ive been using affinity since 2020 and a major reason i love it is that i still own it, and i've never lost access to it. i had to go independent suddenly in late 2020, ending up homeless. long story. but i already owned affinity photo from when i was financially supported by parents. now in 2022 it's still with me on my new computer. i've maintained access to it even during months where i had to raise money for food. the one time payment model has your back when you go through anything in life.
the same here, I lost my job starting the quarantine and the fact of not having to pay month after month gave me the opportunity to work on projects and earn money without paying monthly rent.
This reminds me of something my brother said to me a couple days ago. He has a little Honda Civic. He was ecstatic about the great gas mileage. He said, man people are nuts for buying these big SUVs. Why in the world would anybody buy anything like that. I said, I guess its because they need a big vehicle for whatever they're doing. he actually disregarded that explanation and said, they just want a big vehicle because they think its cool. A few days passed. I walked outside and there was my brother with wires, coat hangers, strings, etc trying to stuff a WHEELBARROW into the trunk of his little Civic. I burst into laughter and said, now you know why people drive SUVs. What's the moral of the story? The moral of the story is that, you can stick with the tools that you have because they actually serve your needs. If you need a pickup truck then a compact car is not going to cut it even if its sitting right there in the yard full of gas.
@@divalea The key to survival for me has been to understand the reality of life in my country. If you have 1 source of income, you're basically living on the edge of a cliff. The first bad weather will blow you right over the cliff. A lot of people don't understand that. When you are stable, that is the time to focus hard on creating another income stream. Then another. The more income streams you have the farther back from the cliff you will be, and the best streams are the residual kind. Its a wonderful time to be an artist because there are endless ways to make money from art now.
@@Elitex-y5q I started with Adobe and now I'm switching to Affinity due to how greedy and slimy Adobe has become. Adobe is also far more expensive than Affinity. I paid 70 euros for Affinity and never looked back while Adobe consistently asks for money and when I wanted to cancel my subscription, they wanted a fee and Adobe also created a new policy that my art created in Photoshop is also their art which is INSANE! I created it, not them. If you are a beginner, I recommend going with Affinity and if you ever consider switching to Photoshop, then keep the consistent money grab bullsht from Adobe in mind.
Two years ago I replaced Adobe for Affinity and ended my Adobe subscription to force myself to learn Affinity. I was used to work with Illustrator as my main software, Indesign and Photoshop to some extent. The first month was a slow one, relearning and understanding the software. Affinity’s video tutorials was of great help. After the first month I was proficient enough to get things done at the same speed as before. Now I’m paying for Adobe as well, my clients sometimes demands it. But as a person that is comfortable with both, I always choose Affinity for a project if the choice is presented. I find Affinity to be less bloated with functions and Studio certainly speeds up my workflow. Can’t wait to see what the future holds for the Affinity Suite!
Same here. All of the above. Quit Adobe because client work was few and far between during the lockdown, went to Affinity, but clients demanded the illustrator files and photoshop files. Had to go back.
Same here. I honestly hate having to come back to Adobe...ugggh Though If clients only need SVG, I pretty much just do everything in Affinity and copy the SVG layers over to Illustrator and re-group the layers as needed then save as an AI file. (its a smooth task so long as they don't need layer effects, or effects that I dread to replicate in illustrator)
As long as artists don't put a stop to clients like "sorry, I only work with Affinity" clients are going to keep demanding Adobe and keep saying to all artists "sorry, we only work with Adobe" Remember, they are the ones who NEED artists
@@NighthawkX02 , re: "Remember, they are the ones who NEED artists" I've been the client, in several capacities. When I specify Adobe (an ai file), it's typically because the downstream workflow - the publishing or advertising or SKU art - specifies that as the preferred format. My goal is to accomplish the step of acceptable artwork, which means correct format. Which means that, to qualify for my job at all, you must agree to at least export to that format. I've never had a problem. If it's been a cost issue, perhaps the artists simply baked the extra into their bid price.
There's a few problems with the Adobe rental model. You can't rent for a single month, if you don't require Photoshop access every week of the year, perhaps once and a while, you can't access the tool without signing up for a year rolling contract.
10 years ago, you would have had to drop $700 on Photoshop if you wanted to use it at all. And it would only be supported for 2 years or so, before the next major version came out and you had to pay another $200 to upgrade. Even if you only use it a few times a year, it will take over 4 years before you pay that much for your subscription.
@@michaelryan1767 just because something's been broken for decades, doesn't mean it doesn't need fixing. Sadly I've been using Photoshop since version 4.0, at-least before CC you could just hold on to your copy and use it without upgrading.
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Yeah, I mostly have the subscription to open client files (in XD, Indesign or Photoshop) every now and then and maybe do a small animation in After Effects every few weeks. With this stupid subscription model, I probably spend 50€ for every hour of use on these programs. It's ridiculous.
Yeah I'm only 2 minutes into the video so maybe he goes into it more but he kind of just skirted past a lot more problems the subscription model for Adobe has For instance him saying it's basically the same price is really gross to me cause a lot of people would just buy one version of Photoshop and use it forever so they wouldn't have to keep buying the new one unless it just had an update they really wanted.
The subscription model in adobe is the killer aspect. You have to have been on your last leg to understand how devastating a subscription model is. You don't just loose access to the software, you lose access to your own creations. This hand over of control is what I despise wholeheartedly and why I will have to be rich -- really rich before I even consider a subscription model and even then, do I really want to waste all that money for features I hardly use and find alternatives with ease?
It blows my mind you didn't mention ease of use. Some of the most common features people actually want to use (clipping masks, changing text alignment, etc) are mind-blowingly easy in Affinity, but difficult or impossible in Illustrator. Whenever I want to learn something in Affinity I learn it once and it's so intuitive I know it forever (compared to the dozens of times I've had to relearn something in an Adobe product). To me, I'd much rather support a small team putting out occasional high-quality features rather than a bloated corporation breaking my workflow with mindless additions every year (and it's much cheaper to do so). Affinity Designer is the easy winner for me.
That's a key factor for me! I'm new to high-level graphic design, and user-friendly software is always a blessing. In fact, even as a skilled technician in other venues I always jump to user-friendly software and applications vs something that can maybe do more but is not intuitive. Workflow is important, and ease of use with creative genre software lends to enhanced creativity.
Affinity software does things that you really need and they listen to the community about the problems, Adobe keeps updating and adding features and stuff you may never use just so they can justify their prices and monthly subscription
This not fair at all. You may not use it, but a lot of people will and it's the good reason to keep or get the subscription. I'm an Affinity user, I've all I need to do my work there, but sometimes.. I am doing one single thing for example 1 hour, but in Adobe, with the tool or "features" they added to raise the price, you will have it done in 20 minutes. So.. does it worth it? For me personally, it does. So I wouldn't call it a con, because if they save you time, they will save you money. What do you think?
@@sebeek00 Thing is, adobe are wanting little users like me to fund developments I don't want, and the programmes are less and less how I want them to be. Large users with lots of 'seats' pay less per seat than I do, but Adobe are pushing their software towards the needs of the larger buyers, who want things I don't, like AI tools and cloud storage. Staying with adobe would cost me £650 a year. Affinity is a one off of £160. Even if it occasionally took longer to do something, that's still a gain financially, and it seems from the reviews that the things I do would be at least as fast, if not faster, in Affinity. And by the look of it, Affinity would actually suit me better in terms of its capbilities and interface. I'm going for the free trials, and most likely bailing from Adobe after over a quarter of a century.
As mentioned by Brad, Adobe is a "all in one" solution. You can however find amazing programs that IMHO outperform Adobes products or ar on par with them. For example: Clip Studio Paint is not better than Photoshop. But it is better than PS when it comes to create comics. Because that program is made for that specific purpose. And it's easier to make something better, when you have a focused goal in mind. Yes, PS has nice new features but when it comes to actual use, they are often ... not used at all. It depends on your need. So the question is: Do you want to make a comic? Are you trying to make logos as vector grafics? Are you retouching fotos? The more specific you identify your needs, the easier it gets to find really nice alternatives to Adobe.
CSP *_is_* much better than PS for digital artists. Adobe has an expensive subscription and you will never own it. CSP is $50 once and you own it. Adobe doesn't have brush stabilization. CSP does. And now CSP has liquefy. CSP has an asset and brush store where almost everything is free. CSP is also available on Galaxy Note and S lines, albeit on a subscription, but a rather cheap one at least. PS on Android is only a photo editor. Literally zero reason for a digital artist to use adobe other than brand loyalty.
@@ArkGenesys I actually remember something similar to brush stabilisation in PS. You might remember an outdated version? However I do agree that CSP cover most aspects for digital artists, however: If you are into retouching fotos, I consider PS better than CSP. (Maybe you dont include those as digital artists and I simply did, so not a different opinion but rather different definitions). But I really enjoy CSP at the moment and dont see myself going into paying-slavery by Adobe again :-D Funny though: If they would offer a 10 bucks a month sub, I would take that. Like a netflix subscription.
I still don't understand why some comic artists still use photshop for their work yet Clip Studio Paint Ex does a much better job handling comic work. Yeah the price is high, but there's also a monthly subscription which is slightly lower than photoshop's photo plan. Idk anymore.
I absolutely love CSP. It has everything I need, runs great, works really well on my surface book + surface button, and the built in store has thousands of free brushes + textures. Plus the 3D models are super handy! I really like Affinity and use it for vector and photo editing. But for sketching and drawing, CSP is the king
@@ArkGenesys people use PS because of retouching ability, filter and photobashing for illustration. It also can paint 8k res painting better since it is more efficient. While PS can be demanding on CPU resource when I paint big illustration it is smoother than krita, coral painter or clip. to say there is no reason is quite a stretch there.
I’m surprised you didn’t touch on consistency at all - yeah, Adobe has a larger „ecosystem”, but you can hardly call it that - it’s more like a bunch of completly different programs rammed into the same package, with almost no uniformity in both interface and file formats. Every new program needs to be learned from the ground up, even when it comes to finding stuff in the interface. This is completally different in Affinity, where if you learn one of the programs, you can easily switch to another and be familiar with it in an instance. And compatible file formats makes it very easy and pleasant to mix and match different types of material work, from raster to vector and vice versa. For me it’s actually the main benefit of Affinity suite, I’m really shocked that it wasn’t acknowledged at all in this vid.
This is a good point, Captivate feels nothing like other Adobe software, except for a few surface level UI similarities to the ones inherited from Macromedia
When I opened up publisher for the first time and realized how easy it was to zoom in I almost jizzed myself. When I realized you could switch to their other programs from within it while maintaining the same controls, I did.
To be honest, my biggest issue here is that Adobe does not want to make packs focused on certain areas of expertise. I don't want to spend 63 euros / month for all the programs when I only use Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and inDesign. Sure I could do the switch to Affinity, but unfortunately all my clients work in full Adobe environments. It feels stupid to pay so much for things that I use once every few months. They should at least offer packs of 2 or 3 programs, instead of having to get them separatedly. I once asked them if they were ever planning on doing this, but it was totally not in their plans.
Indeed, there used to be things like Design Standard. I think our clients/printers are having to adjust to Affinity as so many people are now using it, due to the stinging costs to those of us pay for our software out of our own pockets of having the CC family of programmes. The biggest printer I use takes affinity files now.
The way I see it, Affinity is a really good piece of software that has gotten significantly better since I bought Photo back in 2017. I barely used it much back then as a 10 year Photoshop veteran at the time, but as they kept fixing stuff I have come to appreciate more and more the freedom that the Affinity Suite provides. While I do think Photoshop does a lot of things right and has more polish because of decades of development, one thing I have noticed since switching is that I see more and more cracks in its armour to the point that I really don't want to go back to using it anymore. There are a lot of very nice quality of life changes I use in Affinity as a painter that I just can't live without. With more fixes being done to problem areas in each version I am positive that Serif are going to have them fixed eventually. In future versions I hope they address problems like these for painting: - Improve colour picking. Add a mouse icon while holding down alt and add all the Colour Picker Tool settings to all the other colour pickers like for the Brush Tool (want to alt colour pick with Selected Layer like you can in Photoshop). - Improve brush management. Add folders, add an R click menu for the brush tools, etc. - Creating Embedded Documents, aka Affinity Smart Objects, by R clicking layers and converting them in the Layers panel. - Fix bugs for some tools and add more shortcut key commands for each of them to improve workflow. - Perspective tools. - Perspective transformations. More specifically for the Move Tool. Designer especially needs perspective transformations for vector art. - Add anti-aliasing options for the Move Tool for better support of pixel art transformations. - Fix boolean bugs. - Raster-to-vector conversion. - Add more vector tools. Designer still needs a blob brush, an eraser brush, and a shape builder tool just to name a few. - Pure vector brushes and patterns. - More ways to save, import, and export UI settings, tool settings, etc. - Option to move cache data storage from the C drive to other drives (really big problem if your main drive doesn't have a ton of space). - Better integration between all three Affinity programs. Sharing of settings, brushes, assets, etc. would make working between each program a lot simpler. So, is Affinity better than Adobe? I would say yes if you are raster painter. It may not have every bell and whistle of Adobe Photoshop, but I think its strengths are starting to outweigh its shortcomings, and you can clearly see with some of the features Adobe took inspiration from Affinity and vice versa that Affinity tends to do them a lot better (i.e. branched history states for Photoshop, which is just embarrassingly implemented when compared to how Affinity did it). If you are a vector artist I would say that Adobe still reigns supreme, although I absolutely hate working in Illustrator. Designer is honestly a joy to work with, but it lacks a ton of features that make it near impossible to do certain vector art. When Designer does get a new tool like the Contour Tool, I usually prefer the Affinity implementation over the Adobe one (Pen Tool and Node Tool are great to work with as well). Plus, you can use Inkscape when things can't be done in Designer, so you don't have to rely on Illustrator most of the time if you copy+paste between Inkscape and Designer. Not to mention that the Affinity programs are overall faster than Adobe in many categories. 32-bit painting is much better supported in Affinity, which to me is a big plus since I recently bought a G9 Odyssey with HDR capabilities. It's really solid. Also, as the review said, Adobe fills a different need than Affinity does. If you need to run a multi-media empire, Adobe is pretty much unmatched. Even I have to use Adobe because they bought Substance Painter and Designer some years back. Though, I am very much looking forward to seeing Affinity tackle 3D painting, since they teased it coming to Photo two years ago. The future is looking bright. :)
@@cnote3598 You can paint with vectors, yes. There is the Pencil Tool that draws lines and can be used to create vector fills for instance. The Vector Brush Tool is able to create brush strokes freehand as well and it's possible to create raster textures that can be edited with each brush stroke. There is no way to do pure vector textures brushes yet, but if you do not need that particular feature then Designer is good enough.
