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My Adobe resignation. Anyone else packed it in with them?


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On 5/29/2018 at 5:49 PM, VectorVonDoom said:

AD's not even close to AI in terms of functionality and at this rate won't be for a long, long time, so no. AI might be showing its age in some areas but it's hard to think of anything it can't do. Of course it depends on your requirements, not just current ones. AI hasn't moved on that much since CS6, PS gets most of the new goodies, and you can still pick that up cheaply, so no subscription. 

I disagree with you. AI is very very buggy. I tried to use InDesign for all my works if possible. I am still using Adobe because my company uses it.

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I was using Serif products back in the early 90's on Windows. Moved to Mac and started using other main stream products, Adobe etc. Being using the same old same old for years for DTP and also in my photography, LR, PS, AI & DW. Tried a few other products from Luminar & On1 for my photography but they just don't do it for me..

Got involved with the Affinity Publisher Beta and to say I am amazed how good this product is is an understatement, much to the fact I have purchased the full product, I just got to wangle a way of introducing Affinity Designer & Photo into my every day life, Change is a difficult thing but I have a new goal...

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On 6/20/2019 at 2:09 PM, gbjack said:

I disagree with you. AI is very very buggy. I tried to use InDesign for all my works if possible. I am still using Adobe because my company uses it.

What part is very very buggy? I use it for all my real work and can't think of any bugs I come across (that's more than I can say about AD). That's not the same thing as saying that there aren't things I'd like improved.  Anyway you can disagree all you want but if you look generally rather than for your particular use case then it's ludicrous to imply that AD's even close to AI's functionality and implies you don't really know either product properly.

If they were on par I'd be just using AD but absolutely can't. It might be fine for you as, if you can do your graphic work in ID, then your requirements must be pretty basic (not an insult, just that some people's needs aren't fancy). But don't confuse it working for you with it works for everyone.

 

Marc

ArtByMarc.me

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On 6/20/2019 at 4:40 PM, mikechannon said:

I was using Serif products back in the early 90's on Windows. Moved to Mac and started using other main stream products, Adobe etc. Being using the same old same old for years for DTP and also in my photography, LR, PS, AI & DW. Tried a few other products from Luminar & On1 for my photography but they just don't do it for me..

Got involved with the Affinity Publisher Beta and to say I am amazed how good this product is is an understatement, much to the fact I have purchased the full product, I just got to wangle a way of introducing Affinity Designer & Photo into my every day life, Change is a difficult thing but I have a new goal...

Welcome to the Serif Affinity Forums, Mike. :)

As someone who got hooked on Serif products in the (late rather than early) 90s and is now completely sold on the Affinity range, I have to confess that I can’t remember when I last used PhotoPlus. I did fire up DrawPlus a few days ago, but that was only so I could try to answer to a question somebody asked on the CommunityPlus Forum.

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Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen)

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I guess it would be silly to ask if you've tried the open source offerings?

There are a couple - Darktable I think is the main one. Not being a Lightroom aficionado, I can't say how good it is or how close it matches the workflow but it IS by photographers for photographers.

Darktable certainly models itself on Lightroom and, I think, is the same on that has all manner of Camera Raw decoders - (debayers) way over my head to be honest as I'm really primarily video and I use Resolve for that.

https://www.darktable.org/

It's free to try so the only thing we have to lose is a few hours of time to give it a test-drive.

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9 hours ago, marcdraco said:

I guess it would be silly to ask if you've tried the open source offerings?

There are a couple - Darktable I think is the main one. Not being a Lightroom aficionado, I can't say how good it is or how close it matches the workflow but it IS by photographers for photographers.

Darktable certainly models itself on Lightroom and, I think, is the same on that has all manner of Camera Raw decoders - (debayers) way over my head to be honest as I'm really primarily video and I use Resolve for that.

https://www.darktable.org/

It's free to try so the only thing we have to lose is a few hours of time to give it a test-drive.

