Boldlinedesign

@Winsome - In Designer and also in Vectorstyler, you can import a raster image and lock it and lower the opacity and then draw on a new layer above

@Diller I agree in large part with your comments. However affinity has said that 2.0 should be coming out sometime in 2022, so there's a five month window for that goal. I've been using vectorstyler as my primary vector design program the last few years as I wait on affinity. Ultimately the combination of Vectorstyler and affinity covers most everything most designers need.

@dcrWhat do you feel like would help the UI of Vectorstyler be more intuitive? It reminds me a lot of Illustrator right now, for better or for worse. I would like to see the panels be more streamlined and less clunky looking. I would also like to see the main panels be able to be streamlined into icons if preferred, much like Illustrator has. That would help increase real estate space on the screen. Designer has a cleaner more spastic UI - which in some ways I like and in other ways, feels sparse... but I attribute that more to fewer features than anything else. As the program grows, I would predict more icons will be shown in the toolbar and UI overall. What do you feel would make it more intuitive? Tying in @D.E. Main's comment about "but the learning curve - in absence of tutorials and good documentation - make it almost insurmountable to me." Perhaps the fact that there's not enough existing tutorials, videos, better documentation overall, hurts the intuitiveness feeling and makes it feel insurmountable to some. I can understand that feeling for sure. My comment on that thread was to start with what you know that is very similar to affinity and illustrator already - there's a LOT of overlap. You plug away a little at a time and don't try to do too complex a thing at once - look up the topic in the documentation and try it out - then ask questions on the forum. That was what I did and now I use Vectorstyler full time and occasionally use Designer - I still use Photo quite a bit and want to do more with publisher.

I was reading your comment above and it made me think I'm misunderstanding you - are you thinking the only way to accomplish tasks in Vectorstyler is through the tiny icons on the main UI? If that's what you are believing to be true, I would totally understand your frustration with learning it. Nearly every symbol and icon on the UI is tied to a specific panel or option found and spelled out more clearly in the "panels" pulldown menu, much the same way Affinity has it's "Studio" menu. Most of the icons are just there for quick use once you know and understand the program. I hope that helps some! Perhaps just focus on learning one topic that you could use to help you enhance what you are doing in Affinity? As @Dazmondo77 said, he uses it as a mega-pack side option and does most of his work in Affinity - that's a great way to go

I understand we all have our own unique difficulties learning software of different types, but I'm having a hard time understanding the obstacles you claim about difficulties with symbols and remembering what they are, that keeps you from really understanding and using Vectorstyler. What specifically are you wanting the developer of Vectorstyler to "get"? How would you make it more intuitive? Remove the symbols? Not allow easy access to the tools? I am genuinely curious how you would improve it You've mentioned the vertical toolbar and I assume you are also referring to the buttons at the top of the screen and the contextual menubar below that... I took a look in the official Vectorstyler documentation and found the section that goes in depth on every tool in the vertical toolbar. I also took a closer look at the Affinity vertical tool bar and main symbol bar at the top and then the contextual bar as well and found they are not really much different than the way it is in Vectorstyler. Boolean operations, alignment pull down panel, flipping objects around an axis, snapping tools, etc... its all the same on both. While there's similarity, there are also plenty of symbols in both Vectorstyler and Designer that could require hovering over to gain information. Vectorstyler is a more powerful and advanced program and so it's busier than what Affinity has - Affinity may get busier in the next update when they add a number of new features - we'll have to see. Affinity is never going to catch up with Vectorstyler in terms of features and abilities, but I also do not think that is their goal anyway - they instead seem to want to be a semi-professional program built to be sleek and work well as a unit with the other two components - nothing wrong with that. Those who want advanced vector features will turn to Vectorstyler as a primary use or as a powerful add-on to their affinity workflow. So comparing the two programs is apples and oranges in many ways. What you could try is taking a screenshot of the symbols and then hover over them and add their info to the screenshot so you know at quick reference what they are. I can see it being a little frustrating and cumbersome to learn so many symbols, but there are solutions like I suggested that should make this be an easy obstacle to overcome. If you seek the simplicity of Affinity - use that as your primary - but I don't think it's fair to knock Vectorstyler for having a busier UI when it offers many times more the features of Affinity. Any advanced program I tried to learn took time and patience and some frustration before it clicked. I remember using iMovie for so long before upgrading to Final Cut Pro - it was overwhelming for a while and then over time it got better. Vectorstyler is not a perfect program any more than Affinity is imperfect. I agree there are some atheistical improvements Vectorstyler could make - improvements with the panels is coming for example...at some point there will be more video and tutorial options and that might help people as well

