Question on Switching to Affinity

[Pastor Danny Fierro]

Thinking about switching from Adobe CC to Affinity (just can’t afford the monthly fee anymore). I do graphics and editing for the church I am a pastor of so this is not my primary expertise. 1) How big is the learning curve to make the switch? 2) Will I be able to open all of my old InDesign, Illustrator and PhotoShop files in Affinity programs so I don’t lose a lot of old work?

[GarryP]

Welcome to the forums @Pastor Danny Fierro

As for the learning curve, it depends on what you do with your current software. If you only do basic things – as it sounds from what you have written – then you probably won’t have much trouble crossing over. Some things will have different names and some things will be in different places but most of the basic tools will be pretty much the same. You can always ask in the forums – no question is too simple.

As for opening old files from different software, you can load some types of file directly into the Affinity applications but it would be good if you could export them first to PDFs and then, if necessary, open the PDFs in the Affinity applications as a fail-safe. (The attached image shows the file types which Publisher, for example, can open, which includes IDML and AI.)

You have written that you use InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop but, depending on your needs, you may not need to purchase all three Affinity applications at the start. If you are creating newsletters and similar then you should probably start with Publisher. Then if you start to need image manipulation tools then Photo may be needed (or maybe Designer, depending on requirements). If you need more sophisticated vector tools then Designer is the one to add to Publisher. My point being that you don’t need to buy all three at once; get Publisher first (for newsletters, flyers, etc.) and then add functionality as required.

Does any of this help?

[wonderings]

Publisher can open IDML files not IND files, though never expect a perfect conversion. Same goes with Designer and Photos, they will open .ai and .psd files. Depending on the complexity and effects used they may or may not open perfect, but that is a given really when opening native files with a non native app. 

I would think The Affinity software would be a great replacement for Adobe as I imagine your needs are not all that heavy... and even with that the Affinity suite of apps are not lite apps, they are very feature richer and comparable to Adobe in many ways.

I use Adobe CC and only test and play lightly with the Affinity apps, I found them pretty straight forward but that would depend on your knowledge of the Adobe apps, I think a basic understanding of them puts you in good position to start using the Affinity apps quickly. The biggest thing I do not like is how Affinity handles colour, with use I think this would easily overcome and learned.  

 

[jmwellborn]

@Pastor Danny Fierro  welcome to the forums!   You might like to take advantage of Affinity’s free 10-day trial of Publisher.  Anything you create and save can always be used in a later purchased version, if that is what you decide to do.  There are also free trials of Photo and Designer, but it might be a bit much trying them all at the same time.   

For Publisher: https://affinity.serif.com/publisher/trial

For Photo or Designer just substitute (/photo/ or /designer/ ) for /publisher/