Switch from Adobe to Affinity...?

jwheeler

Well-known member
TLDR: Yes, they are a viable alternative.

I have been a graphic designer using the Adobe suite since ~2005, and I have been teaching it for the last 5.5 years. I still do occasional freelance work on the side, but not enough to warrant the monthly subscription. After I upgraded my home PC a couple of years ago, I could not reinstall an old perpetual license I had for Adobe. I have been getting by using a free Illustrator alternative called Inkscape and a free Photoshop alternative called Photopea.

However, after Canva recently acquired Affinity, they offered a 6-month free trial and announced they would be offering it free to all schools/educators. I decided to give it a try and I figured I'd share my experience for those who might be considering it. (No, this is not sponsored by Affinity...I'm just a printing/graphics nerd sharing my feedback. But hey, if you want to sponsor me Affinity...? :ROFLMAO: )

Since it's campaign season, I have a private client running for city council who has been keeping me busy designing business cards, flyers, postcards, yard signs, t-shirts, pens, hats, vehicle signs, and a website. I have been doing every project in Affinity and outsourcing all of the printing. Not a single print shop complained about the files and they all turned out great.

My conclusion: They are definitely a viable alternative to the Adobe suite. The interface is VERY similar, even most of the keyboard shortcuts are the same. There are a few features I like better than Adobe, but there were also a few that I found a bit more challenging. I think the biggest challenge is how Affinity puts things in a different sub-menu, or calls a feature by a slightly different name - but this is going to happen with any software. I found myself keeping the help menu open so I could find several items. At work, I still prefer to use Adobe simply because I know where everything is. However, I can switch between either one pretty easily now.

Being a teacher in a public school, I know what a challenge it is to get budget approvals. Therefore, I foresee a large number of high school graphic classrooms switching to Affinity since it is free. This will cause a new generation of designers to be more comfortable with Affinity instead of Adobe, and you'll start seeing a shift in the coming years (unless Adobe buys them out of course!). Heck, we're all already seeing lots of Canva files come in to our print shops.
 
I also think with Adobe charging for Pantone Charts they've really shot themselves in the foot at a time they needed to stay strong.
We rarely get Pantone jobs in anymore in our shop.
 
I also think with Adobe charging for Pantone Charts they've really shot themselves in the foot at a time they needed to stay strong.
We rarely get Pantone jobs in anymore in our shop.
Was it really Adobe that made this change or was it Pantone that forced their hand? I'm really asking because I don't know.

According to the second FAQ on Pantone's site, they only say it was because "Pantone’s licensing with Adobe was adjusted". Does this mean that Pantone wanted to start charging a higher contract price to Adobe, Adobe is just passing that on to the end users to choose whether they really want it or not? Or did Pantone want to take control of their libraries and make more money with their own monthly subscription plan?
 
Was it really Adobe that made this change or was it Pantone that forced their hand? I'm really asking because I don't know.

According to the second FAQ on Pantone's site, they only say it was because "Pantone’s licensing with Adobe was adjusted". Does this mean that Pantone wanted to start charging a higher contract price to Adobe, Adobe is just passing that on to the end users to choose whether they really want it or not? Or did Pantone want to take control of their libraries and make more money with their own monthly subscription plan?
This was all of Pantone's doing. They blame is on a "disagreement" with Adobe.
As both X-Rite and Pantone (X-Rite owns Pantone) are selling less and less hardware, they needed a revenue stream.
Bam! Let's start a subscription service like every other company on the face of the earth.
 
I also think with Adobe charging for Pantone Charts they've really shot themselves in the foot at a time they needed to stay strong.
We rarely get Pantone jobs in anymore in our shop.

This issue has been discussed ad nauseum here and in other venues. It wasn't a matter of Pantone charging Adobe and Adobe passing along or absorbing the increased royalties. What Pantone and its parent company wanted to do was to further monetize the Pantone color definitions by having a direct relationship with Adobe's customers including Adobe sharing customer information with Pantone allowing Pantone to directly market other products or product extensions to Adobe customers including both designers and print service providers (including the possibility of a Pantone ”click charge” to view or print content for which Pantone colors are referenced.

FWIW, you can find any number of workarounds for reintegrating the “missing” Pantone color definitions into current versions of Adobe software. (Note that I am not a lawyer nor giving any legal advice as to the legality of such workarounds or for that matter of whether associating a particular CIELaB values with a particular name is legally protected!)
 
TLDR: Yes, they are a viable alternative.