Just the first two brushes brushes are true vector if I remember correctly. I use them on the iPad when in designer, but I always transfer them to vectorstyler on the desktop if I need to do more with them. Vectorstyler offers tons of true vector options

@R C-R yes the time delay on when the description appears upon hovering over an icon can be adjusted in the preferences panel. I think the shortest it can be right now is 2 seconds... I might ask him if it can be made to respond even sooner than that.

Currently in Vectorstyler, if you just hover over the tool, it tells you the name of the task and the function description. Are you preferring the name and description are always displayed? My cursor arrow is hidden by the screen shot app, but you can see the description right below the tool

@Dazmondo77 thank you for sharing how you did the spherical distortion in VS. I will give that a try as I could find many uses for that feature. Would you be willing to share more about how you did the realistic wrinkles and folds in the shirt mockup template? I would love to create something like that to use for my work as I design a lot of shirts. Would you be willing to share this video (and hopefully the shirt mockup video too) on the VS forum tutorial section? I'd be grateful! I agree that VS is advanced and has a steeper learning curve than designer. I think part of the complexity of VS, especially compared to affinity designer is the massive number of features VS has that affinity lacks. There's a certain value and pleasure in using a simpler program. I was trying to think what makes the UI in affinity more of a pleasure to use. I like way the panels in affinity move smoothly and can be easily rearranged- this is an area VS needs work on for sure... I'm a little biased because after so many years of using Illustrator, the interface in VM is similar and was similar in layout. I know a couple planned updates in VM will help the user experience like the ability to reduce panels to symbols and also saveable customized panel arrangements like in illustrator. Hoping some of the clunkiness in the panels gets fixed also. @R C-R I'll have to look and see what you mean about affinity panels showing both names and icons. I know there had been discussion about how to make VS easier for beginning users. Right now if you hover over the tool in the tool bar, it tells you it's name

I can understand your thought and agree it would be nice if one program could handle everything we need and not be a subscription as well. Everyone had their own definition of what they need and every program has a niche they are trying to fill. Even when I used illustrator, and still now when I use primarily vectorstyler and some affinity, I purchased programs dedicated to a specific task. I have vectoraster and patternodes to make halftones and patterns, respectively. I also bought vector magic to do vector tracing. Back in the day I owned both adobe and Macromedia suites and used them as I felt it best suited my workflow. Affinity designer has some benefits and suites a certain workflow, but I suspect they will never catch up to the capabilities of Vectorstyler and I also do not believe it's their goal to do so. As you mentioned, thankfully both affinity and vectorstyler are so cheap and together they can provide a solution to cut the cord on adobe if you're primarily a vector designer

I don't see vectorstyler so much as a competitor, but another option to achieve the results from tools still lacking in affinity designer after all these years. Let's not forget it's been literally years of waiting for affinity to add basic professional tools. Customers are entitled to be bothered and considering alternative solutions after so many years and almost complete radio silence from serif. Honestly, anyone who realizes affinity is not currently capable of doing the majority of professional work had most likely already turned to a"competitor" to fill the need. Like myself, they still love affinity and root for its success, but face the reality of needing to get work done. Why not make people aware of vector options besides adobe? I'm still going to keep supporting and buying affinity updates even as I have several vector editing programs. I don't think I'm the only one

