How Illustrator users can get comfortable with Affinity Designer

[@celestethoms]

What’s crazy is I started learning design with Illustrator and became very frustrated with the program. I switched to Affinity and had no issues creating anything. It’s so easy to use and find what I needed.

[@KuttyJoe]

That's not crazy. That makes perfect sense. If you never got very far with Illustrator then you don't know what it can do, so you don't miss features and functions that you're not aware of.

[@thebrebear]

I agree!!!!! I hated Ai

[@user-sq8td8qq8p]

and cost much less

[@YounesSS-p8v]

7:14 on the top right next to the alignment options there is the lock children check box, use that if you want to move the circle only or the whole group

[@ianlaker9161]

Finally, a video that properly addresses these issues. Most of us pro designers are making this very transition and come up against these frustrations when we're used to Illustrator.I'm in the process of ditching InDesign and Illustrator in favour of Affinity Publisher and Designer. It will reduce my Adobe subscription significantly. Unfortunately I can't ditch Photoshop and Lightroom for my photography. If only Affinity had a rival to Lightroom. Anyway, well done. You've earned my subscription.

[@unaddan]

clipping mask is just awesome in AD

[@Mithferion]

As always, very good video. The only thing that I could point out is that Illustrator also creates each object in a "separate Layer", the only thing that happens is that Illustrator creates a default collapsed Layer so its content is not visible at first glance

[@websiteckron8591]

Great video! I also need a video with a comparison between publisher and Indesign. Thanks!

[@haya3sa]

Been using adobe since Photoshop 4 haha. So glad there are alternatives that are better than adobe, especially on better workflow/ uiux.

[@SarahBeckC]

His courses are GREAT - if you are reading this and dont have his courses - BUY THEM = No regrets - and Nice guy too!

[@DesignMadeSimple]

Thank you Sarah 🙏

[@billbowman8747]

Thanks, great video! I've been slowly switching over for a while now. Sadly, some clients require me to use Adobe, but I am using Affinity where I can. Truthfully, I enjoy my working in Affinity. It feels more like a modern app and can do some things that Illustrator can't. Illustrator just feels way too bloated and dusty! We need more videos like this, that are geared to helping users who want to shift away from Adobe. I'm still looking for a good Affinity Photo tutorial that is much like this one that showcases how they are different.

[@DesignMadeSimple]

I'll have some Photo tutorials soon. Maybe not as in-depth as this one though, my focus has always been vectors but Photo has a lot to offer that I'm excited to share.

[@khelloabdallah9540]

Smooth, wonderful and perfect explanation، Thanks

[@ChristopherTrimble]

Great video! I just switched from Illustrator to Affinity Designer 2 last month. So far I really like it. I do miss the envelope distort tool. The one option I would like to see improved in Affinity Designer 2 is when you choose a font. In Affinity it just shows the name of the font instead of the text you have typed out.

[@popopp2297]

I was afraid to make the switch from Corel to Illustrator yet made the switch. Then I was afraid to switch from Illustrator to Affinity and just finished making the switch. I get it, we get comfortable, and then make excuses, but my files are all AI (Illustrator). Haha, Affinity can open your illustrator files, SVG and more. Best move I've made was switching from Illustrator to Affinity Designer, now I know three different platforms and have one less bill every month ($70.00). You can always migrate back to Adobe if you need them. Fortunately this digital world we live in has so many new players on the block, the world really is our oyster. That being said, Adobe is kind of like AT&T of the 80's, we all know what happened to AT&T. lol. I love your videos and hope to see more content on Affinity in the near future.

[@DesignMadeSimple]

Yup, and hopefully we get bigger better things from Affinity now that they have Canva's war chest to work from.

[@rejointrident]

Thanks for the video! Good introduction into the main differences. just wanted to point out that another quite big feature missing in designer compared to illustrator is 3D.

[@markymaarty]

More like this video 🙏🏻 Thank you!

[@Wildenfree]

That “trim view” shortcut ( \ ) didn’t work for me for some reason?

[@karenlepage-mindfulmaker]

The “vertical bar” is usually called pipe and you showed a backslash ( \ ) but I think it’s ( | ) which is a different key

[@DesignMadeSimple]

I would go into the Settings menu and click on the Shortcuts tab. It'll show you all of the keyboard shortcuts. See if it's listed in there. Your setup may have it bound to a different key. If not try pressing the Reset button and seeing if that does it.

