Affinity Photo vs. Affinity Desiger

[pepperypete]

I purchased both Affinity Photo and Designer the other day after watching all the tutorials on both and at the moment it seems that Photo can perform all the same tasks as Designer and a bit more. Just hoping I haven't wasted £50 for no reason. I am interested in Photo editing and producing vector art and it seems you can do all of this just on Affinity Photo. What am I missing? Thank you in advance. 

[R C-R]

Affinity Designer includes Assets, Symbols, Text on a path, & 'Shape text' (text in a frame)

[toltec]

Designer is more "Page" orientated and has Artboards and can do pages with bleed.

[Alfred]

Promised updates for version 1.x of Affinity Designer include a knife tool, a blend tool, and a vector (as opposed to raster) mesh warp tool. I wouldn’t expect any of these features to be added to Affinity Photo.

 

If AD really doesn’t offer you anything you need at the moment, you can apply for a refund (from either Apple or Serif, depending on whether you purchased from the Mac App Store or the Affinity Store). The free trial version will be updated after version 1.7 is released to retail, and you can then install and run it to find out whether its new features are useful to you.

[gdenby]

Certainly AP is far better for photo editing. But AD does much better for vector. In addition to what has been mentioned. the vector brush used with custom textured image brushes can produce  remarkably varied and adjustable strokes. The pencil tool is quite nice for creating freehand vector shapes. While I do most work in AD, I find the few things I need from AP are worth the money I paid when I need the capabilities. I suppose you will find the same is true when you need Designer features.

[pepperypete]

Thanks guys thats made it a bit clearer. Sure the differences will become clearer over time also. 

[Uncle Mez]

Guys, 

To me there is no vs. 

Simply do your pixel works with Photo and add needed to Designer project. 

Best teaming ever, no need to import just open and move on. 

Cheers! 

[Fahad Javed]

Hi pepperypete,

 

Here are some of the differences between Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo:

Affinity Designer:

> Affinity Designer is a Vector Graphics Application,that also allows you to use raster elements using the 'Pixel Persona'

> Has got the ability to add art boards allowing you to add multiple designs and graphics in a single File with different dimensions.

> Has the capability to use re-usable graphic elements using concepts such as 'Symbols','Assets','Styles' and 'Text Styles'

> Has the ability to draw primitive shapes along with smart shapes that have more attributes and are more flexible

> Can open and edit Illustrator files(.ai), Photoshop files(.psd) and pdf files.

> The ability to see outline and pixels views and that to in a split view so that you can see the vector outline as well as the images it self

> Ability to create custom vector brushes and raster brushes and also export and import it.

> Ability to round vertices using the 'round' tool

> Ability to export the vector graphic to any size during export,keeping in mind the aspect ration of the document or artboard size

> Ability to create Vector,Pixel and masked layers.

 

Affinity Photo:

> Affinity Photo is a photo editing raster based application

> You can develop raw files in a variety of format by different manufacturers

> Ability to stitch Panoramas automatically based on attributes of the image

> Has more extensive pixel based tools compared to Affinity Designer like flood select tool,Color replacement brush tool, Paint Mixer Brush,Sponge,Undo Brush Tool,Median Brush Tool,Healing Brush Tool,Patch Tool,Blemish Removal Tool,In painting Brush Tool,Red Eye removal tool,Mesh Warp tool,Perspective tool

> Contains more adjustments and Live filters like Motion Blur,Lens Blur.

>  Ability to edit Affinity Designer Files[Including keeping the Art boards intact]

> Ability to perform Batch jobs on hundreds of images like resizing etc.

> Ability to peform HDR and Focus Merges.

> Ability to record Macros and run them.

> Ability to show before and after split views of images in certain modes or personas after edits

 

These are some of the features in both the apps.

 

Best Regards,

Fahad

 

[Alfred]

1 hour ago, Fahad Javed said:

Affinity Designer:

...

> Has the capability to use re-usable graphic elements using concepts such as 'Symbols','Assets','Styles' and 'Text Styles'

> Has the ability to draw primitive shapes along with smart shapes that have more attributes and are more flexible

> Can open and edit Illustrator files(.ai), Photoshop files(.psd) and pdf files.

 

Affinity Photo doesn't offer 'Symbols' or 'Assets', but there are both 'Styles' and 'Text Styles' panels in the Studio. The same shape tools are available in both apps.

 

Neither of the Affinity apps can read the native Adobe Illustrator format. They can only read the PDF stream which is included in an AI file when it's saved as PDF-compatible (which I understand to be the default setting).

 

It's important to note that all text is rasterized (so it's no longer editable) when you export to PSD format.

[Fahad Javed]

Yes indeed, you can open .ai files and then you have to save them in the affinity formats for this to work,we cannot save to the .ai file. You can download a sample .ai file(url = http://all-free-download.com/free-vector/download/water_color_codes_samples_colorful_grunge_brush_icons_6828859_download.html) and check the feature out. Once you open that in Affinity Designer, you get a pdf options dialog box and once you set the options and press the 'ok' button,you can edit the vector graphics and save them in a native file format like '.afdesign'.

 

You can also download  a sample .psd file(url = https://www.graphicsfuel.com/dload/?dlink=2017/04/3D-Comic-Text-Effect),and once you open it,notice the text is indeed rasterized. You can also open the pdf file in this zip file,and notice the text from the pdf file can be edited,the pdf file needs to have text in the first place not images in order to edit it.

 

Yes there are also some common features in both the apps as well like pen and node tool, shapes,Export Persona, Layer effects, Raster Brush Engine and brushes, swatches,Navigator etc.

 

 

[Alfred]

8 minutes ago, Fahad Javed said:

You can also download  a sample .psd file(url = https://www.graphicsfuel.com/dload/?dlink=2017/04/3D-Comic-Text-Effect),and once you open it,notice the text is indeed rasterized.

 

There is an option under Preferences to import PSD text as text, but by default any text in a PSD file is rasterized on import. This is so that the text looks correct even if you don’t have the font(s) installed.