Vectorstyler is a vector power-user program that offers more tools and features than the competition. I've tested it for the last couple years and made it my primary vector design program I use for daily professional work. As many have discussed in this thread and elsewhere, affinity has taken years to add features and we're still lacking enough to use their products without relying on other programs for the missing features as tools. That will hopefully change if the rumors are true that 2.0 will be released at the WWDC this week. After years of waiting and little to no word from the affinity team, I'm more than excited to see 2.0 come to fruition. I've used vectorstyler first as a way to fill in for the many tools lacking in affinity designer 1.0. I've transitioned to using vectorstyler for most work as occasionally using affinity, usually on the iPad. Affinity had set the expectation of cost very low to the point some feel the 95 dollars for vectorstyler is "expensive ", despite it offering many times the number of features and options affinity designer offers. Spending 95 dollars to have all the missing tools in affinity seems like a steal. How quickly we forget adobe charging more than fifty dollars per month with no option to use them afterward. The vectorstyler forum is an active space where issues, ideas and bugs get discussed and fixed quickly. Most bugs discovered are fixed within a week or two. Vectorstyler is also built on newer code than affinity or adobe and so it's understandable that there would be bugs. The developer welcomes critiques, new ideas, criticisms, etc. I love affinity and own every product on every platform. I've rooted for affinity and I continue to do so. Being primarily a vector design artist, I see affinity designer as a simpler semi pro program that can meet the needs of many. I can see vectorstyler being the primary option of higher use vector designers and keeping affinity around for occasional use. There are great aspects of affinity that vectorstyler cannot beat, such as the raster/vector combination, the integration between the three affinity apps and the iPad programs. I don't see vectorstyler in direct competition with affinity, I see it as another effective tool. With vectorstyler being a more advanced program, there are advantages to owning it alongside affinity. I don't foresee affinity ever offering as many features as vectorstyler, but I didn't think being a powerhouse vector program is their goal. There are times the simplicity of affinity, the raster crossover and iPad functionality can come into play even if you own vectorstyler. If you're a professional designer, I can see owning both and using them as needed.

Vectorstyler offers this feature now and works well with affinity

@amerta this has been a multi year request on the forum and I agree with you it's more than overdue. If you need that functionality now, consider using vectorstyler, which already had those features and more while you wait for affinity to catch up

Try out vectorstyler. They support rtl type Vectorstyler.com

@Pšenda you may not be aware that you can criticize and point out obvious faults in affinity's methods and choices and still love and appreciate their software. The two are not mutually exclusive. Why yourself and others blindly defend affinity so vigorously and give them a free pass for everything is beyond me. I can't imagine what else affinity has been doing the last couple years if the only thing they release this summer is the iPad publisher app. What are the other teams doing? Affinity is going to need cashflow at some point and it would make logical business sense to use this release of publisher for iPad as the chance to move everything to 2.0

more like affinity was inexplicably taking years (nearly a decade now) to accomplish what should have been done in a 3-4 years. To be fair to affinity, they did decide to spend significant time overhauling their code and that was not on the roadmap. Affinity removed the road map when they did not want to be held to that update standard. The fact that users are becoming disgruntled is because of affinity's glacial pace of improving their apps. Hopefully there will be big updates released this summer alongside the publisher for iPad release

Affinity has been extra slow adding what many consider basic features. The roadmap came out many years ago and since then, only small fraction of things were added to their programs. Designer in particular seems to have gotten the most neglect. Designer was released eight years ago and we're still waiting for standard features. Blaming the pandemic and global financial jiitters and war for their glacial pace is ridiculous. Everyone else has to keep working and producing no matter the constant distractions of world events. Affinity shouldn't get a special pass on this.

I'm not trying to defend affinity here because all of those features listed on the original roadmap should have been part of affinity's version one by now. That said, it seems they took some unexpected detours by revising their code and focusing more on ways to connect the three programs together in a better way. It's been years since I last saw that infamous roadmap on the forum and I can't remember if they ever promised for sure those features would be in version one or off that was their goal. Just looking at the way things have gone so far and the years upon years with only minor features improvements, even if the next release was massive, how many more years until another massive collection of features is ready to justify a paid upgrade to version 2.0?