[@nikiskanatsaris4046]

what about swatches with patterns, arrows etc?

[@ravenwithacause2]

affinity designer do have vector brushes, it seems though that the brush you have selected is a raster brush

[@haya3sa]

he's using vector brush. what he meant was when zoomed in, it didn't give a supposed vector quality.

[@christianr.5868]

I love designer so much, never even bothered with illustrator

[@CarinaParry]

Hi Nick, interesting, I tried importing [placing an AI artwork] into Affinity but it came in as text. Is it because it was a CS6 file?

[@b1b1b23]

How is possible that Affinty has no vector brushes :O Are they working on it?

[@owlsonik37]

Affinity designer for iPad Pro so far has been a major pain in the butt!

[@DesignMadeSimple]

It's a radically different workflow from the desktop app. Lots of fun once you get used to it though, and very useful too. I have a bunch of content planned for it.

[@owlsonik37]

@@DesignMadeSimpleyes, tutorials on the iPad would be amazing! Love your channel✌️

[@annonimbouz851]

Well the only problem for me as a designer is when the clients are asking "we need the .ai file". Giving the client eps is not an option if it has gradients elements. 😅

[@DesignMadeSimple]

Just export as PDF then change the file extension .AI 🤷

[@annonimbouz851]

@@DesignMadeSimple can you try using gradient color? It will break on illustrator. Somehow it's rendered as bitmap... That's the only problem for me... I actually using affinity most of the time... Unless there's a gradient colors involved, I use affinity to make the shape and color it on illustrator 😅

[@KuttyJoe]

Also, when you export as pdf, it might still screw up some aspects of the file such as gradients. Things that are special to Illustrator won't be respected outside of Illustrator. If you're trying to work with people who use Adobe software you would really need to check anything created with Affinity to make sure there are no problems before sending them to anybody. There are a whole lot of things that can go wrong.

[@dmrm2161]

Too bad we can't see the strokes/shapes that extend beyond the artboards in Affinity. With one part inside and the other outside, like in Illustrator

[@ОлексійПорохняк]

Until Affinity team adds vector brushes and tracing its just a "good ui toy"

[@KuttyJoe]

I think it's good software for design and drawing. The raster based brushes are a very unique aspect of the software now that all of the other programs that had those kinds of brushes have all been discontinued. Actually, Illustrator dabbles a little with those brushes but they never developed it further after introducing it years ago.

[@AminTheMystic]

Why would anyone actually bother, tho? If you can't afford/get illustrator, that's one thing. Other than that... why?

[@DesignMadeSimple]

So many reasons. Adobe has a track record of anti-consumer practices, one of which they are currently being sued by the DOJ and FTC for. Not to mention earlier this year they tried forcing all users into accepting an invasive privacy policy which would've allowed them to collect data on you and use your work to train their AI. Then there's also the Creative Cloud launcher, which is required to use the software and runs in the background at all times using up system resources. Many don't seem to mind these things though, so if you fall into that camp and you can afford it then more power to you.

[@KuttyJoe]

There are two very good reasons. 1. if you don't "need" what Adobe software offers. 2. You don't want to pay the cost of Adobe software. Not everybody needs the power of Adobe software. It's great that there's something for everybody. I think though that a lot of people who say they are switching from Adobe, are people who did not need Adobe in the first place. If you need Adobe software, then switching to something with a fraction of the features is not possible.

[@ComputerTechnology073124930]

but to be honest, illustrator with scripts, and plugins is more powerful than any other vector software

[@DesignMadeSimple]

Can’t deny that

[@theletterc616]

Better software for now, but also a worse company. Never going back to Adobe programs.

[@ОлексійПорохняк]

So true. I’ve worked in Illustrator, Corel Draw, and Affinity Designer for 9 years. For me, Lustra is still the best, especially if you own a CS6 license and don’t have to pay monthly😊

[@stevenlitvintchouk3131]

@@ОлексійПорохняк If you did have to pay monthly, would you still consider Illustrator the best?

[@KuttyJoe]

Illustrator is better than any low cost software even without plugins and scripts. But Coreldraw is at least on the same level. I still prefer Illustrator, but for certain kinds of work, Coreldraw is better equipped.