For editing the Affinity suite fits really well, but for organizing images there are better DAM solutions for Mac (Apple Photos, Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Bridge, NeoFinder,…).
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Affinity Designer is so good its ridiculous
- Thread starter whitedragon101
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I love all software Serif makes (Affinity developer) especially Designer. They make 'workbooks' to help learn the programs and I preordered the book for Publisher since the Designer book was so well done.
Publisher also uses a feature called StudioLink that allows you to (if you own them) use the tools from Designer and Photo without having to save and export then import again. So I highly recommend Publisher if you're working with print graphics since it eases the pipeline considerably.
Serif is a good company. I've contacted them about a multitude of issues and they've always been helpful in response. They've halved their creative suite during the pandemic as well. I recommended them to a friend of mine who was using CC for a business he was starting and he contacted Serif about business licensing too. Same price, no crazy upcharge. He converted from CC to Affinity suite for a perpetual $75.
Publisher also uses a feature called StudioLink that allows you to (if you own them) use the tools from Designer and Photo without having to save and export then import again. So I highly recommend Publisher if you're working with print graphics since it eases the pipeline considerably.
Serif is a good company. I've contacted them about a multitude of issues and they've always been helpful in response. They've halved their creative suite during the pandemic as well. I recommended them to a friend of mine who was using CC for a business he was starting and he contacted Serif about business licensing too. Same price, no crazy upcharge. He converted from CC to Affinity suite for a perpetual $75.
I don't use any Adobe programs. I remember in the 90s Freehand did a great job with text documents that remains unsurpassed by anything I've owned. The printouts looked professional on a cheap HP inkjet. The text I print with Affinity Design and my Brother Laser are nothing special. Apple used to own the desktop publishing space.
I doubt this difference is related at all to the quality of Freehand (RIP) vs Affinity. It's likely caused by default printer settings being draft vs high quality, and font size/style choice, and even rose-tinted glasses.
Personally, I think it's great that Apple no longer own the DTP space - cross platform file formats and fonts make it more accessible. It's given Apple and Adobe a kick up the rear, and I wish more studios would give Affinity a try.
It was Macromedia Freehand. There was a default setting where you highlighted the text, and that was it. The spacing was perfect. It looked like professional typesetting.
It's not rose-colored glasses. I still have some of the prints.
On sale for 1/2 price. $24.99. Also doing a 90 day free trial of their entire suite.
affinity.serif.com
Affinity – Professional Creative Software
From the smoothest photo editing and design software to next-gen page layout, Affinity is pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with creative technology.
This 50% sale is over shortly.
I’m thinking of jumping onboard and getting Affinity Designer, and Photo...not sure about Publisher.
I’m wondering if anyone with InDesign experience could comment on how Publisher compares.
BTW, I assume I can purchase and download later? My M1 Mac mini hasn’t arrived yet.
I’m thinking of jumping onboard and getting Affinity Designer, and Photo...not sure about Publisher.
I’m wondering if anyone with InDesign experience could comment on how Publisher compares.
BTW, I assume I can purchase and download later? My M1 Mac mini hasn’t arrived yet.
You have an Intel Mac currently with an available App Store to buy Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo from? then do that and you'll have your purchases available on your M1 Mac too.
Online purchases would give a serial code I imagine. I doubt that there's a time limit on how soon you would need to activate. Within a year perhaps?
Note.. I have both Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo too . bought them via Mac App Store.. They are really power houses. I doubt I would ever begin using Sketch if Affinity Designer was ready before it was.
I think that there's a 2 or 3 machine policy regardless of where the purchase took place. I've never had a problem with the App Store on the Mac, but I'm only a one Mac operator and I only do re-installs on the same Mac.
I just bought via the Mac App Store for convenience. If there's a de-activation or an activation limit if bought via the web outside of Mac App Store then I would personally not choose that route. I've had my share of dealing with "too many activations" or typing in serial numbers
I just bought via the Mac App Store for convenience. If there's a de-activation or an activation limit if bought via the web outside of Mac App Store then I would personally not choose that route. I've had my share of dealing with "too many activations" or typing in serial numbers
Yes, you can download it to all your machines. I remember, there was a maximum of 5 installations, but I can't find any verified info on that, so there might be no limit. Personally I did 3 installs without any problems from the Mac App Store.
If you buy directly from Serif, you can use it on all your Macs, too. An exception is, if you're a commercial enterprise. In that case, one license is valid for one Mac. More info on licensing:
https://www.apple.com/legal/macapps/stdeula/ -> a. Scope of License
https://store.serif.com/en-us/help/ -> How many computers can I install a digital product on?
There might be an update to version 2 in the close future, that will need an extra purchase. As there is no upgrade option on the Mac App Store, it could be an advantage to buy directly from Serif's Affinity Store, but nobody knows.
In short:
Adobe InDesign does have a Data Merge feature to get bulk letter done. That's a feature Affinity Publisher (AP) is missing.Edit: Data Merge Feature was introduced with AP 1.9 (see changelog).- With InDesign, one can export PDF 1.3 standard. As AP is using a third-party solution (PDFLib) for export, it can just serve PDF 1.4 and higher. E.g. with Adobe Acrobat Pro, one can convert it to 1.3 standard, if needed.
