Collaboraboration with Affinity



  • I found out about VectorStyler just yesterday in the Affinity forum. I am hooked and will be a paying customer for sure after it is out of beta. I was using Adobe since 1997. And said goodbye 3 years later, while I switched to Affinity. I never looked back.
    One of the strengths of Macromedia and Adobe was/is the integration within but also with other plugins and tools. Standalones and plugins like f.e. AlienSkin feel integrated and empowering for the Abobe Suit.

    As I dug more into the "why is Affinity Designer has no all those transform tools like Illustrator has" in the forum, I figured out, Affinity has a different approach to Designer. It is for "designing," not vector experimenting (to put it in a capsule). Therefore I think it would be a perfect and beneficial idea to has the API of VectorStyler communicate with the Affinity suite. It could be done, f.e. with export into Affinity Format (if that is even possible) or at least let the files be shared/transferred directly to Affinity from within VectorStyler.
    Why am I thinking this is "empowering" for VectorStyler? Because it addresses the ecosystem outside Adobe and gives finally more designers who would love to switch/leave slavery but do not know better. As an active Affinity forum user, I often read those complaints; there is always something missing. With seamless integration of the competitors who work with each other, it would give a good argument to stay out of Adobe's world.

    This is just a simple idea, maybe not easily done. But from observing the market and how Quark and Affinity Publisher market their tool ("can import InDesign"), it is an argument against Adobe. A regular paying Adobe user usually won't pay for additional apps. People outside Adobe's world for sure. So it is essential to make those tools self-confident and less aggressive towards the Adobe-alternative ecosystem.


  • administrators

    Thanks for the feedback.

    I doubt that the Affinity Designer (AD) file format will be documented:
    https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/31716-file-format-specification/page/2/
    If any of this changes, of course it would be great.

    The problem with high level vector file formats is that they are very much app specific, and must evolve with the features of the app.
    I did reverse engineer the AI file format (only for importing, based on very old spec), and it still has some issues. But the AI file format is at least PS/PDF based and can be inspected once it is properly decoded.
    Unfortunately, AD has no AI export.

    Currently the only option for interchange are using SVG or PDF, but these will flatten some of the high level editing info.
    When exporting from AD PDF/SVG this flattening is not as big, due to the lack of those effects.
    Sometimes AD may export to PDF as an image, don't know why.
    But exporting from VS will flatten all those shape effects to paths.

    Some options in the future:

    • VS will have a plugin SDK, but only after version 1. This might help other developers extract VS document structure.
    • VS documents can be saved in JSON or XML format (same vstyler extension), using the Document Setup -> File -> File Format option. This works now, but it is not very useful, except maybe for programmers.


  • Thank you for that quick and detailed reply. I appreciate that a lot. I thought so. It is not easy to have those complex paths and interchange them. It was already a pain going from AI to freehand and back again. It is great we can transfer the data in EPS / editable PDF / SVG. And I think there will be more revisions after VectorStyler 1.0, so we have time 😉 … maybe one day there will be a possibility to let those tools communicate in a different way than the native file format. – Thank you for the format-link from Affinity. I wasn't aware. Good to know.

    Looking forward to the future with VS.



  • You can copy/paste between the 2 apps.
    The only things you lose are parametric options.

    I'm a little sad to see that everybody thinks "I hold the truth".
    Seeing Affinity+VectorStyler together would be the perfect combo.
    I really like Affinity Designer but the team manage Photo and Publisher too and updates are a bit slow. A lot of Affinity users are disappointed about this.
    So get married with Affinity, I bless you !



  • @lenogre said in Collaboraboration with Affinity:

    but the team manages Photo and Publisher too and updates are a bit slow. A lot of Affinity users are disappointed about this.

    That sounds like a big generalization. Now working for some years with their tools and can say with confidence the updates are well thought through, their major updates are always + 0.1 so maybe that triggers your misconception AND (this is important) they listen to their users in the forum where you can beta test their upcoming versions. Don't forget, this is a professional tool/s and we need those updates to be stable and not for the sake of being "updated" every month. As much I love updates, sometimes opening an app and see almost every 2 weeks an update is somehow sketchy. I want a stable product to work perfectly for a while. From a professional with +2 decades of experience in that field, I can say with confidence, regular updates give you the feeling of security, too frequent updates give you the fear of an insecure product. — You would be suspicious if you have to bring your bike or car every second week to an "update" (for fixing).

