- Professional Illustrators Websites
- Affinity Illustrator Trial
- Affinity Vs Adobe
- Illustrator Vs Affinity
Affinity Designer vs Illustrator programs can be used for different purposes. Affinity Designer is a powerful graphic editor that works both with vector and raster graphics, therefore it is more universal. Illustrator is a professional program for working with vector graphics. It has a huge set of tools, so many software developers try to imitate its features. I’ve put together this detailed guide to Affinity Designer and Adobe Illustrator. Both are two of the best software programs for graphic designers. Is Affinity Designer a viable alternative for Adobe illustrator? We compare tool sets, import/export file capability and workspace features between the two.
Affinity Designer vs Illustrator are graphic design tools that are two hot choices for debate for professional designers. When it comes to creating professional and beautiful vector designs Affinity Designer and Adobe Illustrator are the two reliable alternatives. This Affinity Designer vs Illustrator comparison guide will give you complete information about how compelling and impressive these tools are.
Affinity Designer vs Illustrator: What are they ?
I am sure by the end of this guide you will be able to make your choice between Affinity Designer vs Adobe Illustrator web design software. Let’s begin the comparison and learn the differences and similarities if they have any. When you want to create a website make sure you choose the best things.
What is Affinity Designer?
Affinity Designer is a robust vector graphic design program to cater to all your professional design needs. Various designers, creatives, artists use this tool to create their own innovative piece. It was developed by UK-based Serif labs. Affinity Designer is an ideal solution to create UI designs, web graphics, icons, vector illustrations, mock-ups, typography, logos, and more.
Professional Illustrators Websites
Furthermore, Affinity Designer comes with an asset management feature that eases the process of organizing your projects. It is compatible with Windows, macOS, and iOS. This software has a plethora of features along with an impressive zoom of over 1,000,000% for smooth and quick effects without losing the image quality.
What is Adobe Illustrator?
Adobe Illustrator is a vector graphic software developed and distributed by Adobe. It was originally built for Apple Macintosh. And the recent release of Illustrator CC 2020 was released in October 2019. You can easily run this software on both Windows as well as macOS platforms. It comes with a great set of drawing tools.
It can be effortlessly used in several areas of printing, advertising, illustrations, logo design, photography, graphs, charts, web design, and more. Adobe Illustrator has an amazingly simple interface with superb features and functionality.
When to Use Affinity Designer?
Many professional designers use this vector graphic design software because of the fact that it combines Illustrator and Photoshop into one single program. It comes with plenty of features and various useful shortcuts to help you get started quickly.
- You can use shape and pen tools to create vector pixel designs.
- When you want to create professional logos for your business.
- When you want natural and responsive brushes for painting.
- It is 300 % faster than Adobe Illustrator.
- If you want to make use of both raster and vector graphic tools under one place.
- You may consider Illustrator vs Photoshop for better understanding.
- When you want to include various impressive effects in your project.
When to Use Illustrator?
Adobe Illustrator is a versatile vector-based graphic design software to help you create graphic designs, logos, and many other basic to complex creative designs for your business. You can easily create and scale them as and when required. Even if you want to create anything small or large scale design elements.
- It lets you create multi-page documents such as brochures, banners, annual reports.
- You can easily create innovative and unique web designs using Adobe Illustrator.
- When you wish to create professional vector designs for your business.
- It gives pixel-perfect results effortlessly.
- When you need to craft complex design and you need to alter it, resize things repeatedly.
- When you need to design images with creative text.
- If you wish to work on pixel photographs.
- If you are working on print documents and multiple documents at a time.
Key Features of Affinity Designer
Affinity Designer is a powerful tool that enables you to create and edit web design. It allows users to create designs with precision. While using the on-screen dynamic feature you can quickly create graphics and designs with ease. However, below are some of its top features.
- It’s blazing fast.
- Never underestimate the zoom power. It provides you pan and zoom at 60fps
- It provides you real-time gradients, blend mode, and various effects.
- You can switch between light to dark modes.
- It comes with great file compatibility such as HDR, EXR, PNG, JPEG, PDF, SVG, TIFF, EPS, GIF format.
- Affinity Designer comprises both vector and pixel tools in one single tool.
- This software is available for both macOS and Windows.
- It constantly provides important updates and improvements.
- You can add scalable text for impressive headlines and other graphic design projects.
- It comes with live OpenType feature previews.
- You can use different color palettes as per your project needs.
- It automatically scales your content once you resize the document.
- Affinity Designer has 16-bit per channel support.
- You can enjoy various live effects such as
- Inner shadow
- Outer shadow
- Inner glow
- Outline
- Gaussian blur
- Color overlay
- Gradient overlay and many more
- You can get access to many blend modes
- Reflect
- Glow
- Subtract
- Hue
- Hard light
- Vivid light
- Normal
- Multiply and many more
- It lets you manage stroke stabilization for smooth effects.
- Seamlessly resize documents with or without resizing the artwork.
