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https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/
Just got 20% discount on Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo and some freebies. [GBP39 each]
'nuf said,Quote:
No Subscription—Free to Try, One Price to Buy
- No subscription charges! Designed for pros, priced for all designers
- Updates available as we improve
Acorn
What a jolly place https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/ is to be sure, in stark contrast to xara.com which seems to have disappeared altogether. Affinity Designer seem to be doing everything right, and Xara are going backwards at a rate of knots.
Bob.
nuf said indeed....
@Bob - xara.com redirects visitors to the 'appropriate' part of the website based on where you are located as defineded by your IP - so, for example, using a proxy server might cause issues if the site can't handle this... also, maybe it's as a result of the current integration with magix
you could always try xara.com/eu [or .../uk or ..../us ....]
For the purposes of watching Rugby online, I use smartDNS Proxy which convinces RugbyPass.com that I am based in HongKong and allows me to watch wall-to-wall Rugby at reasonable rates. If the price I have to pay is not being able to visit Xara, then why should I worry? ;)
nuff said :D
I really think Serif understand the KISS principle very well... it may now be very difficult for anyone else in this sector, unless Serif somehow screw up
Magix [and now xara] don't appear to believe in this at all - I dipped my toe into the magix music making pool and whilst the core fuction is solid enough in terms of instrument playing, there are again far too many options of different programs that overlap function; plus the MM program can be flaky - needed a patch to fix a screen rendering issue caused by it's internal rendering engine being thrown by a recent windows update [ sound familiar?] and it's VST plug in system can be 'picky'
I think I will stick with ableton for the actual soundtrack composition
Not at all! It's rather the proof that there is a crying need of evolution in this area.Quote:
Originally Posted by handrawn
A good well designed program will of course be successful, but it's apparently a rare thing in the world of vector graphics!
All of the creative progress seems to have been sucked up by the 3d area.
Marc
Now if serif comes out with a web program :)
If not, there is talk of wisiwig for wordpress soon.
Serif has stated they will not be building a web creation software.
Hi Marc
rare yes - my point...
I see vector drawing as a minority sport, preserve of designers mostly or animators; 'ordinary' people, and artists in the non-designer sense, tend to like drawing in raster because it is feels more 'natural than building with shapes in a way that has it's roots in CAD
serif saw a market in providing a [very much] cheaper alternative to adobe for those designers that did not need all illustrator/photoshop provide, that was bang up to date having been redesigned from the ground up... not sure that is a trick that can be repeated having been done once
things are evolving.. lots of new online drawing apps of one sort or another - xara is very keen to prioritise online designer - but desktop designer remains a 'quirky' app in a sense.. those who love it, love it... but as I understand it is really only bringing in new customers by virtue of it's web designing side, and that market is evolving for sure... apparently xara cannot even put together a responsive website in the true sense of the term... so it remains to be seen what happens there in a tough market
serif are bringing out a beta affinity pagemaker - due early next year -really looking forward to that
no they have more sense I think than to try their luck in the website sector - it is already looking saturated... wordpress is evolving nicely....
EDIT: They are calling it AFFINITY PUBLISHER not pagemaker...
Very professional website. Plus a Windows and a Mac version. And for that price!
The license model is kinda funny to me at times. The licenses are restricted to a single OS. Some people complain that they are not cross-platform when they are told they need separate license for both platforms. Or a new license for their iPad versus their Mac or PC desktop.
I mean, at that price and still barking about not being cross-platform licenses? I just laugh to myself.
They are both capable applications with a few gotchas thrown in at this point in time.
That price is great considering (as previously mentioned) you get free updates right up until the next full version. There's a roadmap on the Affinity forum outlining what's in the pipeline for each app.
Well, I guess it can't hurt to try. I'm downloading it now.
It will be a different experience, Ron.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ron Duke
But to get ya started on a subject you love, try these two illustrators...
https://forum.affinity.serif.com/ind...a-speciale-ad/
And Isabel's Dribble gallery has a bunch of vehicles.
https://dribbble.com/Isabel_Aracama
Thanks Mike.Quote:
Originally Posted by mwenz
WOW! Much more refined than my work! Very inspiring.
Software is just a set of tools. It cannot make you a great illustrator. How you use the tools is what counts.
For example http://archive.xaraxone.com/html/featured_art_.html and http://archive.xaraxone.com/FeaturedArt/nov10/ and http://archive.xaraxone.com/FeaturedArt/feb09/
To see all the fantastic art created with Xara go to http://archive.xaraxone.com and click on Featured Artists.
No need to link to great work using Xara products, Gary. Not that it was bad, but this thread is about another software.
I've seen great art produced in Excel. It is a fact that software is just a tool. And no matter what tool, I don't hold a candle to any user here.
Yeah I know. We've had this discussion before. I just produced my fourth book using Designer Pro for the entire process. And while I might have more typographical control in InDesign, or Quark, I worked with a program with which I am conversant and I am very happy with the results. I don't think anyone reading the book is going to say, hmmm? this book was not created in InDesign. My hope is the typography will make the reading experience positive.
This is not to say that Designer Pro X is not ready to be rebuilt from the ground up as Affinity claims, it just works for me.
I have been paying Dane Gold to Adobe for Creative Cloud to give me more flexibility in bitmap work using Xara to link to PS through Utilities >Bitmap Editor.
Now I have the ability to link Affinity Photo and Xara together, I will save a lot of money for little loss of function.
