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- Affinity Designer vs. Adobe Illustrator: Can Designer Replace Illustrator?

 

Affinity Designer is a capable and reliable piece of software. Like similar apps, it does have a learning curve associated with it, especially for new or general users, but the sheer quantity of easily accessible tutorials should have you creating stunning vector art in no time at all. Aside from Illustrator, Affinity Designer still has little competition, though there are a few Illustrator alternatives worth mentioning. There's Sketch, a popular tool for digital design, which offers a relatively cheap subscription, though is native to the Mac only; Inkscape is free and open source but lacks the pro speed and depth of Affinity Designer; and CorelDRAW, which is a step removed from the usability of Illustrator and Designer, is more complex, and well… just different.

The appeal of Affinity Designer is thus: it's slightly simpler than Illustrator, less cluttered, way more affordable, easy to get-to-grips with, and is a high performing piece of design software open to general users and professionals. Read more: The best digital art software. Join now for unlimited access. Ben is an artist and illustrator based in Bristol. He works in traditional woodcut, drawing and digital mediums. For Creative Bloq, he reviews drawing tablets and styluses, as well as the latest and greatest digital software for artists.

His artwork has been exhibited across Bristol, and his words have also appeared in ImagineFX magazine. Sign in View Profile Sign out. Home Reviews Graphic Design. Our Verdict. For Excellent value Solid range of tools Interchangeable pixel and vector personas. Against Still no mesh fill or object warp No plugins or scripting No image tracing.

Join now. Join now Already have an account? Sign in here. The Verdict. Topics Review. For example, the current release of Affinity Designer does not include a perspective grid or column graph tool.

Whether sharing working files with a team or updating templates created on another platform, compatibility is an issue that very few graphics programs have addressed in the past. Saving back to AI, however, is not possible. Because Adobe offers a broader range of features and settings, some of these may not be preserved when importing into Affinity Designer.

For example, pattern overlays and other effects or filters can get dropped from imported PSD files and imported AI files may not preserve grouped objects. Affinity Designer comes up short against Adobe Illustrator in workspace options. Illustrator CC offers multiple Workspaces pre-set for different types of design jobs—web design, automation and pre-press proofing to name a few—and the ability to create a custom Workspace.

While the program is equipped with a broad range of effects, and supports an expanded selection of vector shapes and the ability to load Photoshop brushes. These improvements are indications that the developers at Serif understand the needs of professional designers and are working to meet those needs. The Windows beta version is now available for download, but there is no information about Affinity companion apps for mobile devices.

Adobe CC is available for Mac and Windows and the Adobe mobile apps let users create and preserve editable artwork in the Creative Cloud for use across platforms. In terms of function and style, Affinity Designer is an impressive, low-budget alternative to Adobe Illustrator. Full-service designers who need to create multi-page documents will still need to rely on InDesign—or the old Quark Xpress, as Serif has not yet released a comparable alternative.

For comprehensive features, tools and shortcuts, Adobe CC has Affinity beat. However, if Serif keeps the pace, we may soon see the Affinity suite become a major competitor in the graphic software market. About the author: Katharine M.

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