I've tried DT, they got a looong way to go before they can compare themselves to paid software. There's a reason you're paying to Adobe programs. It's premium :P

Photographer * Design Trainee * Linux nerd

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Yep! The you get what you paid for is a rule that tends to apply (let us not forget that Affinity apps are an absolute bargain in price, despite being so functional)....  Still... I'm of the type that prefer workarounds than paying a lot, specially if it's monthly.... If one is heading for many steps below in terms of paying...well...you'll find the sharp corners and the stones in the road, it is expected. In that sense, Blender (the 3D app), as a perfect example, provides with about the best ratio of what you can get with (quite some) effort in the learning curve (so, a lot of people don't endure it) but the huge outcome you can get from it (financially, too) versus what you invested financially (nothing, or some donations).  It is so important (this flexible attitude) that is often the difference of having a sustainable set of expenses related to your artwork versus putting a lot of money in your tools. That said, for anyone having very nicely paying clients (not my case, I'm indy-friendly... btw, not meaning am unskilled / inexperienced... ) there's absolutely no question (probably most wouldn't be here), get the maximum that your money can bring, for tools. Time is more valuable, in those cases.  I have my collection of doubts about considering that's the case with Adobe (even having handled it professionally for many years), but hey, to each his own.

AD, AP and APub. V1.10.6 and V2.4 Windows 10 and Windows 11. 
Ryzen 9 3900X, 32 GB RAM,  RTX 3060 12GB, Wacom Intuos XL, Wacom L. Eizo ColorEdge CS 2420 monitor. Windows 10 Pro.
(Laptop) HP Omen 16-b1010ns 12700H, 32GB DDR5, nVidia RTX 3060 6GB + Huion Kamvas 22 pen display, Windows 11 Pro.

 

 

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5 hours ago, Totte said:

I've tried DT, they got a looong way to go before they can compare themselves to paid software. There's a reason you're paying to Adobe programs. It's premium :P

I hear ya. In fact, it's neat to get an assessment from someone who has used both. We could use a side-by-side feature profile really but that's a big ask given the amount of time it entails. I only use raw for video since that's my thing (so to speak). Run and gun which is the only way I'm using my 5D for stills is as easy with JPG and the quality is quite sufficient. It would be different for portraiture or landscape of course, when you have time to set up a shot as we used to do back when I started in film... I miss that sometimes.

I'm hearing this a lot from LR users - but not so much from users of the other parts of the Adobe suite - which is probably why they moved into SAAS (subscription model). I'm very big in open source. The machine I'm on right now is running a version of GNU+Linux called "Void" although it can dual boot into a pure Unix (FreeBSD) should I need to. I do all my 3D work including some stuff like Matchmoving with Blender 3D. I can't use it for editing video because it's too clumsy. For that I've got the full version of DaVinci Resolve.

@SrPx correctly notes that learning Blender is an uphill and sometimes Sisyphean task but once you get there it's just fabulous. The latest versions are much more beginner friendly but are still a world away from the ease of use of the more established commercial offerings.

I first used Photoshop when it came with a scanner bundle at V2.x for the Mac. It wasn't cheap then as I recall, but the bundle price made it affordable. I still have the manuals too. My last version was CS4 which irritated the crap out of me being STILL 32-bit. That pushed me over the edge and I refused to buy Adobe ever again. InDesign (which I used to lay out the print version of my last book) is bugged to hell and even After Effects would choke on some of the work I had done due to lack of RAM·

In Open Source we have Gimp which still looks like the 1990s are calling demanding their GUI back. MyPaint which is... well, for painting really and Krita which is amazingly powerful but like Blender, is a pig to learn.

A LOT of professionals I know have pirated Photoshop (even the CC versions) but I won't go there. Affinity does everything I need and it does it well. Even on this little i5 4000U - that's the dual-core, mobile version - not the beefier quad-core desktop. I have a 16-core Xeon workstation for 3D work but as I'm a bit of a climate change nut (the sort that does something every day rather than protest loudly one day a year to feel smug) I only fire that up when I *need* to. I'm so anal about this, I declined an invite to talk in the US because it means flying. We're working on some form of Skype (but not Skype) way of getting me there "virtually". This is the way a lot of us are going to have to work in future if we're going to beat the incoming tsunami.

