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MattP

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Hello, my name is Bruce and my interest is from a woodworking and CNC perspective. I am relatively new to OS X (4 years) but have worked on systems including DOS, VAX/VMS, Windows 3.1 through 7, Linux and several flavors of Unix.

 

I am hoping that Affinity will replace Inkscape for my CNC needs. Although it does not seem to be oriented for that use, Time will tell.

 

 

Bruce

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UYaz, your cat avatar sure looks mean. Is it one of yours?

 

Hehe, yes although she is the biggest scaredy cat and has only ever bitten/scratched me once in 12 years (when she had mastitis after kittens poor love, and I was holding her for the vet). 

 

So many lovely cats and kittens on the forum - you must all be good peoples.

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I'm MikeS, 21 yrs old with 60 years of experience. I was using Serif's Page Plus II for years until it quietly faded from the scene seeing as I switched to a Mac.

 

I'm a little confused here as I understand some plans are being made to join the mac world.So question:

 

What will be the connection between Serif & Affinity and will Affinity's design package to the same job if not better than Serif's Page Plus series? 

(Damn, questions shouldn't be this long. Sorry)

 

MikeS

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I'm a little confused here as I understand some plans are being made to join the mac world.So question:

 

What will be the connection between Serif & Affinity and will Affinity's design package to the same job if not better than Serif's Page Plus series? 

(Damn, questions shouldn't be this long. Sorry)

 

MikeS

 

The Affinity team, work at Serif but the Affinity products have no connection to the Serif Plus range of applications. Affinity Publisher will better than PagePlus in many areas but may not have the same large feature set.

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Hi...I'm SandyC. I've been a graphic designer (now semi-retired) since the mid 1980s.

 

I liked Freehand...shunned Illustrator...until Freehand lost track of what it was...an Illustration program rather than a Swiss Army Knife. Once it got gobbled up by Adobe I chose the lesser of two evils and moved to Illustrator. I've been using it ever since. I have to admit that Illustrator had developed nicely ever since I moved to it. It has some great features. Of course Adobe decided to rent their software rather than selling it (CC and CC2014), which once again soured me to their products.

 

I stumbled across the Affinity Designer beta today—and I have to say after taking it for a short spin, I’m quite impressed. There's obviously still development to be done on it, but I can definitely see the potential for it to attract a lot of Illustrator users and since the market is never static, I can see it attracting a lot of new designers as well.

 

I hope Affinity is actually hoping for a lot of constructive criticism. I've beta tested for several companies over the years and my number 1 (way on top of the heap) frustration/pet peeve/sore spot is that a lot of software developers look to their beta testers to tell them how great their product is, rather than to receive constructive criticism/suggestions/bug reports. The developers that are really only looking for praise from their beta testers invariably turn out mediocre software. Developers that are not interested in praise, but want bug reports and suggestions about how their product can be improved tend to release superior products.

 

Once development is nearing a first release, your biggest challange will be name recognition and acceptance by the graphics industry. Amateur users/a small niche market will pay some of the bills, but acceptance by the graphics industry is vital for continued growth and profit.

 

Stepping away from Illustration software, ironically to illustrate my point, there have been several excellent page layout programs on the market, iCalamus and PageStream, to name a couple. Neither was ever able to overcome the illogical stranglehold InDesign and QuarkXPress have on the market. In fact, Adobe's own PageMaker was never able to overcome QuarkXPress's dominance as the professional page layout software. It wasn't until QuarkXPress released some lackadaisical updates and Adobe rebranded PageMaker as InDesign that Adobe was able to capture a large chunk of the market.

 

That's the battle Affinity Designer faces against Illustrator and several other lesser known illustration programs. Affinity Designer will need some evangelical support and name recognition. Excellent customer support is also a must.

 

Finish developing Affinity Designer...then don't just hope the rest will follow. Market, market, market.

 

By the way...a public beta, I think, can be an excellent first step toward developing a great program AND breaking into the "big boys" market.

 

Best of luck.

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Hi Sandy,

 

Welcome to the forums :) Glad you're enjoying Affinity Designer so far! I'd invite you to take a look back through some of the topics over the last month to see how we take criticism... the product you're using right now wouldn't be as good as it is without us listening to suggestions, criticism and implementing changes based on real world users with their experience.

