This review is not about Illustrator vs Affinity Designer. Neither will I mention every feature of the app. I will cover those features which stood out to me as I used the app over the last few weeks.
It’s not often that we get to see people challenge what has become a ‘norm’ or an ‘industry standard’. A quick search on YouTube or Google for tutorials on learning how to draw vectors, learn web design or UI design will lead you to professionals using Illustrator and Photoshop as their preferred choice of software. If Affinity Designer for Mac needs to make its presence felt in an area dominated by Adobe, it needs to prove to users that it is better at accomplishing tasks related to graphic design.
For any application its UI is crucial to its success or failure. However, if you take a look at Illustrator or Photoshop their user interface isn’t all that comforting for beginners, yet pro users seem to have got accustomed to it. Over the years Adobe’s software suite has increased the number of features it has however, not much has changed in terms of its UI and UX (user experience).
This is exactly where Affinity Designer makes its first big impression. The user interface of Affinity Designer for Mac is everything you’d expect from a modern app. While there is instant familiarity with the workspace from Illustrator, the user interface is more beginner friendly and is very intuitive. The software takes a more visual and gesture based approach rather than features being hidden deep inside menus.
The way we interact with software is increasingly changing. With the advent of touch based interactions on our smartphones and tablets, trackpads on notebooks and desktops, gestures have become a ubiquitous interaction mechanism. It’s great to see Affinity Designer embracing gesture based interactions. The software does this by creating active drop zones in the layer panel.
For example, you can create a clipping mask by simply dragging the object halfway under the main object. You can also mask a vector shape by dragging other vector next to its thumbnail in the layer panel. But, it doesn’t stop there as you drag the object in different drop zones the app shows you live preview of what a clipping mask or layer mask will look like. This feature is fantastic. If you never knew how these features work trying and testing with live previews makes experimenting a lot of fun.
Experimenting can only be fun if you can undo and get back to previous state in case you don’t like the changes. Affinity Designer features a modern take on undo function. You can slide through more than 8000 steps of history so there will never be a moment where you feel that you messed up your file.
It’s worth mentioning that Affinity Designers’ full compatibility with popular file formats such as .psd, .ai, and .pdf will play a critical role in its success. The developers spent almost four years in R&D while developing the software and compatibility with Adobe’s suite of apps is a great achievement.
Affinity Designer for Mac when under development carried a codename ‘Persona’. Although the app was named differently when released, Personas bring a new workflow to the mix. The app features three Personas, Draw, Pixel and Export.
Draw Persona is all about vector drawing however, you are greeted with a pleasant surprise when you click on Pixel Persona. The app geniously brings pixel brushes, selection and effects like smudging, blurring, erasing vector brushes, sharpening and more to a vector drawing app. Want to apply a grunge brush to your vector art? No need to switch the app you are using. Affinity Designer can handle both.
The developers didn’t just stop at adding pixel persona, they added an intelligent assistant to make your tasks easier and enable you to work in an intuitive manner.
If I switch from draw to pixel persona and add a pixel brush stroke to my artwork technically I would need to first add a ‘pixel layer’ however, with the assistant working in the background you don’t have to worry about it as it automatically does the needful. The assistant can also place mask layer inside the vector when erasing. It can rasterise vector layer and then apply other brushes, automatically add adjustment as child layer to selection and rasterise layer and then apply filters.
Even the layer blending modes have received some love and gained live previews. Scrolling through different blend modes such as overlay, multiply, soft-light etc. will show you a live preview of what your design will look like so that you can make better choice quickly. This feature again goes onto show that the developers have paid close attention to the details.
Affinity Designer features dedicated gradient and transparency tools. These allow you to apply multiple gradients in an intuitive manner without the need to open any dialogue boxes.
Once you’re done creating your graphic design you can use the export persona to export your design. You can choose to export your design as 1x, 2x and 3x which is important as you may be creating design for retina displays or even mobile devices.
