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  • 1.  Is anyone using Affinity design software vs the Adobe Creative Cloud

    Posted 6 days ago
    Greetings all. 
    Interested to know if anyone has been using the free design software app Affinity (recently acquired by Canva) as an alternative to the Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign? 
    Looking to see how effective it is for collections and exhibition practice. 

    Andrew J. Saluti
    Associate Professor, Program Coordinator
    Museum Studies

    Nancy Cantor Warehouse
    350 West Fayette Street, Syracuse, NY 13202
    vpa.syr.edu

    Syracuse University

    College of Visual and Performing Arts

    Board member, Museum Association of New York

    andrewjsaluti.com

    printersmarks.org



  • 2.  RE: Is anyone using Affinity design software vs the Adobe Creative Cloud

    Posted 5 days ago

    Hi Andrew,

    I have been using Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher for over three years now. It has its drawbacks, but it's a pretty good product. I bought it when it was a $150 perpetual license, so now it's an even better deal!

    One big annoyance is that there is no bitmap auto-trace like Illustrator has -- I have to use Inkscape for that. It does not have any vector brushes/erasers either, and only comes pre-loaded with the one raster brush. There is also no blend tool. Designer does excel at mixing raster and vector graphics in one document, though, and its canvas grid is very good.

    With Photo, I miss some of the straightening/warp features that Lightroom has (needed when editing collection photos of art, for instance). You can still reach the same endpoint, it just takes a few more steps. I have the least familiarity with InDesign's features, so I've been perfectly happy with Publisher.

    Affinity has really great integration between its three apps, which is nice. I do miss access to Adobe Fonts and plug-ins. If you're often sharing files back and forth with third parties like printers/designers, Adobe is of course the industry standard. Affinity's file types are pretty interoperable with Adobe's, but it's just an extra complication.

    Overall, if you CAN afford Adobe, I would go with that (especially since you can now bundle with Acrobat through the All Apps plan). But for my small museum, our volume of work just isn't worth the price tag, and Affinity combined with Canva and Inkscape does a good job for what we need.



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    Julia Teel
    Exhibitions and Collections Director
    National Center for Children's Illustrated Literature
    Abilene TX
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    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Is anyone using Affinity design software vs the Adobe Creative Cloud

    Posted 3 days ago

    Hi Andrew,

    I've been exploring it as well for designing our marketing and exhibition materials. It's a bit of a learning curve for me, rewiring twenty-plus years of muscle memory (I've used InDesign since it was Aldus PageMaker!). Outside of that, it seems very on par with Adobe's products, which are increasingly outrageously priced.

    Full disclosure-I'm not trained as a designer. I'm a curator who has had some training by designers, and accompanied and worked with far more talented and professional designers than I could ever be. That said, Affinity seems like a really great alternative to Adobe-especially when you factor in the cost savings. 

    Best regards,



    ------------------------------
    George Garner (he/him/his)
    Assistant Director & Curator
    Civil Rights Heritage Center - Indiana University, South Bend
    South Bend IN
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Is anyone using Affinity design software vs the Adobe Creative Cloud

    Posted 2 days ago

    Hi @Andrew Saluti. What I like about Canva tools (which as you mentioned now has Affinity) is that for me, not a designer but I am creative, I can create basic designs that work adequately and I don't need a design degree to use the software. Nothing against the Adobe tools. They're great for professionals and others who have the time to really understand them. But for me, it's tools like Affinity and Canva.

    I think where Affinity excels is in vector graphics, photo editing, and layouts with a cleaner UI and faster performance than Adobe. That easier-to-use functionality is great. What's nice is that the suite's StudioLink feature lets you edit images and vectors within Publisher without switching apps, streamlining workflows. I've also heard that folks switching from Adobe report easier onboarding and cost savings, avoiding subscriptions. 

    As for the museum space, in a little research I did, I found that Affinity supports collections catalogs, brochures, and exhibit graphics via data merge for image-heavy layouts and print-ready templates. It's free for verified nonprofits and schools so it's pretty ideal for museum teams handling signage, digital assets, or interpretive materials like your Nemours projects. Users create catalogs from folders of designs and export for print/digital, suiting digitization or exhibition promo work.

    One downside if you have a big team is that Adobe does edge Affinity out in team collaboration, advanced publishing controls, and ecosystem integrations, which may matter for large-scale museum compliance or multi-user edits. 

    Anyway, I hope that helps! 



    ------------------------------
    Dan Moyle
    Solutions Consultant
    Digital Reach Online Solutions
    (he/him/his)
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


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