Is Pixel Persona really necessary, having Affinity Photo?

[konig6]

Hello everyone!

My name is Jose and I'm a new Affinity user. I come from an Adobe background and I think I'd never go back to it, after testing the Affinity Suite. 

I have some questions, the first of which is: why is there a Pixel Persona in Affinity Designer?

From my limited understanding of Designer, I think the Pixel Persona is kind of a stripped-down version of its sibling, Affinity Photo.

In an attempt to answer my own question, I think the Pixel Persona is there to make quick pixel modifications to our Vector graphics, without the need to open Photo. For heavier operations we would need to indeed open it side by side.

Is this correct, and is there any other reasons for the existence of the Pixel Persona?

Thank you a lot for this wonderful software.

Cheers,

Jose.

[Cooner]

Welcome, Jose!

I'm not on staff or anything, but I think your guess there is correct. One of the interesting things about the Affinity Suite is that all the apps share the same file format -- you can open a Designer file in Photo and vice versa with no problem. Any file can contain vector objects, pixel layers, etc.

So the Persona is there if, say, you're working on a big vector project but you have a little bitmap image in there you need to make an adjustment to, you can jump into the Pixel Persona for a few moments rather than interrupt your work flow saving and reopening the file in another app.

Hope this helps!

[prophet]

39 minutes ago, Cooner said:

saving and reopening the file in another app

You can also use the "File > Edit In…" menu to move your file directly to another app.

[Kevin B]

Hi Jose, 

Welcome to the Affinity forum, here you'll find some very helpful users and many with Adobe experience like you have, seem to be lots of refugees from that world. 

I'm still at semi-newbie stage but maybe one of my previous posts will add to what Cooner and Prophet replied above, and I believe that their feedback is correct: 

With version 2 I'm going to dive back into Affinity deeper, I just purchased the Universal License before the discount expired. I used the Studio Link feature a bit and found it very useful, in a Publisher document I could include large CAD drawings and edit them handily with the Designer Persona. 

Good Luck! Kevin

[v_kyr]

13 hours ago, konig6 said:

I have some questions, the first of which is: why is there a Pixel Persona in Affinity Designer?

From my limited understanding of Designer, I think the Pixel Persona is kind of a stripped-down version of its sibling, Affinity Photo.

In an attempt to answer my own question, I think the Pixel Persona is there to make quick pixel modifications to our Vector graphics, without the need to open Photo. For heavier operations we would need to indeed open it side by side.

Is this correct, and is there any other reasons for the existence of the Pixel Persona?

Think about it, what if you don't have Affinity Photo and so just Affinity Designer? - Then you might be happy to be able at least to do some (even if limited) bitmap/pixel based manipulations too.

A bunch of common software can deal with both vector + bitmaps in one package, like for example Photoline and Xara Designer ... etc., so it makes sense to also offer some limited bitmap features in ADe here too.

[loukash]

18 hours ago, konig6 said:

why is there a Pixel Persona in Affinity Designer?

Because:

1. Designer was the first app of the bunch, released in 2014 before there was Photo, and there was the idea to have basic pixel editing capabilities out of the box.
2. Designer is effectively the most "universal" of the three apps, as it also has pretty good typography features, and with artboards it can even somewhat emulate a multi-page layout. As such it is also a pretty good "jack-of-all-trades" app for novices, hobbyists and occasional "tinkerers" that don't want to spend their money on the whole suite.

But yes, if you also have Photo, then File > Edit in Photo (and then back the same route again) is the better – and intended – workflow.

[Old Bruce]

On 1/25/2023 at 12:51 PM, konig6 said:

I have some questions, the first of which is: why is there a Pixel Persona in Affinity Designer?

We could also ask why Affinity Photo has vector capabilities. Text as Text for instance.

[konig6]

Thank you everyone, for such insightful answers.

42 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

We could also ask why Affinity Photo has vector capabilities. Text as Text for instance.

Yes, exactly. I guess the reasoning behind the answers to my question do apply to AP having vector capabilities as well. Nice point.

[StuartRc]

Personally! I believe that the option to edit | create pixel images or raster paint within Affinity Designer is one of its greatest innovative functions not only do you have the ability to work totally within 1 application; you can apply options in many different ways. Mixing 2 'creative' options together adds to the versatility of the application

The capability and variable options are extremely powerful for controlling and exploring new workflows!.. sometimes just takes a bit of getting used to.:

You can (but I am sure there is much more):
1. Combine vector and raster illustrations (Paint in both modes with ease and really useful for conceptual and comic art!)
2. Edit shapes | forms and convert to raster with single key press (Also applied to 'Vector Brushes' if you want to create quick textured shapes!)
3. Re-colour  raster and vector images simultaneously.. and apply layer adjustments to vector shape overlays for rapid colour experiments
4. Get complete control over texture effects and painting and re-colour drawings with vector overlays (or combined with layer adjustments)
5. Apply raster painted effects to Masks (Vector or raster)
6. Add vector graduations inside raster objects to re-colour
7. Apply blend modes to shaped overlays to change the appearance of an image using vectors
8. Helps with non-destructive editing
9. Ability to use a large combination of different tools by simply switching personas

It would be useful to be able to convert raster to vector but hey you cannot have everything! (Inkscape useful for this and you can just copy | paste )