Another feature I’ve really liked is continuous export, once selected it automatically updates the exported file in the specified format and setting even as you continue to make edits and make alternate design decisions. It’s great to know that your final artwork folder will always contain the latest file no matter how many times you choose to make changes. Since the exported file is always overwritten you won’t have to deal with any duplicates.
Can Affinity Designer replace Illustrator? The answer to this question will depend on whether you are doing a feature by feature comparison or questioning its capabilities as a graphic design software.
There’s no doubt that Illustrator wins when it comes to the number of features. However, this doesn’t takeaway the fact that Affinity Designer is a very promising and extremely powerful graphic design software for the Mac. If you never knew Illustrator existed and used Affinity Designer for your project, you’d be able to accomplish nearly everything.
Affinity Designer is not fighting a feature vs feature battle rather it sets an example of how keeping usability in the forefront can result in a more productive and intuitive experience. The developers have said no to many features and yes to the ones that don’t sacrifice usability and provide reliable experience without adding any clutter.
If you are a beginner in vector drawing and graphic designing, I would recommend that you start right here with Affinity Designer. If you are a pro user who has been using Illustrator all this while, give Affinity Designer a try (trial available) and you won’t regret it.
Even though the application overall has highly impressed me there are a few concerns. If you’ve been using Illustrator you’ve got accustomed to certain keyboard shortcuts. In Affinity Designer you may need to learn different shortcuts. The software currently lacks any sort of symbols management. You can’t type text on a path. The only way to work is with layers, there’s no support for pages or art-boards.
It’s important to note that Affinity Designer was released on October 02, 2014. With the set of features already available in V 1.x it’s exciting to wait and see how the developers expand the current feature set.
Another point worth mentioning is that Serif Labs has opted to sell the software for a one-time price and not a subscription model. This alone is a very attractive investment for anyone from beginners to professionals.
Affinity Designer for Mac brings a fresh breath of air to the traditional vector drawing applications. Its focus on usability without sacrificing on advanced features is applaudable.
Watch Affinity Designer Features Overview Video
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Ever since I purchased my very first iPad 1 on launch day I’ve been searching for an app that will let me use the iPad as if I was hold a piece of paper in my hand, (And yes, I appreciate the irony of spending $500+ for a piece of paper!), and I’m yet to do it. Penultimate comes close, and I do love the app but it still didn’t feel natural.
Paper by FiftyThree aims to change all that with an app which is more than just for taking notes and is more about getting your creativity down on, well…..paper!
The app is built for the retina display of the new iPad, however, I’ve used the app on both the new iPad and the iPad 2 and other than it being a little more pixelated on the iPad 2 the experience is still one that will probably keep you coming back for more.
As a free download the app seems like an absolutely bargain to begin with but for free you only have access to a skill pen style and 9 colors. For many this will suffice, the experience is an organic one as you brush your finger across the screen and the pen draws pin-perfect pressure sensitive lines to create thin and thick lines as required.
Writing in Paper for iPad is an absolute joy, not only does it feel great but it looks amazing too and even though I’m not very artistic I felt that Paper brought out creativity in me that I never knew that I had purely because it’s such a great experience and possibly because there is an endless supply of paper!
The paper is stored in notebooks that you can create and name as you require and you can navigate through the notebooks and the pages with a swipe, while opening and closing them can be done with a pinch or by opening two fingers.
The minimalistic style also extends to the undo option which is performed by rotating two fingers anti-clockwise on the screen and while this works great some people may prefer the option of a virtual button to complete some of these actions.
In fact the only virtual in use are those to select the pen of choice and the color and it’s both these two items that left me wanting.
As mentioned previously the fact that the app is free initially seems like an absolute steal, however, if you wish to add additional writing options such as markers, pencils or a watercolor brush then you must purchase them for $1.99 each. This may seem a little expensive but if you find yourself using this app daily it’s certainly worth it.
Then there is the choice of color, a paltry 9 to choose from, why a complete color palette couldn’t have been included to allow you to choose any color you wish I don’t know. Perhaps a future update will see this included.
Those two points made, Paper is still a must download for all iPad owners, the free option will be more than adequate for many users but the chances are that after a few minutes, hours or days the temptation to purchase one, if not all, of the additional writing options will prove too much for many.
