Affinity Designer vs Affinity Photo

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Affinity Designer

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113
+ 1
11
Affinity Photo

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+ 1
11
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Affinity Designer vs Affinity Photo: What are the differences?

Introduction

Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo are both powerful software applications developed by Serif. They are designed for creative professionals and provide a wide range of tools and features for graphic design and photo editing. While both applications share some similarities, there are key differences that set them apart from each other.

  1. User Interface: The user interface of Affinity Designer is primarily focused on vector editing, making it more suitable for graphic design projects. It provides a comprehensive set of vector tools, such as shape tools, pen tool, and node editing, allowing users to create and manipulate scalable designs. On the other hand, Affinity Photo has a user interface that is more tailored towards photo editing and retouching. It offers advanced features like healing brush, frequency separation, and non-destructive adjustment layers, making it ideal for professional photographers and digital artists.

  2. File Types: Affinity Designer supports a wide range of file types for both import and export, including SVG, PDF, EPS, and AI formats. This makes it easy to collaborate with other design software and seamlessly import vector artwork. Affinity Photo, on the other hand, is specifically designed for photo editing and supports popular raster image formats such as JPEG, PNG, TIFF, and PSD. It also provides options for saving images in different color spaces and bit depths.

  3. Pixel and Vector Editing: While both applications have some overlapping features, Affinity Designer is primarily focused on vector editing, enabling users to create precise and scalable designs. It supports features like boolean operations, vector brushes, and advanced typography controls. Affinity Photo, on the other hand, excels in pixel editing, offering tools such as selection tools, layer masks, and blend modes, allowing users to retouch and enhance their photos with precision.

  4. Artboards: Affinity Designer allows users to create multiple artboards within a single document, making it easy to work on multiple variations or sizes of a design simultaneously. This is particularly useful for creating multi-page documents, website mockups, or mobile app designs. Affinity Photo, on the other hand, does not have the concept of artboards as it is primarily focused on working with individual images.

  5. Live Effects and Filters: Affinity Designer provides a wide range of live effects and filters that can be applied to vector objects, allowing users to create complex and dynamic designs. These effects are non-destructive and can be easily modified or removed at any point in the design process. Affinity Photo, on the other hand, offers a comprehensive set of filters and adjustment layers specifically tailored for photo editing, allowing users to enhance and transform their images with ease.

  6. Export Options: Affinity Designer provides more advanced export options, allowing users to export their designs in various formats and resolutions. It offers options for exporting individual artboards or slices, as well as the ability to specify export options for different formats. Affinity Photo, on the other hand, provides more simplified export options, focused on exporting high-quality raster images with options for resizing and optimizing for web or print.

In Summary, while both Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo are powerful applications for creative professionals, they have key differences in terms of their user interface, file types, editing capabilities, artboards, effects and filters, and export options, making each application more suitable for specific design and editing tasks.

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Pros of Affinity Designer
Pros of Affinity Photo
  • 3
    Easy of use
  • 2
    No subscription
  • 2
    Feels like Illustrator
  • 2
    Love the UI
  • 1
    Export options
  • 1
    Customizable layouts
  • 0
    Feels like Photoshop
  • 3
    Ease of use
  • 3
    No subscription
  • 3
    Fast and doesn't crash
  • 2
    Feels like Photoshop

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What is Affinity Designer?

No bloat, no gimmicks, just all the tools you need, implemented how you always dreamed. It is a stripped back, pro-end workhorse that will always get your job done. It was created to thrive on the electric pace of the latest computing hardware. Live, responsive and incredibly fluid, it’s simply a joy to use.

What is Affinity Photo?

It is born to work hand-in-hand with the latest powerful computer technology, it’s fully-loaded photo editor integrated across macOS, Windows and iOS.

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What companies use Affinity Designer?
What companies use Affinity Photo?
See which teams inside your own company are using Affinity Designer or Affinity Photo.
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What are some alternatives to Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo?
Sketch
Easily create complex shapes with our state-of-the-art vector boolean operations and take advantage of our extensive layer styles.
Adobe XD
A vector-based tool developed and published by Adobe Inc for designing and prototyping user experience for web and mobile apps.
Inkscape
It is professional quality vector graphics software which runs on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. This software can be used to create or edit vector graphics such as illustrations, diagrams, line arts, charts, logos and complex paintings.
Adobe Illustrator
The industry-standard vector graphics app lets you create logos, icons, sketches, typography, and complex illustrations for print, web, interactive, video, and mobile.
Figma
Figma is the first interface design tool with real-time collaboration. It keeps everyone on the same page. Focus on the work instead of fighting your tools.
See all alternatives