Boldlinedesign

There are risks to using any program. I learned Freehand and then had no choice really but to learn Illustrator when Adobe bought out Macromedia. I used Illustrator for many years until the writing was on the wall that Adobe was going the way of subscription - which led me to Affinity. Affinity is great aside from its severe lack of features and professional tools, which led me to supplementing it with Vectorstyler. As Vectorstyler has matured over the last couple years, I ended up making it my primary vector editing program and now use Designer occasionally. Vectorstyler, for all it offers beyond Affinity, still lacks 10% or so of what I need for my professional work and so an old copy of CS6 suffices for those times... It's our job to adapt and find the best solution. If Affinity or VS fall out favor I'm sure another option will present itself - the market always finds a way As others have mentioned, I'm more concerned that Affinity has not added standard professional tools into Designer in the many years since they released their programs than I am about the VS developer taking a break or quitting his role in developing VS. The existing number of features in VS far outweigh the options in Affinity

I agree that Vectorstyler slows down and gets a little quirky when the artboard is filled with objects and graphics. This is something I've mentioned in the VS forum and should probably address again. There is a lot of Illustrator and Corel influence in the UI - as a longtime Illustrator user, it was not a negative to me, but I can understand the overwhelming feeling. Hopefully the ability to set customized panel arrangements and the ability to shrink panels down to icons will help reduce the clutter feel What parts of the Affinity layers studio are you missing in VS? I've compared the VS layer panel to the AD equivalent and they seem very similar - more so than they relate to Illustrator. These are all things that would be helpful to post on the VS forum. As others have mentioned in this thread and others, VS has improved drastically in 2022 alone, much less the last few years. Improvements happen at a record pace. Right now the developer is gearing up for a large update at the end of this month or in early September that should address a number of things with the UI.

I agree that There are some aspects of Vectorstyler that are clunky. I use VS daily and I can make a full list of tools and UI improvements I'd like to see. The difference is that the developer of Vectorstyler is constantly improving and updating the program. I can remember where it was at last year in terms of useability and tools and I'm amazed at how far is matured since that time. Compare that with the multiple years we've waited on serif to fix issues in developer like the Boolean operations, or to add basic tools like text warp. Hopefully the upcoming 2.0 update will The issue with the trackpad mouse will eventually get resolved. Not everyone is having the same issue with their trackpad mouse, so that's good news that it's not widespread, but bad news you're still having to deal with it. Where else do you find VS clunky? If it's just the trackpad issue, is that fair to judge VS for it when the issue is an isolated one?

Have you offered your ideas as an experienced interface designer on the VS forum? The developer of VS is very receptive to new ideas and options. I would think it more advantageous for you to share your ideas and see the UI improve rather than go back to paying adobe a ton of money annually instead. Not implying this is you, but many who make judgements on VS are not in the trenches helping improve the program with their ideas and experience. They choose to wait around for others to step up and make the suggestions and help. It makes no sense to me because we all should want multiple design programs to thrive. I use VS full time but I still support and use affinity at times. Those who use affinity primarily will always stand to benefit from having a feature rich program like VS in their toolset to accomplish tasks affinity cannot. I agree the UI can look busy. I don't see the interference being any more complex than what illustrator presents in the UI. The major difference to me is that illustrator allows panels docked on the side to be reduced to an icon. They also allow for custom panel arrangements that can be saved and recalled at will. Those are both upgrades in the works for VS in the near future. Also some of the icons at the top of the VS UI could be consolidated under a single button, such as the Boolean operations and that would save space and make it less crowded. What tools do you feel are wrong for being different than the industry standard? I can't think of many primary ones to be honest.

Lol that's interesting. Vectorstyler reminds me a lot of illustrator based on its UI. It takes a little time to get used to the layout but once you understand the concept, it makes sense. Most of the shortcuts are the same as other design programs. Which ones bothered you? How would you make the UI more designer friendly?

Why would you want to go back to illustrator, especially after experiencing vectorstyler?

@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?