Affinity Designer Reviews

Coming from Illustrator, it's very easy to adapt to, just minor differences in some workflows, but mostly it's intuitive. It can open and edit Illustrator files if they are pdf compatible, even deal with complex things like knockout groups correctly. It's also has some great ideas that I was pleasantly surprised by that made the workflow better and faster. Affinity devs listen to user feedback and regularly update their apps, so any features that it lacks it will probably get soon.

Lack of a good font manager, it just takes the fonts you have installed in your OS. No Google fonts integration or anything like Adobe Fonts, so if you're missing fonts you have to manually find them online and (buy or) download them the old-fashioned way.

Some odd workflow choices, minor things that can slow you down. Like no native way to permanently reset the bounding box of an object after it has been rotated, they have a toggle that works for 1 operation and switches back to the (skewed or rotated) original. The align UI and the order of actions to chose what to align to what is strange and can waste time. Other minor things like that that I ran into, but all in all it works well and gets the job done.

This is the easiest vectoring program I've ever used for lineart and I'm amazed at its affordability compared to insanely-priced subscription services like Adobe.

I only have two gripes with this program. 1) As of the writing of this review, you can't merge vectored strokes into one layer. You can merge multiple shapes into one shape but every vectored line/stroke has its own layer and can only be 'grouped', not merged. When I'm done with a lineart, I want it to be one layer-- not thousands. 2) Protecting/locking PDFs from editing does not seem to be possible at the moment and that's a huge security issue for a lot of artists who don't want their work edited without authorization. Would really like to see this issue fixed.

An easy-to-use layout design tool that is capable of absolutely everything I need to do. I've been in the creative industry for over 30 years and Affinity Designer can handle everything I'm throwing at it from logo design and layout to full-blown artwork, and art collections I'm developing. It integrates well with the Affinity family of products (obviously). Essentially it's easy, fast, full-featured, and straightforward to get started. I used to use Illustrator (a little) but now I use Affinity and have never looked back. The transition took me minutes rather than hours. It's very intuitive.

I haven't hit any limitations with the software yet. I always generally feel the things we don't like about the software is that we've mainly not learned how to use particular features or combinations yet, so really it's on us to work it out and innovate. Sure in any software there can be occasional bugs. But I haven't come across any yet, or anything particularly frustrating about the workflow, tool, or system as a whole.

It's modern, FAST (in capitals), easy to use, affordable and regularly updated.
Also, Affinity Designer (and it's companion applications Photo and Publisher) are available on both Windows and macOS with 100% file compatibility; In addition there is an iPad edition available, again with 100% compatible files and great drawing features for Apple Pencil.

The management of ,global colours' and 'normal colours' needs some getting used to. Once you know how it works, it works well, but it's a bit different than I expected.

This is a fantastic alternative to Adobe's Illustrator, especially at Affinity's pricepoint. To be fair, we're not a design agency first, we make websites and do marketing primarily. However, when we do want to work with vector graphics, Affinity Designer matches up almost 1:1 with Adobe Illustrator. The real pro is the one-time fee of $50 instead of a full adobe suite subscription. This allows our small team to effectively open, edit, and export vector graphics, without having a several hundred dollars per month bill to foot. For small teams, this is a huge win. I'd imagine some experienced designers will scoff that a few of their old shortcuts don't work, but all in all, the interface and function almost mirrors Adobe's for a fraction of the cost. We also use their photo editing software too, which replaces Photoshop.

Some of the terminology and keyboard shortcuts made the onboarding slightly more difficult for our long-time Adobe Illustrator users, but they've adopted nicely over time. There's always growing pains when you switch tools, but there are many more features that do match up 1:1 that this was a no brainer for our company.

Designer is an incredibly deep application that can satisfy just about everyone's demands for digital illustration. It has a phenomenal feature set and works on multiple devices, thus enabling the user to maximize their output and enhance their workflow. The accompanying Workbook is a brilliant way to familiarize the user to the capabilities of the software, and as the only viable alternative to Adobe Illustrator, anyone making the transition will feel right at home - you can even open up your Illustrator projects in Designer! Another great function is the seamless integration with Affinity's other applications - Publisher and Photo.

I have only scratched the surface of this application but am astonished at what can be achieved. I can't recommend it highly enough and think that there is nothing on the market than can compete at this price range. Five stars! 🏆

Since making the transition from Illustrator, I've honestly not looked back once. There is nothing in my workflow that Designer isn't capable of performing. As such, I have no cons and can't think of any reason not explore Designer and its capabilities.

I started looking for something cheaper than Adobe. While Adobe has the market corned, the price is very high considering it is a subscription based service. I started looking into Affinity during the pandemic after downloading the iPad app. After some research, I decided to take the plunge and try it out. The price was only $50 with no subscription, which I could easily stomach. The price itself is a huge selling point. I began using Affinity designer and found it far more used friendly than Adobe Illustrator. Because there is no cloud services or extra software, your computer's power goes directly to the app. Plus, because there is an iPad app, you can easily switch between devices.

If you are used to Adobe products, it will be a learning curve moving to Affinity. you do not have access to Adobe fonts and will need to install font files from either another website or buying them from Adobe. You will also have to think about cloud storage for your projects. I use Google Drive and all of my projects and data sync perfectly.

Affinity Designer offers precision tools for vector graphics design, making it a great choice for tasks such as logo design, typography, and illustrations.Affinity Designer has a user-friendly interface that is easy to navigate, making it accessible for both novice and professional designers.Affinity Designer is available on both Windows and Mac operating systems, making it a great choice for designers who use multiple platforms.Affinity Designer is an affordable alternative to other professional design software, such as Adobe Illustrator.Affinity Designer has a large and active community of users, providing support and resources to help users get the most out of the software.

Affinity Designer may not have all the features of more expensive design software, making it a less attractive choice for some professionals.Affinity Designer does not offer a free trial, making it difficult for users to test the software before purchasing