Why I use Affinity Designer Over Adobe Illustrator?

Before going ahead if you still haven’t read my previous blog post ‘The story behind how Art saved me every time I hit the rock-bottom in my life’ then please do.

I feel the main essence for the month of October and Alexa Campaign is my previous blog post. So if you still haven’t read it then please do.

Sharing some exciting news here… Two of my poems are published in an anthology book ‘The Unforgotten Spring’ and it was released on 15th of October and I would love if you’ll stop by and read it. It’s available in e-book as well as paperback.

The reason why I choose Affinity Designer over Adobe Illustrator

When I did my Graphic Designing course I was not very into it or serious about it but I really enjoyed learning it. When I finished the course, I had a laptop, but the access to software was a problem for me. I was taught Corel-draw, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop and Adobe In design and mostly all courses will teach you graphic designing with Adobe Softwares.

Even though many suggested I should download the pirated free versions, but it never made me comfortable about it. By the time I finished the course I really wanted to get serious with designing but somehow was unable to.

That time I was not much aware of the fact that pursuing a Masters in English Literature will come knocking to my door and so at that point I was free and doing nothing much in life.

Strangely one day my dad gets a call from one of his friends and mentions that his daughter did a diploma in graphic designing and now is a freelancer.

My dad asked me if I have done a similar course why can’t I start doing the same and I had to explain to him that the laptop I owned is not compatible with graphic designing software. I noticed this while I was trying adobe illustrator free trial on my laptop and my laptop started to work slow or used to hang at one point.

So, he agreed to buy a high-tech pc for me and that’s how Lenevo all in one (I don’t know the model name) came to my possession. Now, that he had invested in this pc, the question of software still was unanswered and I did not want to bother my father for more investments.

The search for some free to cheaper software began here. I came across many but I somehow stumbled upon ‘Affinity Designer’.

I read about it and you know what caught my attention. Obviously, the price. It is a one time buy unlike Adobe products and is a cheaper option.

I also happened to download a free trial version directly from the Affinity’s website and found it’s quite similar to Adobe Illustrator… Only flaw Affinity Designer does not have a live trace and a wrap tool option.

Affinity designer is not only a vector image building software but it also allows one to edit pixel files

A detailed description of both pros and cons on both software can be read here

Affinity is a serif’s model by a software company based in the UK. Initially, Affinity Designer released in the year 2014 only for Mac users and then in 2016 it launched for Microsoft Windows. It is now available and supports macOS, Microsoft Windows and IOS.

When I had bought affinity designer, back then affinity photo was still not launched I guess. Affinity photo is an alternative to Adobe Photoshop. I still haven’t bought Affinity photo even though it’s been on my list since last year. I may buy it soon. Affinity also has introduced ‘Affinity Publisher’ which if I am not wrong is an alternative to Adobe Indesign.

In 2017, I had bought Affinity Designer in INR 3000, and now the cost price is INR3999 same price for Affinity Photo and Publisher. Only for Ipad users, the price for ‘Affinity designer and Photo is INR 1599/-. Affinity Publisher is not available on Ipad. Although, it is said it is going to launch for Ipads too in the year 2020.

Affinity also supports many file type. For example, if I work on affinity designer, I can export and use the same file in Adobe photo/ illustrator as well. Also, the best feature of Affinity Designer is the Personas. Some of the features of Adobe Photoshop are already available in Affinity Designer. So it’s like the best thing to do some work in one software rather switching between two software.

I personally love Pixel as well as Vector brushes options in Affinity Designer and have used them a lot in my work.

Someone who is still struggling hard to set her own freelancing business and is still learning, I feel Affinity suits me the best than Adobe that is way pricy.

Affinity Designer has frequent updates and it’s easy to use too.

I did not go in detail as when it comes to technical terms I fail to express it. I find Affinity more cost-effective and have been using since the past 3 years now and the constant updates are bringing in new features as well.

It’s competing well enough with Adobe but many professional graphic designers will still choose Adobe over Affinity. Although, there are many who have switched from Adobe to Affinity and create some amazing art through Affinity as well.

So if you are a graphic designer who is looking for an alternative to Adobe products or just a hobbyist who is looking for cheaper Illustrator software then ‘Affinity Designer is the answer.

Check their website and get to know a complete list of their features.

Pro Tip: Inkscape is free and open-source graphics/vector creator software

This is it for today and hope you enjoyed reading it.

“I am taking my blog to the next level with Blogchatter’s My Friend Alexa.”

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If you wish to get in touch for any commission related work do drop by an email on kondkarinazish95@gmail.com