@@Frozen_Death_Knight i see.. thank you .. by vector texture brushes .. do you mena those fancy brushes that have dots, and static or leaves in them as in photoshop? B/c I dont need that stuff.. I just need to be aboe to shade and colour and blur and all that
@@cnote3598 Ah, got it. Well, I was referring to Illustrator type vector brushes which are pure vector brushes. Designer vector brushes do make vectors, but the texture brushes are a raster/vector hybrid that create raster lines on export. Based on your description then Designer is more than up for the task. :D
As for the updates, I can't speak for Affinity, but I've worked with Adobe for many years now and they don't deserve any praise in this department. Back when you had to pay for each new release, every single new version came with a bunch of new or completely reworked features. Now? You get one or two new surface level features a year, if you're lucky. Just look a Illustrator's updates over the last couple of years. Nothing of consequence has been improved. Yes, they added a niche feature like slightly improved 3D, but general workflow is dormant ever since we got the subscription model. And it's not because it's perfect, far from it. Same with PS, a better selection would never count as a year's worth of updates back in the day. They are getting more money than ever and doing absolutely nothing with it. They know they don't have to sell you a new version with great updates - you will pay for their dormant apps just because you have to.
This is why I don’t buy the fact subscriptions pay for your software. It pays for growing overhead that has nothing to do with software. I don’t know why companies need to constantly grow for the sake of growing. The Adobe suite back in the day was super expensive, but it worked. And honestly when you get paid in big lumps per project instead of a steady monthly/weekly rate. That’s the better option. I’m using Affinity. It’s honestly good enough for what I need. I love the Raster and vector switch of designer. The updates are far and few between though. I’ve been using them ever since affinity photo first came to iPad (bought Mac versions quickly after), and it’s the same app now it was then. They may have added things I didn’t notice I guess. It works though.
Exactly, they used to have to advance the software to give compelling reasons to upgrade. Now, they know you have to keep paying simply to be able to keep using their software even if little to nothing changes. It's not like updates haven't frequently brought bugs and issues along with it. Meanwhile my old copy of CS3 works just as it always has 15 years later on Windows (macOS annual updates would have broken it to pieces). Before that I had Photoshop 7 which also still works on Windows 20 years later. Affinity for me for the foreseeable future.
@youshimimi That right there is one of the big problems: It´s a paradigm shift, because in creative suite days you could wait if an update is worth your money and then decide to purchase or wait. Now you have to pay in advance and see whether there´ll be new functionality at all. However, the real problem with subscription models is the dependence. You completely throw yourself at the mercy of the software company. That said, Affinity Photo is at best mediocre as a RAW file converter, and no new functionality has been added for years in this particular department, which happens to be a very important part of the overall package. It´s called Affinity PHOTO, after all. In Photoshop/Lightroom, there has been one big new feature called Super Resolution which is fantastic for photographers, depending on their specialization. That feature alone would, imho, merit subscribing to the photography plan - until another software has a comparable feature, that is......
@@pixelpusher1393 There's free online software that does a much better job at upscaling than Adobe's Super Resolution, unless you absolutely need it done on RAW, but I suspect that rarely it need to be done on camera RAW files compared with compressed photos and images you have to work with.
@@Thirsty_Fox Which software (or sites), for example? I´m curious! Re. super resolution: It´s the only upscaling solution I know of which happens in the RAW file, which is one of the main selling points. I´m using a lot of automatic exposure bracketing sequences, which does 2 things: It increases dynamic range, and reduces image noise. Super resolution applied to only one image does increase size (and, to some extent, detail as well), but also makes noise more obvious. However, in a bracketed sequence noise will be greatly reduced, which helps super resolution do it´s magic. Afterwards, you can always use selective sharpening and microcontrast/-detail sliders to bring detail out even better. Not sure about others, but personally I´m impressed enough by this to be willing to subscribe. But if anyone can point me to an equally potent upscaling solution for free, or at least without a monthly subscription fee, I´m all ears! BTW: On1 Resize AI is brand new. I´ve yet to see a detailed review, but it looks interesting.
@@JaBrandonSpoons Yes is possible, for example you can search for "photoshop free 2024" and you will find some websites that let you download that, or you can do it like i do Im using the 2019 version of photoshop since the newer ones use way too much computer resources compared to the 2019 one, and are slower.
You basicly have to tell adobe to look for the activation key locally instead of adobe servers. Its just hell to setup. But when it works, it works well :)
@@JaBrandonSpoons Yes is possible, easier than you might think. Just browser the web and you will find the solution. I don't explain it here since youtube is a company insanely in favor to other companies and censorship is their second name.
Who else is here after learning about Adobe's updated TOS? On another note: I'm an astrophotographer and my understanding is that Affinity Photo has tools to edit astro images. That alone would've sold me on Affinity.
Great video Brad, just a couple notes: 1. Affinity Designer was released before Affinity Photo, not a big deal but interesting that Affinity went after Illustrator users before photoshop. 2. I think the ecosystem can go either way. Sure Adobe has more apps, but Affinity's apps work WAY better together. StudioLink is life changing and Adobe could have built something like that a decade ago but just chose not to. Most people don't come close to using all the apps they get with their creative cloud subscription anyway, so just buying the apps you need is more useful in many ways. 3. You didn't really talk about industry compatibility which is the main complaint I get about Affinity on my channel. Affinity is fantastic for solo creators, but it gets really difficult when working with others in the industry because Adobe is so dominant. 4. I think iPad apps could be its own a category, and that is Affinity absolutely creams Adobe since Adobe just doesn't care about iPad users
StudioLink is not a be all end all. Yes its nice for quick edits or some work flows, but if you are using Wacom Tablet(with PROGRAM SPECIFIC radial/menus or a macro keyboard with profiles setup for Designer or Photo your macro/radial menus will not work in StudioLink. I might be wrong, but does StudioLink in Publisher even use your custom keyboard shortcuts or workspaces from Designer or Photo? Affinity's apps work WAY better together? In some cases maybe, but as far as I know I still can't Place a LINKED .afphoto file into Designer. WHY? You can place a linked Designer file in Photo. I understand you can open a Photo file in Designer, but there are many cases when you need to place a linked file(not embedded). I'm not trying to rip on Affinity, I'm a fan. Keep up the videos and maybe give VectorsStyler a second look, its getting constant updates.
as a person who uses most of the adobe products from audio mixing to vector art. is it worth switching? i still run the student discount but am not looking forward to paying full price.
@@S0UPIE I have several videos talking about alternative options to Adobe, but for you it sounds like a major part might be the audio side. Affinity has nothing there, so it will depend on what else you can get, can you switch to Logic or Audacity and still get that work done? For Vector art Affinity Designer is awesome, and much more affordable than Adobe.
@@dwon7781 I tried so hard to use Affinity and ditch Adobe. It worked for a little while but long term it could not work. My main issue with Affi ity is it feels like Affinity Designer is really more for Illustrators vs AI is more for creating designs. Affi ity, for whatever reason seems defiant to give Designer some features like say shapebuilder. They have said for YEARS they would add it and all these years later nothing.
Affinity all the way! I switched 4 years ago and I’ve never looked back. And this is coming from a graphic/web designer. PS: Adobe Xd is nothing but a joke. An extremely buggy sad joke. Don’t even bother giving it a try when there’s things like Figma out there.
I was a beta tester for Macromedia Dreamweaver back in 1997 and used it for professional web design when Adobe took over, and used Pagemaker and QuarkXpress before becoming a beta tester for Adobe InDesign adopting it for newspaper design together with Photoshop. I also worked as a graphics designer for newspapers with Illustrator for several years, so I have had an incredibly long love affair with Adobe, but now I've had enough of paying subscriptions through my nose. Today I bought an Affinity Universal License. Wish me luck!
“… keep in mind that Adobe software is just as expensive as it was before they switched over to that [subscription] model…" That's probably true for many but when Adobe switched to their subscription (i.e. hostageware) model, my annual cost for Adobe products that I used up through CS6 went up close to 350% since I mostly needed Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat, and Dreamweaver and I didn't need every annual update iteration. On top of that, when the subscription ends, their software no longer works. (I do have a number of software subscriptions but they provide more value to me and not continuing a subscription just means I no longer get updates - the software works as long as the macOS version I use supports it.) When I had to finally drop the CS6 applications due to a macOS upgrade I switched over to Affinity’s suite and have been very happy with it since. Outside of Dreamweaver, there is very little that Adobe has produced that I can’t find quality alternatives for - this, of course, varies according to one's software needs. (I did try the Dreamweaver subscription 2019/2020 version, but while it has some improvements over CS6, it seemed to take a few steps backward and was rather clunky so I went back to Dreamweaver CS5.5 on Windows at work.) The only real problem I've seen in going from Adobe to Affinity is some file compatibility issues with workflows that rely heavily on Adobe.
Great video. I migrated from Adobe to Clip Studio and Affinity 2 years ago and haven't looked back. Purely based on the subscription model and not wanting to pass that cost onto clients.
Self-employed, contracted designer or hobbyist then Affinity is awesome. You want a job working for someone, then Adobe is a must, as that’s all HR will look at. They don’t just want your portfolio, they want your mastery of the Adobe Universe. And 50 years of experience!!!
@@mwinner101 I'm not doubting the software at all, it look freaking awesome! I just know that my clients need native Adobe files in most cases (I'm talking book publishing specifically here). Affinity files would be useless to them. But I can see that for jobs where non native files can be used, Affinity looks like a brilliant option! I can't wait to explore each program (there's a sale on right now, hehe!)
Good video. I have moved away from EVERYTHING Adobe. The BS of renting software has to stop. For fonts I get them from Font Bundles, for video editing I've moved to Davinci Resolve since it's actually stable. Photo and designer I now use Affinity. I use Procreate on the iPad for painting my 3D models I make in Blender if I don't use Blender for everything. The basic resolve is more than enough for almost anyone unless you're doing high production movies. Best part, for everything I use it's basically 1 month of Adobe sub. That's just silly.
All I can say is, after using Affinity’s suite, they are noticeably faster and run more efficiently than Adobe. I just created a huge Illustrator file with many art boards on my new MacBook Pro (maxed out), and Illustrator was becoming sluggish and saving took a long time. I opened it in Affinity Designer no problem, worked on the document with no hesitations and saved immediately. I then moved that same document over to my iPad and same thing… worked perfectly and saved immediately. Moved it back to my MAC and was seamless. Unreal.
Im a beginner with Affinity but find it easy to use. Now I have enrolled to graphics school who use adobe. Thats all ok. But I have asked the community for question....and I might be unlucky...but the feedback I got was harsh and not in a manner of helping. I felt like part of the community were pros who dont like beginner stuff. I used the wrong tools ++ artists that just looked down on me. Asked affinity users about something similar and got so much love. When learning this is a such a great thing! I wont ask adobe community again, only look up at youtube. After im done with the school. I will most likely quit with adobe and learn affinity all the way.
I have seen this happen, and I'm not a beginner, but a very long time user, so its not just you. Adobe have basically outsourced their product support to their own paying customers, some of whom are kind and helpful, but others very arrogant and unhelpful.
I picked up Affinity's suite as I'm still at the state of learning. It seemed like a reasonable gamble, as it would be really hard for me to shell out the annual cost of Adobe's suite, especially when I don't necessarily need everything they offer. So far, it has paid off. I totally understand Adobe's place in the market, but it's nice for someone in my position to have a more affordable option available. Especially when it will get the job done for my needs.
I was using Adobe creative for 1.5 years and I didn't realize how much it accumulated in fees. Was looking for alternatives and found out about davinci for videos and photo, designer, and publisher for graphic design. I'm glad I made the switch.
Pixel persona in Affinity Designer has been game changer for me and suits my needs as an illustrator. I've been a long time Adobe suite user where my work flow required that I draw in Illustrator, before exporting it to Photoshop to be rendered. I actually bought both Affinity Designer and Photo thinking that the workflow would be the same but so far I've only needed to use Designer. There are still things that Affinity Designer is missing (I wish there was a warp/distort tool) and pattern making isn't as intuitive as Illustrator but I'm still 100% on Team Affinity! Now if only they offered an Android version, I would be over the moon!
Yeah, Affnity Designer Pixel persona is very underrated. Illustrator does have better Vector tools overall, but I think Affinity Designer is is a better overall Illustration and Concept Tool.
I've had Adobe Illustrator for the past 2 years, and I absolutely love it. And to answer your question, yes, it is overall a better software than Affinity. However, Affinity has all of the same tools that I need to produce high quality work, and it's MUCH cheaper, so I will be switching over to Affinity.
I love the opportunities that Affinity has brought to me, so I love it for that. It is not a perfect thing, there certainly are some very annoying bugs in their programs, which sometimes take a while to be resolved (small team is a drawback here), but as a whole it has been very good to me, and the workflow that the programs allow me (cross compatibility between apps, ease of using raster and vector together) has gotten me away from the Adobe sub. The programs just suit my workflow as a freelance designer perfectly. Adobe does great software and I have used it a lot in the past, but for me right now, Affinity is the better choice.
