KCP

I regret to say I agree with you. As much as I want this software to deliver on its promises, it still lacks the tools and stability needed to be considered commercially viable. Since I no longer collaborate with industry professionals, and primarily freelance in retirement, I can usually make Designer work with some creative workarounds. Affinity Photo is more than capable for its intended purposes. But for me, it's time to stop hoping for a more professional evolution of the Affinity products. To be fair, the Affinity Suite stands out as the closest competitor to Adobe’s creative software, offering a compelling alternative for many users. While Adobe remains the industry standard, especially for professionals who need to collaborate or exchange files within large organizations, Affinity’s apps are powerful and well-suited for freelancers and independent creatives. For most graphic design, photography, and publishing tasks, Affinity delivers professional-grade results and a smooth user experience. In spite of Designer missing two or three key tools, Affinity's tools are robust, intuitive, and run efficiently even on less powerful hardware. However, if your workflow depends on advanced automation, third-party plugins, and seamless integration with other industry-standard tools, Adobe is a must. In summary, unless you specifically need Adobe’s deep feature set or must share files in Adobe’s proprietary formats, Affinity is a highly capable and affordable solution for producing finished creative work.

Thanks for your thoughts. I addressed my feelings about the price in another forum:

Hi Callum, I think I just found part of the problem. See the attached video. I Ctrl-started the app and checked every box but the shortcuts and my new-page presets. Notice that when I click on "New", the default A4 option appears with the "Facing Page" and "Number of Pages> activated but with the "Create" but greyed out. As soon as I click on one of my presets, the "Facing Pages" option becomes greyed out. The "Number of Pages" option remains activated, although the new document only opens with 1 page. Maybe I'm missing something, but It seems like a bug. Regards, KCP See-Problem.mp4

Thank you for the response, Callum. Yes, the problem still exists. Please watch my short video all the way through to see the issue. Also notice that whenever I hit enter to line-break, the first letter on the new line is automatically capitalized in upper case. Please advise. Publisher Set Up Issue.mp4

This comment raises an interesting point that may reflect the developers' and their employers' stance on the pace of AD implementation. For instance, morphing technology has been available in various forms within FOSS software for decades. Regarding the $35 price tag, while they are free to set their pricing as they see fit, it would be more appropriate not to market the app as the following: “Illustration & graphic design software at its best Affinity Designer is an award-winning vector graphics software setting the new industry standard in the world of design. Available for Windows, macOS and iPad, the super-smooth, feature-packed app is the choice of thousands of professional illustrators, web designers, game developers and other creatives looking to create high-quality concept art, print projects, logos, icons, UI designs, mock-ups and more.” Designer lacks true industry-standard features, and with Canva’s substantial financial backing (a $32 billion market cap), insufficient R&D funding is no longer a valid justification. Rather than locking Affinity behind a subscription wall, consider making it competitively priced against industry leaders while maintaining affordability for users. Professional designers are willing to pay reasonable prices for high-quality tools that meet their needs. The first company to challenge Adobe with a strong, user-focused approach has the potential to disrupt the market. The 2.6 update is disappointing, especially given its prolonged beta period. Its most notable feature—the AI-assisted Object Selection Tool—falls short for anything beyond basic tasks like mockups for coupon ads. Designers with a solid understanding of mask building can achieve better results more efficiently using techniques like channel masking. My intent is not to criticize Affinity software unfairly. Under its previous ownership, the company seemed more aligned with meaningful growth, which is why I initially made the switch. Transitioning from owning a design firm to freelancing, I saw Affinity as a viable alternative to Adobe—but now, following Canva’s acquisition, I have growing concerns. Unfortunately, discussions about these issues in the forums seem to be met with silence from developers. The lack of engagement suggests that feedback from concerned users is being overlooked, despite forums existing to foster product improvement and user education. The current industry model, led by companies like Adobe, prioritizes institutional investors and operates with monopolistic tendencies—something the design community recognizes. If Canva follows this same path, it will not go unnoticed, and it certainly wouldn’t be an innovative approach to serving its customer base.

I just downloaded the 2.6 versions of Photo, Designer, and Publisher, as well as the two machine-learning installations. Now I can't open a new Publisher document with multiple and facing pages. Both options are greyed out. Please advise. Thank you, KCP

"Still, the Affinity 'workhorse tools should be there and stable'. " "BTW, my little workaround for the Contour Tool sometimes works fine, but bombs on more complex shapes and distorts them. It needs fixing. Cheers." Agreed, which was the tacit point of my OP. Thank you for your replies.

