ton of hope.
The opening of Illustrator files in Affinity Designer kinda sucks (my dashed paths for trails come in as tons of different objects, like it's actually only bringing in the PDF preview) but if I start anew on some of the maps I think it'll be fine.
I just bought the 2.0 package mentioned here and the next map I do I'll be doing in Affinity Designer to see how it goes. Fingers crossed!
I'm starting a new project this week and will test out the QGIS -> Affinity workflow and write up any findings.
Previously I’ve only been using Affinity on Mac. Now I’ll be able to see how it performs on Windows as well.
I wonder though if they fixed the crop tool. The rectangle wouldn’t stay within photo borders, i.e. any “constrain proportion” setting would be useless, and trying to align the crop with one of the borders was very mundane, pushing me to do all my cropping in ACDSee.
Has it come to somewhere comparable? I really want to go Affinity instead of paying Adobe every month but I want something at least capable as Photoshop and Camera Raw. I heavily do astrophotography/night photo editing and Affinity was just not good enough. But it was years ago.
Any recommendations from anyone who used both recently?
Linux-compatible alternatives to Darktable and Lightroom include digiKam (https://www.digikam.org) and RawTherapee (https://rawtherapee.com).
This created a plethora of "replacement" applications and suits.
I have tried most of them.
Affinity is a great alternative that has in my opinion stood the test best. They are remarkably good and not weighed down with all sorts of gimmicks and fluff.
But if you are a serious graphic designer, all the available jobs use Adobe tools. It is a factual thing.
Nowadays, I use mainly Figma (which is, again: Adobe) and wait for the next AI thing to remove me from my design job duties. :)
The UI was fine.
A while back I thought about making my maps in QGIS, but found the stuff for styling the map just... lacking. It was a LOT easier to do what I wanted in Illustrator. But there was still the problem of getting the bare vectors into there for styling.
Holy grail for me would be some sort of OSM -> Affinity where I can define groups based on OSM tags.
For people making their living with graphical work (designers, photographers, etc.) Adobe is probably still the way to go (even if just to keep using the muscle memory). However for the many people who only need something like Photoshop or InDesign a couple of times a year, Affinity is just great.
Nah.. it was pretty easy to jump. Life is beautiful.
Data Not Collected
The developer does not collect any data from this app.
I tried to buy a certain type of simple app a couple of weeks ago, and while there were dozens of options available, not one didn't Hoover up everything it could about me.
Really? You need to know my name, location, and track me across apps for a card game? No sale.
Edit: Purchased. Thanks, Affinity. Go stick your head in a pig, Adobe.
Generally speaking, 'App Privacy' cards are lies. Apple does not check them, you need to do it yourself. Here is the Privacy Policy: https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/privacy/
In the EULA (quoted from Affinity Photo 2 for MacOS), you further agree to, among other terms:
> *Consent to Use of Data* > > a. 16. You agree that Serif and its affiliates may use any information you give to use as part of product support and other services provided to you, if any, related to Serif Software solely to improve products or to provide customised services or technologies to you and will not disclose this information in a form that personally identifies you.
As an infrequent image editor/designer/publisher I'm just casual enough that there is no way to justify an Adobe subscription (even if I'd want to have one).
Affinity occupy a wonderful niche for people like me in that they provide comprehensive, professional, and bullshit-free software options. It's an incredible value for this day and age and I love using their software. I have zero complaints about the company or their products.
Upgrading when they have a release like this is a no-brainer. Even if I don't really need the upgrade I'm eager to support them for doing such a fine job.
And, of course, it's still hella cheap compared to subscription-licensing Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign over the seven years of updates you got on Affinity v1.
You just reminded me of it.
In illustrator you can make a dashed line that nicely lines up with the corners of a square (putting one dash in each corner). Nothing else seems to handle this case. [1]
I use Illustrator to make stitching patterns and lining up the corners in this way is absolutely essential, otherwise the stitches come out looking lopsided.
