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Thread: Affinity graphics software by Serif - CorelDraw alternative

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Fenton MO
    Posts
    24

    Affinity graphics software by Serif - CorelDraw alternative

    I downloaded Afinity Designer to test it, as a supplement or possible alternative to CorelDraw, which is our standard software in my company.


    Affinity Designer is a Corel-like product. Affinity Photo is similar to PhotoShop. Each sells for only $49.99, so you can see why it's of interest.
    https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/
    BTW, I have no affiliation with this company or its products.


    From the online reviews and discussions I've found, Designer compares favorably to CorelDraw. It does NOT open .cdr files, so one stumbling block would be using it with your existing CD files. Importing a PDF version does work, but in many cases is probably not ideal.


    Anyone out there have any experience with Affinity Designer?
    Bill Collier
    Arch Engraving
    Fenton Missouri

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  2. #2
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
    Location
    Leland, NC
    Posts
    476
    Bill, thanks for sharing that information, I was not aware of the Affinity software.

    I have used Corel Draw since V1.0. The first thing I do not like is that they seem to have gone to a subscription mode. Yuck. I would be the first to admit that Draw has gotten a bit long in the tooth.

    Anyway, I downloaded the trial and gave it a go. One of the first things I noticed is that it does not have any dimension tools. Obviously those are not important if one is purely doing ad or sign type work. The second thing is that failed to break some curves apart on a font. One of the letters was designed with two overlapping closed vectors. Those obviously need to be broken apart for something like V carving. The file exported correctly to Aspire via EPS format. Aspire had no issue with welding those two outlines together. The problem in Affinity is that I could not break them apart so that they could then be welded.

    The package is obviously designed for illustration work with lots of screen clutter that is of no use to someone using it for the purposes of designing for CNC work or doing drawings for creating parts.

    It is petty neat though, just missing some important things that I need to do in my shop. So it looks like I will stick to Corel for a while.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2020
    Location
    Baton Rouge, LA / Union, KY
    Posts
    3
    I switched away from Adobe Creative Suite years ago after they went to the subscription model. Affinity wound up being my choice and I regularly used all three apps (Photo, Designer and Publisher) until very recently. Been very happy with the products, especially the licensing model.

    Designer is really meant to be more of an Adobe Illustrator replacement. Definitely capable software, but I would not consider it a Corel Draw replacement. Sadly there isn't a good option out there to replace it. Seems like Illustrator was always more intended towards the "art" side, while Corel was always more toward the "CAD/engineering" side.

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