15 comments

  • Shawn BorskyShawn Borsky, over 9 years ago (edited over 9 years ago )

    This is my favorite part: http://d.pr/i/ttNU

    8 points
  • Mattan IngramMattan Ingram, over 9 years ago

    Full Ai/Psd compatibility?

    Interesting.

    6 points
  • Pedro Ivo HudsonPedro Ivo Hudson, over 9 years ago

    Here comes a new challenger!

    5 points
  • Beth DeanBeth Dean, over 9 years ago

    I'll probably keep using Sketch for UI design, but this looks like it could be a serious contender to replace AI for my comic illustration workflow. Brushes in AI right now are terrible, and trying to switch between PS and AI to get the best of both worlds results in all kinds of trouble in my files. Excited to try it out, please liberate me from the awful world of Adobe!

    5 points
  • EJ FoxEJ Fox, over 9 years ago

    Using this product made me have the following thought:

    Can keyboard shortcuts be patented?

    The only thing keeping me from using this consistently is the multitude of Illustrator keyboard shortcuts that are part of my muscle memory now. It's frustrating to have to find menu items / similar but different names for functionality I can do in one keypress in Illustrator. I know that's wrong but... it's also what's holding me back from moving beyond Adobe.

    4 points
    • João FaracoJoão Faraco, over 9 years ago (edited over 9 years ago )

      Same here. And also a big thing for me to even begin moving to Sketch for some tasks I know it's better at.

      It's simple shortcuts like Cmd + Space to zoom, "M" for rectangle (which thankfully Affinity brought in), "L" for ellipse (which for some reason they didn't)..

      If they had a "Import shortcuts from Illustrator" button, that would win my heart.

      1 point
      • Beth DeanBeth Dean, over 9 years ago

        Biggest muscle memory pain for me in switching to Sketch from Adobe is how things get selected. I find that infinitely frustrating in Sketch, if you don't remember to hit the command key every time you have to cycle through all the layers above whatever you're trying to choose. Maybe I just haven't figured out how to do this yet, but if you hover over text and click it, it should just become editable.

        0 points
    • Luke JonesLuke Jones, over 9 years ago

      It’s a pain, but I believe you should be able to create these keyboard shortcuts in the Keyboard preferences panel. (Apple > System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts).

      2 points
  • Andy LeverenzAndy Leverenz, over 9 years ago

    A serious contender comes out of nowhere! Excited to see this take off.

    3 points
  • Brian BaileyBrian Bailey, over 9 years ago

    Sketch is almost tailor-made for interaction design, but Affinity seems to be a more fully featured Adobe Illustrator replacement.

    3 points
  • Nathan RomeroNathan Romero, over 9 years ago

    Very interesting / polished software. I'm surprised I haven't heard of the company before. It does seem like more of an illustrator alternative, but the pixel snapping works very well.

    3 points
  • Tom WoodTom Wood, over 9 years ago (edited over 9 years ago )

    Good fun to play with! If you enjoy your illustration then I recommend you download the trial.

    Pluses: + They've clearly thought out what operations they did the most in Illustrator and streamlined them. + Quick buttons for reflecting, rotating, intersecting and aligning are all on a toolbar which makes it very speedy. + There is a smoothness to the UI and the way you pan and zoom that is very similar to Sketch. + Excellent rendering as you zoom. + The "transparency" tool. Like making a gradient mask with a fade, but here it works with one click. Amazing idea. + The blending modes change as soon as you hover over them. Just drop down the list and as you go through them you can instantly see their effect.

    Minuses: - Colour picker implementation isn't great. Unlike Illustrator it doesn't pick blending mode and transparency. Very tiring with multiple objects. - Can't figure out how to expand curves/lines into solid objects. This is currently driving me mad. - To select an object you have to click on it, or drag an area over the entire shape. This is annoying when you have multiple shapes. - Copy and pasting from Affinity into Photoshop/Sketch makes a Bitmap, not a vector.

    I haven't had a chance to look at the Pixel mode, but I see this as an excellent start on the way to replacing Illustrator. So impressed!

    2 points
  • Paul JarvisPaul Jarvis, over 9 years ago

    hehe: "1,000,000x zoom, because we can"

    1 point
  • William HutterWilliam Hutter, over 9 years ago

    This seems like a serious all-in-one competitor to both Pixelmator and Sketch. I like that the UI isn't floating windows like Pixelmator

    0 points