[1] https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/145760-how...
I consider Illustrator unusable as a result. It's also essentially abandonware.
I have to admit that even with some experience, Affinity doesn't get close to Photoshop in terms of shortcuts and ease of use ("getting in the flow").
Sometimes I even resort to using photopea web, rather than open affinity.
That said, I really appreciate their pricing model and hope they stick to their guns.
- Illustrator (for making PDF maps from OSM data). - Lightroom.
It'll take a bit of work to move my workflow to Affinity, but I think I've got a solid plan for that. (No, Affinity Designer does not open AIs properly... It does funky things with lines.)
But, I can't find a solid replacement for Lightroom. All I need is basic DAM (digital asset management) and crop/rotate/color. Can any of you suggest a GOOD alternative? Something that can import my library from Lightroom Classic would be ideal, but I can work around it if not. I'm very much willing to pay, and would prefer well-supported closed-source to OSS.
There are techniques I'd been using for a long time, complicated little tasks with, on the face of it, simple results, that I wasn't able to reproduce in AD without a lot of thinking and farting around. For better or worse, this pushed me to change things up and explore other methods, and now I've learnt how to achieve things with programming, whether that's Processing or little things for Blender.
I know people operating businesses who've just stuck with an old computer running an old non-subscription version of the Adobe software they depend on. They don't really need anything from modern versions (some have been doing things since the '70s, adding computers to the mix in the '90s, and their techniques have not really changed all that much), and its Affinity kinda-equivalent is missing some little thing.
For me, just looking at the changes, V2 isn't terribly compelling. There are things I was doing ages ago in Illustrator that don't seem to be in Designer v2, like vector pattern swatches. Once you really get going with it, the absence of features or rough edges (see post in this thread about dashed borders) will leave you frustrated.
All that said, good on them for creating this affordable software, with no subscription.
Still, this Affinity upgrade is an insta-upgrade for me. On a practical level, I'm lucky enough to be able to "vote with my dollars" to support small developers and non-subscription software. From a creative perspective, sometimes it's helpful (or just fun!) to work with different tools.
Before that, I'm confident that Aldus Freehand kicked Illustrator's ass.
Strange price model where existing customers do not get an upgrade discount.
I'm an existing customer, and I look at it as 40% off for existing customers to upgrade, and also 40% off for people upgrading from Adobe.
The price is good for decent software but it's kind of discouraging me from wanting to upgrade, when their goal should be the exact opposite of that.
This hit all my checkboxes:
- No arbitration clause in the ToS - Rest of the ToS, PP is a breath of fresh air (comparatively speaking.) - One-time payment, not subscription based - License across all platforms is surprising and good, and is what made this an instant purchase.
It's nice to know I'll have Affinity 2 forever, even if Adobe (god forbid) purchases Affinity.
They acquired Figma because Figma was quickly becoming the go-to collaborative UI design tool in the workplace, something Adobe did not have with AdobeXD. If they were to try to acquire another company in this space, it would likely be Canva, rather than a comparatively small player like Serif.
/end-lossely-related-rant
Being given the freedom to install this on whatever computers I own, regardless of OS*, for one very reasonable fee, is amazing compared to the standard guard of “only one OS and only x computers”, or worse, “subscription based and you lose it all if you stop subscribing”.
I’ve been living in Linux using GIMP for what I’ve needed, but I’m definitely buying and supporting this for when I need a little more than GIMP.
* sans Linux in this case, sadly
Hopefully the performance in isometric grid mode is better in v2. My only issue with v1.
(I'm not a professional user of these... but I find them super useful during game jams or while putting together ideas for web things.)
They really should fix it. The fact that they're selling software and not subscriptions (unlike the competition) means that if they get one version running well on Wine, they could take as long as they wanted to get any later version running. Linux users will just be a year or two behind everyone else, but they'd be grateful.
