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New to Affinity Designer - wanting to purchase this instaed of illustrator need some help


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Hi all,

 

I am planning on getting Affinity Designer for Xmas and i have a few questions before I get it.

I currently use Photoshop  for website design, is this a programe which could do web design in or is it just vector art?

 

Am I able to import and export to photoshop?

 

Am I able to import and export PDF?

 

I am not sure I can think of everything I need to ask now, but that is most of it.

 

Is it compatible and how does it compare to Illustrator.

 

I look forward to your responses

 

Jon Fuller

 

 

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Hi Jon

 

Yes you can design web graphics and mockup websites (no interactivity, just the look), and yes you can import/export PSD for Photoshop and PDF. You can also import from Adobe Illustrator using a PDF-compatible AI file, and save as PDF for opening in Illustrator. Import and export will get even stronger over time in free updates.

 

Hope that helps.

Twitter: @Writer_Dale
Affinity apps run on: Ryzen 5 3600, 32GB RAM, GTX1650 Super

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Hi, Jon;

 

I know that there's a school of thought out there which uses Photoshop as a "web design" tool, and while I understand why, I'd encourage all devotees to rethink.  Vector tools are vastly better-suited to this chore than raster, owing to greater speed, smaller file sizes, and better editability of the works-in-progress.

 

Affinity Designer combines both vector and raster tools in a primarily vector environment, so you can have some of the raster effects if you need them while retaining ease of editing type and shapes, the ability to change things easily.  I am finding Affinity Designer to be *very* fast, even on years-old Macs. With Adobe, the mantra is if you want things to get faster, buy a new Computer.  Down here on earth, that's not easy to do, and Affinity Designer effectively gives you that "new mac" feel with the incredible speed boost.

 

I think you'll be very happy with what Designer can do for you..

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Wow thanks all that is really helpful. Would any of you mind chatting to me on some form of im say face book or something so i can ask some more questions. Especially vectorcat with your web advice there.

 

If so add me on Facebook. Jon fuller or might be easier to find me and message me on my Facebook page. Www.Facebook.com/jonfullerwebdesign I hope this is ok would be so useful for me

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Might be more productive if you can describe what you want Affinity to do for you, or what you have been using other software to do. Also, I don't know whether Affinity Design has a trial version available, but there is very little learning curve and giving Designer a test drive would be the best way for you to get spun up on what it can do for you.

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I don't believe there is a trial or at least one that I can see. I currently use Photoshop to design web site layouts before coding them.

 

So I wonder 1 if there are any grids made up for affinity designer.

 

Two vectors are very new to me so this will be q new thing I have to learn. I have always used PS

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Jon: when starting out using vectors for the first time, don't worry about getting all "fancy" -- when I started out on Illustrator 3, I spent hours just getting used to the pen tool. Just outlining old sketches I had scanned into the Mac Classic (I had one of those tiger-direct hand scanners. Even got a special board for it that allowed me to do straight scans and such. Thank goodness flatbed scanners became affordable!). Getting used to drawing in vectors means having to think about the lines and shapes you're creating. Just like drawing with a pencil and paper, work from the big shapes and slowly get details put in. 

 

Going from vectors to raster in Affinity designer is the easiest I've ever experienced! Just be aware that you're switching how AD works when you go from the Draw Persona to the Pixel Persona. Tools will change and the panel layout may differ. Go to the Affinity Vimeo group ( https://vimeo.com/AffinityBySerif  ) and look at some of the tutorials there.

 

Don't be afraid to just "mess around." That's what I call Analytical Play. It's when you start out with an idea of what you want to learn about an app and just click there, choose that tool and so on -- and see what happens. Don't worry, you won't break anything. :)

 

Take a moment, have a cup of your favorite beverage and just browse the Affinity Designer help files and this forum. Do a search on "Pixel or Raster drawing" for example and see what pops up. There's a metric ton of good info here, it can be a challenge to find it all, as it is with most forums of this nature. Knowing how to find things out can be a great help when it's way-too-late-o'clock and you gotta finish that one piece like yesterday!

 

(BTW, having a "Facebook conversation" is an idea I really dislike because it fragments the information that others could possibly use and benefit from. Keeping it "in house" (so to speak) will make it easier for others who are in your straits find the info they need too.)

 

Photoshop brushes can't be imported, but if you have an app that can pull the Material/Texture of the brush from the PS brush file ( like BrushPilot, for example), you can then create your own brush using that texture. And then, it'll be a Raster/Pixel brush and not a Vector brush. I seem to recall there being a thread about that, but I may be mistaken. 

 

Welcome to the forum and hope this was helpful to you.

Mac OS X Catinlina, 2014 iMac, 3.5 Ghz Intel Core i7, Huion Kamvas Pro 22 Graphic Tablet, 16GB RAM, MacOS10.12 || Magic keyboard w/numeric keypad, wireless trackpad, Kengsington Edge Trackball || Flux Capacitor in a secure location

---

I encourage kids to go ahead and play on my lawn. I mean, how else can I make sure the death-traps work?

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