Affinity Designer
Serif takes on Illustrator
Unfussy interface
Since Macromedia Freehand was discontinued in 2007, Mac creatives have craved an alternative to the highcost Adobe Illustrator, and with Serif’s Affinity Designer, they may finally have one. Part of a suite of new apps that will see image-editing and design tools released in the coming year, Affinity Designer is created specifically for the Mac and, as such, is optimised for OS X. It offers perfectly smooth panning and zooming, and more than 1,000,000% zoom (you read that correctly), so you can close in on the finest detail without a loss in quality. It ran well on our 2012 MacBook Pro, even with complex multi-layered images. Using Affinity Designer is a dream, thanks to its unfussy interface. A simple toolbar holds 16 essential tools on the left, while floating (or fixed) panels appear on the right, allowing a fully customisable workspace. Along the top of the screen is a contextual toolbar that features changing values depending on the tool in use. Having these options means you don't have to hunt around palettes (or try to remember menu locations or keyboard shortcuts), and they're small and subtle enough so as not to clutter the screen. Unfortunately, some essentials (such as foreground functionality, but with a few subtle differences. The core assets of Pen and Shape tools work in the same way as Adobe apps, but with paths having larger coloured visual anchor points on screen, making them easier to use, and editing options available constantly in the toolbar.
With over 1,000,000% zoom (ONE MEEEEELLION!) you can go down to the finest details without a loss in quality