57 comments

  • Xavier BertelsXavier Bertels, 7 years ago

    Goodbye Sketch! No more broken symbols, vector tools and text styles. This is sweet, sweet news!

    18 points
    • Joe Blau, 7 years ago

      He had me at

      200 million percent zoomed in

      7 points
    • Rory Smyth, 7 years ago

      Yep. Just updated to the latest version of Sketch only to have all my symbols broken. What a shit show.

      0 points
    • Andu PotoracAndu Potorac, 7 years ago (edited 7 years ago )

      Sketch is not going anywhere, it's just awesome. :-)

      You know that is true by watching this video. They copy the concept of Symbols from Sketch (and they copied it from Flash - called movie clips).

      They copy the duplicate feature, and most of the other things. I'd rather keep using the leaders in this space, and not the copy cats. Because they will always be a step ahead.

      1 point
      • Ethan BondEthan Bond, 7 years ago

        Sketch didn't invent or even create the best execution of symbols nor the "duplicate feature." Not sold one way or the other but this is a pretty weak argument.

        0 points
        • Andu PotoracAndu Potorac, 7 years ago

          Read my comment at the bottom of this conversation to see the real reason these guys are simply copy cats. Also, nobody mentions this but Sketch not only thought of and did these features first, they also did it in an app that is 20x smaller.

          0 points
          • Kaelee Makarick, over 6 years ago

            I've read all of your comments and I fail to see why you are complaining.

            Any designer that decides to make the switch from Adobe's Creative Suite to products that are lightweight, open source and have better pricing will DEMAND that specific features they use in their workflow are available. It is expected that Sketch and Affinity Designer will have similar if not the same features and will copycat each other. If they didn't everyone would stick with Adobe, where most of these features that we depend on originated.

            Who want's to use 3 products to complete one task because of major inconsistencies in the tools available? Not me.

            I made the switch to Affinity Designer during beta and the most crucial thing still missing from my workflow is Smart Object support. When they decide to support this I will be jumping with joy, and I WANT the functionality to be consistent with what I am accustomed to.

            Same goes for Sketch. I have been using it for only a few months (preference of the design team at a new job coupled with Zeplin) and I absolutely love it, but I still have to go back to Adobe when working with files that have Smart Objects.

            Why did I initially choose Affinity over Sketch? Pricing.

            Do I love them both? Yes.

            What will I primarily use for my own personal workflow at home? Affinity.

            Why? Pricing and stability.

            0 points
  • Tony GinesTony Gines, 7 years ago (edited 7 years ago )

    No more Illustrator

    Been using Affinity for most things. I had to open Illustrator a couple weeks ago and I felt dirty.

    9 points
  • Greg Warner, 7 years ago (edited 7 years ago )

    I've been using the 1.5 beta for a couple months now and it's a fantastic update. I'd happily stick to it exclusively for UI work if Zeplin would make an integration (hint). But it's really excellent for UI and asset design, all the way through. Never been a better time to pick up a license, folks.

    8 points
    • John Atkin, 7 years ago

      Stay tuned, Greg... :)

      1 point
      • Pete Doyle, 7 years ago (edited 7 years ago )

        Oh man, if you can make that integration awesome, I'd (as an Android dev) love to: - Have designers mark assets exportable (or better, not even have to. I'm coming from Sketch :) ) - Export to Zeplin

        Then, from Zeplin, as a dev I could: - Choose a name for each asset (android / iOS have different conventions) - Be able to export 1x, 0.75x, 2x, 3x, 4x (Coming from Sketch, our designers have to set each one, and they always forget 4x) - Be able to customize export dimensions, e.g. an icon that is 22x24 dp could be expanded to export at 24x24dp, with configurable placement inside the new dimensions (e.g. to align it just right). Exporting from Sketch often results in icons that are slightly different sizes (it is possible to make perfect, but our designers don't always know the appropriate dimensions) - Export assets into the correct folder structure (e.g. res/drawable-[mdpi,xhpi, etc]). I think iOS has a similar concept with xcassets.

        I literally just sent the Zeplin guys this wishlist about an hour before seeing this announcement. :)

        Alternatively, with constraints, it seems like there's an awesome opportunity to export all the assets (1x, 2x, 3x, 4x) and create the layout files via Android's new ConstraintLayout.

        0 points
  • Andy LeverenzAndy Leverenz, 7 years ago

    This one's a game changer. I've been using Photoshop, Sketch, and Affinity Designer. Guess which one is leading the race? Well done!