I have other software which only works on the Mac - and thanks to Vendor Lock In, I would have to buy NEW licenses to run it on the PC (under *Nix or Windows). This is where FOSS comes in again - you can usually find it works on something you have.

Pragmatic choice is the key: use what works for you that's most efficient and affordable. It's a tough call knowing which way to jump - but I suspect a lot of people coming into the field would be better served by Serif's offerings and upgrade at such point that they are no longer capable to perform the duties asked of them.

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On 6/23/2019 at 3:16 PM, marcdraco said:

I'm using my 5D

There's another reason DT does not work for me. I'm using EOS R, and free software are waaay too slow to update on camera profiles. Especially when you're running with the latest.

Photographer * Design Trainee * Linux nerd

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On 7/10/2018 at 11:56 PM, Wazitano said:

FYI For All Looking To Jump the Adobe Mothership:

It has taken me 2 years to unfold, but here is my current Adobe-free workflow..
(All do 90% of what each Adobe package does, and stunningly a WHOLE lot more that most of the Adobe packages DONT do)

1. Obviously Photoshop and Illustrator swapped for AP and AD
(this is working surprisingly well, and is a dream once youve gotten used to Affinity's way of doing things)
(a couple of things, like new image settings automatically sizing to what's in the clipboard, would be nice for some extra efficiency, but those are finer bells that will come with time)

2. Acrobat Pro?
Foxit PhantomPDF is far and away the best of 6 software alternatives I have tried, and far cheaper than Adobe... and so far has done EVERYTHING that Acrobat Pro did for me and more - (including formula embedded form fields, signatures, etc. - and a couple of things I never got from Acrobat - can you say Remote File Security features!)

3. Premiere and After Effects?
These have always been a wrestle in my opinion, and the need to move from one to the other has broken not only many a schedule, but sometimes a project or two.
I have just reached video editing nirvana with the latest DaVinci Resolve 15 beta (which now incorporates Fusion etc. into the already integrated Audio and Color Grading elements in ONE software package) - which is faster, slicker and in my opinion far more powerful to use - and FREE (with pretty much all the basic features most prosumers would need) - it has a $250 purchase price if you have a specialist production requirement (in which case that price is certainly reasonable)

4. Dreamweaver?
There has been a glut of Free/Cheap alternative HTML/Site/Script editors emerge in the last couple of years.
I am currently still settling between two, so I wont name names yet, but I'm already finding both of them to be a much smoother dream to weave.

I am finally feeling free of the Adobe tentacles!
(and I have been a professional Graphic Designer, using both Mac and PC versions of most Adobe suites since Photoshop came on floppy disks)
(I used to be an avid fan, but how big has the snow ball rolled.. that they now need far too hungry a vacuum-based business model to maintain their inefficient and archaic structure)

This is the natural cycle of things - time to start getting in early on the next generations of software.
Hope this helps someone else find freedom, choice and a heavier wallet once again.

For website development try: WYSIWYG Web Builder. It is a code generator, and very powerful with an avid community and 3rd party extensions (widgets). SVG support, database capability, supports both responsive and adaptive layouts with fluid and fixed layouts. Very powerful and comprehensive. Theit Windows program is their flagship, though they have a Mac and Linux version (different name) that is compatible with similar functionality.

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  • 1 year later...

Count me in. Retired and do web work, newsletters for three non profits. I work in two platforms, Windows and Mac. Have now purchased all the Affinity products for Mac. Continue with Xara for Windows. 
The monthly for my clients through Adobe and myself proved unsustainable. 
Xara has a yearly sub. Still looking around for a Mac builder that answers my needs. Wishing upon hope that Affinity may produce one. 
 

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