Affinity v2 Photo vs. Designer - which better for pixel art

[Ssinssrigg]

Hello, as in the topic.
I would like to upgrade Affinity to v2, but I want to make sure that I'm making a good choice.
I'm usually working with pixel art (but not exclusively) and rather modify images than create something from the scratch.
I purchased Affinity Photo v1 before, and I don't think it was not the best choice for pixel art.
Which product would be best for me?

[walt.farrell]

22 minutes ago, Ssinssrigg said:

Which product would be best for me?

You can get a 30-day  free Trial of each, and try them out to see what works best for you.

[Ssinssrigg]

@walt.farrell I'm not a professional, I don't even know what to check. I use it occasionally to modify some graphic for my game, that I'm making as a hobby. I'm learning how to do something whenever there is a need to do so; I'm discovering different functions and "obstacles" gradually. That is why I asked more advanced users (or Affinity employees) to give me advise based on their expertise, since I'm not competent enough to make this choice by myself.

[R C-R]

AP has more functions for manipulating pixel objects, like a Develop Persona for processing RAW photos, a Tone Mapping Persona, Filters, Batch Jobs, & (limited) Macros, Stacks, & so on. So strictly on that basis, if you are going to 'blindly' upgrade without trying out the Trial version, that probably would be your best choice.

[Alfred]

1 hour ago, Ssinssrigg said:

I purchased Affinity Photo v1 before, and I don't think it was not [sic] the best choice for pixel art.

Did you mean to write that you don’t think it was the best choice?

If APh version 1 didn’t suit you, I rather doubt that enough will have changed in version 2.

[Ssinssrigg]

@R C-R @Alfred Thanks. In general, I like AP, but it "likes" to blur images excessively. Sometimes simple copy and paste result in some blurring (I see no point in that) and I have to use "paste as PNG" option to avoid it. By default, some blurring is good (and probably necessary) with bigger images, but it can totally mess up pixel art. There are the ways to "fix" that with using "nearest neighbor" but it often it still doesn't look "properly". And before someone will assume that I expect same image quality after rotating or resizing it - I know what to expect and I remember some other programs were doing it better; I have reasonable expectations. There is great function "Resize Pixel Art Document" but it works only with making it bigger.

[keiichi77]

Affinity Designer v2 also creates a minimal amount of antialiasing in enlarged images, same engine.