Since all of the image’s pixels are maintained, when you scale them up you end up with jagged edges. Here’s a little background refresher on the practical difference between vector and raster images in case the above perplexed you: Raster images are pixel-based and don’t enlarge well. Vector image (L) texture added in-app with raster brushes (R). I like that Affinity Designer provides such a smorgasbord of shape options-13 more than the old standards you find in Illustrator (that is, without Astute Graphics’ Dynamic Shapes plug-in).
Below that are the shapes tools, which is where we will begin. Shape-Shifting Vector ToolsĪs my eyes drifted down the stack of tools, I was delighted to find one sporting a wineglass icon-the transparency tool. Contextual toolsets are plentiful and offer up-front availability that’s buried in similar programs. As you build your project, Affinity Designer keeps you organized behind the scenes with intelligent layers. When setting up a new document, the dialog window presents all expected options, including desired units, color space and profile, margins, and bleeds for print work. In fact, Affinity Design allows complete keyboard shortcut customization of your Studio, including key commands on the desktop version, and iPad version if you have a keyboard attached.
There, in addition to standard hover-over tooltips, you find a handy contextual footer bar to guide you when you’re not sure how to work with your selection, how to use a selected tool, or what a tool’s various keyboard shortcuts are.Īdding to my increasing comfort with the app was learning that many of Illustrator’s key commands carry over to Affinity Designer, which is a huge boon for keyboard commanders like me. To begin a project, choose one of the many page-size and device-type options to launch a new main window, which Affinity calls the Studio.
On the downside, there’s no upgrade pricing, so when a new major version arrives, you have to pay the full price again.Īffinity’s thoughtful launch screen encourages learning and community participation. Not only is that much cheaper than Adobe’s competing subscription-based apps, which will run you $239.88 per year at a minimum, but it’s also considerably less than CorelDraw, which costs a one-time payment of $299.
It’s just a one-time $54.99 for either the Mac or Windows software the version for the iPad costs $21.99.
How Much Does Affinity Designer Cost?Īs mentioned, you don’t need to pay a monthly or annual subscription to use Affinity Designer. With the ubiquity of Adobe’s parallel workhorse trio ( Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign), the burning question is: What can Affinity Designer do that Illustrator can’t? Read on to find out. Soon after, DrawPlus was scrapped, and so began the dual-platform succession of the Affinity line, which includes the vector-based Designer, pixel-based Affinity Photo, and Affinity Publisher for producing long documents. When the British-born app debuted in 2014 as a Mac-only tool, Windows users had already been using the company’s DrawPlus vector editing tool. That's high praise from this writer, a longtime Adobe Illustrator user. It’s easy to develop an affinity for Serif’s latest release of its vector editing graphic design software, Affinity Designer 1.10.0. How to Set Up Two-Factor Authentication.