 

Also, we have a plan for getting support from the industry... trust me, this is just the beginning... :)

 

Let us know how you get on with the software,

Matt

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Hi all,

I'm Nizam Mahmud from MALAYSIA.

It's great to know Serif has taken a very great innitiatives to contribute their expertise for Mac-based users, especially graphic artists.

Looking forward for more news and updates from you guys...

 

I'm very keen to know what is Serif plan on Affinity for Education sector.

By the way... any Malaysians here?

Software Specialist Consultant & Multi-Discipline Instructor

Treasure Resources Network

Malaysia

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Hi I'm Will from Scotland

 

I'm an Architect and have used Adobe Illustrator quite a bit over the years for doing architectural illustrations. We can't justify the expense of renting Illustrator/Indesign/Photoshop for occasional use; we are desperate for a serious replacement for Adobe CS and it looks like you might be on to something here.

 

By the way, in architecture school, we do a lot of intensive illustration work. You might consider giving away free copies to students. A lot of practices license Adobe CS because students who figured out how to use it at Uni have persuaded them its required to do good illustration / colour reports / rendering post production etc. If you can go in and get them hooked on your products instead, they will then go on to demand that practices buy it when they get a job. I noticed that some of the developers are based in Nottingham, UK. It's worth having a look at the degree shows at the top schools like the the Bartlett School of Architecture and the Royal College of Art to see how your software might be used in this industry.

 

All the best,

Will

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Hi. Jim Campbell — former graphic designer/production manager, now full-time comic book letterer. Adobe user for twenty years, primarily Illustrator for lettering, but I will not be gouged by the Creative Cloud terms and pricing, so actively seeking a professional-level, colour-managed CMYK print workflow that doesn't rely on the Adobe suite.

Both the initial product and your openness to feedback are very promising. I'd forgotten Serif had a Nottingham office, since I'm a local lad. :-)

 

Looking forward to seeing how the Affinity suite develops. I've been saying for a couple of years now that Adobe are setting themselves up to be taught the self-same painful and expensive lesson they themselves taught Quark not so many years ago. Here's hoping you're the people to do it.

 

Cheers

 

Jim

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Hi, I'm Matt Priestley and I'm one of the Affinity developers. I'll try to help out on any topic, but particularly anything relating to tools, views and document drawing as they're the bits I'm mostly responsible for writing.

 

Feel free to join me and introduce yourself, too! :)

Hi Matt, Remember me? I used to go under the name of 'Jack the Lad', You and I swapped many emails over how to develop a perspective drawing feature for DP. I also gave your computers a hard time with my drawing of an alloy wheel when you tried to find why it it made your computers crash! It turned out to be an incompatibility between Windows and the 'Blur' tool!

 

I gave up the PC and bought a MAC and have Adobe PhotoShop and Illustrator. However I'm too old now (74) to learn new software and I'm very glad that Serif have produced a Mac version which hopefully will be like using DP.

I'll give it my best shot as a tester.

 

Godd luck

Jack

If voting made any difference it wouldn't be allowed!

Rules are for the guidance of wise men and the obedience of fools.

To be ignorant of world happenings is forgivable - to be willingly ignorant is unforgivable.

Truth does not need to be protected only lies do.

Mac OS Monterey 12.6.4

AD version 2.3.0

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Another newcomer - I've been a user of Serif PagePlus and Photoplus for a long time, and have recently moved to Mac.  So I was thrilled to see Affinity being launched.

 

I use it to create print and website stuff for small arts companies.  I'm on a steep learning curve having moved from Windows to Mac AND started on Affinity, but so far really pleased.  But like others, I find the very dark GUI and the small icons quite stressful on the eyesight.  I've happily discovered through these forums that I can make some amendments, but would still like more clarity on icons.  I'm sure that when I'm more familiar with the layout it won't mater quite so much.

 

But overall - so pleased that Affinity has come along.

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Hi, I am Kai and a freelance designer based in Hamburg (Germany). 

www.ad-roewer.de

I worked with Adobe most of my professional life. I do illustrations, 3D, motion design and classic print design since 12 years now. 

Since the CC I was looking for alternatives because subscription models are just no option to me. I don't want to rent my software. 

I am testing Affinity designer since yesterday and am really excited about the project. Of course I found the first few things I'd like to see improved and will share my thoughts soon. 

 

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Hi I'm Michael (Mike if you like :))

 

I'm a web designer/front-end dev these days but cut my teeth with Adobe software back when they were quite lean and mean.

