Superb Alternatives to Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator and Adobe InDesign
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Hello channel supporters. The purpose of the article is not to slag on Adobe. The company makes fine products that are widely used and widely respected. Their licensing model is subscription, meaning you pay a monthly fee to be able to use Adobe applications and can do so as you wish unless you cancel your subscription. Your data is ALWAYS your own, but your ability to work with it will become highly limited, if you can manipulate it at all.
Lots of people are fine with that, and the Photographer’s Bundle is not unreasonable providing Lightroom Classic, Photoshop amongst other tools. However, not everyone wants to be paying for Lightroom of any kind, nor do they like to be bound to a subscription.
There are folks who continue to expound that they never need anything more than Adobe CS6 and if that works for them, cool, but others may want more current software tools to be available, not want to be bound to a subscription and to save money overall.
If that sounds like you, or you simply want to explore other possibilities, let’s take a virtual trip to Europe and visit Affinity. Affinity is the creative software business of Serif, a prominent software company. Under the Affinity banner, Serif offers three professional level software tools that are completely viable alternatives to Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator and Adobe InDesign.
Affinity Photo 2
Affinity Photo, v2.40 as of this writing is a pixel level photographic and image editor that provides services like Photoshop. Like all Affinity software it uses a perpetual license model. You buy it once and can use it as long as your computer and operating system can support it. It’s available for Macintosh, Windows and iPad and when you buy a license, you can install it on more than one device as long as you are using one at a time. For those working on iPads, there is no function decrementation happening, and you can store your files locally or in whatever cloud service you have installed with your operating system. Not only can you do PS style multiple layer editing, but you can also draw and paint as you can in Photoshop. Unlike other alleged Photoshop clones, it does more than just photographs if you are so inclined. There is native RAW support, printing, exporting, masking, selections, most everything that you want. There is not at this time a glut of so called AI stuff, and no requirement to be online with Serif to use certain features.
I’ve been using Affinity Photo 2 more and more because it launches fast, has less demand on hardware and because it does what I need. The software provides a number of excellent video tutorials so you don’t need to pay extra for external training services.
The working layout is similar to Photoshop but does not pretend to be identical, so for those moving from Photoshop, expect some transition time. The tutorials help in that regard a great deal, however if you understand Photoshop tools, you are already in good stead.
You can purchase Affinity Photo 2 outright for $94.99 CAD or as part of the complete bundle for $224.99, so it pays for itself in short order. Affinity Photo 2 is not a Lightroom Classic replacement, it is a serious alternative to Adobe Photoshop.
Affinity Designer 2
Adobe Illustrator has been a go to application for graphic designers for some time, and it is well respected, particularly for its vector graphic capability. The learning curve can be a bit steep, but the output from a skilled user can be incredible. Unfortunately, to use Illustrator you need to subscribe to it specifically or subscribe to the complete Adobe Creative Suite which is rather expensive each month.
Alternatively, you could choose Affinity Designer 2. I am a basic level user in Illustrator and have found Affinity Designer 2 very easy to pick up. Anything that I have ever done in Illustrator, I have been able to do in Affinity Designer 2. I personally found the learning curve shorter, and their Youtube based video tutorials and Creative Sessions have made it easy for me, and I am definitely not a skilled graphic designer. I am well aware of other tools, like the very excellent Canva, which provides a very simple guided process, but for the serious creative, it is my opinion that they will like the more flexible, and frankly, Illustrator similar Affinity Designer 2.
You can purchase Affinity Designer 2 outright for $94.99 CAD or as part of the complete bundle for $224.99, so it pays for itself in short order. Affinity Designer 2 is a serious alternative to Adobe Illustrator.
Affinity Publisher 2
While I may not be a graphic designer, I started doing page layout work in the early days of FrameMaker but most specifically with Aldus Pagemaker. Pagemaker was my tool. It just worked for me, but when it went away, I had to learn Adobe InDesign. InDesign is a fine tool, but for me at least, the road was bumpy.
Several years ago, as I was an early user of Serif’s first Photo app, I was invited to participate in the Beta for what became Affinity Publisher. The thing that grabbed me right away was how quickly I was able to create page layouts, from one pagers to entire books with embedded graphics and media. Making tables for data was so simple, no needing a spreadsheet and then trying to figure out how to make the embed not like crap. I also liked the very Pagemaker like Place tool that gave such simplicity in building a layout. I was on the full Adobe Creative Cloud plan for many years, and while InDesign is a fine product, I found it hard to use and to get comfortable with. I can do with Affinity Publisher 2 more simply than what I would have to do in InDesign, and to be blunt, the training materials were more useful and it costs a lot less.
Universal License
As creatives we hear about bundles all the time, and as we know, what looks delicious often ends up being a pile of unrelated, non-interoperable stuff that causes more option paralysis than it helps. Anyone who actually bought into one of those five day deal things and then looked at what they had actually used of it six months later might be familiar with this issue. A tool is only as good as your need and want to learn to use it. As simple as possible but no simpler makes enormous sense.
THIS IS JUST A SCREEN GRAB. Click the graphic to go to the page Affinity Store Home
Wrap Up
I only ever recommend stuff that I use myself or have tested and liked. I am a user of the Affinity products. I like them a lot. I’ve saved both time and money by using them, and you just might as well. Oh and if you want a free trial, click the Buy button and you will find a limited term free trial option.
After I finished the first draft of this article, I received notice from Affinity that all the products had upgrades just released. The current version is 2.40 and the upgrades cost nothing at all. The upgrade was completely transparent and the new versions add functionality over the versions 2.31 that I have been using.
One of the things that I did not mention is the incredible interoperability between all the Affinity family of products. Moving work between apps is incredibly simple, so you can look at the bundle as a fully integrated suite of tools. Because, well, it is.
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