Affinity for Mac: Cheap Illustrator alternative?

Darren Stephens · 19 August, 2014, 07:25:04 PM

Some of you guys may be interested in this. Looks awesome and yet another reason I wish I had a Mac!

https://affinity.serif.com/

IndigoPrime · 19 August, 2014, 07:36:14 PM

Interesting. There's quite a lot of stuff going on at the lower end of the market on Mac. Pixelmator's won a lot of fans as a low-rent Photoshop. Sketch has wooed UX designers, after a replacement for Illustrator and Fireworks. I'll be sure to check out this app too.

Jim_Campbell · 19 August, 2014, 07:46:49 PM

I'm playing with the beta now. It's very impressive.

Some stuff — text on paths, for instance — is missing, but is coming. They have a forum that looks fairly responsive to feedback from the punters, so I've posted a question about trapping esoterica.

I think it's within a whisker of being a viable Illustrator replacement — I only had about 30 minutes to play with it this afternoon, but in that time I managed to place an image on a correctly sized document, create a speech balloon, add correctly styled text and then create some text, outline and merge it, then add a gradient fill to produce an acceptable sound effect.

Definitely worth a look.

Cheers

Jim

kevhopgood · 20 August, 2014, 10:05:57 AM

Good to know there are some alternatives to Adobe out there. I'm sticking with Photoshop and Illustrator while I still can, but there'll come a day when I'm forced to upgrade, and I'm signing up to Adobe's "Creative Cloud"!

Jim_Campbell · 20 August, 2014, 12:59:02 PM

Quote from: kevhopgood on 20 August, 2014, 10:05:57 AM
I'm sticking with Photoshop and Illustrator while I still can, but there'll come a day when I'm forced to upgrade, and I'm signing up to Adobe's "Creative Cloud"!

The thing is, Kev, I think that the Creative Cloud terms are egregious and the pricing exorbitant,* but non-Adobe alternatives for a colour-managed CMYK workflow have been thin on the ground. I'm hugely encouraged by the thought that it might be possible to devise an end-to-end roughs-to-print workflow that didn't directly involve any Adobe software.

Affinity Designer isn't there yet — it's a bit clunky, and there are a lot of idiosyncratic interface choices. There's a lot stuff I can do in Illustrator that is either unnecessarily complicated or currently impossible to do in Designer. BUT... this is the first bit of alternative software I've seen where I've thought "Yeah, I could get an acceptable page of lettered work out of this."

They're taking a lot of feedback via their forum, which is also encouraging. I've asked them about trapping, for example, and they've advised that overprint controls won't be in the v1.0 release, but it is in development and will be added as part of a free update fairly soon after.

So... I think you could pencil, ink and colour in Manga Studio 5, then export colour-profiled CMYK TIFFs to letter in Affinity Designer, which will output (single page only) TIFFs, PDFs or EPS files.

If your workflow requires multi-page PDFs, it's possible to combine multiple single page PDF or TIFF documents into a continuous PDF using the 'Save as PDF' option in the Print dialogue in Preview under OSX — I've just tried it with half a dozen Illustrator-exported TIFFs from the book I just finished lettering. Colour profile and overprints appear to be preserved.

It's not an ELEGANT workaround, by any stretch of the imagination, but it means that if I'm put in the position of switching to Creative Cloud, or abandoning Adobe software completely, at a push, I CAN ditch Adobe, which gives me a certain peace of mind...

Cheers

Jim

*I won't bore everyone with another Adobe/Creative Cloud rant. See here instead.

IndigoPrime · 20 August, 2014, 02:17:16 PM

"combine multiple single page PDF or TIFF documents into a continuous PDF using the 'Save as PDF' option"

There must be a way to use scripting and/or Automator to speed that process up. Also, for those who need it, there's the likes of the SintraWorks PDF tools, which go beyond what Apple's offers.

Jim_Campbell · 20 August, 2014, 02:37:10 PM

Quote from: IndigoPrime on 20 August, 2014, 02:17:16 PM
There must be a way to use scripting and/or Automator to speed that process up.

Now that you mention it, there is an Automator process!

Under workflow: New PDF from Images. Drop the images straight in from Finder and run. Rasterised a couple of pages from the resulting PDF, and trapping appears preserved.

Thanks for thinking of that, IP!