Acorn
So Acorn, your saying you can use affinity and just save the file and import to xara or when you edit it in affinity it automatically changes in xara? Which xara version are you talking about? Does this work with web designer pro 365?
yes it works with DP365. Just set affinity photo as an external editor. You can double click a bitmap to bring up the photo tools then double click again and affinity photo will launch a new document with your photo. after editing in affinity photo just click the standard ctrl+s to save and choose save flattened. Then go back to DP365 and your edited photo is there. you can go back and forth between the two programs and changes to your photo in affinity will update in Xara each time you save>save flattened.
However this does not maintain layers. If you need to maintain a layered workflow then your best bet is to export from Xara as a .psd and open the .psd in affinity Then the same going back. Going this route you will need to be careful of features that are unique to either program that may not carry across in the psd these will likely become rasterized or just not work
I typeset 7 novel interiors in 5 days. I'm pretty sure I couldn't do that in XDP as efficiently as you could. But yep, better the devil ya know.Quote:
Originally Posted by gwpriester
As you ought to be, especially if Mary is!Quote:
Originally Posted by gwpriester
You may be surprised what gets picked apart regarding books in certain circles. Oh, they may not know what application was used, but it can be both quite detailed and brutal at times.Quote:
Originally Posted by gwpriester
I went to the link. I do like your wife's writing style/wording. The cover is quite nice too.Quote:
Originally Posted by gwpriester
Thank you Angelize
Mary and I had a graphic design company in San Francisco and while she is primarily a writer, she is also a designer and painter. She picked the photos for her three books.
OK. My thoughts on Affinity. Great price. Clean and functional UI. Lot of features that remind me of Xara.
Nice splash screen and great web site with a ton of videos.
But I am sticking with Designer Pro X 12. (15 is unstable at this point).
I agree, with xara I have been doing 90% of my professional work. I only use my old copy of adobe ill and photoshop to do some work, minor ones.Quote:
Originally Posted by gwpriester
I am sticking with xara, for web design just finished my client site, it is in the gallary here in case anyone wants to see it. I am happy with it. It will get better.
As designers we really do not need the latest and all that jazz with new software and as I get older I have less time and patience to learn new programs. I was
with serif and they stiffed us all with webplus, they can do it again easily.
affinity doesn't do website building, or by implication 'website-design'.. what it does is give some very good tools for those who do not need full-monty photoshop [like acorn said] stuff that should be in xara and is not - like colour management and gamut checking
oh I'll stick with xara designer 12 for the established workflows where they continue, why change what works... but future work is quite another matter and more open than it has ever been
What he said ^^^ ...Quote:
Originally Posted by handrawn
I mean, who really needs color management, best in class OpenType feature support, great drawing tools, excellent live noise control, a good brush system that will continue to improve, plays nicely with layout applications, and, and ...
Why is it an either or? I'll use both as best fits the design and sometimes both (like I do with AI anyway). I do think that Xara products (XDP in my case) render and draw more quickly for me and I'll continue to use it. But XDP is over-priced in both the print design work (I can purchase almost 3 licenses of AD for the cost of a yearly upgrade of XDP) & the web marketplace and is hampered by its WYSIWYG approach when it comes to web sites.
But hey, what one uses and for what purpose is a personal decision.
Xara Designer was a great tool for illustrator and graphic designer, but at some point, Xara went to evolve toward web design. I started working in CorelXARA and really hoped that the program would develop towards graphic design, but unfortunately this is not so. The correct display of CMYK colors has not been implemented yet, all the features of OpenType fonts are not supported, the development of the ability to draw has stopped (see how Stabilizer is implemented in Affinity) and much more. At the moment, I almost completely switched to Affinity, but I sincerely hope that Xara will show itself, I will return to it.
Hi Dimitry. I wish I could be more optimistic. But I think Affinity is where Xara was when Corel "licensed" the right to market Xara and then hung it out to dry. I just don't see the same enthusiasm or commitment.Quote:
At the moment, I almost completely switched to Affinity, but I sincerely hope that Xara will show itself, I will return to it.
Umm, that confused me completely. Affinity has no enthusiasm or commitment, or did you mean Magix or Xara?Quote:
Originally Posted by gwpriester
I know what you mean by the Corel licencing.
Gary is saying up to the Corel debacle, Xara was zinging. The Magix entanglement has several resonances, n'est pas?Quote:
Originally Posted by pauland
Acorn
Well yes, but I think Gary swapped Affinity for Magix in the sentence.Quote:
Originally Posted by Acorn
You also have to consider the times have changed and none of us are as young as we were and that includes at Xara HQ. The enthusiasm that drove the creation of Computer Concepts and Xara Studio 1.0 may not be there any more.
There really no special USP for Xara except as an all-in-one solution. When Computer Concepts was developing product they were leading the curve, but now trail it.
If it was not for ADOBE Brand, Affinity would not have gained it's followers/name. Affinity has sucked off of Adobe brand and popularity to offer something more and in some cases it is features but mostly due to one time purchase tactic. I worked with Serif products and overnight they abandoned everyone without any pity for their users. It can happen again. No software company can stay ahead of the game unless there is more innovation rather than advance features.
Well "sucked off of Adobe brand"?Quote:
Originally Posted by behzad
I don't agree. Serif launched the Affinity project as a new enterprise. They made an excellent product focussed on one speciality and were able to gain extra traction because low product costs and the hatred of the Adobe subscription model. They threw away their outdated code.
Until Affinity emerged, I wouldn't touch Serif with a bargepole.
Well done Serif/Affinity I say.
While all this was going on, Magix/Xara continued with their bloatware and ignored the market they could have grasped.
No company can continue with unprofitable product. Xara on the desktop is approaching the end game.
it is true that serif terminated development of their pre-affinity product range
and yes companies exist to make money; let none of us forget that it what they are actually there for