I made the switch during the start of the pandemic and Affinity has been a blast to learn. Since I teach, I have to be up-to-date with Adobe products, but subscription prices are so annoying. I'm still getting a handle on the smaller but mighty Affinity ecosystem and how you're able to work in all three platforms at once (Personas I believe). That's really cool. What I noticed with Adobe is their ecosystem tries to tackle things in chunks. For illustration and design - PS, AI, and ID, for photography - PS and LR, for video - PR and AE, etc. It's hard to compete with their size, but oftentimes (for me at least), there's so much in each program that feels bloated. It feels like nearly each program wants to be a catch-all instead of leaning into one another. Though, I can say that I enjoy InDesign more than Publisher for right now. I'll pass on Adobe Fonts. I prefer Google Fonts because I'm not locked down to a subscription to download the full font family. For me, Affinity gives me my art & design ecosystem while also giving me flexibility to find what I like for animation. If Affinity steps into animation (even if it's 2D for now), it'll be great!
as an ex-typographer, when you mentioned TypeKit and said “yeah, i know…” I thought you were going to discuss its limitations and how not all the fonts there are well designed or something along those lines 😅 though I suppose I was more so in a Glyphs vs FontLab than in an Adobe vs Affinity when I was still a creative professional lol
I have both and always see myself shifting to Affinity because of the mixer brush on Affinity Photo. If you have Lazy Nezumi and a couple of extra brushes, AP actually works pretty nicely.
I use strictly Adobe products on my laptop. Adobe works well, I don’t care about owning anything, they’re still industry standard, and I’ve been working on the for over 20 years. But, and here is a major caveat, any app that has figured out the nuances of working on an ipad IMO is a far better app. Affinity apps have figured it out and I believe are farther ahead than Adobe, by a large margin. Editing photos or “photoshopping” and logo design work (actual paid client work) is a TREAT on the M1 iPad Pro with Affinity. It allows me to sit at the beach, and totally immerse myself in a creative zone while working on projects. No stress, plenty of power. Even notable mentions like Nomad sculpt is a delight on the iPad. If someone can figure out a proper type of After Effects for the iPad, now we’re in business.
I opened a full (more than 100 Layers) AI file in Affinity 2.5.2! Lets see if I can finish this project in Affinity! It did affect the fonts,(easy to fix) but the gradients look amazing, keeping the effects I used in Adobe. The jpegs are good too
I’m glad you made this video. I’ve been using Adobe for over 20 years. I purchased an M1 iPad Pro and would really like to use it for professional design. This is where I have issues with Adobe. I can understand the subscription feature, but why include it for iPad OS? Especially since the iPad versions of Photoshop and Illustrator are not quite desktop quality on the tools and features. So now I’ve really got my eyes set on Affinity apps. What I’m really excited for is the possibility of Publisher coming to iPad. InDesign is my main tool and to be able to do full desktop publishing on my iPad would be fantabulous! So while I still see Adobe as the standard, they definitely have some serious competition out there, especially when it comes to mobile apps. Affinity seems to be the toughest.
Ipad combined with Affinity suite is phenomenal. Looks like there are no restrictions in toolset compared to desktop versions, and the way it works on Ipad is so so slick and consistent. They really smashed it out of the park.
It's a real shame that Affinity has no interest in putting their software out for android devices. I'm honestly not a fan of apple products and would love to be able to use affinity on my Galaxy Tab s7.
It's also a shame they don't want to serve Linux either. Having a true Photoshop alternative on Linux would really go a long way, and Affinity would be that if they decided to serve that market.
@@LucasSaturn At least Android is used by enough smart devices that you could make a solid argument for porting Affinity to the platform. The problem with Linux is that not enough people use it and when not even their competitor Adobe have yet ported their programs over despite their resources, it is completely understandable why Serif do not want to invest resources into that right now. Maybe that will change with SteamOS being a thing and Proton and Wine support getting better and better, but only time will tell.
Linux is a completely untapped market. There are just flat out no software on par with Affinity or Photoshop on Linux; whoever creates it will be pretty much the only software suite on the market with professional capability.
I'd argue otherwise. A lot of production studios for 3D animation and such use Linux as their render farm machines, for stability and speed. The only reason workstation machines have not taken over is down to lack of some production software. A lot of people are only holding on, waiting for something to release.
It’s taken me a while (over a year) but I’ve really taken to Affinity Designer on my PC, I think very few people sell the fact it can combine raster tools alongside vector tools and that specifically is what made the difference. For image editing, my old copy of CS6 still does the job so Affinity Photo remains untouched on my hard disk. My drawing workflow means I need Inkscape alongside the pro App - always needed it, even before Affinity Designer, the image trace and simplify CP tools are more intuitive in free software than the pro Apps but hopefully Designer will make a simplify function available or at least make it more obvious to find.
"can combine raster tools alongside vector tools" .. im looking for a vector AND bitmap editing software that I can seamlessly switch between within the same image/program. Is this what you mean?
@@cnote3598 Hello - if you want an App that has vector editing tools AND raster editing tools, then Affinity Designer does that. I made the mistake of buying both Photo and Designer but I don't need the far more photography specific tools of Photo because Designer does a pretty good job by itself. You could argue Clip Studio also has Vector painting / vector editing but I really have not enjoyed the GUI at all.
I switched to affinity several years ago. I am very happy with Affinity, it does every thing photoshop does. I use affinity photo and designer. I use them on an Apple desktop and a Dell inspiration laptop.
This is really simple. If you are paid to be a designer, photographer and so on then you'd go adobe as you can afford it and put it as a business expense. But if you are an intermediate and gan get affinity for less than 2 months worth of Adobe then it's silly to get Adobe. Yes it's all singing all dancing but then if you are that good then you'd have Adobe for that reason as it's a main passion or a job. Affinity is amazing for me and Adobe is so packed with extras that I'd have to be paid to buy it.
I'm a full stack web developer and I greatly prefer Affinity products. I find them much easier to use. Run through some UA-cam tutorials and you're good to go. I find they run much faster than Adobe software. Granted my use case is very brief and simple, but I don't have time to spend dealing with something as hefty as Photoshop or Illustrator. Affinity Photo and Designer are very intuitive and run much faster.
I have been fortunate to be able to use Adobe because of the places that I have worked for. I haven't had to pay for a license since they became cloud and subscription-based. However, if that should ever change for me, I will definitely give Affinity a chance, as their price is so much more affordable for the software quality they seem to provide. The only thing for me is Lightroom Classis, which is something I may have to stick with, but I am willing to venture out and see what else is out there.
IMHO the biggest issue was Adobe going susbcription only - they obviously changed to maintain a steady flow of income, whilst deny users the option of perpetual licenses. If you go with Affinity, they lack several features Adobe does well, and the health plan of updates, content and learning. However, if instead, you go with Adobe, you must now live uncomfortably with the knowledge you can never stop paying to keep use it. The real question is how you plan to use either.
To me, which is worth about 2 cents max, the app that sets Adobe apart is After Effects. Yes there are some alternatives out there, but there is nothing like AE if you want a robust animation program for many different things. Brad - would love for you to make an Adobe Animate course....please!
After effects is hard to replicate, but if you good with Nodes, than Davinci resolve is pretty good. Personally when I cut the Adobe chord, I was surprised how good Motion can be. It’s not Adter effects, but it’s pretty close of you spend time with it and learn it’s quirks. Unless you have a lot of plug ins. Then yeah AE is your guy.
I've been using design software since the mid 1980s. Page layouts with Ventura, PageMaker, Ready Set Go!, Letraset Design Studio, Quark Xpress, InDesign. Vectors with Freehand (the best) and Illustrator, and mostly Photoshop since version 1 or 2. The bulk of my professional work has been done with Quark and InDesign. Almost everything either disappeared or was swallowed up by Adobe. When Affinity came along it was the first real alternative option for me with Publisher, and it has fully replaced InDesign, and Designer has replaced Illustrator for the minimal vector work I do. Unfortunately, Adobe Camera Raw is the only thing that keeps be tied to Adobe, because it is the only RAW processor that can deal with the colour cast of LED lights in music venues, and I've tried nearly all of the others. Thankfully the Adobe Photo package is relatively cheap, otherwise it's Affinity all the way for me. And the Studio feature in the Affinity suite is brilliant and integrates it all far better than Adobe currently does with theirs. But who knows what will come when they release version 2 of Affinity's apps. So when you take into consideration that Affinity is still on version 1 and Adobe is on versions 20+ (?) the old giant must be feeling a little threatened. Let's face it, most freelance designers don't need the whole Adobe suite, and there isn't really a design package option (InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, Acrobat) that Adobe used to offer. So if you want those you either have to rent the whole package or the bits you need individually, which can work out quite expensive, especially compared with Affinity. The main issue with Affinity can be industry compatibility, if you need you share work with other studios, especially with Publisher. It can open IDML files (and PDFs) from InDesign but it's still not perfect, but won't export IDML. Photoshop and Illustrator are less of an issue. But if you're a lone freelancer who deals directly with clients and printers then Affinity has to be hard to beat.
I'm actually okay with the fact that Affinity is not an industry compatibility. The only time I ever have to hand my master files over is when a client wants to hand my work over to a cheap, unskilled junior freelancer. They are trying to have their cake and eat it by having me do the heavy lifting then get cheap month-to-month costs. In this case, I'm more than happy to hand over files that the average weekend warrior can't read with his pirated Adobe package.
do you know how well video editing works on affinity? i mostly use the buggy mess that is premiere pro with some more complex effect done in a layer composition on after effects. i have DaVinci resolve but it complicates simple stuff like masks and time remapping so i end up going back on premiere for simple stuff
I haven't worked with leds in tounchdesigner but I know others have, its worth checking out to see if it does what you need. Its some really awesome software.
That was some solid comparison Brad, I hope affinity comes out with their own video editing software soon so I can ditch Premiere lol, I tried Davinci and couldn't get a hang of it
There´s one functionality which seems unique to Adobe Illustrator: You can create overlapping closed and open paths in illustrator, select them all and apply a boolean divide filter on them. Wherever a line cuts through the closed path, the divide filter will split it into two separate closed paths with a common boundary. What is the significance? Simple: Just like you had to cut out masks back in the airbrushing days to avoid brushing over a boundary, you can use this to create masks that can be imported into Photoshop. There, you can simply select one closed path, turn it into a selection and paint only within that selection with a brush tool. Of course paths can be also created in Photoshop and be turned into a selection, but you´ll never be able to split a closed path into several seperate closed paths with common boundaries so easily. Oddly enough, to this day I´ve yet to see an alternative vector editor capable of this trick. BTW: I learned this in the nineties, which was long before the creative suite days. It never ceases to amaze me that no other manufacturer of vector graphics software has caught on.
@@aoterou Yes, that´s the divide command on the pathfinder panel. As far as I know, Affinity Designer cannot do that - at the most, it may be possible with overlapping closed paths, but not with closed and open paths. There is a tutorial for AD that´s called "slicing shapes". In order to do that, you have to break the object apart at anchor points, and then reconnect the open endpoints. In other words: It´s not possible by slicing it with irregularly curved paths. I searched this issue time and again, and have yet to find one vector software apart from Illustrator that has this capability.
@@aoterou Just did another search and found a thread in the Affinity Designer forum about this issue about a year ago. I posted the link here, but apparently YT deleted my comment because of the link. It still is not possible for AD to do that. At the most what you´ll get is a workaround which is rather clumsy and time consuming. Another software was mentioned: Vectorstyler. Supposedly it can do that. I´ll look into it.
Clearly, adobe has some amazing stuff. And yet... I refuse their subscription model. Principles man, principles. Actually, the programs I've replaced adobe with are pretty good. But, I focus on things like clip studio, rebelle, etc. I don't do as much graphic design anymore, so I stick with occasional use of affinity products. Most of my work is deep into digital artwork, which the competitors do very very well.
Ok, first off you said it costs the same under the rent/lease vs their older purchase model. This isn't entirely true. Most of the time the new version each year didn't introduce enough new features to warrant a purchase so many people skipped a year or two sometimes three or four so the purchase cost should not be calculated every year and compared to the new rental/lease cost required yearly.
Indeed. CS5 does everything I need, and I BOUGHT it. But they now force me to rent CC at exorbitant prices, because they switched off their server and I need a new OS.
If ever went freelance or left my workplace (My studio pays for creative cloud), then I'd have to rely on affinity products but I'd miss after effects. The only adobe program I'd miss is after effects, a program that adobe contiues to let down with updates that can slow down render times or stop compositions from loading.
Adobe have now priced out the hobbyist. I've just bought affinity 2 suite for a 6th of the price of my subscription to Adobe CS last year. Can't knock the quality of Adobe but the pricing structure is silly for non pro and irregular use
Back in 2019 when I was getting my associates degree, I was using Adobe but that was because it was required. Then when I graduated I learned about affinity and switched, mainly due to budget. And now I have an iPad and I use affinity designer all the time.
I just switched to Affinity from Adobe after two years. Adobe is great, but it's a collection of separately acquired tools that have been reworked to try and play nice together. With Affinity, I can work with print, vectors and images without having to jump out of one program and wait for another to load up. Also, I realised that ditching Adobe's subscription is enough for an extra holiday for my family per year.
Great video comparing the two. I have been doing my own research on affinity suite since it would be cheaper for me to have and yes the community is awesome at sharing what they know. the programs are wonderful and I can only imagine they will be top competitors w/ adobe in due time.
I’m an indie video game developer and artist and what I am looking for in a graphic suit is functionally, easy to learn and master, powerful tools and cool features and price. I like Affinity as the suit fits the bill even though there’s no 3D support or other graphic design support and if I need to use more than Affinity, I can use some Adobe apps like Substance Paint and the file sharing is solid between the two camps. I’m a rebel and Affinity GUI and tools are better plus you get to own it. My verdict is Affinity for main creation and supplementary graphics would be Adobe.
I own a small printshop and I would love to have a replacement for Acrobat Pro and the Pitstop Pro Plugin. Acrobat crashes regularly and is just quirky while working on customers PDFs. I get really tired of waiting for mailing lists to compile in Acrobat and watching it only use one of my 24 CPU cores.
I've moved on to Affinity, because it feels like Adobe doesn't try to be user-friendly. The big thing is the monthly subscription thing. I've also moved away from Adobe Premier and After Effects. I get a better experience with the free version of DaVinci Resolve 17. With there being a lot of competitors now, you'd think Adobe would be trying harder. From what I understand, they're still using old code. They may have to rebuild everything from the ground up.