1. change your payment method to PayPal
2. cancel your payments in PayPal
3. add Adobe to your spam/archive filter
[^1] The "pay monthly" (small print: annual) subscription we all love and cherish
Even in the long-awaited V2, there are still popular features Adobe Illustrator had twenty years ago that Affinity has yet to offer an alternative to, such as vector pattern brushes, auto-trace, and even shape blends, something Illustrator has had for closer to 30 years. I really hope the infusion of cash from this new release allows them to staff up and further realize the potential of this excellent alternative to the Adobe hegemony.
Unlike everything else available (mostly open source), I slid right into Affinity's workflow without a hitch. Compared to CS3, this was actually quite the upgrade in terms of functionality. I suspect that might not be the case for people using the latest versions.
If I were still designing with these tools day-in and day-out, I might have a different view on Affinity's offerings. But, for my light usage, they tick every box.
I only casually mess around with the ipad version at the moment, but I'm tempted to purchase the whole suite because it's such a friendly deal.
Google / Chromium developers, please take note!
That said, unfortunately AVIF is not a substitute for JPEG XL...
1. AVIF has an order of magnitude slower saving / encoding speed vs JPEG XL.
2. AVIF in "lossless" mode tends to be bigger than PNG- and it isn't truly lossless, just best effort (based on the AV1 video format).
3. JPEG XL supports orders of magnitude higher resolution, bit depth, and is an actual replacement for lossless PNG.
The biggest one for me is the fact that you can't manually remove chromatic aberration. If your lens is not in their database with a profile, you can't do it at all. The database is also very small; if you are using anything old or with no electronic, it's likely not gonna be there.
Edit: Got it, have to download it from the purchase history (which was 2014), not the offical now-gone link.
What's new: https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/whats-new/
FAQ for version 2 (including answers for v1 users): https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/affinity-2-faq/
I'm praying to the design gods that Adobe won't acquire Affinity - surely this must eat into their revenue.
Edit: Looks like there's no discount if you already own a license which is a bummer considering they advertised with selling you a lifetime license.
Usually people who offer upgrades for life will use those words.
I bought photos and designer for Windows and iPad. My daily driver is now a Mac, and I was hoping for a cyber Monday type sale to pick up a Mac version. This seems good to me, and the sale feels like a nice upgrade discount.
I'm about to happily plunk down money again because the price is right, it's a perpetual license, and it's a solid product.
I just wish they'd release a DAM, because that's the one item I need right now.
Once I've found out what the difference between Affinity versions 1 and 2 is, I might yet buy 2 anyway, just to support Serif some more, because I'm frankly fed up of Adobe's practice of unhinged monolithic greed.
They're not even complicated requests; stuff like non-printing layers and the ability to resize the selection marquee. I mean... WTF?
It should list every Photoshop function, and how to accomplish the same thing on Affinity.
After 20 years of using Photoshop, I'm forever searching the web for equivalent workflows in Affinity. Sometimes it's just the name or icon of a tool is different. Sometimes it's been completely re-thought. And sometimes, a feature is just missing.
Honestly, this is something that Affinity should publish, itself, to encourage people to switch.
Figma + Procreate replaced Photoshop for me for design/game dev workflows, but I'm still missing the right tools for Photography and image processing.
The OSS LR replacements feel too clunky, CaptureOne is fantastic but a bit pricey. I'll have to bite the bullet eventually and choose between convenience and cost.
Two questions:
1. Is Affinity desktop better than its iPad version?
2. What's your use case for Affinity as a replacement of PS?
The underlying features are there, but the lack of “flow” is the main source of frustration. A lot of common or frequent actions require needless extra steps, or simple actions require convoluted workarounds.
They would benefit from starting an in-house creative studio, to get constant feedback from professionals using it for daily production. That or just start copying Adobe workflows verbatim, these are already solved problems.
Good product and good business model.
(Please let it not happen!)