Key Features of Illustrator
Adobe Illustrator contains vibrant advancements. Anybody from professionals to novices can use Adobe Illustrator without a hitch. The latest version of Illustrator contains amazing features and enhanced tools for greater productivity. You can easily use this software to create small to larger designs. And below are some of the top features of Adobe Illustrator.
- Adobe Illustrator enables you to make use of real-time editing and drawing.
- You can scale the objects and all the scaling effects will not be shown as outlines.
- You can easily drag & drop artboards between two open documents.
- The cut, copy, and paste features can be applied via keyboard shortcuts.
- The facility to use the drag & drop tools between the toolbar and the drawer.
- A newly added auto-spell-check feature helps you to create the correct brochure, resume, posters, and other artworks.
- All the files are saved and exported in the background.
- Various newly improved effects such as blur, drop shadow, inner & outer glow will give you amazing results.
- Adobe Illustrator enables you a faster rendering of feather effects, gaussian effects in preview mode.
- You can easily create color blends to create innovative web design with ease.
- It comes with color synchronization and file packaging.
- Various built-in templates are there to choose from.
Affinity Designer vs Illustrator Comparison Table (2020)
Key Differences | Affinity Designer | Adobe Illustrator |
---|---|---|
Free Trial | 90-day | 30-day |
Free version | No | No |
Supported Platforms | Windows, Mac | Windows, Mac |
iPad Support | Available | Coming Soon |
Pricing Model | One-time Purchase | Annual, Monthly Plans |
Multilingual Support | It Supports 10 languages | It Supports 18 languages |
Ease of Use | Simple | Intermediate |
Advantages of Affinity Designer
- Affinity Designer lets you create artboards of any size with a lot of details.
- It’s a great collaboration of Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator.
- It perfectly works with both Mac and Windows.
- You can easily create professional illustrations, vector designs, and many other projects that need a zooming feature.
- It’s an ideal choice to make isometric video game graphics.
- You can have correctly aligned and measured designs with Affinity Designer.
- It lets you create precise objects with ease.
- You can easily create both pixel and vector graphics with Affinity Designer.
- A wide selection of colors helps you craft beautiful designs.
- The advanced creative tools can help you handle complex jobs with ease.
- It also includes vector creation tools and image editing tools.
- You can flawlessly create dynamic symbols and responsive items with Affinity Designer.
Disadvantages of Affinity Designer
- Affinity Designer does not have any free trial for iPad.
- It doesn’t offer any plugin capability. Thus, it can not be tailored to specific purposes.
- Some users may find it difficult while selecting objects and layering.
- It treats all objects as filled.
- It has a steep learning curve.
- At times it gets complicated to use it, especially for beginners.
Advantages of Illustrator
- Adobe Illustrator has a user-friendly interface.
- The in-panel editing feature of Illustrator makes the designing process smooth.
- It is also one of the best logo design software out there.
- Adobe Illustrator is highly scalable.
- It perfectly integrates with other Adobe products.
- There are various options for sizes such as pixel, point, and inches.
- It is a highly flexible tool.
- Anybody related to print marketing can benefit from this software.
- You can smoothly scale your vector files without losing any detail.
- It is one of the lightweight vector design software.
- If you want to try your hands on type combo then, nothing can beat Adobe Illustrator.
- While creating any two-dimensional design, you can thoroughly enjoy the incredible precision.
- It comes with a wide range of tools to use.
- You can head to tutorials and how-to guides for a quick understanding of the flow.
- Creating animations with Adobe Illustrator is a breeze.
- It lets you change or alter existing images seamlessly.
Disadvantages of Illustrator
- Adobe Illustrator has a steep learning curve.
- The limited support for raster graphics.
- It requires an enormous amount of patience to work with Illustrator.
- Getting started with Adobe Illustrator can be a little challenging for beginners.
- Some users may find the interface a little clunky.
- The snap-to feature needs improvements.
- It lacks the backward compatibility of files.
Affinity Designer vs Illustrator – Which is Better For You?
Certainly, there is no doubt that both Affinity Designer and Adobe Illustrator are powerful choices for creating vector graphic designs. But Adobe Illustrator is taking the first place. However, even the Affinity Designer also has an array of features to offer you. The fact that Affinity Designer is a little cheaper than Adobe Illustrator.
It is suitable for beginners to create their first easy and beautiful designs. But this by no means confirms that you should not use Adobe Illustrator for your projects. However, Affinity designer vs Illustrator which platform can serve your business needs better boil downs to your requirements. So, it totally is a personal pick and that may vary with your project’s objective. And don’t forget to share with me in the comments below.
Related reads:
Affinity Designer is a vector or raster app. It’s a competitor to Adobe’s Illustrator and allows you to design various elements for print or digital publication.
It’s part of the Affinity package of design tools made by Serif. Use it to do anything from making a business card to mock up an app. Affinity Designer is made for Mac iOS, Windows, and the iPad.
Here, we’ve collected some of the best for everyone from beginners to more seasoned pros, a mix of video and written tutorials. It’s a great place to start for upskilling with your first steps in Affinity Designer!