Software developer friends tell me this is likely to be the case. Every now and then you have to rebuild a programme from the ground up. It's eyewateringly expensive, takes ages, and can also create learning curve problems for users, but to clean up messy old code and make best use of modern processors and so on, you have to do it, you can't just tinker round the edges forever. The best way to solve this is one-off purchase options to keep users happy who don't want the changes or who can't do them just when you want to do the swop. The fact that affinity uses far less resources to do pretty much the same things suggests to my friends that Adobe is suffering from the bloat you get when you're just putting more and more frills on an old dress to cover up the rips. In the very early days, Adobe did used to be friendly to users, responsive to suggestions, and their help system was great. Now we're just cash cows. Affinity is now what adobe was then, it seems to me. And affinity's programmes have been built from scratch 20+ years on from where adobe started, so naturally they're far more efficient. As they're also a lot cheaper, it's starting to look like a no-brainer for me to shift to affinity.
great video. i bought the whole affinity desktop suite for the price of a few months of adobe. my main software is after effects though which has no real competitors. affinity works well for me for most things now. though i’ll probably eventually end up needing to use illustrator
Great video Brad. I recently downgraded my Adobe membership to Indesign only as I use and teach Canva to my clients that I wasn’t making use of the monthly subscription. I’ve used Affinity designer in the past and knew it was a good alternative. It’s good to know that Affinity have taken a steady approach and that I’m not alone in considering them a good alternative.
Honestly the best thing Adobe has ever done is building the Behance community. I don't even use Adobe products (I use Clip Studio Paint and Affinity products), but I still watch the livestreams there (both the Adobe produced shows and the regular non-Adobe streamers). It's a really great resource and community for creatives whatever their art or design app choice is. For me Affinity wins not just on the price, but because of the way vector and raster graphics are integrated so well in Affinity Designer. Illustrator may have more features, but Designer is still better for my workflow because of that.
So the cost of using the software for approximately 10 years: Adobe=6000$ and you own zero vs Affinity=60$ and you own it forever... that's the end of the discussion for me.
Adobe has turned out to be so anti-consumer and greedy at this point, that I am slowly trying to ditch it one app at a time (had the full suite for years). Already made the transition from Premiere to Davinci Resolve, now I am going to ditch Lightroom, Illustrator and Photoshop as well.
So, Affinity looks like a great replacement for Photoshop at this point. But what of you also use Lightroom/CameraRAW frequently? How is Affinity doing on processing RAW files, van anyone clarify?
Thats what I am at as well. I don't see any program like Lightroom classic, untill something at that level I am going to stay with LRC and cancel all the other apps for alternatives.
Due to my personal circumstances, an issue I'm running into time and time again is when looking for a job in design or illustration 99% of the positions require knowledge of Adobe products. I get it - it's the "industry standard" but I lost my own business to covid and so currently have no money to pay for the Adobe subscription to learn it to then get the job that requires it! It's a horrible cycle as I know I could achieve what the employer is asking by using Affinity and Clip Studio but they won't even accept my application due to me not ticking the "proficient in Photoshop" box. 🤦🏼♂️
You should still apply. You would be surprised how many companies will overlook your lack of Adobe knowledge of your portfolio is strong. Also smaller businesses that have small art teams that may be as little is one. Will be happy to dump or not rent Adobe stuff if you can deliver the same work with alternative software. I come from a traditional animation background, I mostly draw everything frame by frame in TVpaint. Applied for a job LinkedIn recommended for me. My After effects experience is basic. Still hired me, and the guys at work are cool to train me and help me in things I don’t know. Most of the times those ads are written generically. If you have a strong portfolio they’ll still give you a test. In my case once I got to the test, I downloaded the 1 week trial of After effects to do the test, and just did some online tutorials and adjusted them to match the actual test. Hope your situation improves
Still apply. It's tough as yes recruiting agencies ask for Adobe, but also they aren't up to speed on specific industry trends. The more folks who say "I use the Affinity suite", then that will become part of the language. I'm old enough to remember when a print job required "Quark Express Experience". The tech changes before the agencies, help educate them.
Thanks for weighing the pros and cons for me. I loved the video but what was the image that flashed for about .33 sec at the 2:34 and 2:41 time marks in the video????
If I could make two suggestions for categories if you ever do a follow up.. One, performance. Affinity is waaaay more lightweight from a resources perspective. Most bugs in Photoshop come down to standard/video memory. Affinity runs like a dream on almost any system. My favorite "couch sketcher" is a 2017 laptop with an i5 and Wacom penabled screen. Someone on a budget could pick it up on eBay for about $225. Goes very well with the budget software price. Of course the caveat is Photoshop offers very robust features to go with that processing power. The other super important note is... Many industries require Photoshop proficiency. I work in games/entertainment (for example). In every studio I've ever worked in people are expected to sit down in Photoshop on day one and jump into any task needed. From sketching to working with a robust multipurpose file featuring hundreds of nested groups, smart objects, adjustment layers, clipping, the whole deal. Same as Maya vs Blender, etc. So if anyone watching is like "I wanna work on games and movies!"... there is unfortunately no debate. You have to learn Photoshop to a very high level. Side note, I love Affinity. I was an early adopter and I push them on everyone. I teach Photoshop at university.. and I very clearly ask students their goals so I can transition them to Clip Studio or Affinity when they graduate *if* they don't *need* Photoshop. I find Affinity more artist friendly and I feel like as a platform they deserve more presence in the space. They've earned it and they're awesome. Oh, and Designer is a magical piece of software that Adobe should have invented years ago when they started merger products. It has no equal 🤘
With Adobe saying they have full usage rights to everything made with Adobe software, changing was a no brainer. Affinity is a great price, and yeah, learning curve, but they're much more honest.
Uh, the "scope" point is fair enough, but it bears mentioning that you need those four apps mentioned specifically because Adobe has chosen *not* to have their functions built into the basic suite (unlike, say, how Davinci Resolve has the equivalent of AE etc. built in)...
Please note that Substance 3D apps are NOT included in the normal program. I would also recommend Davinci Resolve free version as replacer of Premiere Pro, Audition and After effects
Bundling lots of apps into the Creative Cloud is not a feature... it's an excuse to charge more and claim value. Professionals specialise. This means graphic designers don't need web software or video/audio editors. Audio editors don't need illustration apps. Web coders don't need magazine layout apps. Most of us only use 3 or 4 of the 20+ apps Adobe "gives" us. I'd be thrilled if Adobe would charge me $3 per app and let me pick the few I need for my career. Also make it month-to-month. We should actually be talking about $1500 every 2 years rather than $60 per month.
I used to buy Adobe but they don't sell the product anymore, that was the biggest reason why I bought Affinity Photo and Designer. The results are what matter, and I can do the same stuff as PS but much faster.
Clearly Affinity is a better solution, better interface, power and not that many useless features as Adobe. And the power of the graphics management is awesome.
I've been saying this since day 1: I can't make sense of Adobe and the ungodly amount they charge and there isn't strong customer service whenever it comes to their products like Apple, for example. I'll use Affinity and my team will use the Affinity suite of apps because I like the model of you buy things and can keep them until death do you part and that's why I gravitate towards Final Cut, Logic Pro, and the Affinity Suites because you can pay and you can keep them for a long time while getting the quality to life upgrades. My favorite YT channel to talk about Affinity Suites is Affinity Revolution and their courses are amazing by this Husband/Wife duo(I might be wrong on the duo part lol). Also, Brad nice Batman shirt I see you 👀
I love using affinity products. I have affinity photo and designer. I am a huge fan of them on my ipad, though I also have them both on my desk top. The big deciding factor for me was the one off fee for affinity. I do not want to "rent" my software. I do not use the software often enough to justify a monthly fee. I am not a professional digital user. I am an eclectic creator so use digital as well as traditional supplies and I have other hobbies such as knitting and sewing etc. I still don't own an ipad pro lol My ipad is so basic it is only 32GB lol It does struggle a little for space with both photo and designer downloaded as I also have procreate on my ipad lol I rarely have all 3 "fully downloaded" onto my ipad as I do not use them often enough. Maybe one day I will buy an ipad pro. As for my video software, I use davinci resolve, it allows me to do what I need for free, I can't argue with that lol
My problem with Adobe, after many years of owning and loving Adobe Creative Suite I decided to stay with my CS6 instead of the pay per month... right up until Adobe decided that my legally purchased, extremely expensive suite of programs was pirated and rendered it useless! They essentially stole my legally purchased software. You can see on many forums that they did this to a number of people for the sole purpose of extorting money for their new product. They are a disreputable company and I will never do business with them again!
is it because you were connected to the internet while using them? i still use cs6 ‘til today and i’m trying all i got not to get connected to the internet while using them out of the fear of what happened to you
@@wiandryadiwasistio2062 That's fine until you need to upgrade your OS or get a new computer. As they have switched off their servers, you can't register the new system, so you're done- your 'perpetual' licence has just been terminated. Happening to me right now, and will to any other windows users who will have to upgrade to 11 in the near future.
It would be nice if Adobe could bring back the perpetual license and only charge customers for updates whenever they’re ready to upgrade to a new version.
It's been no contest to me. I don't rent software so I use the Affinity suite for my work on still images and DaVinci Resolve for video. which now even includes cloud options if needed. With this combination Adobe offers nothing I need that I don't already have.
You’re a really good communicator and the production quality of your video, the same. I’ve got a clearer picture on the way to go on my choice. Plus, where I live outside of the US, a subscription to Adobe CC is way cheaper than in the US. So, thanks for your video!
I'm really split on the subject of standart vs variety. Having lots of competition in photo editing aps makes it a lot harder to get started as a graphic designer looking for a job. At this point you can mostly can get by learning CC.
Hi Brad, I have two questions: 1) I want to switch from Illustrator to Affinity Designer. After importing an .ai file into Designer, will all the points remain identical for future editing? 2) Illustrator has the perspective grid tool. Is there a work-around in Designer for manipulating the perspective of an illustration? ~ Thank you
My main issue stopping me from buying Affinity is when I'm working with friends and colleagues who use Adobe and share files with me to view/edit and vice versa. Or clients that need a specific file type that Affinity doesn't offer
I used Adobe Photoshop and Indesign for several years, but when I found Affinity Photo and Publisher, Adobe was the end of the story for me. Apart from the fact that everything works much faster, I won't even mention the price. In addition, I also use the iPad and work on Photo and Publisher on it, and everything works great and fast. The interface is similar to Adobe programs and I got used to all the options that I used in Adobe very easily. All in all, Adobe is a thing of the past for me. Primarily because of the prices, which are too high, but also because of the superior performance of the Affinity program. That's my opinion for all those who two.
G'day Brad As a proud Ozzie, im going to speak in our lango, I think you have got it Arseabout. Affinity has far more help than Adobe, not only the community side, but, which is more important is that Serif answers all problems pronto. I had a problem and within 6 hours it was fixed by the great team at Serif. Taking the time difference into account, you could say my answer was fixed straight away. On the other hand, it takes days, if not weeks, to get a sort of answer from Adobe. Also Affinity programmes work together as a single body, not like Adobe. Affinity if you are working in Publisher, you can alter a photo or a vector design in Publisher WITHOUT changing programmes. Photo has also a free collection of photos both vector or pixels. REMEMBER AFFINITY PHOTO CAN USE ADOBE RESOURCES, but Adobe cannot follow the opposite path. I'm a complete fan of Affinity since dumping Adobe 4 years ago. I can go on, but you get my drift. Havagoodweekend Greg
Last time I updated my CS, I lost an important feature I used all the time- the ability to select part of a PS document and just 'print selection', which saved time, paper, money and ink when doing colour print tests. I assumed it had to be a bug, and reported it as such, only to get a haughty reply that is wasn't a bug and suggesting a cumbersome work-around. For something even tatty freeware can do easily. And I'd just paid hundreds of pounds for that update. I hate the 'what one earth do you want to do that for?' approach from some IT types, when something has always worked before, is a very simple thing to want, and is part of what I have the programme for.
![I Replaced ALL my ADOBE APPS with these [free or cheaper] Alternatives!](/img/n.gif)
ive been using affinity since 2020 and a major reason i love it is that i still own it, and i've never lost access to it.
i had to go independent suddenly in late 2020, ending up homeless. long story.
but i already owned affinity photo from when i was financially supported by parents. now in 2022 it's still with me on my new computer. i've maintained access to it even during months where i had to raise money for food.
the one time payment model has your back when you go through anything in life.
@@mariomeza3514 I'm staying afloat with rental assistance pretty much. If I lost rental assistance I would probably end up homeless again
I’ve struggled with housing, too, (though was never homeless.) Having one’s tools is everything.
the same here, I lost my job starting the quarantine and the fact of not having to pay month after month gave me the opportunity to work on projects and earn money without paying monthly rent.
This reminds me of something my brother said to me a couple days ago. He has a little Honda Civic. He was ecstatic about the great gas mileage. He said, man people are nuts for buying these big SUVs. Why in the world would anybody buy anything like that. I said, I guess its because they need a big vehicle for whatever they're doing. he actually disregarded that explanation and said, they just want a big vehicle because they think its cool. A few days passed. I walked outside and there was my brother with wires, coat hangers, strings, etc trying to stuff a WHEELBARROW into the trunk of his little Civic. I burst into laughter and said, now you know why people drive SUVs.
What's the moral of the story? The moral of the story is that, you can stick with the tools that you have because they actually serve your needs. If you need a pickup truck then a compact car is not going to cut it even if its sitting right there in the yard full of gas.
@@divalea The key to survival for me has been to understand the reality of life in my country. If you have 1 source of income, you're basically living on the edge of a cliff. The first bad weather will blow you right over the cliff. A lot of people don't understand that. When you are stable, that is the time to focus hard on creating another income stream. Then another. The more income streams you have the farther back from the cliff you will be, and the best streams are the residual kind. Its a wonderful time to be an artist because there are endless ways to make money from art now.
Adobe user for 20 years.
Switched to Affinity Suite and never ever looked back. I’m happy with Affinity.
Hi im new to design wich one is best adobe or affinity?