A combination of these usually gets the job done.
Adobe products are boycotted in my work setup. I'm voting with my wallet!
I hope you'll report that! They seem to be pretty on top of fixing interop issues.
> Can any of you suggest a GOOD alternative?
If you need traditional DAM you'll want to look elsewhere, but if you're macOS-based I finally landed on Apple Photos with its extensions ecosystem (which includes software from Affinity, ON1, etc.). It also works great with RAW Power¹ — by Nik Bhatt, who previously led Aperture and iPhoto development at Apple — which is itself looking more and more like a complete Lightroom replacement.
¹ https://www.gentlemencoders.com/raw-power-for-macos/index.ht...
Check out digikam. I'm using it as DAM only and Affinity Photo for RAW development and image manipulation (but digikam can handle that as well).
I'm stuck on LR 5 myself as I'm too lazy to move my library.
As a Linux user myself and a former (and upcoming again) studio sysadmin, it's disappointing Serif doesn't offer native Linux support. But let's not twist the discussion here.
Yeah, I'm not happy having to keep a copy of Windows for graphics software either, but that's a different issue. If you only have Linux or some toaster running NetBSD, then it's pretty simple: don't buy it.
Neither way seems ideal though. I've seen some devs create a bundle as a way to do upgrade prices, but that's not perfect either.
There's also a full list of their acquisitions here, which might be fun to scroll through: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_acquisitions_by_Adobe
FWIW, Flash is still very widely used in the 2D animation industry, as Adobe Animate.
THERE IS NO ESCAPE.
Edit: I just remembered I'm a cheap bastard and I'm not paying for Figma yet. yay?
For authoring, JPEG XL win hands down.
> Yes. One can barely argue AVIF is better than JPEG XL on the Web.
One can very persuasively argue that AVIF is better on the web; for 99,999% cases used in the wild it will be better. Yes, some marginal cases are better handled by another formats, it is nothing unheard of.
> For authoring, JPEG XL win hands down.
For authoring, .psd, .afphoto or whatever is the native format of the used app will be used.
On one side you've got people complaining about these anti-consumer software subscriptions from the likes of adobe. Then on the other side you've got people like yourself that are for some reason complaining that there's still a company offering fantastic software on par with Illustrator for a fantastic perpetual price.
Affinity Designer is £35 right now. That's insane.
The mind boggles.
These are not selfie correction software.
I get that people can’t because they have to earn a living, but so do software developers.
I can afford it, and I will probably buy it. But I can't help but compared to what I paid not even a year ago.
For me, it's close to unusable — and I am someone whose first computer was a TI44/4A. I'm a die-hard terminal shell user. Even Adobe Illustrator didn't really click for me. The Affinity suite made immediate sense.
There's value in usability.
That value costs money. A parent poster posited someone for whom ~$100 was a lot of money. You speak of professional work. I don't think the intersection of these two groups exist. Casual users with no money can use krita gimp darktable and be reasonable satisfied. Demanding professionals even in poorer parts of the world can use the wages earned to easily pay $100.
RawTherapee being less nerdy is also bizarre to hear, since it exposes much more technical details at once, without offering a definite workflow.
Strict terminology based on fundamental principles, strict reasoning and control over the pipeline, rooted in the video world. Perhaps that's why it looks somewhat foreign to you, it's a bit unlike most other photography tools which need to be marketed and typically offer "magic" with little reproducibility from one software to another. Like the saturation slider which is not actual saturation known from the color theory, at least in Lightroom and C1. Hence the endless bickering between photographers who don't understand fundamentals of color perception and fight over what software gives a better look.
Regarding the UI, maybe I'm different from the most but I honestly don't care how it looks, as long as it delivers and is usable. A professional tool is a truck, not a luxury car; it's alright to have it a bit dirty. I remember the days of Softimage 3D; when I've seen it the first time in 2000, it looked terribly ancient to me. But it was one of the most powerful CGI toolkits at the time.
