Affinity Designer, Photo, and Publisher 2.0.3
Serif has published extensive bug fix updates to Affinity Designer, Affinity Photo, and Affinity Publisher (see “Consider Switching from Creative Cloud to Affinity V2,” 5 December 2022). Version 2.0.3 of all three apps now retains the Custom Document Preset order between sessions, properly saves to external drives in macOS 13 Ventura, updates the HEIF importer, and remembers user preferences for CMYK documents in the Colour Panel. In the graphic design app Affinity Designer, the Shape Builder tool gains an option to delete open curves inside a newly created area, and Warp Group editing now supports the Shift key to lock node edits to an 8-axis grid. The photo editing app Affinity Photo improves the Lens Correction in Develop Persona to work on non-Raw files when a Lens Profile is applied. The desktop publishing app Affinity Publisher includes numerous fixes for bugs in its new book features, including when previewing exported PDFs, opening a bunch of chapters simultaneously, and placing document files. Serif has extended its 40% discount through 25 January 2023, dropping the price of any one app to $40.99 or the bundle of all three on all platforms to $99.99. (Affinity Designer, $69.99 new, 811 MB, release notes; Affinity Photo, $69.99, 905 MB, release notes; Affinity Publisher, $69.99, 807 MB, release notes; all three are available together for $169.99, are free updates, and require macOS 10.15+)
I’ve been using Affinity Photo as a replacement for my old Photoshop CS 6 install for about a year (since replacing an old MBP with a new M1 MBP) and I’ve been completely happy. There’s a non-zero learning curve, of course, but I’m pleased that Affinity didn’t just ape Photoshop, choosing instead to rethink things, mostly for the better.
My use of InDesign CS6 was always limited – mostly accepting ID files as input for web development projects – but I had a project that was a great candidate for Affinity Publisher land on my desk the very week that the Affinity V2 suite was released, so I jumped in. I know V1 had the reputation of not being a credible replacement for ID, but for my enthusiastic amateur (distinctly not professional) work I found Affinity Publisher V2 EXTREMELY impressive. It was easy to learn, stable, and seemingly quirk-free.
For a $100 one-time license fee, I think the Affinity suite is one heck of a bargain!
It is a bargain and I’m enjoying having this level of app on my iPads. Really great.
In Photo 2.0.3, if while in the Develop Persona you open ‘White Balance’ and click on the ‘Temperature Slider,’ the app may quit. Very frustrating. Affinity advises they are aware of this and are working on a fix.
After using QuarkXPress since version 3.3, and Photoshop just as long, I was tired of being held hostage to their price inflation and subscription “options”. Although I’m now retired from the graphics industry I still dabble in projects where I need decent layout and photo help. I’ve been using the Affinity products here and there and I can say I’m completely onboard with the results I get. Goodbye to QXP and PS. And thank you to Affinity!