@@Elitex-y5q I started with Adobe and now I'm switching to Affinity due to how greedy and slimy Adobe has become. Adobe is also far more expensive than Affinity. I paid 70 euros for Affinity and never looked back while Adobe consistently asks for money and when I wanted to cancel my subscription, they wanted a fee and Adobe also created a new policy that my art created in Photoshop is also their art which is INSANE! I created it, not them.
If you are a beginner, I recommend going with Affinity and if you ever consider switching to Photoshop, then keep the consistent money grab bullsht from Adobe in mind.
@@Elitex-y5q Go to affinity!! 3 years of experience buddy!
Two years ago I replaced Adobe for Affinity and ended my Adobe subscription to force myself to learn Affinity. I was used to work with Illustrator as my main software, Indesign and Photoshop to some extent. The first month was a slow one, relearning and understanding the software. Affinity’s video tutorials was of great help. After the first month I was proficient enough to get things done at the same speed as before. Now I’m paying for Adobe as well, my clients sometimes demands it. But as a person that is comfortable with both, I always choose Affinity for a project if the choice is presented. I find Affinity to be less bloated with functions and Studio certainly speeds up my workflow. Can’t wait to see what the future holds for the Affinity Suite!
Same here. All of the above. Quit Adobe because client work was few and far between during the lockdown, went to Affinity, but clients demanded the illustrator files and photoshop files. Had to go back.
Same here.
I honestly hate having to come back to Adobe...ugggh
Though If clients only need SVG, I pretty much just do everything in Affinity and copy the SVG layers over to Illustrator and re-group the layers as needed then save as an AI file. (its a smooth task so long as they don't need layer effects, or effects that I dread to replicate in illustrator)
As long as artists don't put a stop to clients like "sorry, I only work with Affinity" clients are going to keep demanding Adobe and keep saying to all artists "sorry, we only work with Adobe"
Remember, they are the ones who NEED artists
@@NighthawkX02 , re: "Remember, they are the ones who NEED artists"
I've been the client, in several capacities. When I specify Adobe (an ai file), it's typically because the downstream workflow - the publishing or advertising or SKU art - specifies that as the preferred format. My goal is to accomplish the step of acceptable artwork, which means correct format. Which means that, to qualify for my job at all, you must agree to at least export to that format.
I've never had a problem. If it's been a cost issue, perhaps the artists simply baked the extra into their bid price.
@@NighthawkX02 yea we need more people like you bro. Far too many push overs in this world.
There's a few problems with the Adobe rental model. You can't rent for a single month, if you don't require Photoshop access every week of the year, perhaps once and a while, you can't access the tool without signing up for a year rolling contract.
10 years ago, you would have had to drop $700 on Photoshop if you wanted to use it at all. And it would only be supported for 2 years or so, before the next major version came out and you had to pay another $200 to upgrade.
Even if you only use it a few times a year, it will take over 4 years before you pay that much for your subscription.
@@michaelryan1767 just because something's been broken for decades, doesn't mean it doesn't need fixing. Sadly I've been using Photoshop since version 4.0, at-least before CC you could just hold on to your copy and use it without upgrading.
Yeah, I mostly have the subscription to open client files (in XD, Indesign or Photoshop) every now and then and maybe do a small animation in After Effects every few weeks. With this stupid subscription model, I probably spend 50€ for every hour of use on these programs. It's ridiculous.
Yeah I'm only 2 minutes into the video so maybe he goes into it more but he kind of just skirted past a lot more problems the subscription model for Adobe has
For instance him saying it's basically the same price is really gross to me cause a lot of people would just buy one version of Photoshop and use it forever so they wouldn't have to keep buying the new one unless it just had an update they really wanted.
Technically I think you can rent for a single month, but it's way more expensive than a year long contract per month
The subscription model in adobe is the killer aspect. You have to have been on your last leg to understand how devastating a subscription model is. You don't just loose access to the software, you lose access to your own creations. This hand over of control is what I despise wholeheartedly and why I will have to be rich -- really rich before I even consider a subscription model and even then, do I really want to waste all that money for features I hardly use and find alternatives with ease?
It blows my mind you didn't mention ease of use. Some of the most common features people actually want to use (clipping masks, changing text alignment, etc) are mind-blowingly easy in Affinity, but difficult or impossible in Illustrator. Whenever I want to learn something in Affinity I learn it once and it's so intuitive I know it forever (compared to the dozens of times I've had to relearn something in an Adobe product).
To me, I'd much rather support a small team putting out occasional high-quality features rather than a bloated corporation breaking my workflow with mindless additions every year (and it's much cheaper to do so). Affinity Designer is the easy winner for me.
It’s because it’s obvious he’s selling adobe…. Superficial impartial comparison … it’s just gorilla style marketing.
That's a key factor for me! I'm new to high-level graphic design, and user-friendly software is always a blessing. In fact, even as a skilled technician in other venues I always jump to user-friendly software and applications vs something that can maybe do more but is not intuitive. Workflow is important, and ease of use with creative genre software lends to enhanced creativity.
Affinity software does things that you really need and they listen to the community about the problems, Adobe keeps updating and adding features and stuff you may never use just so they can justify their prices and monthly subscription
This not fair at all. You may not use it, but a lot of people will and it's the good reason to keep or get the subscription. I'm an Affinity user, I've all I need to do my work there, but sometimes.. I am doing one single thing for example 1 hour, but in Adobe, with the tool or "features" they added to raise the price, you will have it done in 20 minutes.
So.. does it worth it? For me personally, it does. So I wouldn't call it a con, because if they save you time, they will save you money. What do you think?
Well said. More a la carte offerings would be a middle ground, but they're money >>>> needs of their customer base.
@@sebeek00 Thing is, adobe are wanting little users like me to fund developments I don't want, and the programmes are less and less how I want them to be. Large users with lots of 'seats' pay less per seat than I do, but Adobe are pushing their software towards the needs of the larger buyers, who want things I don't, like AI tools and cloud storage. Staying with adobe would cost me £650 a year. Affinity is a one off of £160. Even if it occasionally took longer to do something, that's still a gain financially, and it seems from the reviews that the things I do would be at least as fast, if not faster, in Affinity. And by the look of it, Affinity would actually suit me better in terms of its capbilities and interface. I'm going for the free trials, and most likely bailing from Adobe after over a quarter of a century.
As mentioned by Brad, Adobe is a "all in one" solution. You can however find amazing programs that IMHO outperform Adobes products or ar on par with them.
For example: Clip Studio Paint is not better than Photoshop. But it is better than PS when it comes to create comics. Because that program is made for that specific purpose.
And it's easier to make something better, when you have a focused goal in mind.
Yes, PS has nice new features but when it comes to actual use, they are often ... not used at all.
It depends on your need.
So the question is: Do you want to make a comic? Are you trying to make logos as vector grafics? Are you retouching fotos?
The more specific you identify your needs, the easier it gets to find really nice alternatives to Adobe.
CSP *_is_* much better than PS for digital artists.
Adobe has an expensive subscription and you will never own it. CSP is $50 once and you own it. Adobe doesn't have brush stabilization. CSP does. And now CSP has liquefy. CSP has an asset and brush store where almost everything is free. CSP is also available on Galaxy Note and S lines, albeit on a subscription, but a rather cheap one at least. PS on Android is only a photo editor. Literally zero reason for a digital artist to use adobe other than brand loyalty.
@@ArkGenesys I actually remember something similar to brush stabilisation in PS. You might remember an outdated version? However I do agree that CSP cover most aspects for digital artists, however: If you are into retouching fotos, I consider PS better than CSP. (Maybe you dont include those as digital artists and I simply did, so not a different opinion but rather different definitions).
But I really enjoy CSP at the moment and dont see myself going into paying-slavery by Adobe again :-D
Funny though: If they would offer a 10 bucks a month sub, I would take that. Like a netflix subscription.
I still don't understand why some comic artists still use photshop for their work yet Clip Studio Paint Ex does a much better job handling comic work. Yeah the price is high, but there's also a monthly subscription which is slightly lower than photoshop's photo plan. Idk anymore.
I absolutely love CSP. It has everything I need, runs great, works really well on my surface book + surface button, and the built in store has thousands of free brushes + textures. Plus the 3D models are super handy!
I really like Affinity and use it for vector and photo editing. But for sketching and drawing, CSP is the king
@@ArkGenesys people use PS because of retouching ability, filter and photobashing for illustration. It also can paint 8k res painting better since it is more efficient. While PS can be demanding on CPU resource when I paint big illustration it is smoother than krita, coral painter or clip. to say there is no reason is quite a stretch there.
I’m surprised you didn’t touch on consistency at all - yeah, Adobe has a larger „ecosystem”, but you can hardly call it that - it’s more like a bunch of completly different programs rammed into the same package, with almost no uniformity in both interface and file formats. Every new program needs to be learned from the ground up, even when it comes to finding stuff in the interface. This is completally different in Affinity, where if you learn one of the programs, you can easily switch to another and be familiar with it in an instance. And compatible file formats makes it very easy and pleasant to mix and match different types of material work, from raster to vector and vice versa. For me it’s actually the main benefit of Affinity suite, I’m really shocked that it wasn’t acknowledged at all in this vid.
Yeah.
This is a good point, Captivate feels nothing like other Adobe software, except for a few surface level UI similarities to the ones inherited from Macromedia
Agreed! I never understood why each Adobe program behaved differently. That’s it, I’m letting my Adobe subscription go and trying Affinity.
When I opened up publisher for the first time and realized how easy it was to zoom in I almost jizzed myself. When I realized you could switch to their other programs from within it while maintaining the same controls, I did.
To be honest, my biggest issue here is that Adobe does not want to make packs focused on certain areas of expertise. I don't want to spend 63 euros / month for all the programs when I only use Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and inDesign. Sure I could do the switch to Affinity, but unfortunately all my clients work in full Adobe environments. It feels stupid to pay so much for things that I use once every few months. They should at least offer packs of 2 or 3 programs, instead of having to get them separatedly. I once asked them if they were ever planning on doing this, but it was totally not in their plans.
Indeed, there used to be things like Design Standard. I think our clients/printers are having to adjust to Affinity as so many people are now using it, due to the stinging costs to those of us pay for our software out of our own pockets of having the CC family of programmes. The biggest printer I use takes affinity files now.
The way I see it, Affinity is a really good piece of software that has gotten significantly better since I bought Photo back in 2017. I barely used it much back then as a 10 year Photoshop veteran at the time, but as they kept fixing stuff I have come to appreciate more and more the freedom that the Affinity Suite provides. While I do think Photoshop does a lot of things right and has more polish because of decades of development, one thing I have noticed since switching is that I see more and more cracks in its armour to the point that I really don't want to go back to using it anymore. There are a lot of very nice quality of life changes I use in Affinity as a painter that I just can't live without. With more fixes being done to problem areas in each version I am positive that Serif are going to have them fixed eventually.
In future versions I hope they address problems like these for painting:
- Improve colour picking. Add a mouse icon while holding down alt and add all the Colour Picker Tool settings to all the other colour pickers like for the Brush Tool (want to alt colour pick with Selected Layer like you can in Photoshop).
- Improve brush management. Add folders, add an R click menu for the brush tools, etc.
- Creating Embedded Documents, aka Affinity Smart Objects, by R clicking layers and converting them in the Layers panel.
- Fix bugs for some tools and add more shortcut key commands for each of them to improve workflow.
- Perspective tools.
- Perspective transformations. More specifically for the Move Tool. Designer especially needs perspective transformations for vector art.
- Add anti-aliasing options for the Move Tool for better support of pixel art transformations.
- Fix boolean bugs.
- Raster-to-vector conversion.
- Add more vector tools. Designer still needs a blob brush, an eraser brush, and a shape builder tool just to name a few.
- Pure vector brushes and patterns.
- More ways to save, import, and export UI settings, tool settings, etc.
- Option to move cache data storage from the C drive to other drives (really big problem if your main drive doesn't have a ton of space).
- Better integration between all three Affinity programs. Sharing of settings, brushes, assets, etc. would make working between each program a lot simpler.
So, is Affinity better than Adobe? I would say yes if you are raster painter. It may not have every bell and whistle of Adobe Photoshop, but I think its strengths are starting to outweigh its shortcomings, and you can clearly see with some of the features Adobe took inspiration from Affinity and vice versa that Affinity tends to do them a lot better (i.e. branched history states for Photoshop, which is just embarrassingly implemented when compared to how Affinity did it).
If you are a vector artist I would say that Adobe still reigns supreme, although I absolutely hate working in Illustrator. Designer is honestly a joy to work with, but it lacks a ton of features that make it near impossible to do certain vector art. When Designer does get a new tool like the Contour Tool, I usually prefer the Affinity implementation over the Adobe one (Pen Tool and Node Tool are great to work with as well). Plus, you can use Inkscape when things can't be done in Designer, so you don't have to rely on Illustrator most of the time if you copy+paste between Inkscape and Designer.
Not to mention that the Affinity programs are overall faster than Adobe in many categories. 32-bit painting is much better supported in Affinity, which to me is a big plus since I recently bought a G9 Odyssey with HDR capabilities. It's really solid.
Also, as the review said, Adobe fills a different need than Affinity does. If you need to run a multi-media empire, Adobe is pretty much unmatched. Even I have to use Adobe because they bought Substance Painter and Designer some years back. Though, I am very much looking forward to seeing Affinity tackle 3D painting, since they teased it coming to Photo two years ago. The future is looking bright. :)
Does Affinity allow for free hand vector drawing? I'm looking for free hand and bitmap painting in an all-in-one program if that makes sense.
@@cnote3598 You can paint with vectors, yes. There is the Pencil Tool that draws lines and can be used to create vector fills for instance. The Vector Brush Tool is able to create brush strokes freehand as well and it's possible to create raster textures that can be edited with each brush stroke. There is no way to do pure vector textures brushes yet, but if you do not need that particular feature then Designer is good enough.
@@Frozen_Death_Knight i see.. thank you .. by vector texture brushes .. do you mena those fancy brushes that have dots, and static or leaves in them as in photoshop? B/c I dont need that stuff.. I just need to be aboe to shade and colour and blur and all that
@@cnote3598 Ah, got it. Well, I was referring to Illustrator type vector brushes which are pure vector brushes. Designer vector brushes do make vectors, but the texture brushes are a raster/vector hybrid that create raster lines on export.