Through the past decade or so I, like so many have watched the bloat grow out of control and the market get sewn/screwed up by the corporate behemoth.

 

I have a soft spot for Photoshop/Illustrator as it has allowed me to produce good work, but with the advent of CC, I've had enough. Currently I use Sketch on OSX which does alot of the web work I need it to do and is a damn fine app, Pixelmator is good but I'm not 100% comfortable with it as a PS replacement. Sketch is no Illustrator, and that's a part of it's charm, but I do need an Illustrator type app too.

 

All the best to you guys @Serif, I'm test driving it now and with the good price point you hope to bring it out at, it's a no brainer really. I'm rooting for you guys to do what no-one else has or can... end the Adobe tyranny and set the people free!!

 

Healthy competition is a lovely thought, but it's beyond that by order of magnitude, BIG-A needs a kick up the rear.

 

Speak soon. 

 

Mike

AD 1.4.1 | AP 1.4.1 | ottobyte.com | @ottobyte | MacPro 8x2.8, 8gb, OSX 10.11.3

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Hi there,

 

this is Cristóbal Vila. My first post here :-)

 

Working with Mac from the past 24 years. My first app was Illustrator'88 (!)

 

My initial jobs were as graphic designer, first, and as art director, some years later. Both in Barcelona and Zaragoza, Spain.

 

More than 10 years working on a daily basis with Illustrator, Photoshop and QuakXPress/InDesign: technical drawings and illustrations, cartography, logos, magazines… all.

 

Then, some years later I discovered 3D animation, and never go back.

 

My main tools actually are Modo, Cinema 4D, Premiere, AfterEffects, Photoshop and… yes, Illustrator. I actually use Production Premium CS6 and never updated to the “cloud” thing. Don't like that idea. And since that moment I'm continuously looking for other alternatives.

 

And some days ago I discovered Affinity Designer and I immediately fell in love with it. What a fresh air sensation!

 

Affinity seems to me very, VERY, promising. Of course there are (no few) things that I would need to really substitute the old Illustrator / Photoshop combo. But I see brilliant and fresh tools and solutions also. And it's FAST!

 

And, finally, with that price this is a real gift!

 

I think that is all. I will ask for some questions, but this is not the place.

 

Thanks for your hard work!

Cristóbal Vila
etereaestudios.com

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Hello Cristobal. Welcome.

I started working on a Mac just one year more than you (25 years ago) :-)

My first vector application was MacDraw, then MacDraft and right after that, Illustrator 1.0

For the past 10 (a bit more) years I have been using mainly Photoshop, Cinema 4D and AfterEffects.

But I have used FreeHand (and loved it) for many years. And, in the 3D realm, I used Swivel 3D, ModelShop, RayDream Designer, Strata Studio Pro, infiniD, 3D Studio, 3D Studio Max, Lightwave, etc, etc... until i found Cinema 4D :-)

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Hello

 

I'm Paul and remember using Serif products many years ago when I had a Windows PC. Now I'm an avid MAC user for the last 15 years or so I have been using several image editing programs as Serif seemed to be only available on the Windows platform.

 

It's good to see Serif for MAC as they are quite a solid company with a lot of experience in this field. Affinity looks a very well constructed and well laid out program in it's beta form so hopefully we will see more facilities added to it when the full version becomes available.

 

My immediate observation on this beta version is the lack of a clone stamp. I know this is not a tool associated with Illustration packages but how about introducing some tools of this nature into Affinity?

 

Affinity has an excellent U.I. with good workspace and I can see it being a very serious contender for overtaking others in this field.

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Hi everyone

 

I'm Pete. We've been using Serif products in our Graphic Design Studio for many, many years, having bootcamped our macs in order to run Serif software, we have found them really fantastic to use. We run Adobe products but use usually just to open client files to incorporate on our system. We knew years ago that Serif's time would come, and now it's here! Having produced many pieces of Artwork using Serif software (we predominately produce design and print for the cinema industry, so lots of high detail imaging and large format printing) we can say to any design sceptics out there 'give it a go' it's a great alternative to CS products and don't let the inexpensive pricing put you off, Serif is worth 1000 times the sum of its cost initially.

 

Hope this converts many other professional studios to Serif.

 

Keep up the great work guys!

 

Kindest Regards

 

Pete Berrisford

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