Boldlinedesign

I understand - at the same time, you are looking for Vectorstyler to fill in the gaps for what you need that Affinity does not yet offer - so I'd think VS has some priority to you. It could take years for Affinity to get things like gradient mesh so you very well might be using VS far more than you may anticipate. Some people look at VS and Designer as a black and white absolute choice - choose one or the other. I say, use both in the ways that most help your workflow. Most everything can be copied and pasted easily between the two programs anyway. I've designed plenty of things on my ipad in designer and then copied and pasted the work into a VS file to finish it, etc. Throwing a few questions out on the forum VS there does not seem to be a huge investment in time and effort, especially if it directly relates to what you need VS to accomplish for your workflow. Just my opinion. I spend time on the Affinity forum several times a week even as VS is my primary vector program I use daily. There are things I'm testing and using in Designer that I want to see if it could help my workflow,so it's worth being involved here

There's a link on the main website for vectorstyler called "documentation" that takes you to the manual. Here is the direct link You can download the latest version of the VectorStyler PDF manual here Here is the direct link to the manual section on using gradient mesh in Vectorstyler I pulled up the instructions from the manual and played around with the gradient mesh some and was able to figure out how to add colors, etc. I also agree that the gradient mesh in Vectorstyler could continue to be improved. Your suggestions and ideas could prove very useful to getting the gradient mesh to where it needs to be. The developer of Vectorstyler is very responsive and open to hearing critiques, ideas for improvement and general feedback on anything in the program. He's in the middle of a large update yet still releases consistent bug fixes and improvements along the way. I encourage you to share your questions and ideas on the forum so they could be considered and implemented asap. Here is the link to the forum

what kind of vector stock art is only compatible with illustrator? Any vector stock art I've used works on everything

I agree with you that the Studiolink structure is revolutionary for Affinity and the structure can be built in an amazing cohesive way between the trio of Affinity programs. Vectorstyler is but one program and therefore does not offer that Studiolink option at all. That's certainly an advantage to Affinity right now. The fact that all resources and ideas have been focused on vector-only in VS is a negative in the lens of Studiolink and wanting to do raster and publishing work - but a huge bonus to those heavily involved in vector work itself. I don't ever seeing Affinity offering the vector capabilities VS holds - but I don't think either company is trying to be just like the other either. I don't see VS as a competitor to Affinity any more than I see Clip Studio paint as a competitor to Affinity Photo. I've always been a firm believer in artists being able to utilize the best attributes of many programs. This is why I try to be involved in multiple forums for different programs - because it benefits me in the long run to not be tied to just one. I've supported Affinity since 2015 and always hoped they would excel and create a realistic Adobe replacement. I believe they are doing it but the process has been painfully slow - for whatever the reasons. I can completely understand your decision to invest in Affinity since your workflow utilizes the three Affinity programs. 95% of my professional work is vector-based. I do use Photo some and Designer occasionally but because VS is so advanced in terms of vectors, and improving quickly, I invest most of my time there. VS does far more than fancy vector warping and stuff. Affinity version 1 was basically a non-starter for me because the designer app cupboards were bare. I'm trying to give version 2 a fair shake since they added some new features. One of the Affinity guys commented in a tweet that they use their own suite for all their graphic needs - which surprised me actually. Realistically, I can't wait around another 8 years for Affinity to add the missing parts standard in most vector editing programs. If Affinity makes great strides quickly in improving version 2 going forward, I will find more use for it in my workflow and invest more in it. Right now, because of the big update to version 2, the Affinity forum is flowing with contributions of new ideas and bug reports -which is awesome. Prior to the new update, the forum was essentially repeating the same unanswered questions waiting for answers and updates. If Affinity is not communicating much on the forum again and not adding new solid updates consistently, there leaves a lot of time to invest in other forums where things are going faster and come back to Affinity when updates come out again, etc

That's awesome that you purchased vectorstyler. It's been a year since it was last in beta! There have been a massive number of updates since then. Version 1.2 it's supposed to be released in the next few months with a lot of improvements as well - some involving the UI. There have been suggestions and ideas shared by users on the vectorstyler forum that are being considered and added. I'd encourage you to share your ideas for improving the Vectorstyler UI there.

@GRAFKOM yes that was an impressive feature to see and use in Vectorstyler. There's also an option in the same stroke panel to manually adjust the percentage of the change in stroke offset amount. So you can set it 37% to the inside or outside if that suited you best... Really amazing stuff. I use Vectorstyler for most of my vector work and use designer on occasion on desktop and on my iPad. I like affinity overall but need tools for my professional work still missing in designer, so I use other programs like VS It's on a 50% discount this week.

@Gianluca Rossi if you purchase the v2 license now, you get all updates free until v3 is released. Then you'll have the choice to upgrade and pay for v3, or not and still keep v2 in perpetuity. Affinity will be releasing updates to v2 for a certain period of time. You'll get all v2 upgrades for free. Eventually they'll release a new main version again add that will cost money ahs the cycle repeats

now's your chance to pick up Vectorstyler at 50% off! Black Friday sale going on now. No excuses left.

