I have not had any problems opening a .ai file in Affinity Designer 2.1.1. If you are having trouble you can change the file extension from .ai to .pdf (I did this a lot when working at a print shop)
@@abinadius have you tried anything with more niche tools like the width tool or using several layers in the appearance panel? Unfortunately I don't have illustrator myself anymore so my ability to do new tests is limited.
@@bendesignsmedia Sorry for the late reply I was doing a lot of testing between Illustrator and Designer. The more complicated the design gets, the more likely Designer will rasterize the parts of the complicated image to preserve the look of the design. I do have an example of the image I used to show you if you want I can send it to you.
Beware that Affinity Designer 2 (just tested with 2.1.1) has a massive problem with gradients, not only on import from PDF (which will be imported from the AI file), but also on export to PDF! This is what happens: 1. On import, the color locations are correct (just rounded to full percentage values), color values are correct - but the balance points are all at 50% (when they were set to other values in AI)! 2. If the balance points are set to the location values they had in AI, the gradient itself is different! 3. If the balance points are corrected so that the gradient looks the same (image of the gradient rendered in AI for comparison), and then exported as PDF, the gradient looks different in the PDF! (The exported gradient not only looks different, its composition is different, too!) => Affinity Designer is not suitable for professional work! It was worse with AD 1, but still not usable. That import from PDF is a problem might be fine with many designers - but having the gradient changed on PDF export should be a no-go in my regards.
I appreciate you sharing this information about gradients. But it's not true to say that Affinity Designer is not suitable for professional work since there are people all over the world using it for professional work everyday. I think what you meant to say was that it is not suitable for YOUR professional work, which is totally fine that's why I recommend testing thoroughly before making a switch.
@@bendesignsmedia Yes, I should've written "not suitable for professional *corporate* work" (or in what was called the "graphics industry" some time ago). But gradients getting changed on PDF export should be a serious consideration for any designer, professional or not, as it changes the appearance of the work from designer to client; granted, only slightly, but still. One way to avoid the problem is using more color points in the gradient and not touching the balance points (so that they are always at 50%), because then there's a one-to-one relation from and to PDF. Same with from and to SVG (which doesn't have balance points in gradients - even there AI does a much better job on export, there's no visible difference at all, but it's all RGB after export, so not usable for print work). It is a non-obvious problem that I found out only accidentally, and which might actually hurt those not aware at some point. To be fair: Rendering of gradients in Affinity Designer *and* Affinity Photo is pure genius - they are always dithered on screen (!) to avoid banding, and also when converting vector to image! Makes a huge difference with very shallow gradients, especially if they are mostly shades of gray …
I have not had any problems opening a .ai file in Affinity Designer 2.1.1. If you are having trouble you can change the file extension from .ai to .pdf (I did this a lot when working at a print shop)
Good to know, they keep making improvements! I'll pin your comment so others can see it. How is handling complicated items for you?
@@bendesignsmedia So far it handles them well.
@@abinadius have you tried anything with more niche tools like the width tool or using several layers in the appearance panel? Unfortunately I don't have illustrator myself anymore so my ability to do new tests is limited.
@@bendesignsmedia Sorry for the late reply I was doing a lot of testing between Illustrator and Designer. The more complicated the design gets, the more likely Designer will rasterize the parts of the complicated image to preserve the look of the design. I do have an example of the image I used to show you if you want I can send it to you.
@@abinadius no problem, this is good to know. If you want you can DM my instagram at bendesignsmedia with the image. Thanks!
Well thought-out and presented! Subscribed.
Awesome, thank you!
@@bendesignsmedia You're most welcome!
The free trial is 7 days, at least now ...
Beware that Affinity Designer 2 (just tested with 2.1.1) has a massive problem with gradients, not only on import from PDF (which will be imported from the AI file), but also on export to PDF! This is what happens:
1. On import, the color locations are correct (just rounded to full percentage values), color values are correct - but the balance points are all at 50% (when they were set to other values in AI)!
2. If the balance points are set to the location values they had in AI, the gradient itself is different!
3. If the balance points are corrected so that the gradient looks the same (image of the gradient rendered in AI for comparison), and then exported as PDF, the gradient looks different in the PDF!
(The exported gradient not only looks different, its composition is different, too!)
=> Affinity Designer is not suitable for professional work!
It was worse with AD 1, but still not usable. That import from PDF is a problem might be fine with many designers - but having the gradient changed on PDF export should be a no-go in my regards.
I appreciate you sharing this information about gradients. But it's not true to say that Affinity Designer is not suitable for professional work since there are people all over the world using it for professional work everyday. I think what you meant to say was that it is not suitable for YOUR professional work, which is totally fine that's why I recommend testing thoroughly before making a switch.
@@bendesignsmedia Yes, I should've written "not suitable for professional *corporate* work" (or in what was called the "graphics industry" some time ago). But gradients getting changed on PDF export should be a serious consideration for any designer, professional or not, as it changes the appearance of the work from designer to client; granted, only slightly, but still. One way to avoid the problem is using more color points in the gradient and not touching the balance points (so that they are always at 50%), because then there's a one-to-one relation from and to PDF. Same with from and to SVG (which doesn't have balance points in gradients - even there AI does a much better job on export, there's no visible difference at all, but it's all RGB after export, so not usable for print work). It is a non-obvious problem that I found out only accidentally, and which might actually hurt those not aware at some point.
To be fair: Rendering of gradients in Affinity Designer *and* Affinity Photo is pure genius - they are always dithered on screen (!) to avoid banding, and also when converting vector to image! Makes a huge difference with very shallow gradients, especially if they are mostly shades of gray …