Based on your description then Designer is more than up for the task. :D
@@Frozen_Death_Knight Thanks very much internet person ;)
As for the updates, I can't speak for Affinity, but I've worked with Adobe for many years now and they don't deserve any praise in this department.
Back when you had to pay for each new release, every single new version came with a bunch of new or completely reworked features. Now? You get one or two new surface level features a year, if you're lucky. Just look a Illustrator's updates over the last couple of years. Nothing of consequence has been improved. Yes, they added a niche feature like slightly improved 3D, but general workflow is dormant ever since we got the subscription model. And it's not because it's perfect, far from it.
Same with PS, a better selection would never count as a year's worth of updates back in the day. They are getting more money than ever and doing absolutely nothing with it. They know they don't have to sell you a new version with great updates - you will pay for their dormant apps just because you have to.
This is why I don’t buy the fact subscriptions pay for your software. It pays for growing overhead that has nothing to do with software. I don’t know why companies need to constantly grow for the sake of growing.
The Adobe suite back in the day was super expensive, but it worked. And honestly when you get paid in big lumps per project instead of a steady monthly/weekly rate. That’s the better option.
I’m using Affinity. It’s honestly good enough for what I need. I love the Raster and vector switch of designer. The updates are far and few between though. I’ve been using them ever since affinity photo first came to iPad (bought Mac versions quickly after), and it’s the same app now it was then. They may have added things I didn’t notice I guess. It works though.
Exactly, they used to have to advance the software to give compelling reasons to upgrade. Now, they know you have to keep paying simply to be able to keep using their software even if little to nothing changes. It's not like updates haven't frequently brought bugs and issues along with it. Meanwhile my old copy of CS3 works just as it always has 15 years later on Windows (macOS annual updates would have broken it to pieces). Before that I had Photoshop 7 which also still works on Windows 20 years later. Affinity for me for the foreseeable future.
@youshimimi
That right there is one of the big problems: It´s a paradigm shift, because in creative suite days you could wait if an update is worth your money and then decide to purchase or wait. Now you have to pay in advance and see whether there´ll be new functionality at all.
However, the real problem with subscription models is the dependence. You completely throw yourself at the mercy of the software company.
That said, Affinity Photo is at best mediocre as a RAW file converter, and no new functionality has been added for years in this particular department, which happens to be a very important part of the overall package. It´s called Affinity PHOTO, after all. In Photoshop/Lightroom, there has been one big new feature called Super Resolution which is fantastic for photographers, depending on their specialization. That feature alone would, imho, merit subscribing to the photography plan - until another software has a comparable feature, that is......
@@pixelpusher1393 There's free online software that does a much better job at upscaling than Adobe's Super Resolution, unless you absolutely need it done on RAW, but I suspect that rarely it need to be done on camera RAW files compared with compressed photos and images you have to work with.
@@Thirsty_Fox Which software (or sites), for example? I´m curious!
Re. super resolution: It´s the only upscaling solution I know of which happens in the RAW file, which is one of the main selling points. I´m using a lot of automatic exposure bracketing sequences, which does 2 things: It increases dynamic range, and reduces image noise. Super resolution applied to only one image does increase size (and, to some extent, detail as well), but also makes noise more obvious. However, in a bracketed sequence noise will be greatly reduced, which helps super resolution do it´s magic. Afterwards, you can always use selective sharpening and microcontrast/-detail sliders to bring detail out even better.
Not sure about others, but personally I´m impressed enough by this to be willing to subscribe. But if anyone can point me to an equally potent upscaling solution for free, or at least without a monthly subscription fee, I´m all ears!
BTW: On1 Resize AI is brand new. I´ve yet to see a detailed review, but it looks interesting.
Is always morally correct to pirate adobe products.
Is that even possible since they went to a subscription model?
@@JaBrandonSpoons Yes is possible, for example you can search for "photoshop free 2024" and you will find some websites that let you download that, or you can do it like i do
Im using the 2019 version of photoshop since the newer ones use way too much computer resources compared to the 2019 one, and are slower.
@@JaBrandonSpoonstedious but yes possible
You basicly have to tell adobe to look for the activation key locally instead of adobe servers. Its just hell to setup. But when it works, it works well :)
@@JaBrandonSpoons Yes is possible, easier than you might think. Just browser the web and you will find the solution. I don't explain it here since youtube is a company insanely in favor to other companies and censorship is their second name.
Who else is here after learning about Adobe's updated TOS?
On another note: I'm an astrophotographer and my understanding is that Affinity Photo has tools to edit astro images. That alone would've sold me on Affinity.
Great video Brad, just a couple notes:
1. Affinity Designer was released before Affinity Photo, not a big deal but interesting that Affinity went after Illustrator users before photoshop.
2. I think the ecosystem can go either way. Sure Adobe has more apps, but Affinity's apps work WAY better together. StudioLink is life changing and Adobe could have built something like that a decade ago but just chose not to. Most people don't come close to using all the apps they get with their creative cloud subscription anyway, so just buying the apps you need is more useful in many ways.
3. You didn't really talk about industry compatibility which is the main complaint I get about Affinity on my channel. Affinity is fantastic for solo creators, but it gets really difficult when working with others in the industry because Adobe is so dominant.
4. I think iPad apps could be its own a category, and that is Affinity absolutely creams Adobe since Adobe just doesn't care about iPad users
StudioLink is not a be all end all. Yes its nice for quick edits or some work flows, but if you are using Wacom Tablet(with PROGRAM SPECIFIC radial/menus or a macro keyboard with profiles setup for Designer or Photo your macro/radial menus will not work in StudioLink. I might be wrong, but does StudioLink in Publisher even use your custom keyboard shortcuts or workspaces from Designer or Photo? Affinity's apps work WAY better together? In some cases maybe, but as far as I know I still can't Place a LINKED .afphoto file into Designer. WHY? You can place a linked Designer file in Photo. I understand you can open a Photo file in Designer, but there are many cases when you need to place a linked file(not embedded). I'm not trying to rip on Affinity, I'm a fan. Keep up the videos and maybe give VectorsStyler a second look, its getting constant updates.
as a person who uses most of the adobe products from audio mixing to vector art. is it worth switching? i still run the student discount but am not looking forward to paying full price.
@@S0UPIE I have several videos talking about alternative options to Adobe, but for you it sounds like a major part might be the audio side. Affinity has nothing there, so it will depend on what else you can get, can you switch to Logic or Audacity and still get that work done? For Vector art Affinity Designer is awesome, and much more affordable than Adobe.
@@dwon7781 I tried so hard to use Affinity and ditch Adobe. It worked for a little while but long term it could not work. My main issue with Affi ity is it feels like Affinity Designer is really more for Illustrators vs AI is more for creating designs. Affi ity, for whatever reason seems defiant to give Designer some features like say shapebuilder. They have said for YEARS they would add it and all these years later nothing.
@@roguewavecreative They have shape builder now.
Affinity all the way! I switched 4 years ago and I’ve never looked back. And this is coming from a graphic/web designer.
PS: Adobe Xd is nothing but a joke. An extremely buggy sad joke. Don’t even bother giving it a try when there’s things like Figma out there.
Adobe Figma
@@Jorciexergame read the comment’s date, pal ;)
For me, it's all Affinity. Been using them for years and LOVE their stuff. One payment. Done and dusted. Yes, please.
I was a beta tester for Macromedia Dreamweaver back in 1997 and used it for professional web design when Adobe took over, and used Pagemaker and QuarkXpress before becoming a beta tester for Adobe InDesign adopting it for newspaper design together with Photoshop. I also worked as a graphics designer for newspapers with Illustrator for several years, so I have had an incredibly long love affair with Adobe, but now I've had enough of paying subscriptions through my nose. Today I bought an Affinity Universal License. Wish me luck!
“… keep in mind that Adobe software is just as expensive as it was before they switched over to that [subscription] model…"
That's probably true for many but when Adobe switched to their subscription (i.e. hostageware) model, my annual cost for Adobe products that I used up through CS6 went up close to 350% since I mostly needed Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat, and Dreamweaver and I didn't need every annual update iteration. On top of that, when the subscription ends, their software no longer works. (I do have a number of software subscriptions but they provide more value to me and not continuing a subscription just means I no longer get updates - the software works as long as the macOS version I use supports it.)
When I had to finally drop the CS6 applications due to a macOS upgrade I switched over to Affinity’s suite and have been very happy with it since. Outside of Dreamweaver, there is very little that Adobe has produced that I can’t find quality alternatives for - this, of course, varies according to one's software needs. (I did try the Dreamweaver subscription 2019/2020 version, but while it has some improvements over CS6, it seemed to take a few steps backward and was rather clunky so I went back to Dreamweaver CS5.5 on Windows at work.)
The only real problem I've seen in going from Adobe to Affinity is some file compatibility issues with workflows that rely heavily on Adobe.
Great video. I migrated from Adobe to Clip Studio and Affinity 2 years ago and haven't looked back. Purely based on the subscription model and not wanting to pass that cost onto clients.
Self-employed, contracted designer or hobbyist then Affinity is awesome. You want a job working for someone, then Adobe is a must, as that’s all HR will look at. They don’t just want your portfolio, they want your mastery of the Adobe Universe. And 50 years of experience!!!
Even self-employed freelancers run into trouble when clients need access to native files. It's Adobe or nothing :/
@@lawsbrettart I’ve never had an issue with Affinity files. It works like a champ and I’ve been self-employed for 4 and 1/2 years. It’s been awesome.
@@mwinner101 I'm not doubting the software at all, it look freaking awesome! I just know that my clients need native Adobe files in most cases (I'm talking book publishing specifically here). Affinity files would be useless to them. But I can see that for jobs where non native files can be used, Affinity looks like a brilliant option! I can't wait to explore each program (there's a sale on right now, hehe!)
Good video. I have moved away from EVERYTHING Adobe. The BS of renting software has to stop. For fonts I get them from Font Bundles, for video editing I've moved to Davinci Resolve since it's actually stable. Photo and designer I now use Affinity. I use Procreate on the iPad for painting my 3D models I make in Blender if I don't use Blender for everything. The basic resolve is more than enough for almost anyone unless you're doing high production movies. Best part, for everything I use it's basically 1 month of Adobe sub. That's just silly.
Davinci resolve replace premiere pro and after effects. Blackmagic doing great job
All I can say is, after using Affinity’s suite, they are noticeably faster and run more efficiently than Adobe. I just created a huge Illustrator file with many art boards on my new MacBook Pro (maxed out), and Illustrator was becoming sluggish and saving took a long time. I opened it in Affinity Designer no problem, worked on the document with no hesitations and saved immediately.
I then moved that same document over to my iPad and same thing… worked perfectly and saved immediately. Moved it back to my MAC and was seamless.
Unreal.
There's a single frame of Brad upside down at 2:34. Is this on purpose? What do I win? 😋
Well spotted!
Im a beginner with Affinity but find it easy to use. Now I have enrolled to graphics school who use adobe. Thats all ok. But I have asked the community for question....and I might be unlucky...but the feedback I got was harsh and not in a manner of helping. I felt like part of the community were pros who dont like beginner stuff. I used the wrong tools ++ artists that just looked down on me. Asked affinity users about something similar and got so much love.
When learning this is a such a great thing! I wont ask adobe community again, only look up at youtube. After im done with the school. I will most likely quit with adobe and learn affinity all the way.
I have seen this happen, and I'm not a beginner, but a very long time user, so its not just you. Adobe have basically outsourced their product support to their own paying customers, some of whom are kind and helpful, but others very arrogant and unhelpful.
I picked up Affinity's suite as I'm still at the state of learning. It seemed like a reasonable gamble, as it would be really hard for me to shell out the annual cost of Adobe's suite, especially when I don't necessarily need everything they offer.
So far, it has paid off. I totally understand Adobe's place in the market, but it's nice for someone in my position to have a more affordable option available. Especially when it will get the job done for my needs.
I was using Adobe creative for 1.5 years and I didn't realize how much it accumulated in fees. Was looking for alternatives and found out about davinci for videos and photo, designer, and publisher for graphic design. I'm glad I made the switch.
Pixel persona in Affinity Designer has been game changer for me and suits my needs as an illustrator. I've been a long time Adobe suite user where my work flow required that I draw in Illustrator, before exporting it to Photoshop to be rendered. I actually bought both Affinity Designer and Photo thinking that the workflow would be the same but so far I've only needed to use Designer. There are still things that Affinity Designer is missing (I wish there was a warp/distort tool) and pattern making isn't as intuitive as Illustrator but I'm still 100% on Team Affinity! Now if only they offered an Android version, I would be over the moon!
Yeah, Affnity Designer Pixel persona is very underrated. Illustrator does have better Vector tools overall, but I think Affinity Designer is is a better overall Illustration and Concept Tool.
I've had Adobe Illustrator for the past 2 years, and I absolutely love it. And to answer your question, yes, it is overall a better software than Affinity. However, Affinity has all of the same tools that I need to produce high quality work, and it's MUCH cheaper, so I will be switching over to Affinity.
I love the opportunities that Affinity has brought to me, so I love it for that. It is not a perfect thing, there certainly are some very annoying bugs in their programs, which sometimes take a while to be resolved (small team is a drawback here), but as a whole it has been very good to me, and the workflow that the programs allow me (cross compatibility between apps, ease of using raster and vector together) has gotten me away from the Adobe sub. The programs just suit my workflow as a freelance designer perfectly. Adobe does great software and I have used it a lot in the past, but for me right now, Affinity is the better choice.
I made the switch during the start of the pandemic and Affinity has been a blast to learn. Since I teach, I have to be up-to-date with Adobe products, but subscription prices are so annoying. I'm still getting a handle on the smaller but mighty Affinity ecosystem and how you're able to work in all three platforms at once (Personas I believe). That's really cool.
What I noticed with Adobe is their ecosystem tries to tackle things in chunks. For illustration and design - PS, AI, and ID, for photography - PS and LR, for video - PR and AE, etc. It's hard to compete with their size, but oftentimes (for me at least), there's so much in each program that feels bloated. It feels like nearly each program wants to be a catch-all instead of leaning into one another. Though, I can say that I enjoy InDesign more than Publisher for right now.