Regarding the defaults, they are easily changed once and are used afterwards, provided you understand the fundamentals. However I've never needed to do so once I understood how it functions under the hood. The defaults look fine to me.
I'm not a professional photographer though, and despite DT being light years ahead of everyone in several areas I find it lacking in others, which prevents me from using it on a constant basis.
Kindly substantiate your claims.
DT has a clone tool. It's part of the retouch tool.[1] Which is very powerful and allows way more than just cloning. It is also non-destructive, like anything in DT.
DT has camera profiles, new cameras get added regularly.
You can also create them yourself if you have access to a color checker using a built-in tool.[2]
DT has tons of lens correction profiles. Basically anything you find in lensfun.
If your lens is missing, lensfun has a service where you send images and they send you the calibration data back and add it to to their database.[3]
I shoot (often exotic) manual glass most of the time.
If someone tells me DT is lacking in this regard it's a good indicator for me they have no clue what they are talking about or never used the app seriously.
UI: it could see improvement in terms of parameter exposure (no novice/simple mode) and ranges (some sliders go from 0..1, others from 0..100%) but otherwise?
What in the UI is prehistoric?
The catalog part of DT is also great. i.e. when your catalog is on a slow network or cloud drive DT can automatically cache RAWs locally and send back the XMPs with the edits only.
Caveat: I regularly get paid for photography work (it's not fulltime but give I worked professionally in blockbuster VFX for two decades I think I qualify).
I do all my processing in DT. If I have to do compositing work beyond that I export to Fusion.
[1] https://docs.darktable.org/usermanual/3.8/en/module-referenc...
[2] https://pixls.us/articles/profiling-a-camera-with-darktable-...
I agree with the GP that the UI makes it practically unusable. Prehistoric, and I'd be surprised if this can be used by anyone as-is. I'd take a look at the features, but while it's importing my catalog I can't open any subfolders to look at images already imported. Once I click open my top-level Pictures folder, it closes it again after half a second.
Adding: Even though my Fujifilm X-T4 is listed as supported on https://www.darktable.org/resources/camera-support/, and the preview images in grid mode appear, opening a single image displays two visually overlapping error messages about not being able to open the raw file. (One message is about switching to lighttable, the other about not being able to read white balance info. The image is not displayed.)
Firstly calling someone a liar basically shuts down all discussion in most cases and secondly after you have provided the proof you needn't demand it of them. You can instead wait for them to absorb the data you have provided.
Example:
> Darktable in fact has the features you mentioned and more. I enjoy using it for professional work myself so let me tell you a little bit about the features that make it competitive.
This would refute the position without directly engaging in negativity which is more likely to be read especially by poster but I think we are all a bit tired of people calling each other liars on the internet at this point.
Lens corrections are there and database has most used lenses.
So if you could practically limit your market at a specified price in such a way that that offer doesn't spread to other markets, then every copy you sell in such places is still beneficial to you.
There are less cynical answers to the question, but you asked cynically.
In the end this is a professional software suite, and running a business has some fixed costs. By comparison, Adobe's suite would cost much more per year.
Next how do you keep Jane in Seattle and Bob in Houston from buying the poor market version? You can't really restrict it by language or locale people use all sorts of languages/settings in different parts of the world. Desktop computers don't have location and people could trivially block the app from having access to location AND network data. You don't want your offline software failing for lack of phoning home.
An argument could be made that Jane and Bob could well pirate it too but friction matters. Lots of folks can figure out how to pirate but fewer of them will actually do it if they have to visit the skeevier corners of the net, risk malware, and feel like a criminal instead of clicking on a different locale on your website and feel like they are cleverly getting a good deal. One weird trick to make a substantial portion of your revenue go away.
I would say that compared to software like Adobe that costs $600 a year or $3000 over a 5 year horizon it's already very inclusive.