Like you, I was with Adobe since the first editions, until I transitioned to Affinity. I owned a design firm in Denver and had 7 employees and myself using it daily. I've since sold that firm and work as a freelance designer. I first considered Affinity because I no longer need to share files with so many people. You raised an important point about the cost. I've posted on here before about gladly paying more for the suite if they'd clean up the issues and gear it toward professionals as advertised. They could even sell it at a one-time fee and charge separately for esoteric tools as plugins, but make sure that the workhorse tools are there and stable. Otherwise, call it hobbyist software and don't advertise it as a viable alternative for working designers. Anyway, I've exhausted this rant, so like you said, hopefully, Canva will sort this stuff out before pros finally leave and go back to Adobe. As much as I dislike Adobe's ethics, their apps work. Best, KCP

Thanks, Ldina. I tried that, earlier, although it creates numerous, unnecessary nodes that significantly increase the file size, especially when you have to do it to several curves. There is a very good plugin for Illustrator, called Astute Graphics, which can reduce unnecessary nodes without compromising shapes, although it isn't available for Affinity Designer. It has several other important tools as well. As I said before, we shouldn't have to use hacks to make these tools work in professional-grade graphics software. Hacks for when an app is missing a tool. Anyway, please excuse the rant. I was hopeful, based on how Serif was developing its suite, that it would respect pro users more than Adobe has. This doesn't seem to be the case since Canva acquired the company. I hope that I'm wrong and that it's just too soon to know, although the updates have slowed down, and the mods are all but silent. Canva has a real opportunity to usurp quite a bit of Adobe's pro user base if they recognize how important usability and good support is to us. Hopefully, they won't drop the ball.

Thank you for the updates. Going back that many versions just to make this software work is not a practical option. The tool shouldn't be in non-beta software if it doesn't work properly. The Affinity suite is advertised as professional-grade, meaning it should reliably handle commercial workflows. Many of us ultimately left Adobe based on that and the fact that Serif was proactive with updates and responding to forum concerns. This has all but stopped since Canva acquired the company, I understand that I'm only one voice and can go back to Adobe if I don't like it, although I've now invested several thousand hours working in this suite and all of my original files since are Affinity files. The software also seems considerably more buggy since the company changed hands, which may or may not be coincidental. End-users whose livelihoods depend on these design applications should be in the upper level of customer consideration in terms of the reliability of the products. Instead, these companies now seem more interested in market cap and investor profits, so they push their products with low-hanging fruit like QR Code curve tools, instead of the most important ones like a Blend Tool. No hobbyist needs a QR code on his or her work. Bar codes are almost always added by the printed product publishers. It's a pointless tool. A better use of development would be getting the bugs out of the shape builder, adding a Blend Tool, and ensuring that these tools work reliably. For the record, it's not that the technique example isn't possible without the Contour Tool. You can do it manually, although it's much more time-consuming. Again, the point is don't release a tool in professional software until it's stable.

I'm getting hexagonal artifacts when I enlarge shapes with the Contour Tool. I did an AI search, which said this is a known bug and should be sorted out in the 2.6 release. These types of bugs in critical tools like this are a real problem, I appreciate that it is being worked on, although we've been at version 2.5.7 for a while, and there has been no communication from your end about your timeline. You are advertising these apps as professional grade—at least Serif did—meaning problems like this should be addressed promptly. I hope this is not how Canva plans to treat the Affinity suite of software. Are there any functional workarounds for this issue, in the meantime? Thank you, KCP

I'm sorry that I did not save that file. When it happens again, I'll save and upload the file here.

I can't recall if this started with the 2.5.7 download to Windows 10 Pro, although it happens frequently and is causing issues with my workflow. Btw, the shape was originally a rectangle. I used the corner tool to round over three of the corners and then baked the appearance, making it a curve. Did this process somehow prevent the origin point from working properly? Please advise. Thank you, KCP Origin-Point-Bug.mp4

For a while, it seemed that Serif was on track to eventually break Adobe's monopoly, although the Canva acquisition leads me to think they are going after more of a recreational-use consumer group.

Thanks, Hangman. I regularly create custom presets, which is why I was hoping to export the ones I rarely use, to unclutter my menu. Being able to collapse the menus would help a lot. The software is amazing, especially for the price, although it has a ways to go before ever becoming an industry standard. Time-saving tools are essential for commercial work.