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Comment by clumsysmurf | Hacker News Reader

I think Affinity is closer to being David vs Adobe's Goliath.

With existing Windows / Mac vector and pixel tools, and a forthcoming Digital Asset Management (1) tool like Adobe Lr, they can take on Ai, Ps, and Lr.

I've been enjoying Lr for years but am turned off by Adobe's subscription cloud pricing model. The standalone hasn't been updated with features in quite some time. I think Adobe needs some competition.

(1) https://affinity.serif.com/forum/index.php?/topic/13981-digi...

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I found when I switched to Affinity I was able to drop PS completely. I even had good luck working with client supplied PS files, though I didn't need to return the supplied files, just create a derivative deliverable.

One odd side effect of this is I'm more disappointed in Affinity when it doesn't do something as well as PS, whereas with the other tools I'd write it off to their smaller scope an size.

I purchased Pixelmator a long time ago, but have never actually used it. I bought it to do web graphics, but their UI doesn't really speak to me. I've never cared for the floating docks like GIMP uses.

Affinity Designer has allowed me to not miss Photoshop/Illustrator at all. It came out right as I was thinking of buying a Mac and switching to Swift development. Saving the monthly Adobe fees helped me justify the cost of a Mac.

Also, the new Symbols stuff in Affinity Designer makes it useful for doing mockups. I haven't tried the layout constraint stuff they added.

For mockups I think Sketch is still easier/faster, but only barely. And it is kind of limited in what you can do, while Affinity Designer isn't. It's made me want to invest the time into getting good with Affinity Designer, since it's so powerful and fast. The buy once thing is also nice - I think paying monthly for desktop software is mostly bullshit.

Sorry for the long rambling, I just really want to praise Affinity. When I see that there's an update I actually get excited, and they keep adding non-trivial features. It's how I wish other software companies worked. I hope they do well and can continue with their current business model.

I might just have to give this a try. Looking at the Affinity site it's the first Adobe alternative that I have seen with Pantone support. Critical for the print world. Now if it plays nice with RIP's...

Pixelmator is definitely the wrong tool for web graphics. It is much more focused on image editing. I tried to use it as a PS sub like you. Eventually i moved to Sketch and it has been great.

This is true. I enjoy using it for basic editing/painting but it lacks the depth of general image manipulation tools.

I agree - although I think Affinity (and Sketch and Pixelmator) might not necessarily displace Adobe's design apps, but rather dent their market share.

What's nice about the Affinity apps:

- they are cross-platform: Windows and Mac (unlike Sketch and PixelMator)

- they are not subscription-based (like Adobe)

- they cover vector (Affinity Designer), Raster (Affinity Photo) and DTP (still-to-be-released app)

- they are much more affordable than an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription

- they feel faster and much less bloated than Adobe's apps

However, the sheer amount of tutorials and design assets available for Adobe apps means that Adobe will remain popular. And there are some apps like After Effects that simply don't have any serious rivals.

Do you have any details about the DTP app?

No screenshots or feature list for the DTP app (called Publisher) have been released yet.

Here is a post from the Affinity forums from October 2016 from one of the Serif staff on the current state of the app:

https://affinity.serif.com/forum/index.php?/topic/26715-why-...

btw, do I have to purchase mac and Windows versions separately?

Yes, separate licence for each platform.

> forthcoming DAM

Your thread is 2015. From Affinity a couple months ago:

"I'm not able to give any definitive timeline as they are details I am not privy to. Personally I would not expect to see it in 2017, but that does not mean things might not change."

https://affinity.serif.com/forum/index.php?/topic/25835-digi...

This mirrors my complaint exactly - I belatedly upgraded to CC after holding off for as long as possible simply because I receive a lot of files from clients, which were increasingly opening 'badly' (poor PDF conversions, etc).

So I've paid for CC for three years now.. and for what? The feature set I require beyond file compatability was served by my old CS2 peograms - it's nearly a decade since Adobe added anything relevant to me.

It's a business expense so not the end of the world, but I'm in the UK so pay as much for two apps as Americans pay for the entire suite,and I'm embittered toward Adobe, feeling like I'm just being bilked every month.

Sod their subscription model.

I've invested in Affinity's windows offering, even though they're not terrifically useful to me (I use illustrator like its CAD) simply to help the competition Adobe so very much needs.

I pay for Photoshop right now, so I'm not above paying for Affinity if it handles that usecase for me, now that it's available for Windows. I'm disappointed that there's no trial that I can see, but it's inexpensive enough I might dive in anyway.

I bought Affinity Designer for Windows on impulse (at $30 I was happy enough to swap a night out for a TV dinner), and I was impressed enough that I bought Photo sight unseen the day it came out for Windows. Within about two weeks they'd eliminated about 90% of my need for Photoshop (only a few particularly plugin-heavy workflows are left) and all of my need for Illustrator.

The only Adobe product I keep around is InDesign, and only because I was fortunate enough to get CS6 before permanent licensing ended. Affinity Publisher seems to forever be at least a year out and no alternative I've tried can do everything I need InDesign to do, much less with the same efficiency.

How is Affinity Photo's RAW support for new devices? The supported camera list link from their website[1] says 08 February 2015. I'm not familiar with their forum so am not sure if it's ever edited since that date, but there are certain new-ish cameras missing from the list. If they don't update RAW support for new cameras, that will be a big bummer. (Lr standalone version at least updates RAW support frequently)

[1] https://affinity.serif.com/forum/index.php?/topic/4630-suppo...

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