I've not run into any real issues opening illustrator files in Vectorstyler. Have you shared the ones with which you had issues with the developer? I'm sure any rare example with an issue would help him improve his reverse engineering results

It started out as Mac only when it was in initial development and beta and then expanded to include Windows. It's been crises platform for a while now. It's an amazing program that offers an incredible number of advanced features. I use it for my full time work and use affinity designer sparingly.

Vectorstyler is cross platform - Windows and Mac

Success! thanks! this was the part I was missing. I had the text box itself selected, but not the blinking cursor. is there any reason this could not work for other vector editing programs out there? I tried with another one and did not have success

I had tried with the text selected first and it did not work for me. I also tried dropping it in the font name field. Am I missing a step? thanks for your help

I switched over to Typeface a little more than a year ago and immediately took to the ease of use with minimal issues. I would recommend it to anyone on mac looking to switch to a new font manager. The updates are released consistently and the pricing model is very fair. I've emailed @Floor a few times with questions and for help troubleshooting and he's always replied quickly and has taken the time to explain things and consider ideas. @firstdefence I saw your comment I quoted above and was intrigued - so I decided to test it out. I did not have any luck dragging an active font from Typeface over to Affinity designer and getting the live text in Affinity Designer to change. Was there a setting I am missing?

they showed me someone easily triggered

Random thought but all this talk about the inability for Affinity version1 to be able to open Version 1 files reminded me how helpful having Affinity around in the earlier days - especially to open the newer Illustrator CC files that would not open otherwise in my older CS6 version. I'd go to open it in CS6 and it'd open to a blank screen and tell me my version of CS6 was too old to open the new file - fire up Designer and open it there and transferred the art over to CS6 lol. It's awesome that we can run and use older versions of Affinity in perpetuity, but as time goes on there are going to be more limitations on what it can accept from others. I think it would be handy if each new version of Affinity had the option to downgrade the file type to an older version so those not looking to upgrade can still use files. Adobe has this feature and it's very handy

I would assume most people here would have already purchased Vectorstyler before this point in order to get the massive number of features missing in Affinity Designer up until this point.

Just out of curiousity, why would you not want to upgrade to vs 2?

The new updates will give me plenty of new material in affinity to test and talk about after years of almost no updates. So you might get less VS talk.. Maybe... I don't want to let you down and stop discussing VS entirely 😂

You can always count on me with the common sense solutions! The alternative idea was involving subscriptions for things that already exist in non subscript affordable ways. Had someone not shared vectorstyler on here with me a coupe years back, I might have been forced to go back to adobe to get thing done while waiting for this upcoming November 9th day. I celebrate what is coming on November 9th just like everyone else. I have no doubt that the new releases will be amazing. That said, the fact that another non subscription vector program with more advanced features is available is not a threat to affinity but rather a way to accomplish more

One of the main tenants of Affinity is non-subscription software, so it's be hard to imagine the community welcoming a subscription based add-on. Many of these Astute features are currently in existing programs like Vectorstyler or will be sooner than later. As much as I love Affinity, there's a high likelihood that more advanced features will be years away at best. Purchasing another program like Vectorstyler fills in many of those gaps now and without the subscription.

While Astute Graphics has some cool things - their entire existence is built on the laziness and inability by Adobe to innovate for themselves and results in a subscription to get those features. Why not just ask Serif to build them into Designer?

I can totally understand this feeling. I have a copy of CS6 running on an old intel machine that I turn to for some tasks still not fully accomplished in Affinity yet. Hoping version 2.0 brings answers to a number of the things missing in the first version

Vectorstyler commonly updates every week or every couple weeks - it's always an awesome thing because it means fewer bugs and more features are added/improved

More often the lack of common features needed for professional work in affinity and the years is taken to even potentially be on the verge of seeing them gets fiercely justified and defended here. If you point out a major missing feature, they tell you that not everyone needs that particular feature and that for some, designer does everything they need. We're told to not make new threads but instead add our thoughts to unresolved threads that are literally years old. Heck, we're on a thread questioning if affinity is dead or not lol. When people bring up other software options to plug the many affinity holes, they are scolded, derided, insulted and considered "grifters". They assume you've never admitted the other software has flaws even when you've spoken about it constantly. Some claim they understand the need for multiple software solutions because none are perfect, but you're not allowed to mention alternatives because that's somehow immoral. They go back and check your post history and mock you for talking frequently about another vector solution. They call you a joke but never explain what's so funny... Butt then turn around and pretend they are all for the very thing they just mocked. Crazy. Why not celebrate that there are options outside of adobe that we can support and that together can replace subscription software? Why hide behind silly arguments that an extra 45 dollars difference is a big deal, or "creative" attempts to claim another program's usage phone home method is a deal killer, or pretending to use the product and blast it but then others find out later they never really tried it, etc. It all seems so petty really. Without vectorstyler I would have needed to buy adobe cloud because designer alone is not professional enough to get my work done and I've been waiting seven or more years for it to cover the basics. I've been more than patient with affinity and instead of blasting them all the time, I look for alternative solutions instead.