I have been a graphic designer using the Adobe suite since ~2005, and I have been teaching it for the last 5.5 years. I still do occasional freelance work on the side, but not enough to warrant the monthly subscription. After I upgraded my home PC a couple of years ago, I could not reinstall an old perpetual license I had for Adobe. I have been getting by using a free Illustrator alternative called Inkscape and a free Photoshop alternative called Photopea.

However, after Canva recently acquired Affinity, they offered a 6-month free trial and announced they would be offering it free to all schools/educators. I decided to give it a try and I figured I'd share my experience for those who might be considering it. (No, this is not sponsored by Affinity...I'm just a printing/graphics nerd sharing my feedback. But hey, if you want to sponsor me Affinity...? :ROFLMAO: )

Since it's campaign season, I have a private client running for city council who has been keeping me busy designing business cards, flyers, postcards, yard signs, t-shirts, pens, hats, vehicle signs, and a website. I have been doing every project in Affinity and outsourcing all of the printing. Not a single print shop complained about the files and they all turned out great.

My conclusion: They are definitely a viable alternative to the Adobe suite. The interface is VERY similar, even most of the keyboard shortcuts are the same. There are a few features I like better than Adobe, but there were also a few that I found a bit more challenging. I think the biggest challenge is how Affinity puts things in a different sub-menu, or calls a feature by a slightly different name - but this is going to happen with any software. I found myself keeping the help menu open so I could find several items. At work, I still prefer to use Adobe simply because I know where everything is. However, I can switch between either one pretty easily now.

Being a teacher in a public school, I know what a challenge it is to get budget approvals. Therefore, I foresee a large number of high school graphic classrooms switching to Affinity since it is free. This will cause a new generation of designers to be more comfortable with Affinity instead of Adobe, and you'll start seeing a shift in the coming years (unless Adobe buys them out of course!). Heck, we're all already seeing lots of Canva files come in to our print shops.

Let us know how it goes. Canva bought Affinity btw.
 
That's not true (unless I'm not understanding what you mean by automated). You can create Macros in Affinity which would be equivalent to Actions in Adobe. You can also use the Batch Jobs function in Affinity for automatically applying macros to large amounts of files.

Sorry, I had to clarify: I was referring to Affinity Publisher and Designer.

Macros/Batch Jobs are only available in Photos. And still, Photos is not scriptable.

Affinity is well aware of this shortcoming.

Until they provide solid scripting APIs comparable to Adobe's products, Affinity has no chance to be seriously considered in professional markets.
 
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I've given the trial a look and for 98% percent of the things I use Adobe for it looks like a great alternative. There's still a couple of extremely niche applications that keep me tied to Adobe. Eventually I expect Affinity to expand to include those as well (variable data functions, ability to use book files like InDesign).
 
I'm hoping Affinity can improve/simplify their current implementation of data merge.

Better that both Affinity and Adobe support PDF/VT-1 as part of their so-called “data merge” features. In the case of InDesign, the “data merge” was pretty much a port of some very old code from 1990's era PageMaker code. (At this point, PDF/VT support for InDesign is available only via very pricey add-in software!)

PDF/VT is the only means by which you can get decent RIP performance with data merge documents.
 
Sorry, I had to clarify: I was referring to Affinity Publisher and Designer.

Macros/Batch Jobs are only available in Photos. And still, Photos is not scriptable.

Affinity is well aware of this shortcoming.

Until they provide solid scripting APIs comparable to Adobe's products, Affinity has no chance to be seriously considered in professional markets.
Understood. I think for the average freelance graphic designer or even small mom/pop shops who want to save on the monthly subscription fees and don't use those more advanced features, Affinity could be a good option. But you're right, for bigger companies who need the automation and have a team of designers who already know Adobe, they should stick with Adobe - especially because the monthly subscription isn't as much of a concern and the training/transition would cost more than they'd save.

And I agree with @hsearcy that Affinity will most likely be adding those features in the near future. It has been evident that they are listening to their users and regularly adding/upgrading features. I'd assume the third party companies like Meadows Publishing who make an InDesign VDP plug-in will even start making a version for Affinity.
 
I've been using affinity software at home for the odd personal or side project. It seems to work fine but I find that it is more difficult to build and swap colours (perhaps it's because I'm just too familiar with Adobe's workflow). I have not yet upgraded from my perpetually owned versions of the software to the newer package sold by Canva. I may consider upgrading and/or get my wife to access the FREE school version (if it can be used at home).
 
Has anyone tried building a virtual machine on their PC running an older version of windows that supports you Adobe CC?
That might extend the life cycle of those older programs.
 

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