Adobe Illustrator vs. Affinity Designer
Can the design newbie knock Adobe off its perch?
BEFORE WE PIT THESE two rivals against each other, let’s take a step back in time to where it all began. The year is 1987, Adobe has just released its first piece of software called Illustrator for the Apple Macintosh. It was, and still is, a vector art and design software that by today’s standards looks pretty darn basic. However, in the late 1980s, this piece of technology completely revolutionized the art of graphic design.
Before computerized work, creating a piece of design was a massive task and extremely time-consuming. Everything had to be done manually, including rulers and french curls, and typography was created letter by letter. One page of set type may even take a day or two to complete. You think making a mistake on a computer is a problem? Nowadays, you simply press CTRL-Z to undo the error, but back then, a mistake in traditional design work could often mean starting all over again.
Illustrator was designed to prevent this from happening while being more efficient and pushing the boundaries of what could be done. The concept of a computer being able to draw for you introduced a whole new way of thinking to industries such as graphic design, marketing, and publishing. Illustrator eventually replaced Adobe’s PostScript software, a page description language that was previously only usable by computer programmers. Illustrator was an application that made the process a whole lot smoother, allowing more accurate control over curves, shapes, and lines that you could see in front of you.
The pen tool was one of the first and most useful tools Illustrator had. It meant you could draw accurate curves, perfectly straight lines and also create infinite variations of shapes by drawing as many points as you wanted. These were the building blocks to every type of design you see today and that certainly gives Illustrator some brownie points.
There have been lots of updates and new versions of Adobe’s Illustrator since, but its purpose has never changed. It is engineered to be a graphic designer’s best tool, used to create brilliant vector designs that allow you to make graphics, logos, icons, or typefaces that you can scale up and down without losing resolution. Illustrator also comes with specialized tools that help you create more complex designs to perfect your work.
Templates are another great feature, removing the need to create documents from scratch. There are templates for digital, print, web, and mobile, that support both CMYK and RGB color spaces. Illustrator’s custom workspaces can help you organize the UI exactly how you want it—that’s the great thing about Illustrator, it’s extremely adaptable. It also works with the rest of the Adobe Suite of programs, including Photoshop and InDesign.
But now we have a contender, in the shape of Affinity Designer. Serif also began in 1987 creating creative software for Windows, but later launched the Affinity range of applications, the first of which was Affinity Designer, released in 2014. This application is aiming to set a new industry standard for graphic design, and with some decent awards in recent years, including winning Application Creator of
the Year in the Windows Developer Awards 2018 and a five-star award from Editors Choice, it has become a real alternative to its illustrious rival.
Affinity Designer is a similar program to Illustrator—both applications offer the user a similar experience and both are used for the same end products. However, there are some areas where Affinity Designer beats Illustrator. One of the main benefits of Affinity is the lack of a subscription fee. A one-off payment of $49.99 is far cheaper than paying a minimum of $20.99 a month for Adobe Illustrator on an annual plan.
Illustrator hasn’t always been subscription-based, however, it was brought under Adobe’s Creative Cloud subscription service, which now costs $79.49 per month for all of its programs. If you don’t want to sign up for an annual contract, that’s some pretty big bucks. Affinity takes the crown here on affordability, however, both programs offer a trial service, so we’d recommend trying them before committing to a purchase.
Affinity is also a marginally easier piece of software to use. Its layout is cleaner, bolder, and more colorful, whereas Illustrator can be a little overwhelming, particularly for a new user. If you have used other Adobe products before, Illustrator’s layout should be familiar, but approaching both programs as a new user, Affinity’s product has a more organized layout by default. It’s also a lot more fluid and visually speaking, benefits from running at 60fps. Due to this ease of use, Affinity could be more appealing to a newer audience, however, it doesn’t have as many tools and features as Adobe’s offering.
On the whole, both of these programs are excellent, offering great services to creative types, whether they use these programs for a hobby or take a more professional interest. Illustrator lends itself slightly more to professional usage. This comes down to its extensive history of use within the publishing and design industries, meaning that more people are accustomed to using this application.
Affinity Designer may appeal more to the beginner with an easier user experience and it opens the door for newer creatives to work digitally. With a cleaner and faster UI, it makes Illustrator look heavy and will certainly gain more traction because of this. Also, Affinity’s subscription-less program gives it an edge over Illustrator when it comes to fresh artists and creatives looking to save a substantial amount of money per year.
They both have great qualities but in terms of professional usage and more features, Illustrator is worth that extra bit of patience to learn and use as it also ties in well with other Adobe programs. For an overall package and longevity purposes, Illustrator has the edge over Affinity design due to its extensive background and business hierarchy. Nevertheless, that’s not to say that Affinity isn’t an excellent product too.
VERDICT 9 Adobe Illustrator
INDUSTRY STANDARD Feature rich; revolutionized graphic design; powerful program.
STANDARD INDUSTRY ISSUES Subscription based; slightly more cluttered interface.
RECOMMENDED SPECS Operating system, Windows 10 (64-bit) versions V1809, V1903, V1909, and V2004. CPU, Multicore Intel processor (with 64-bit support) or AMD Athlon 64 processor. RAM, 16 GB. GPU, OpenGL 4.x.
From $20.99 per month www.adobe.com
VERDICT 9 Affinity Designer
A THREAT TO THE TOP One-off purchase; easier to use; fast and responsive @60fps; vector and raster.
CLOSE, BUT NO CIGAR Doesn’t quite have the same history; still not industry standard; fewer features.
RECOMMENDED SPECS Operating system, Windows 10 (1607 Anniversary update or higher), Windows 8.1, Windows 7 (Service Pack 1; Platform Update KB2670838; Aero enabled). CPU, N/A. RAM, 4GB RAM. GPU, DirectX 10-compatible Graphics Cards and above.
$49.99 www.affinity.serif.com