Cheers

Jim

kevhopgood · 20 August, 2014, 05:35:49 PM

I just re-read my post, and I meant to type "I'm not subscribing to Adobe's "Creative Cloud". Not if I can help it, anyway...

Jim_Campbell · 20 August, 2014, 05:38:47 PM

Quote from: kevhopgood on 20 August, 2014, 05:35:49 PM
I just re-read my post, and I meant to type "I'm not subscribing to Adobe's "Creative Cloud". Not if I can help it, anyway...

That makes more sense... good man! :-)

Cheers

Jim

Stu101 · 20 August, 2014, 09:23:08 PM

Well I've just signed up for the free beta test, hoping that I may be able to understand the program.
Was about to look to see if there was any advice on photoshop alternatives when I see IndigoPrimes message.
I've just upgraded to a mac, have used PS on PC in the past but purely as a hobby so not looking to spend much.

Personally I feel very at home with a 3B and some A3 paper...

Talking of which, any advice on best method of scanning in pencils?

Thanks

Jim_Campbell · 20 August, 2014, 09:47:58 PM

Quote from: Stu101 on 20 August, 2014, 09:23:08 PM
I've just upgraded to a mac, have used PS on PC in the past but purely as a hobby so not looking to spend much.

Photoshop Elements is basically Photoshop for the non-pro. It's sixty-odd quid and NOT subscription, so you pay once and the software is yours. Alternatively, the Creative Cloud deal for a single application is only £7.50/mth for Photoshop for the first year (offer expires end of August). Full price for a single app is £17.50/mth (which sounds like daylight robbery to me, but I'm biased).

On the Mac, the machine will automatically install the relevant drivers for your scanner, which you can access via Image Capture.

Cheers

Jim

IndigoPrime · 21 August, 2014, 12:22:22 AM

Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 20 August, 2014, 09:47:58 PMOn the Mac, the machine will automatically install the relevant drivers for your scanner, which you can access via Image Capture.

Or Preview these days.

As for Photoshop alternatives, the main issue is that they're not nearly as feature rich—and most of them didn't deal well (or at all) with CMYK (if that's still an issue). That said, Pixelmator added CMYK support a while back, and Acorn added it about a year ago.

Darren Stephens · 21 August, 2014, 06:33:55 AM

On a slightly different subject, I'm looking at getting an iMac soon. Would the lower priced 21 incher Handle manga studio, ect....?

Jim_Campbell · 21 August, 2014, 11:23:31 AM

Quote from: Darren Stephens on 21 August, 2014, 06:33:55 AM
On a slightly different subject, I'm looking at getting an iMac soon. Would the lower priced 21 incher Handle manga studio, ect....?

If I can run CS6 plus Manga Studio and drive a Cintiq off a MacBook Air, I can't see why not.

But, I don't think the iMac is very good value for money. It relies so heavily on laptop components, I'd strongly recommend thinking about a MacBook Pro instead. I'm not a big one for slavishly comparing specs, but...

The cheapest out-of-the-box configuration for a 21" iMac is £899 for 1.4GHz i5 processor, 500Gb HDD and 8Gb of RAM.

The entry-level 13" Retina MacBook Pro is £999 but you get a 2.6GHz i5, an admittedly measly 128Gb SSD and 8Gb of RAM and a better graphics card. An iMac with the same graphics card (and much bigger 1Tb HDD would cost you £1049.

You could attach a 1TB USB3 external HDD to the MacBook Pro for £50, and a 24" BenQ monitor for a little over £100 (plus a DVI -> Mini DisplayPort adaptor).

That gives you more machine than the £1049 iMac for an extra £100, plus you can use the laptop as a second screen, you retain the portability option whenever you need it (just unplug the laptop and go) and the laptop battery acts as a UPS in the event of a power cut.

Cheers

Jim

Jim_Campbell · 21 August, 2014, 11:37:40 AM

I've posted this before, but my laptop-plus-external monitor setup originally looked like this (although I've since swapped the 15" MacBook Pro for a 13" MacBook Air). The Griffin laptop stand cost an extra £20 and the external HDD lives underneath.

Forgot to add a keyboard and mouse into the comparison in my post above, although if you already have those, you can just continue to use them. I'm a big fan of the Apple extended wireless keyboard shown there — they're not made any more, but they crop up regularly on eBay (here's one for £15). I have three, as insurance against the day I spill gin and tonic on this one and it stops working.

Cheers

Jim