Boldlinedesign

Did you send in the troublesome file to the vectorstyler developer and explain the issue? Chances are, he will have a fix for it by the time the next build is released in a week or two. Are you using the new beta recently released? There have been a ton of fixes in that update. No one ever claimed Vectorstyler is perfect. Instead of laughing because it failed in this instance, why not help it improve? In a world where Adobe unfortunately pervasivly dominates the market, the more we can do to encourage alternative options should always be encouraged. It's ok to use and appreciate both programs.

@loukash your passive aggressive jealousy of Vectorstyler is amusing

@R C-R @loukash have either of you checked out the new 1.2 beta update of Vectorstyler? It's got massive updates including collapsing panels to icons. You both mention its somehow clunky and has too many features but it's no more complex than illustrator. Granted, designer is a lot more simplistic but also lacks a ton of features still. I use Vectorstyler daily and never felt it was clunky. I just doing understand the negativity toward vectorstyler. You admit you use it for the features affinity is missing but then you feel the need to be negative about it overall. I don't get it. Why not complain that affinity is lacking tools?

I noticed today while playing around with the shape builder, that the command-minus and command-plus keyboard shortcuts for zooming in and out of the document fail to work while shape builder tool is active. If I switch away to another tool, they return to normal function. I'm guessing this is not how it's supposed to behave?

It's true that Corel can offer all the missing tools and features of Affinity Designer - but it's also very expensive to purchase outright and does not play nice with other vector editing programs. I considered picking up Corel but ended up with Vectorstyler because it was more user friendly and is not subscription based and the cost is just a little more than buying Affinity Designer.

I tried to use affinity as a replacement for illustrator when they went to SaaS and really wanted it to be the answer. Tools I've come to rely on and find standard were not and some are still not available. For the type of work I do designing t-shirts, features like text warp, flood fill, Boolean operations that can destructively merge down a final design for export, etc are what I'm used to having for my work to flow smoothly in illustrator. Yes I could warp text in photo by hand and trace back into designer, but why? There are other programs that can handle that. it's true that super old versions of the adobe apps and others lacked many functions, they were also not known or available in other programs at that time. Affinity today had the advantage to see all the great innovative progress made over the treats past and create their own version of said tools quickly. It was good to see the 2.0 get released and the 2.1 updates are solid. Those who only need the smaller number of tools affinity designer offers are lucky in that they want for nothing. Those who rely on vector brushes, better Boolean operations, etc, advices like Vectorstyler fill the gap and man I'm not held hostage to adobe while waiting on affinity

I can't seem to find the parallel between inkscape as Vectorstyler that @albertkinng inferred. I do see vectorstyler resembling illustrator in terms of layout and complexity though illustrator seems more meandering in purpose. I used illustrator for 20 years and that experience made switching to vectorstyler fairly smooth. There's a ton of overlap in all vector editing programs and staying with those and building on from there, it didn't take too long to feel comfortable using vectorstyler full time. Affinity is more simplistic to be sure, but it's for a different purpose in the design world. For those needing illustrator level vector tools, but do not want to pay the adobe tax, vectorstyler is the answer. If you don't need all that, use affinity. The affinity suite for me is something I use for fun or when I want to create raster missed with vector designs utilising the three programs with their ability to link. Honestly, if Vectorstyler had more tutorials and videos explaining each tool, I believe the ongoing process would be much faster and easier for new users. It will get there

Vectorstyler offers 100% vector brushes. Hopefully designer will catch up eventually. The 2.1 update is a good start

I use a website called zamzar.com to convert cdr files to eps or pdf, ai, etc.

Once you start using the program it's not anywhere near as complex as you claim. There are an amazing number of features and it flows well. It's not any more complex than illustrator for example. Compared to the simplicity and feature lacking affinity designer, I can understand the view that it's too much

Not really because if you're working on an iPad, you're still very much limited by what Affinity Designer offers in terms of features and tools - you're only gaining mobility of use. While Vectorstyler does not yet offer an iPad version, I'd much prefer a stable and feature rich desktop-only program like VS than one that has multiple platforms and a limited feature set

Vectorstyler is indeed the best companion app to Designer in terms of covering as many tools and features as possible. Owning both means you don't have to waste time waiting for Affinity to catch up (if they would even attempt to since they are not trying to necessarily be a full featured vector app)

@Red Sands I had first heard of vectorstyler on the affinity forum years ago when I was hoping affinity designer would sufficiently replace illustrator for my professional work. Affinity was lacking a number of tools and features and vectorstyler supplied most of them, allowing me to avoid an adobe subscription. Now I use vectorstyler as my primary vector design program and use affinity designer occasionally, depending on the project. I also use designer on iPad and port the results to the computer as usually paste it into vectorstyler to compete. Even for those who still want to use affinity designer as their primary vector program, having a copy of vectorstyler on hand allows for the missing features and tools in designer to be covered

Vectorstyler is another one that can open native illustrator files

I have an old computer with el capitan installed that I use almost exclusively for Adobe CS6 suite needs - things I still can't accomplish in either affinity or Vectorstyler yet. I haven't noticed any serious issues or stability problems in the El Capitan version of Vectorstyler, but then again, I use it sparingly on that machine. I use Vectorstyler primarily on my M1 mac at this point. I also would think support for El Capitan with Vectorstyler would end at some point sooner than later as well

Pure comedy - I love it. thank you for the laugh today. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to get to the local offroad track to see if my average little commuter car can handle the extreme curves and jumps, mud and uneven terrain that specially-modified vehicles including SUVs, trucks, motorbikes, quadbikes and buggies can handle with ease. if it fails once I'm going to sue the car manufacturer.