For a truly unique writing and artistic experience Paper by FiftyThree is a must.
[rating: 4/5]What we like
What to know
Pixel Dude Review: This app is categorized as a “productivity” app, but it’s just plain fun! Whether you have a need for some pixel art or just want to doodle away a bit, ‘Pixel Dude: Editor for Pixel Art with Dropbox Support‘ ($3.99) is a good choice.
The app presents you with a 32×32 pixel canvas to work your magic on. There are buttons at the top of the canvas for file management such as new, load, save, etc. It also shows a preview of your work in a more real-world size – a great feature to make sure your efforts are making the impact you intended.
At the bottom of the canvas are a bunch of color chips to choose from. The first row represents large categories of colors that you can swipe to see the entire rainbow. Once you’ve selected one of those colors, a second row appears with gradients of your chosen color. This allows you to choose very specific colors. And once you’ve chosen a color to work with, it appears in a third row, representing colors you’ve selected for your drawing.
There are also some very useful, very familiar tools available. Layers, vertical/horizontal symmetry, rotation, bucket and dropper tools, pencil, and eraser are all buttons at the bottom of the canvas. And drawing is very easy because of the relatively large size of the canvas.
Undo and redo are unlimited, so you can change your mind at any point in the process. It did crash a couple of times when tapping the Undo button, but little was lost even though I hadn’t officially saved yet. And saving is one of the areas where Pixel Dude shines. First off, it saves your drawing in 64×64 and 128×128 formats automatically. And once you save your drawing, you can email it to yourself or others from right within the app. Or you can enable it to sync with your Dropbox account – a very nice touch.
Pixel Dude is an awesome way to create icons or just general art. While it can be used to do some necessary work, it can also be a great way to just doodle, for adults or kids.
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Super Mega Worm is a human eating, arcade game brought to you by Deceased Pixel. If gobbling down humans who are running scared, with blood splattering everywhere are your thing, then Super Mega Worm is what you need to play.
Control Wojira the giant death worm who is on a mission to destroy all humans and will eat any that step in its way. You need to travel through the soil underground waiting until they appear. When they do, you need to enrupt out of the soil and slaughter them.
Sounds pretty gruesome right? Well indeed it is. Wojira will eat anything it comes across, the men screaming as they run, birds, cows and he also knocks about a few police cars. Even the poor unsuspecting mothers pushing their beloved babies in prams get eaten. If that is not enough for you, there are splatters of blood to be seen after every mouthful.
You start by breaking your ugly, human eating worm out of its egg then you just have to control it under and out of the soil. Every time you see a human you need to burst up and eat it. Your worm will then fall back down to go underground. Use the sliding controls to steer him back up and keep him close to the surface.
Wojira only stays alive by the people it eats. At the top of the screen is an energy bar, if this empties it will die. Sounds great to the poor humans running but in this game I am afraid it is the big bad worm you have to help. Eating the humans will keep his energy bar up so you basically just have to see how long you can keep it up for.
You start off quite small but as you progress through the levels you become bigger and harder to control. Use the power ups to help you along the way. There are 24 levels to work your way through, it is one hungry worm!
The graphics are very retro arcade style and the controls are on that scale as well. It took some getting used to controlling the worm in the beginning but it does become easier once you get the hang of it. At first though it is a bit of a challenge. The music and sound effects are arcade style and are very apt for the game.
Super Mega Worm is now enabled to be used with Apple’s new Game Center. A great idea and incentive to keep you coming back to play and try beat your friends high scores.
It is quite easy to keep alive the first three or four levels and in the beginning it did get a bit tiresome. When the worm gets bigger though you will find it does become more of a challenge and quite addictive. It is suitable for any casual or hardcore gamer.
Price: $0.99 (App Store)
Category: Games
Updated:Sep 14, 2010
Reviewed Version:1.25
Size: 11.9 MB
Language:English
Seller:Deceased Pixel LLC
© 2010 Deceased Pixel LLC
Requirements:Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iPhone OS 3.1 or later.