I'll pass on Adobe Fonts. I prefer Google Fonts because I'm not locked down to a subscription to download the full font family. For me, Affinity gives me my art & design ecosystem while also giving me flexibility to find what I like for animation. If Affinity steps into animation (even if it's 2D for now), it'll be great!
I used Adobe for about 8 years and recently switched to Affinity. Best decision. I would not go back.
as an ex-typographer, when you mentioned TypeKit and said “yeah, i know…” I thought you were going to discuss its limitations and how not all the fonts there are well designed or something along those lines 😅 though I suppose I was more so in a Glyphs vs FontLab than in an Adobe vs Affinity when I was still a creative professional lol
I have both and always see myself shifting to Affinity because of the mixer brush on Affinity Photo. If you have Lazy Nezumi and a couple of extra brushes, AP actually works pretty nicely.
I use strictly Adobe products on my laptop. Adobe works well, I don’t care about owning anything, they’re still industry standard, and I’ve been working on the for over 20 years. But, and here is a major caveat, any app that has figured out the nuances of working on an ipad IMO is a far better app. Affinity apps have figured it out and I believe are farther ahead than Adobe, by a large margin. Editing photos or “photoshopping” and logo design work (actual paid client work) is a TREAT on the M1 iPad Pro with Affinity. It allows me to sit at the beach, and totally immerse myself in a creative zone while working on projects. No stress, plenty of power. Even notable mentions like Nomad sculpt is a delight on the iPad. If someone can figure out a proper type of After Effects for the iPad, now we’re in business.
I opened a full (more than 100 Layers) AI file in Affinity 2.5.2! Lets see if I can finish this project in Affinity! It did affect the fonts,(easy to fix) but the gradients look amazing, keeping the effects I used in Adobe. The jpegs are good too
I’m glad you made this video. I’ve been using Adobe for over 20 years. I purchased an M1 iPad Pro and would really like to use it for professional design. This is where I have issues with Adobe. I can understand the subscription feature, but why include it for iPad OS? Especially since the iPad versions of Photoshop and Illustrator are not quite desktop quality on the tools and features. So now I’ve really got my eyes set on Affinity apps. What I’m really excited for is the possibility of Publisher coming to iPad. InDesign is my main tool and to be able to do full desktop publishing on my iPad would be fantabulous! So while I still see Adobe as the standard, they definitely have some serious competition out there, especially when it comes to mobile apps. Affinity seems to be the toughest.
Ipad combined with Affinity suite is phenomenal. Looks like there are no restrictions in toolset compared to desktop versions, and the way it works on Ipad is so so slick and consistent. They really smashed it out of the park.
It's a real shame that Affinity has no interest in putting their software out for android devices. I'm honestly not a fan of apple products and would love to be able to use affinity on my Galaxy Tab s7.
It's also a shame they don't want to serve Linux either. Having a true Photoshop alternative on Linux would really go a long way, and Affinity would be that if they decided to serve that market.
@@LucasSaturn At least Android is used by enough smart devices that you could make a solid argument for porting Affinity to the platform. The problem with Linux is that not enough people use it and when not even their competitor Adobe have yet ported their programs over despite their resources, it is completely understandable why Serif do not want to invest resources into that right now.
Maybe that will change with SteamOS being a thing and Proton and Wine support getting better and better, but only time will tell.
@@Frozen_Death_Knight those are my expectations too! Let’s hope SteamOS will provide the final push we’ve been waiting for so long now.
Linux is a completely untapped market. There are just flat out no software on par with Affinity or Photoshop on Linux; whoever creates it will be pretty much the only software suite on the market with professional capability.
I'd argue otherwise. A lot of production studios for 3D animation and such use Linux as their render farm machines, for stability and speed. The only reason workstation machines have not taken over is down to lack of some production software. A lot of people are only holding on, waiting for something to release.
It’s taken me a while (over a year) but I’ve really taken to Affinity Designer on my PC, I think very few people sell the fact it can combine raster tools alongside vector tools and that specifically is what made the difference. For image editing, my old copy of CS6 still does the job so Affinity Photo remains untouched on my hard disk.
My drawing workflow means I need Inkscape alongside the pro App - always needed it, even before Affinity Designer, the image trace and simplify CP tools are more intuitive in free software than the pro Apps but hopefully Designer will make a simplify function available or at least make it more obvious to find.
"can combine raster tools alongside vector tools" .. im looking for a vector AND bitmap editing software that I can seamlessly switch between within the same image/program. Is this what you mean?
@@cnote3598 Hello - if you want an App that has vector editing tools AND raster editing tools, then Affinity Designer does that.
I made the mistake of buying both Photo and Designer but I don't need the far more photography specific tools of Photo because Designer does a pretty good job by itself.
You could argue Clip Studio also has Vector painting / vector editing but I really have not enjoyed the GUI at all.
@@fablewalls thanks for the info man
@@cnote3598 Seconded- very helpful to me as I'm considering the switch and I use a lot of raster tools.
I switched to affinity several years ago. I am very happy with Affinity, it does every thing photoshop does. I use affinity photo and designer. I use them on an Apple desktop and a Dell inspiration laptop.
This is really simple. If you are paid to be a designer, photographer and so on then you'd go adobe as you can afford it and put it as a business expense. But if you are an intermediate and gan get affinity for less than 2 months worth of Adobe then it's silly to get Adobe. Yes it's all singing all dancing but then if you are that good then you'd have Adobe for that reason as it's a main passion or a job. Affinity is amazing for me and Adobe is so packed with extras that I'd have to be paid to buy it.
I'm a full stack web developer and I greatly prefer Affinity products. I find them much easier to use. Run through some UA-cam tutorials and you're good to go. I find they run much faster than Adobe software. Granted my use case is very brief and simple, but I don't have time to spend dealing with something as hefty as Photoshop or Illustrator. Affinity Photo and Designer are very intuitive and run much faster.
I'm a pro that uses Affinity apps daily and do not miss Adobe in the slightest. I absolutely love the workflow and features of Affinity.
I have been fortunate to be able to use Adobe because of the places that I have worked for. I haven't had to pay for a license since they became cloud and subscription-based. However, if that should ever change for me, I will definitely give Affinity a chance, as their price is so much more affordable for the software quality they seem to provide. The only thing for me is Lightroom Classis, which is something I may have to stick with, but I am willing to venture out and see what else is out there.
IMHO the biggest issue was Adobe going susbcription only - they obviously changed to maintain a steady flow of income, whilst deny users the option of perpetual licenses. If you go with Affinity, they lack several features Adobe does well, and the health plan of updates, content and learning. However, if instead, you go with Adobe, you must now live uncomfortably with the knowledge you can never stop paying to keep use it. The real question is how you plan to use either.
I switched all my pro work to Affinity with no regrets.
That said Affininy Designer just blows away Illistrator hands down.
To me, which is worth about 2 cents max, the app that sets Adobe apart is After Effects. Yes there are some alternatives out there, but there is nothing like AE if you want a robust animation program for many different things.
Brad - would love for you to make an Adobe Animate course....please!
After effects is hard to replicate, but if you good with Nodes, than Davinci resolve is pretty good.
Personally when I cut the Adobe chord, I was surprised how good Motion can be. It’s not Adter effects, but it’s pretty close of you spend time with it and learn it’s quirks. Unless you have a lot of plug ins. Then yeah AE is your guy.
I've been using design software since the mid 1980s. Page layouts with Ventura, PageMaker, Ready Set Go!, Letraset Design Studio, Quark Xpress, InDesign. Vectors with Freehand (the best) and Illustrator, and mostly Photoshop since version 1 or 2. The bulk of my professional work has been done with Quark and InDesign. Almost everything either disappeared or was swallowed up by Adobe. When Affinity came along it was the first real alternative option for me with Publisher, and it has fully replaced InDesign, and Designer has replaced Illustrator for the minimal vector work I do. Unfortunately, Adobe Camera Raw is the only thing that keeps be tied to Adobe, because it is the only RAW processor that can deal with the colour cast of LED lights in music venues, and I've tried nearly all of the others. Thankfully the Adobe Photo package is relatively cheap, otherwise it's Affinity all the way for me. And the Studio feature in the Affinity suite is brilliant and integrates it all far better than Adobe currently does with theirs. But who knows what will come when they release version 2 of Affinity's apps. So when you take into consideration that Affinity is still on version 1 and Adobe is on versions 20+ (?) the old giant must be feeling a little threatened. Let's face it, most freelance designers don't need the whole Adobe suite, and there isn't really a design package option (InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, Acrobat) that Adobe used to offer. So if you want those you either have to rent the whole package or the bits you need individually, which can work out quite expensive, especially compared with Affinity. The main issue with Affinity can be industry compatibility, if you need you share work with other studios, especially with Publisher. It can open IDML files (and PDFs) from InDesign but it's still not perfect, but won't export IDML. Photoshop and Illustrator are less of an issue. But if you're a lone freelancer who deals directly with clients and printers then Affinity has to be hard to beat.
Agreed on all counts. I don't deal with Camera RAW anymore these days so I'm 100% on board with Affinity as an independent illustrator/designer.
I'm actually okay with the fact that Affinity is not an industry compatibility. The only time I ever have to hand my master files over is when a client wants to hand my work over to a cheap, unskilled junior freelancer. They are trying to have their cake and eat it by having me do the heavy lifting then get cheap month-to-month costs. In this case, I'm more than happy to hand over files that the average weekend warrior can't read with his pirated Adobe package.
do you know how well video editing works on affinity? i mostly use the buggy mess that is premiere pro with some more complex effect done in a layer composition on after effects. i have DaVinci resolve but it complicates simple stuff like masks and time remapping so i end up going back on premiere for simple stuff
I haven't worked with leds in tounchdesigner but I know others have, its worth checking out to see if it does what you need. Its some really awesome software.
That was some solid comparison Brad, I hope affinity comes out with their own video editing software soon so I can ditch Premiere lol, I tried Davinci and couldn't get a hang of it
There´s one functionality which seems unique to Adobe Illustrator: You can create overlapping closed and open paths in illustrator, select them all and apply a boolean divide filter on them. Wherever a line cuts through the closed path, the divide filter will split it into two separate closed paths with a common boundary.
What is the significance? Simple: Just like you had to cut out masks back in the airbrushing days to avoid brushing over a boundary, you can use this to create masks that can be imported into Photoshop. There, you can simply select one closed path, turn it into a selection and paint only within that selection with a brush tool.
Of course paths can be also created in Photoshop and be turned into a selection, but you´ll never be able to split a closed path into several seperate closed paths with common boundaries so easily.
Oddly enough, to this day I´ve yet to see an alternative vector editor capable of this trick. BTW: I learned this in the nineties, which was long before the creative suite days. It never ceases to amaze me that no other manufacturer of vector graphics software has caught on.
@@aoterou Yes, that´s the divide command on the pathfinder panel. As far as I know, Affinity Designer cannot do that - at the most, it may be possible with overlapping closed paths, but not with closed and open paths. There is a tutorial for AD that´s called "slicing shapes". In order to do that, you have to break the object apart at anchor points, and then reconnect the open endpoints. In other words: It´s not possible by slicing it with irregularly curved paths.
I searched this issue time and again, and have yet to find one vector software apart from Illustrator that has this capability.
@@aoterou Just did another search and found a thread in the Affinity Designer forum about this issue about a year ago. I posted the link here, but apparently YT deleted my comment because of the link. It still is not possible for AD to do that. At the most what you´ll get is a workaround which is rather clumsy and time consuming.
Another software was mentioned: Vectorstyler. Supposedly it can do that. I´ll look into it.
Inkscape have it in easy
cam on ban rat nhieu, that may man khi duoc xem video nayhi vong ban co the ra nhieu bai hon
Clearly, adobe has some amazing stuff.
And yet... I refuse their subscription model. Principles man, principles.
Actually, the programs I've replaced adobe with are pretty good. But, I focus on things like clip studio, rebelle, etc. I don't do as much graphic design anymore, so I stick with occasional use of affinity products. Most of my work is deep into digital artwork, which the competitors do very very well.
Ok, first off you said it costs the same under the rent/lease vs their older purchase model. This isn't entirely true. Most of the time the new version each year didn't introduce enough new features to warrant a purchase so many people skipped a year or two sometimes three or four so the purchase cost should not be calculated every year and compared to the new rental/lease cost required yearly.
Indeed. CS5 does everything I need, and I BOUGHT it. But they now force me to rent CC at exorbitant prices, because they switched off their server and I need a new OS.
If ever went freelance or left my workplace (My studio pays for creative cloud), then I'd have to rely on affinity products but I'd miss after effects. The only adobe program I'd miss is after effects, a program that adobe contiues to let down with updates that can slow down render times or stop compositions from loading.
Adobe have now priced out the hobbyist. I've just bought affinity 2 suite for a 6th of the price of my subscription to Adobe CS last year. Can't knock the quality of Adobe but the pricing structure is silly for non pro and irregular use
Back in 2019 when I was getting my associates degree, I was using Adobe but that was because it was required. Then when I graduated I learned about affinity and switched, mainly due to budget. And now I have an iPad and I use affinity designer all the time.
I just switched to Affinity from Adobe after two years. Adobe is great, but it's a collection of separately acquired tools that have been reworked to try and play nice together.
With Affinity, I can work with print, vectors and images without having to jump out of one program and wait for another to load up.
Also, I realised that ditching Adobe's subscription is enough for an extra holiday for my family per year.
Great video comparing the two. I have been doing my own research on affinity suite since it would be cheaper for me to have and yes the community is awesome at sharing what they know. the programs are wonderful and I can only imagine they will be top competitors w/ adobe in due time.
I’m an indie video game developer and artist and what I am looking for in a graphic suit is functionally, easy to learn and master, powerful tools and cool features and price. I like Affinity as the suit fits the bill even though there’s no 3D support or other graphic design support and if I need to use more than Affinity, I can use some Adobe apps like Substance Paint and the file sharing is solid between the two camps. I’m a rebel and Affinity GUI and tools are better plus you get to own it. My verdict is Affinity for main creation and supplementary graphics would be Adobe.
