In my opinion the best alternative to the Adobe suite (Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign) are the Affinity suite - I use all on a daily basis as a professional graphic designer and have done for some time now.
No subscriptions to worry about and the software is super polished and fast.
Now is a great time to get the three (or whichever you need) as they have 50% off.
Affinity Designer: Illustrator equivalent
Affinity Photo: Photoshop equivalent
Affinity Publisher: InDesign equivalent.
Pixelmator Pro has good price now too, $40
Awesome software and my preferred of all the editors. Pity it's not on Windows!
Plenty? I do a lot of graphics work for my own purposes casually on both Windows and Mac.
Who uses Windows, lol
The people who aren't struggling to deal with the concept of email 2FA
Ex Mac users?
guess it's a sign that I should finally ditch windows for mac
Shows $62.99 in the App store, I think the $39.99 on the website is US price.
Yeah I checked and is $62.99. That’s the price I paid last week. But the UI is better than Affinity in my opinion. Also is tans really well on my old MBP 13 2013 model
Yea, my bad, sorry
For anyone wondering, $62.99 is the usual price. Pixelmator Pro goes on a 50% off sale roughly twice a year, so if you don't need it right now it's worth waiting for a sale.
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/deals/pixelmator.com
https://appsliced.co/app?n=pixelmator-pro
I’ve tried affinity designer and Photo last week. I was looking at buying it full price but then also tried Pixelmator pro and much prefer it as it combines vector and photo editing in the one app. I ended up paying $62.99 for it. Good to see Pixelmator on sale now too
Pixelmator is so good!
Yes is better at many things than photoshop even.
I like the one click remove background feature.
Affinity usually only does this deal once a year (usually Black Friday), good deal to hop on.
I'm interested in Affinity Photo. Can anyone advise how many computers you can have running the software with a single license key? I have a Mac desktop and a Mac laptop that I would like to use the software on. Would I need two separate license keys, or would one be enough for both computers?
If you are on Mac I would go with Pixelmator Pro personally. You can use that on any number of devices, and is personally a much easier product to use.
Read the license details here:
https://store.serif.com/en-gb/help/
I have not tried it, but my reading is that you can install multiple copies on computers you own. Windows and Mac versions require separate licenses, though.
Thanks. It looks like you're right. I've had a look at this and checked some other websites and forums, and it seems like you can use the same license key on multiple computers as long as they are the same type of computer.
Love this software, went for photo affinity last year, and its been mostly great. Most shortcuts are there for your muscle memory from photoshop, but to be honest some obvious stuff is missing - flow wise anyway, and not a deal breaker.
Good price. If work wasn’t coughing up for Adobe suite I’d be on this
Any suggestions for a lr alternative?
Capture One is what I switched to, though it's also subscription based….
This is great, I have bought all three for the mac, and Photo for PC as well to replace PS
Their software is great. Just wish they'd make a lightroom alternative!
There's trial versions for 2 of them just fyi.
I've just tried Designer for a while and think am going to buy it. All the open source art software tools are unfortunately pretty janky but this is great, and it has some pixel art tools & mask/enhancement layers too so replaces everything I use general photoshop-like software for too. A few things to sort out and get used to but overall pretty damn good.
Great software all round, and getting better!
Have any of you used Sketch? If so, how do you find it vs, say, Designer which I think is the closest Affinity product?
I hear only good things about Affinity's tools. I'm not a pro graphic designer nor do any extensive photo work (i.e., I'm a hack) so I find Pixelmator Pro ticks many of the boxes for me.
Unfortunately, while PP has some vector support, it doesn't open InDesign or Illustrator files, hence the Sketch vs Affinity Designer question.
While I haven't used sketch, I can report that Designer is the only tool other than Illustrator I've tried which is halfway decent to use. A few little frustrations like it not being so easy to rotate and scale objects as illustrator, the move mode and node edit mode being two different cursors which is much less intuitive and efficient than illustrator, and not being able to easily sculpt and close paths without clicking on UI things each time.
Also 50% off brush-packs and add-ons
Great buy, thank you!
Has anyone used the iPad versions? Any good?
I use both iPad and desktop versions, both great to use. iPad version has the same functions as the desktop version so I can hop back and forth between iPad and desktop.
Ah I'm so pleased been hanging out for a sale price for months. Very happy! So stocked I bought 2 of 3.
Quick question: Serif Store or Mac App Store?
Maybe me listing pros and cons will help me, but love your thoughts on it too.
Serif Store PROs:
Serif Store CON:
App Store PROs:
App Store CON:
Hmmm… I guess it depends on if my wife will be likely to use it in our business 🤔
So… as much as I like Serif's freebies and give them 100% of the sale proceeds, the possibility of my wife coming on board just tips the scale for us.
Okay, thanks OzB fam for helping me figure out this one!
![[Win, macOS, iPadOS] 50% off Affinity Photos, Graphics & Publishing Software (eg: Affinity Designer $41.99, Was $84.99) @ Serif](https://files.ozbargain.com.au/n/40/700440.jpg?h=2f80bbd7)
I agree with OP. Great deal on great software. The online video tutorials are also first rate if you are just getting into photo editing/design or just need a refresh.