In light of Adobe's recent decision to charge $15 a month for the use of Pantone colors, I thought it would be a good time to talk about what I use as an alternative to photoshop. Adobe is infamous for predatory pricing practices and are able to continue those practices due to their status as "industry standard". While in years past Adobe programs could be purchased as a disc that the consumer got to keep indefinitely, the transition to creative cloud led to a subscription based user experience.
Currently, for a creative cloud subscription that includes all 20+ apps, Adobe charges $54.99 per month. That is a grand total of close to $700 per year. And that's not including the implementation of the additional $15 per month for Pantone colors. Individual apps are available for a slightly cheaper subscription amount of $20.99 per month.
Personally, I absolutely hate subscription services and avoid them whenever possible. That's what originally drew me to the Affinity suite. Affinity suite currently consists of Affinity photo, Affinity Designer, and Affinity Publisher. Each desktop app is sold separately for a one time flat fee of $54.99. From there, the app is yours forever.
For now, I am just focusing on Affinity Photo, but I'll cover Affinity Designer and Affinity Publisher in the coming weeks.
When first opening the program, you can either create a new document or import image files to work with. The program comes loaded with a large variety of presets and templates, but documents can also be customized in the panel on the right.
I decided to start with a standard letter sized document in 300 DPI. Once the document has been created, it will appear in a workspace that looks fairly similar to Adobe Photoshop. The workspace is also fully customizable, so you can create a layout that works best for you.
The tool bar is located on the left-hand side of the workspace. The pen tool, shape tool, brush tool, fill tool, clone tool, etc... are all located here. Some of the tools with be nestled within another. To find these, look for the icons with a small triangle in the lower right corner. When clicked, these will expand into menus offering more options.
The settings at the top of the screen will change depending on which tool is selected. Most of the time, the top band offers options for altering the settings of a tool. For example, when using the shape tool, stroke width, number of sides, and color of a shape can all be adjusted here. When selecting the brush tool, the brush size and opacity can be changed.
The right side of the workspace displays studio windows. Here you will find adjustments, color, swatches, layers, etc... You can add or subtract different windows through the view tab at the very top of the application. The options are pretty standard for any decent photo editor.
Affinity Photo is unique in its implementation of "personas". These personas are dedicated workspaces for specific tasks. These can be found at the upper left hand corner in this order: Photo Persona (default), Liquify Persona, Develop Persona, Tone Mapping Persona, and Export Persona. Personally, I don't really use the personas very often, but I also don't typically use the program for anything other than light photo editing and digital collage.
Exporting work is a breeze and also comes with a multitude of options. You can even export the file as a photoshop document for later use with Adobe.
I switched to Affinity Suite about two years ago and have never looked back. I think the program is remarkably intuitive. The workspace is fully customizable with the option to add or subtract specific tools, windows, and icons around the screen. I have even heard of artists setting up their workspace to mimic Adobe Photoshop with successful results.
Like I said, I primarily use this application for light photo editing and digital collage, and for those purposes, it's an excellent choice. The selection tool is efficient and easy to refine. You can select hair without too much of a hassle. It is easy to add adjustment layers, and the tone mapping persona has many options for further fine tuning.
For me, this program has paid for itself many times over. A one time payment to keep the software is the same as I would pay per month at Adobe. If you would like to try it out before you buy, a free trial is available at the bottom of this page.
Rating: 9/10
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