- The nested styles for text design in Adobe InDesign offer much more complex possibilities than the one in AP.
- There is no eBook export, like EPUB in AP, yet.
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I am hoping they will add this to designer as well. But I have been using https://vectormagic.com/ -- in some cases it seems to be better than illustrator's feature.
Vectorizing through auto tracing is not expected to be seen in Affinity Designer before version 2.
There are discussions about that in the Affinity forum dating back to 2014 including many suggestions of alternative tools and summaries from users jlarmstrongiv and v_kyr. Maybe upvoting there helps to get that feature.
There are discussions about that in the Affinity forum dating back to 2014 including many suggestions of alternative tools and summaries from users jlarmstrongiv and v_kyr. Maybe upvoting there helps to get that feature.
Another vote for Affinity Designer here! It's great and does everything i need.
Thanks for the detailed response. I think I can live with those missing InDesign feature. I still have Adobe CC 2015 that runs on some of my older Macs if I need in a pinch.
BTW, is the thinking that 2.0 is around the corner? I hope there’s not an expensive upgrade right after buying the Suite.
Really great time reading this back-in-time . . . thank you {all} for the great content 
Regards, splifingate
Regards, splifingate
One little thing I would love Affinity to implement in the panel section is an up and down arrow button to increase or decrease point size.
A sliding bar isn't great for small incremental adjustments and typing into the field box is tiresome.
A sliding bar isn't great for small incremental adjustments and typing into the field box is tiresome.
There is no release date, yet.
From the tech specs: https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/publisher/full-feature-list/
With no upgrade, version 1.x does continue to work.
However, there had been rumors of a version 2 release around summer 2020.
In real life, at the moment we do have production release 1.9.3 and beta release 1.10. Moderators are talking of a possible version 1.11: https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/forum/32-beta-software-forums/
I'd give that guys immediately some bucks for a future version 2 license, only because they don't force me into a subscription. Version 2 will get released somewhen and that's fine. If we'll see a version 1.11, we could expect another two years of free upgrades based on the passed release cycle of around 1 minor version per year. That's just a rough guess. Please don't be disappointed, if I'm wrong.
For text size in AD try
Command + <, Command + >, Command + Option + <, Command + Option + >. For brush size try [ and ].
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Thanks.There is no release date, yet.
From the tech specs: https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/publisher/full-feature-list/
With no upgrade, version 1.x does continue to work.
However, there had been rumors of a version 2 release around summer 2020.
In real life, at the moment we do have production release 1.9.3 and beta release 1.10. Moderators are talking of a possible version 1.11: https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/forum/32-beta-software-forums/
I'd give that guys immediately some bucks for a future version 2 license, only because they don't force me into a subscription. Version 2 will get released somewhen and that's fine. If we'll see a version 1.11, we could expect another two years of free upgrades based on the passed release cycle of around 1 minor version per year. That's just a rough guess. Please don't be disappointed, if I'm wrong.
For text size in AD tryCommand + <,Command + >,Command + Option + <,Command + Option + >. For brush size try[and].
It's done. Picked up the entire Affinity Suite on sale for my next M1 Mac purchase!
Now just debating whether I should go all-in and get the apps on my iPad!
My reason for remaining with Photoshop is to take advantage of the interplay between Bridge, Lightroom, Photoshop, After Effects, and Premiere Pro. Each of them has all of my pictures. By contrast, Adobe software does not recognize the Affinity Photo pictures. There is no method to import them without first exporting them as jpg, png, or gif files or any other format accepted by the application.
I guess Adobe isn't interested at all to support the native Affinity formats as that could lead to even more customer loss. I do agree, that Adobe offers a great interplay of its apps. It´s a pity that there is no more perpetual license available for Adobe´s creative apps.
Fortunately Serif comes to the rescue and also developed an amazing round trip experience across Affinity Photo, Designer and Publisher with their native file formats.
As a plus, many Adobe file formats are supported by Affinity apps. Affinity is able to import InDesign (.idml) to Publisher, Illustrator (.ai) to Designer and Photoshop (.psd, .psb, both without text layers) to Photo. Finally, Photoshop filters can be used in Photo. At the moment, that gives you mainly partial support of Adobe formats. It's not perfect and some features aren't available, yet.
Check out all supported file formats of Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer and Affinity Publisher for details.
Fortunately Serif comes to the rescue and also developed an amazing round trip experience across Affinity Photo, Designer and Publisher with their native file formats.
As a plus, many Adobe file formats are supported by Affinity apps. Affinity is able to import InDesign (.idml) to Publisher, Illustrator (.ai) to Designer and Photoshop (.psd, .psb, both without text layers) to Photo. Finally, Photoshop filters can be used in Photo. At the moment, that gives you mainly partial support of Adobe formats. It's not perfect and some features aren't available, yet.
Check out all supported file formats of Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer and Affinity Publisher for details.
On a side note, PhotoPea now loads Affinity files. And Fireworks files.
www.photopea.com
Photopea | Online Photo Editor
Photopea Online Photo Editor lets you edit photos, apply effects, filters, add text, crop or resize pictures. Do Online Photo Editing in your browser for free!
www.photopea.com