Affinity Designer UI Overview
If you are new to Affinity Designer or just want an overview of the tool and what it looks like before making a purchase, this UI overview is the place to start. The video lasts less than 5 minutes and walks through the user interface, highlighting a few key elements of the software.
Affinity Designer: The File Menu
Another beginner tutorial, this video takes you through the file menu and looks at each option and how to use it. Rory Townsend, who made the video, also has similar video tutorials with each of the other menu options to help you really get a good hold on all the things you can do with Affinity Designer and where each individual tool or option is located in the menu.
Affinity Designer: 10 Basics
This is the ultimate getting started video guide for Affinity Designer, with all the basics in one video. You’ll learn how to get started with a new document, use premade and custom shapes, work with colors, see how layers work, combine shapes, work with vectors and the vector brush and pen tools, add text to a file, and save and export. It’s all in an easy to follow video and you can get all this information in less than 20 minutes. Plus, the video host Jesse Showalter, has plenty of energy so this tutorial anything but boring.
Affinity Designer Basic Logo Design
Affinity Designer is a tool that allows you to work with vector or raster images. That means you can create logos that can be scaled for any use with the software. In this tutorial, you walk through all the steps to create a simple vector logo using tools in Affinity Designer.
How to Create a Flat Vector Illustration in Affinity Designer
Because of vector functionality, Affinity Designer can also be used to create illustrations. This tutorial takes you through the steps to create a flat illustration, such as the example above, that you can apply to full-scale illustrations, logo, or icon design. The tutorial includes step-by-step instructions and plenty of screenshots that you can use to follow along on your own.
Using the Layers Panel
Using layers and groups is a powerful function that can help keep files organized and a lot easier to manage. Using them in Affinity Designer is fairly easy. Learn everything you need to know about layers and groups in this short video from the makers of the software.
How to Create an Icon in Affinity Designer
Icon design is something almost everyone comes across at some point. Affinity Designer is the perfect tool for creating all manner of icons. This tutorial takes you through the process step-by-step, and even includes some bonus information such as how to choose the right size when designing an icon and how to use various tools. Every step includes screenshots to make understanding easy.
Symbols in Affinity Designer
Using symbols as linked objects allow you to edit one element and it impacts everything in the design. (This is an awesome feature.) This tutorial shows you how to use symbols as intelligent linked objects for great global editing capability. (Learn this pro trick in less than 5 minutes!)
Using Text Effects
Text manipulations can be somewhat controversial. Purists say you should never mess with a typeface, but sometimes you have to use certain effects to make it work for your project. This Affinity Design tutorial shows you how to do just that. You’ll get an introduction to text effect manipulations in this easy to follow video.
How to Create Patterns in Affinity Designer
Patterns have a lot of practical use from website backgrounds to the main artwork for a poster or brochure. From subtle repeating shapes to something a little bolder, there are a few different ways to create a pattern in Affinity Designer. This tutorial explores three options. Note there are a lot of steps here, but the instructions and screenshots are easy to follow. Don’t let the depth of the lesson intimidate you.
Affinity Designer for iPad
The recording of a live session provides an overview of everything you need to use Affinity Designer effectively on an iPad. You’ll get an overview of tools and the software as well as creating specific things (a playing card, book cover, and poster) using tablet-based tools. The tutorial lasts over an hour and is comprehensive.
Pen Tool Masking in Affinity Designer
Use the Pen tool in Affinity Designer to create a dynamic mask of a selection of an image and apply modifications. This is a cool feature that can take some time to learn and this tutorial gives you a jumpstart.
Shapes Around a Curved Line in Affinity Designer
In less than 5 minutes, you can apply shapes to a curved line. You’ll learn how to create a brush from a shape and use that to apply to any shape or size of curved line. The tutorial explains this function clearly and shows how to apply this highly functional feature.
Advanced Color Features in Affinity Designer
You can create, save, and store colors and fills in Affinity Designer. This is great for palettes that will be reused so you don’t have to manually renter color mixes every time. Using these advanced color features is easy to learn if you know the tricks offered in this video tutorial.
Everything You Need to Know About Affinity Designer Brushes
Brushes can help speed workflows and allow you to create custom stroke styles. This tutorial shows you how to use the tool including basics of the brushes panel, how to set up vector or raster brushes, how to create your own brushes, how to install brush packs, and how to use brushes from Photoshop or Illustrator.
Affinity Designer Point Transform Tool
Affinity Illustrator Trial
Use the point transform tool to change the look of a geometric shape in Affinity Designer. This tool lets you change shapes and alters the look of objects.
Advanced Axonometric Grid Setup
An axonometric grid shows a three-dimensional object at a skewed angle so you can see multiple sides in the illustration. Affinity Designer allows you to set up an axonometric grid for projects. This tutorial takes you through creating the custom setup.
Affinity Vs Adobe
Affinity Designer Templates
Illustrator Vs Affinity
We're covering the basics of Affinity Designer, helpful tutorials, comparisons with other apps, and the best templates and assets to use.