    7 points
  • M. AppelmanM. Appelman, 7 years ago

    Recently purchased Affinity Designer to produce several collateral items (business cards, banners, brochures etc). After working with Adobe products for years, it was such a joy working in AD. Everything felt faster and more intuitive. The tutorial videos were a great asset to learn the application (just wish they were hosted on YouTube so one could increase the play speed).

    Upgrading now (for free, imagine that!) to try my hands on the new UI/UX Design features.

    5 points
  • Remus Baltariu, 7 years ago

    That's an impressive list for the buck.... and this update is massive indeed! Hands down for your work. Really curious to test what are the differences in workflow between PS and this one.

    5 points
  • Liam FLiam F, 7 years ago

    The asset management is much nicer than Sketches, that alone makes me want to switch over and actually use the feature.

    The transition begins!

    4 points
    • Greg Warner, 7 years ago

      And the more traditional use of paragraph and character styles, imho, is wwaaaay superior to Sketch.

      3 points
  • Andrius PetraviciusAndrius Petravicius, 7 years ago

    Oh man, the market in UI design tools is getting really competitive now. I like Affinity, but prefer Sketch for UI design. I just wish Sketch would have some of these new Affinity features.

    4 points
    • Xavier BertelsXavier Bertels, 7 years ago (edited 7 years ago )

      My feeling is that the Affinity codebase is much more stable and a better foundation going forward. They have their bugs but all in all it feels much more stable. They especially have their basic vector tools down – I’ve been drawing icons in Affinity and importing them into Sketch just because Sketch is unpredictable.

      My bet would be that Affinity will become a better UI Design tool, quicker, than Sketch. Let’s see in five years where we stand

      7 points
      • Laurens SpangenbergLaurens Spangenberg, 7 years ago

        My understanding is that they've been working on Affinity Designer and Photo over many, many years before even getting a beta out. They knew there was a market for their products so they decided to be patient and code it the hard and long way to make it stable and feature complete from day one. With this, they also avoid getting a bad reputation for their early (stable) releases regarding instability or bugs which they would need many additional years to both fix. After which, it would still take a while to gain a good reputation.

        My feeling is that with their stable, and probably excellent codebase, adding features must be a lot easier and faster which would eventually allow them to catch up to Adobe's features at a more rapid pace with a better UI.

        5 points
        • Xavier BertelsXavier Bertels, 7 years ago

          I think you're right. Serif having been in the software business for a while probably also helps.

          0 points
  • Vince P.Vince P., 7 years ago

    Wow, this update looks seriously awesome. They had me at detachable symbol properties.

    3 points
  • Powers Gray, 7 years ago

    These updates look great! Not sure why they found it important to show the guy on that weird set the whole time. I would have preferred audio on top of a high res application recording...

    2 points
  • Kris KimKris Kim, 7 years ago

    Wow... maybe the cheapest option out there (vs. Sketch, Adobe, Subform. Figma is to be seen), but seems like the most powerful suit. I'm definitely trying out.

    2 points
  • Vince P.Vince P., 7 years ago (edited 7 years ago )

    Btw, I love what they are doing, but the buttons and app design they are showing in the demos are something that could be improved.

    2 points
    • Ashley Hewson, 7 years ago

      TBH I'm not the best designer - was just trying to showing the principles of what's possible as clearly as I could ;)

      6 points
      • Vince P.Vince P., 7 years ago

        You did that perfectly! It's just it could be more inspiritational to see better, more polished designs, even if that's not the point. BTW the new features are amazing. Do you plan to have plugins in the near future? I think that's the only feature Sketch has on you right now.

        2 points
        • Ashley Hewson, 7 years ago

          Yeah, it's definitely on our roadmap, although is probably a good 6-12 months away to open it up I'm afraid...

          1 point
      • Laurens SpangenbergLaurens Spangenberg, 7 years ago

        I think many elements in the app examples could just use a lot more negative space. Try making some elements smaller. The example weather app could also use slightly thicker typefaces to make it more legible. Although everything you guys have done is killer so far.

        0 points
  • Tristam GochTristam Goch, 7 years ago (edited 7 years ago )

    I really dig Affinity Designer, this update is really heavily UI design focussed though, I hope they've got some updates to the drawing tools too

    2 points
  • Roland IllésRoland Illés, 7 years ago

    Does it support smart objects and artboards from Photoshop?

    1 point
  • Yannis SteriotisYannis Steriotis, 7 years ago

    With these added features and more to come soon (check the affinity forum), I think that Affinity Designer will be for sure my main designing tool. I hope to see soon from the company the InDesign alternative...