I own a small printshop and I would love to have a replacement for Acrobat Pro and the Pitstop Pro Plugin. Acrobat crashes regularly and is just quirky while working on customers PDFs. I get really tired of waiting for mailing lists to compile in Acrobat and watching it only use one of my 24 CPU cores.
I love Affinity! But I want them to make more apps. I would love a Fresco/pro Creat like app made by them and a video editor
I've moved on to Affinity, because it feels like Adobe doesn't try to be user-friendly. The big thing is the monthly subscription thing. I've also moved away from Adobe Premier and After Effects. I get a better experience with the free version of DaVinci Resolve 17. With there being a lot of competitors now, you'd think Adobe would be trying harder. From what I understand, they're still using old code. They may have to rebuild everything from the ground up.
Software developer friends tell me this is likely to be the case. Every now and then you have to rebuild a programme from the ground up. It's eyewateringly expensive, takes ages, and can also create learning curve problems for users, but to clean up messy old code and make best use of modern processors and so on, you have to do it, you can't just tinker round the edges forever. The best way to solve this is one-off purchase options to keep users happy who don't want the changes or who can't do them just when you want to do the swop. The fact that affinity uses far less resources to do pretty much the same things suggests to my friends that Adobe is suffering from the bloat you get when you're just putting more and more frills on an old dress to cover up the rips. In the very early days, Adobe did used to be friendly to users, responsive to suggestions, and their help system was great. Now we're just cash cows. Affinity is now what adobe was then, it seems to me. And affinity's programmes have been built from scratch 20+ years on from where adobe started, so naturally they're far more efficient. As they're also a lot cheaper, it's starting to look like a no-brainer for me to shift to affinity.
great video. i bought the whole affinity desktop suite for the price of a few months of adobe. my main software is after effects though which has no real competitors. affinity works well for me for most things now. though i’ll probably eventually end up needing to use illustrator
Great video Brad. I recently downgraded my Adobe membership to Indesign only as I use and teach Canva to my clients that I wasn’t making use of the monthly subscription. I’ve used Affinity designer in the past and knew it was a good alternative. It’s good to know that Affinity have taken a steady approach and that I’m not alone in considering them a good alternative.
Honestly the best thing Adobe has ever done is building the Behance community. I don't even use Adobe products (I use Clip Studio Paint and Affinity products), but I still watch the livestreams there (both the Adobe produced shows and the regular non-Adobe streamers). It's a really great resource and community for creatives whatever their art or design app choice is.
For me Affinity wins not just on the price, but because of the way vector and raster graphics are integrated so well in Affinity Designer. Illustrator may have more features, but Designer is still better for my workflow because of that.
So the cost of using the software for approximately 10 years: Adobe=6000$ and you own zero vs Affinity=60$ and you own it forever... that's the end of the discussion for me.
been on affinity since 2018.
reliable, never let me down what else can I say?
Adobe has turned out to be so anti-consumer and greedy at this point, that I am slowly trying to ditch it one app at a time (had the full suite for years). Already made the transition from Premiere to Davinci Resolve, now I am going to ditch Lightroom, Illustrator and Photoshop as well.
So, Affinity looks like a great replacement for Photoshop at this point. But what of you also use Lightroom/CameraRAW frequently? How is Affinity doing on processing RAW files, van anyone clarify?
Thats what I am at as well. I don't see any program like Lightroom classic, untill something at that level I am going to stay with LRC and cancel all the other apps for alternatives.
Due to my personal circumstances, an issue I'm running into time and time again is when looking for a job in design or illustration 99% of the positions require knowledge of Adobe products. I get it - it's the "industry standard" but I lost my own business to covid and so currently have no money to pay for the Adobe subscription to learn it to then get the job that requires it! It's a horrible cycle as I know I could achieve what the employer is asking by using Affinity and Clip Studio but they won't even accept my application due to me not ticking the "proficient in Photoshop" box. 🤦🏼♂️
You should still apply. You would be surprised how many companies will overlook your lack of Adobe knowledge of your portfolio is strong. Also smaller businesses that have small art teams that may be as little is one. Will be happy to dump or not rent Adobe stuff if you can deliver the same work with alternative software.
I come from a traditional animation background, I mostly draw everything frame by frame in TVpaint. Applied for a job LinkedIn recommended for me. My After effects experience is basic. Still hired me, and the guys at work are cool to train me and help me in things I don’t know.
Most of the times those ads are written generically. If you have a strong portfolio they’ll still give you a test.
In my case once I got to the test, I downloaded the 1 week trial of After effects to do the test, and just did some online tutorials and adjusted them to match the actual test.
Hope your situation improves
Still apply. It's tough as yes recruiting agencies ask for Adobe, but also they aren't up to speed on specific industry trends. The more folks who say "I use the Affinity suite", then that will become part of the language. I'm old enough to remember when a print job required "Quark Express Experience". The tech changes before the agencies, help educate them.
Lie. Because you can learn it and become proficient in like a month, maybe less.
@@sloppynyuszi thank you for taking the time to reply. I really appreciate the advice. Very helpful. There's hope yet! 🤞
@@rocketsteps thanks man. It's good to hear this. I'd hoped this was the case. Thank you for sharing your knowledge 🙏
Thanks for weighing the pros and cons for me. I loved the video but what was the image that flashed for about .33 sec at the 2:34 and 2:41 time marks in the video????
If I could make two suggestions for categories if you ever do a follow up..
One, performance. Affinity is waaaay more lightweight from a resources perspective. Most bugs in Photoshop come down to standard/video memory. Affinity runs like a dream on almost any system. My favorite "couch sketcher" is a 2017 laptop with an i5 and Wacom penabled screen. Someone on a budget could pick it up on eBay for about $225. Goes very well with the budget software price. Of course the caveat is Photoshop offers very robust features to go with that processing power.
The other super important note is... Many industries require Photoshop proficiency. I work in games/entertainment (for example). In every studio I've ever worked in people are expected to sit down in Photoshop on day one and jump into any task needed. From sketching to working with a robust multipurpose file featuring hundreds of nested groups, smart objects, adjustment layers, clipping, the whole deal. Same as Maya vs Blender, etc. So if anyone watching is like "I wanna work on games and movies!"... there is unfortunately no debate. You have to learn Photoshop to a very high level.
Side note, I love Affinity. I was an early adopter and I push them on everyone. I teach Photoshop at university.. and I very clearly ask students their goals so I can transition them to Clip Studio or Affinity when they graduate *if* they don't *need* Photoshop. I find Affinity more artist friendly and I feel like as a platform they deserve more presence in the space. They've earned it and they're awesome. Oh, and Designer is a magical piece of software that Adobe should have invented years ago when they started merger products. It has no equal 🤘
I love your videos! Im an aspiring animators and your videos helped me decide what tools to use!
With Adobe saying they have full usage rights to everything made with Adobe software, changing was a no brainer. Affinity is a great price, and yeah, learning curve, but they're much more honest.
Uh, the "scope" point is fair enough, but it bears mentioning that you need those four apps mentioned specifically because Adobe has chosen *not* to have their functions built into the basic suite (unlike, say, how Davinci Resolve has the equivalent of AE etc. built in)...
Please note that Substance 3D apps are NOT included in the normal program. I would also recommend Davinci Resolve free version as replacer of Premiere Pro, Audition and After effects
Bundling lots of apps into the Creative Cloud is not a feature... it's an excuse to charge more and claim value. Professionals specialise. This means graphic designers don't need web software or video/audio editors. Audio editors don't need illustration apps. Web coders don't need magazine layout apps. Most of us only use 3 or 4 of the 20+ apps Adobe "gives" us.
I'd be thrilled if Adobe would charge me $3 per app and let me pick the few I need for my career.
Also make it month-to-month. We should actually be talking about $1500 every 2 years rather than $60 per month.
I used to buy Adobe but they don't sell the product anymore, that was the biggest reason why I bought Affinity Photo and Designer. The results are what matter, and I can do the same stuff as PS but much faster.
for some reason i always cant resist not seeing one of your smackdown videos but now its between adobe and affinity!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Clearly Affinity is a better solution, better interface, power and not that many useless features as Adobe. And the power of the graphics management is awesome.
😎👍Take control back use 'Affinity'
I've been saying this since day 1: I can't make sense of Adobe and the ungodly amount they charge and there isn't strong customer service whenever it comes to their products like Apple, for example. I'll use Affinity and my team will use the Affinity suite of apps because I like the model of you buy things and can keep them until death do you part and that's why I gravitate towards Final Cut, Logic Pro, and the Affinity Suites because you can pay and you can keep them for a long time while getting the quality to life upgrades. My favorite YT channel to talk about Affinity Suites is Affinity Revolution and their courses are amazing by this Husband/Wife duo(I might be wrong on the duo part lol). Also, Brad nice Batman shirt I see you 👀
I love using affinity products. I have affinity photo and designer. I am a huge fan of them on my ipad, though I also have them both on my desk top. The big deciding factor for me was the one off fee for affinity. I do not want to "rent" my software. I do not use the software often enough to justify a monthly fee. I am not a professional digital user. I am an eclectic creator so use digital as well as traditional supplies and I have other hobbies such as knitting and sewing etc. I still don't own an ipad pro lol My ipad is so basic it is only 32GB lol It does struggle a little for space with both photo and designer downloaded as I also have procreate on my ipad lol I rarely have all 3 "fully downloaded" onto my ipad as I do not use them often enough. Maybe one day I will buy an ipad pro. As for my video software, I use davinci resolve, it allows me to do what I need for free, I can't argue with that lol
My problem with Adobe, after many years of owning and loving Adobe Creative Suite I decided to stay with my CS6 instead of the pay per month... right up until Adobe decided that my legally purchased, extremely expensive suite of programs was pirated and rendered it useless! They essentially stole my legally purchased software. You can see on many forums that they did this to a number of people for the sole purpose of extorting money for their new product. They are a disreputable company and I will never do business with them again!
is it because you were connected to the internet while using them? i still use cs6 ‘til today and i’m trying all i got not to get connected to the internet while using them out of the fear of what happened to you
@@wiandryadiwasistio2062 That's fine until you need to upgrade your OS or get a new computer. As they have switched off their servers, you can't register the new system, so you're done- your 'perpetual' licence has just been terminated. Happening to me right now, and will to any other windows users who will have to upgrade to 11 in the near future.
Affinity does resemble Adobe. I still judge software buy how Adobe operated but Affinity makes much more sense in their UI.
Adobe Subscription can eat your profit ,unlike Affinity product can help put more money in your pocket. A graphic designer should know this up front.
It would be nice if Adobe could bring back the perpetual license and only charge customers for updates whenever they’re ready to upgrade to a new version.
It's be even better if they'd honour the old ones instead of switching off their servers so if we need a new OS we lose what we paid for.
It's been no contest to me. I don't rent software so I use the Affinity suite for my work on still images and DaVinci Resolve for video. which now even includes cloud options if needed. With this combination Adobe offers nothing I need that I don't already have.
I want to leave adobe. Question, have they started using AI for selection and generation?
Switched to affinity ecosystem recently and i kinda loving it.
How does GIMP compare to these 2?
After working with Adobe for over 20 years, I said goodbye, I'm not going to rent my software,
ill just have to struggle with a lesser product
You’re a really good communicator and the production quality of your video, the same. I’ve got a clearer picture on the way to go on my choice. Plus, where I live outside of the US, a subscription to Adobe CC is way cheaper than in the US. So, thanks for your video!
I'm really split on the subject of standart vs variety. Having lots of competition in photo editing aps makes it a lot harder to get started as a graphic designer looking for a job. At this point you can mostly can get by learning CC.
Hi Brad, I have two questions:
1) I want to switch from Illustrator to Affinity Designer. After importing an .ai file into Designer, will all the points remain identical for future editing?
2) Illustrator has the perspective grid tool. Is there a work-around in Designer for manipulating the perspective of an illustration?
~ Thank you
My main issue stopping me from buying Affinity is when I'm working with friends and colleagues who use Adobe and share files with me to view/edit and vice versa. Or clients that need a specific file type that Affinity doesn't offer
I suspect that will change if affinity become more dominant.
NEW VIDEO! FINALLY I LOVE UR VIDS
I used Adobe Photoshop and Indesign for several years, but when I found Affinity Photo and Publisher, Adobe was the end of the story for me. Apart from the fact that everything works much faster, I won't even mention the price. In addition, I also use the iPad and work on Photo and Publisher on it, and everything works great and fast. The interface is similar to Adobe programs and I got used to all the options that I used in Adobe very easily. All in all, Adobe is a thing of the past for me. Primarily because of the prices, which are too high, but also because of the superior performance of the Affinity program. That's my opinion for all those who two.
G'day Brad
As a proud Ozzie, im going to speak in our lango, I think you have got it Arseabout.
Affinity has far more help than Adobe, not only the community side, but, which is more important is that Serif answers all problems pronto.
I had a problem and within 6 hours it was fixed by the great team at Serif. Taking the time difference into account, you could say my answer was fixed straight away.
On the other hand, it takes days, if not weeks, to get a sort of answer from Adobe.
Also Affinity programmes work together as a single body, not like Adobe.
Affinity if you are working in Publisher, you can alter a photo or a vector design in Publisher WITHOUT changing programmes.
Photo has also a free collection of photos both vector or pixels.
REMEMBER AFFINITY PHOTO CAN USE ADOBE RESOURCES, but Adobe cannot follow the opposite path.
I'm a complete fan of Affinity since dumping Adobe 4 years ago.
I can go on, but you get my drift.
Havagoodweekend
Greg
Last time I updated my CS, I lost an important feature I used all the time- the ability to select part of a PS document and just 'print selection', which saved time, paper, money and ink when doing colour print tests. I assumed it had to be a bug, and reported it as such, only to get a haughty reply that is wasn't a bug and suggesting a cumbersome work-around. For something even tatty freeware can do easily. And I'd just paid hundreds of pounds for that update. I hate the 'what one earth do you want to do that for?' approach from some IT types, when something has always worked before, is a very simple thing to want, and is part of what I have the programme for.
As long as Adobe has a rental/subscription model, it always loses.