    We also should not forget, as long Serif is developing a niche product with a huge aggressive competitor on their horizon, they can not jump as fast as Adobe in their development while keeping the price low or their payment model away from subscriptions. If you observe, why Adobe's tools are updated, how bulky and unresponsive they became, and (also important) what problems came with their over-regulation with patents and data security issues, I am happy, Affinity is growing slowly but with caution.

    I don't see so many people complaining about the update intervals. But even if they would be so many, those many voices do not mean they are in the right spot to criticize the company and its business model. This is a common misconception, many loud raised voices in forums are always right. The "problem" is that you (almost ) never hear about people being satisfied and happy with a product. For one because it is not necessary to point that out and second (we) they are busy working ;). — Like Ricky Gervais said: “Just because you're offended doesn't mean you're right”, just because some people are not satisfied means they are right. — This thinking will and has not helped anybody to get motivated to develop a tool like VS f.e. to work more for their users. It is rather demotivating.

    You can copy/paste between the 2 apps.

    Yes, the management of the clipboard between those two apps is great, VS even has advantages. Still, a workflow with a dialog makes the transfer of one element from one app to another more consistent and you could brief your team/coworkers on the preferences/formats how to transfer a certain design. While you work as a professional for longer your clipboard settings might be different from your colleague's computer.



  • I'm very happy with Affinity Designer, I earn my life with it !
    But I have also an Adobe CS4 (perpetual license is a big advantage), because there are many things that can't do Affinity yet.
    Now I've discovered VS and I don't really need Illustrator today. Your app is absolutely fabulous and I'll buy it for sure. I hope there will be no subscription…


  • administrators

    Thank you.

    No subscription. Perpetual license, with one time payment.
    Similar modal as Nova from Panic, or SketchApp.



  • @lenogre Agree, agree and agree. I quit Adobe winter 2018 as they ended Muse and Edge Animate for good. I was using it since 1997 and paying 😉 since 2003 after my studies. They aggressive market policies made the transition easy. And the timing with Affinity and their trio was perfect. VS couldn’t fit better in the gap between Designer and Publisher. Very hooked on this app ✌



  • @michaelokraj As you aptly put it, VS also allows experimenting with vectors because it has more features.
    So why is transfer of objects from VS to a less capable app like AD needed? Honest question. 🙂



  • @b77 thank you for your question and I am happy to give you my thoughts:

    VS (as I see it) can be used by two target groups (mainly):

    1. illustrators/people who work on work which can exist for itself
    2. designers/creative services professions, where you use vector-projects as assets to create something bigger or at least where a vector work is a part of another complex work

    affinity's designer and photo has also this purpose:
    each can be used to 1. produce closed projects in itself or 2. assets for something bigger (f.e. to be used within the other app or the big "mother" publisher).

    VS could be a perfect companion which finds its spot in that chain as a supporting tool for designer, for photo or directly for publisher. of course, if the second "rule" applies.

    in those modern times of collaboration, I strongly believe it is existential for tools to be connected. this does not make them weaker. this makes them a part of a co-existing system. and think also about the financial aspect: if you force people to decide, which paid tool you should use, you will pick the one and only the one, which you can use for the most time. when you know, the other tool, that you also liked but after your research, you knew, it is self-contained, this tool won't be bought. when you know, those apps can be companions in your flow, the chances are you buy both. – this is also more likely when you see, how affordable and strong those apps are.



  • @michaelokraj For me, AD is the perfect app for who needs to blend vector and pixels.
    If you do vector only, AD has too many lacks. VS is really better for pure vector works.
    I work for horology and I should blend vector and images. There are also very small reliefs, little bevels, a lot of shadows and glows, and AD is perfect for that.



  • @lenogre Inner shadows and glows are all available in VS as Image effects (Panels > Effects > Image Effects) or as Adjustment effects (you can add them from the Appearance panel).

    These can be used to simulate reliefs and bevels, and many more.

    If you stack a few effects that create a style you like, you can save that style and assign it to any other vector object or text.



  • FX crashes every time I want to use its…
    Bevel looks like Inkscape. Too bad for me.


  • administrators

    @lenogre it could be that your mac does not support Metal. Are you running on Sierra? If so, select OpenCL for compute engine in the Preferences -> Performance section.