    1 point
  • Mick NMick N, 7 years ago

    Wow these new features are great (been testing this on the Windows Beta and its suuuuper fast!). Looks like I'll be shifting my workflow here as soon as its out of beta.

    1 point
  • Tamim SwaidTamim Swaid, 7 years ago

    Sketch could learn from their constraints solution. The solution Sketch has isn't good. This one seems to look better.

    1 point
  • Michael CioMichael Cio, 7 years ago (edited 7 years ago )

    Very cool release. Does anyone know what the workflow/setup is to design 3d packaging mockups like they're showing off at 1:10 in this video: https://vimeo.com/185763872 ?

    I think Affinity Photo needs to be involved, as "live perspective" filter isn't available in Designer... If that's the case the problem is that this new version of Designer file will not import into Photo – Photo can't handle it (yet).

    Edit: in case you're interested – got this reply in the Affinity forum: Live perspective using Photo is required to do this. Photo will be updated soon (probably today) to 1.4.4 so that it can load and save Affinity Designer 1.5.1 files.

    1 point
  • Marvin Hagemeister, 7 years ago (edited 7 years ago )

    Omg! This is so good! I love the features for ui and web designers. Especially the constraints and better symbols are just amazing!

    1 point
  • Benoît ChabertBenoît Chabert, 7 years ago

    Super nice. I guess, having a british accent when you're selling a design product helps ^ (Apple). Just a question, I guess I'm going to repeat myself with the subform post but, easy way to export that to developers/give annotations ?

    1 point
  • Robert AniteiRobert Anitei, 7 years ago

    Geat features, cheaper and far better than Photoshop at UI design. It's nice that is cross-platform.

    1 point
  • Onur SentureOnur Senture, 7 years ago

    History feature looks great. So we can make cool videos with our designs.

    0 points
  • Andu PotoracAndu Potorac, 7 years ago (edited 7 years ago )

    Constraints, symbols (nested objects, override properties), view pixel, text style, export at different resolutions, folder where items are exported and most of the things in this video copy precisely what Sketch is doing.

    So I've seen nothing that isn't already done in Sketch beautifully. All I see as a Sketch user is a copycat. That's unfortunate.

    0 points
    • Jakub FoglarJakub Foglar, 7 years ago

      I’m wondering if you’re serious with these comments.

      A) These are all done very differently in Affinity – and in most cases are way more powerful then in Sketch B) Sketch of course didn’t invent constraints, symbols, pixel preview, text styles nor export. They just did it in their own way, like Affinity.

      1 point
      • Andu PotoracAndu Potorac, 7 years ago

        Everyone who's using Sketch and saw Affinity's 1.5 video, explaining basically Sketch features, knows that I am serious about it.

        They didn't add something new, they didn't do things differently. They made a copy of these things exactly the same. And no, they are not better, that's my personal opinion after trying out both.

        0 points
  • Visien VinesaVisien Vinesa, 7 years ago

    I wonder if there is anyone out there who has the same concern like I do: Plugins. Since Sketch already has so many plugins that improves workflow. Also, sketch import features on some prototyping tools.

    0 points
  • Robert PaigeRobert Paige, 7 years ago

    Until it allows for export of text edibility for other programs, I'll pass.

    0 points
  • Rory Smyth, 7 years ago

    How do you actually use these symbols and constraints though? Can't find it in the UI anywhere.

    0 points
  • Stefan HoardStefan Hoard, 7 years ago

    I still haven't had a chance to use this and I'm still jumping between Sketch & Photoshop. Guess I know what I'm doing this weekend :)

    0 points
  • Pete Taylour, 7 years ago

    Wow, I wasn't expecting to reach the bottom of the page and see this.

    price

    Is it likely to stay this cheap? I don't want to jump ship from Sketch just yet - waiting on some catch-up updates

    0 points
    • Ashley Hewson, 7 years ago

      The £29.99 price is with a discount which is running just for the next couple of weeks or so. Normal price is £39.99, but still substantially cheaper than the alternatives!

      0 points
      • Mick NMick N, 7 years ago

        If I jump on this price now will that include a Windows license, or should I just wait until official release of the Win app? (Aussie here if that helps)

        0 points
      • Kay LeungKay Leung, 7 years ago

        Will that including 2.0, 3.0 versions? If you do, I'll jump into the pool now :) I'm not a designer and frequent user. Usually purchasing at last min...

        0 points
  • Mak Raz, 7 years ago

    Finally!

    0 points