It works incredibly well on 95% of all case uses but you’re only focused on the extreme? This is a common way you'd use the feature? Lol. Affinity does not even attempt to include it at all because of its complexity, but you so easily dismiss the implementation of the feature in Vectorstyler because only under extreme conditions, it's imperfect? That does not seem realistic or fair. you did not include the source file here with history enabled for us to investigate or replicate the problem. I'm not sure even how you accomplished the issue honestly. What's amazing to me is that if you were to submit this Vectorstyler file on the forum there, the developer would have a fix for it in a few weeks if not days.

Not sure what that means. Works great here

Vectorstyler has offered all of this for over a year. Using both designer and Vectorstyler gives you a whole lot more options

@friedgoldmole One of the big problems in Affinity Designer with booleans is that the merge boolean resembles the " union" option like in Illustrator or Vectorstyler, rather than a true "merge". If two overlapping shapes are different colors for example, then merge should essentially cut one from the other and group them. (If they are the same color then merge should unite them as one shape) You can see from my example below, that the purple and black overlapping shapes when merged in Illustrator or Vectorstyler cut through. In affinity designer, they unite as one, no matter the differing colors used. This hinders the effectiveness of the merge tool because one needs to divide the shapes first, then select the multiple pieces of the purple and merge them together again - lots of extra steps. Here's hoping they add a unite boolean and fix the merge issue

@friedgoldmole has a good point here. You should be able to select all objects in this case and click on boolean merge and have the black numbers become one with the black outline shape without it filling in the many white negative spaces. This is what happens in both Illustrator and in Vectorstyler. This is the result when I use boolean merge: Why are there so many filled in portions? This is the result I get when I do the boolean subtract: Again, it makes no sense to me.

@visualrevolt thanks for sharing. I agree with you on most everything you said. Many think they are only allowed to use one or the other. I own both and use both for different reasons. Designer alone was not enough to replace illustrator in my professional work. Using vectorstyler allowed me to not be as impatient waiting for affinity to add basic features. Vectorstyler is my primary at this point, but I enjoy using the iPad version of designer as well and like the interconnection with photo and publisher.

@Medical Officer Bones there are certainly improvements that can be made in Vectorstyler as with any program. I've got a solid list of improvements I've advocated for and helped test to improve. It's easy to find an extreme scenario that causes a program to fail and judge the entirety of the program on that extreme function. I'm glad you brought up the issues with complex vectors in Vectorstyler and sent the sample to the developer. I have little doubt vectorstyler will improve dramatically in short order as a result. Thankfully, I don't think most vector users are doing super complex designs like that all the time and will not run into this issue often before a fix is made. I don't have any insider knowledge, but I can imagine solutions to the issues you brought up will be fixed in a matter of weeks or months, not years. I'm glad you've brought up issues on the VS forum. I wish more people would do the same instead of just shutting down and avoiding it. There are plenty of areas like this complex svg issue that not everyone runs into. So it's great when people bring up diverse issues because it helps round out the improvement of the program This was why I was saying the use of both vectorstyler and affinity designer in tandem provides a solid well rounded solution. Designer can open complex vector designs smoothly then vectorstyler, but it also lacks pure vector brushes, blending between shapes, eraser tool, image trace, blob brush equivalent, etc other existing tools need a lot of refinement and improvements. If I were to claim I couldn't use designer because of these missing features, that would be the wrong mentality. Just because Vectorstyler is not as capable at running super complex extreme designs does not negate the rest of its powerful featureset. I've used vectorstyler full time for solid year now and rarely saw crashes or instability and rarely had slowdowns during use. Then again, none of my projects are as complex as von glitchkas wormwood sample. If most of your work is that complex, keep using designer and jump over to vectorstyler for the missing tools in designer. .

Blend tool is available in Vectorstyler right now along with a number of other missing tools in designer. Consider picking up Vectorstyler as an add-on tool to fill in the needs while waiting for affinity to catch up. Vectors created in designer and in Vectorstyler are easily copied and pasted between the two programs. I'm not advocating to quit using designer, I'm encouraging using both. Why not? Between the two together, most every important need is addressed. Vectorstyler can easily be a companion vector program. Use one as the primary and the other as a supplement Vectorstyler is half off right now and also has a 42 day trial and is not subscription based. It's improving by leaps and bounds at a rapid pace. Currently the developer is working on a big update but has still put out consistent bug fixes and enhancements every couple weeks in the process.

I think it's great you have vectorstyler a whirl. Passing this advice along from the developer on the VS forum; You're most likely running into issues because the OpenCL driver on Windows is not working properly. You should try setting it to "software mode" and see if that improves things. Speaking for myself, Your negative results and crashing in VS is not typical of most users. I use it as my primary vector design program and use designer occasionally. Using both gives a lot of freedom and flexibility to the workflow