I'll take that as a compliment. If and when affinity offers new features, more posts will be dedicated to affinity again

@LondonSquirrel it amazes me the things people fixate on to justify their position. The fact that one developer has built Vectorstyler into a powerhouse vector program in just a few short years should expose and in some ways embarrass the affinity designer team. One man has accomplished in three years far more than an entire team at affinity has done in over eight years. Is there some concern about a contingency plan should something happen to him? Sure, but the investment made by a vectorstyler user is minimal and the upside tremendous. The whole cost argument is also baffling. Adobe wants a 650 dollar subscription annually, Corel is several hundred dollars, etc. Here's a program (vectorstyler) that runs circles around affinity and eliminates most every missing feature issue and allows users to get away completely from Corel and adobe, etc, all for a measly 100 dollars. People spend that much on a fancy dinner! Here a 100 dollar purchase gives you the tools and more to use alongside affinity for years to come. Seems like a no brainer to me

If you use any of these programs to design professionally and make money, even the cost of all the affinity apps plus Vectorstyler do not add up to a major cost investment. I've purchased every available affinity app on all the platforms as sell as countless other programs in order to do my unprofessional work. If a program you purchase for less money does not offer a majority of tools needed to do your job, was it a great purchase to begin with? Vectorstyler offers easily ten times the functionality of affinity designer currently and is still priced under 100 dollars. I think the more accurate phrasing is why is affinity cost as much as it does given the lack of many vital features? Vectorstyler offers far more than just a few features beyond designer; vectorstyler is a powerhouse vector program that will far exceed the capabilities of designer for the foreseeable future. I invested in vectorstyler to be the solution to designer's gaping holes and ended up making it my primary vector app and now affinity is the sidecar. Some people prefer the simplicity of designer and only want the major features of Vectorstyler as needed.

If there's a solution to all the problems someone listed, would you not offer to help them solve it? That person was already looking beyond affinity at this point, why not give them another one to consider? Affinity has said many times, you buy their software for what it can do now, not what you hope it can do in the future. Right now, affinity designer is missing a large number of features that most would consider standard in a professional vector program and the pace they've been adding them has been glacial at best. Affinity has an entire team dedicated to advancing each respective affinity software, vectorstyler is built by one developer who's built all the missing tools into vectorstyler in less time. They have removed their roadmap and do not say much on the forum. Certain existing features like Boolean operations do not function well and never have... At some point, the user base is going to have enough frustration that they look for alternative solutions. After all, many turned to affinity when adobe turned to a predatory SaaS and they can turn from affinity if they do not steps up their game soon. As a fan of affinity in many ways, I am optimistic a giant 2.0 release is coming and will close the feature gap in a large way. I can understand why you'd think suggesting a different vector program on the affinity forum is wrong. I would encourage you to think of it differently. Vectorstyler does not have to be a replacement to affinity designer, and instead could be complementary. Affinity users who need features long absent from affinity could purchase vectorstyler and paste vector work interchangeably between the two programs. The struggles of using affinity designer can be alleviated by adding one program. As anxious as I am for affinity designer improvements and feature additions, using vectorstyler alongside designer gives me most of the solutions . I learned of Vectorstyler through the affinity forum years ago when I was losing patience with affinity and if it could help others like it did me, everyone gains.

@dcadint take a look at vectorstyler. It has all the missing affinity features and more. Works great as a standalone vector app but can also work well with designer www.vectorstyler.com

Why would it not come down to cashflow? Right now there's a large portion of users who already paid for the vs1 of the affinity apps. The last several years, they've not contributed further financially. Releasing version 2 of affinity would open that large portion of existing users to extract money from again for the update. Let's not forget affinity has often dropped the price of their programs to half price for extended periods of time which is a temporary solution to refill the bank account. My optimistic and desired hope is that the reason we've seen very little innovation or improvement from affinity in terms of new features is because they've been working on creating and refining them behind the scenes in anticipation of a big launch, perhaps this summer alongside the iPad version of publisher