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    Inspiration: Inkscape vs Affinity Designer review

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    • VectorStylerV Offline
      VectorStyler @Ingolf
      last edited by

      @Ingolf said in Inspiration: Inkscape vs Affinity Designer review:

      Inkscape VS Affinity Designer | The Ultimate Comparison (Youtube)

      Interesting comparison! Certainly the remarks about the Inkscape Pen tool will be considered.

      I did not see speed being mentioned (maybe I did not notice). I think it is very relevant, and certainly AD has that part working. But of course that does not explain or justify the lack of features.

      About color image tracing in Inkscape: did anyone tried that?

      And what about Linux? How important is to have it running on Linux also?

      IngolfI 3 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • IngolfI Offline
        Ingolf @VectorStyler
        last edited by Ingolf

        @vectoradmin said in Inspiration: Inkscape vs Affinity Designer review:

        @Ingolf said in Inspiration: Inkscape vs Affinity Designer review:

        Inkscape VS Affinity Designer | The Ultimate Comparison (Youtube)
        And what about Linux? How important is to have it running on Linux also?

        Don't go there. I have a few machines running Linux but just to keep older machines running. I have 20 years of Linux experience and it is support and workaround hell. Linux enthusiasts tried to persuade Serif to make Linux ports for years but Serif is not that dumb. The money territory is Windows, macOS and tablets. There are endless debates about Linux market share that are simply not based on facts. I heard about the forthcoming "year of desktop Linux" since 1994. It is a fantsy.

        Never heard an amatuer or professional mention Affinity. Never saw anyone use Linux either. As a new company with a new excellent product I would focus on building a solid professional product plus economy and building a brand before even considering Linux.

        I would focus on making the software work in Asia and other markets with a huge population. CorelDRAW is still big in those regions. And support for right-to-left and vertical text and chinese characters is rarely built in in many programs.

        ๐Ÿ macOS Sequoia Apple Silicon

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 3
        • IngolfI Offline
          Ingolf @VectorStyler
          last edited by

          @vectoradmin said in Inspiration: Inkscape vs Affinity Designer review:

          @Ingolf said in Inspiration: Inkscape vs Affinity Designer review:

          Inkscape VS Affinity Designer | The Ultimate Comparison (Youtube)
          Interesting comparison! Certainly the remarks about the Inkscape Pen tool will be considered.

          Great! I knew you would notice ๐Ÿ™‚

          I did not see speed being mentioned (maybe I did not notice).

          Inkscape is famous for its lack of speed. The more you throw at it the worse it gets. Affinity is amazingly fast but I think they also built the architecture on hardware and software possibilities of the present. I certainly never would say something bad about some of their architects that really made some great internal design decisions.

          About color image tracing in Inkscape: did anyone tried that?

          Just a bit. It is build on the same open source component used by everyone else, I think.

          ๐Ÿ macOS Sequoia Apple Silicon

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • S Offline
            Subpath
            last edited by Subpath

            @Ingolf , @vectoradmin

            They explain the lack of features in Affinity Designer always
            with the small developer team. As far as I can see they have
            several versions to manage. Designer, Photo, Publisher
            on the Mac, PC and iPad.

            That the programs also run on the iPad makes itself surely also paid
            they are also quite a good alternative to what is otherwise offered.

            In a statistic from 2022 they spoke of 2.2% Linux users.
            No idea if this number will increase significantly.
            even if Windows 11 now comes with online account compulsion.
            Windows users are supposed to be around 74% by the way.

            Win 11
            CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 9600X, 6-core.
            GPU: Nvidia Geforce RTX 5070.

            IngolfI 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
            • IngolfI Offline
              Ingolf @Subpath
              last edited by Ingolf

              @Subpath said in Inspiration: Inkscape vs Affinity Designer review:

              @Ingolf , @vectoradmin

              They explain the lack of features in Affinity Designer always
              with the small developer team. As far as I can see they have
              several versions to manage. Designer, Photo, Publisher
              on the Mac, PC and iPad.

              Haha yes that is indeed their official explanation. The more obvious reasons goes deeper. They could do tons of stuff to mitigate their issues but rarely do. I have known the company since they made software for Windows, the Plus products. Also developed painfully slow but I wasn't following them from their birth.

              They also cannot attract new devs to their headquarter in the middle of nowhere. Their current job offers have been open for half a year or more. But no one wants to relocate to Nottinghamโ€ฆ meanwhile I have been part of projects with dev teams from Asia, Europe and USA manager via and over teams. Complex app and products. It worked fine.
              Serif doesnโ€™t want offices or dev teams elsewhere. They are slow because of business decisions. The result is a small team and few specialists. Bad specialists. Look at their vector algorithms. All of them. No trace of many years in the business. On top of that they try to release even more products on several platforms further crippling the development of all of their products.

              Worse still is that I donโ€™t think they are part of any business network. Their decisions often make me think they do not get feedback from professionals. Their forum is almost proof of that.

              But enough about Serif. ๐Ÿ™‚

              ๐Ÿ macOS Sequoia Apple Silicon

              BoldlineB 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • BoldlineB Online
                Boldline @Ingolf
                last edited by

                @Ingolf Tell me how you really feel about Serif! ๐Ÿ˜œ

                ๐ŸŽ macOS Tahoe 26.2, Mac mini (M1, 2020), Chip Apple M1, Memory 16 GB
                Cintiq 27QHD Display and LG Ultra HD Display

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                • IngolfI Offline
                  Ingolf @VectorStyler
                  last edited by

                  @vectoradmin said in Inspiration: Inkscape vs Affinity Designer review:

                  @Ingolf said in Inspiration: Inkscape vs Affinity Designer review:

                  Inkscape VS Affinity Designer | The Ultimate Comparison (Youtube)

                  Interesting comparison! Certainly the remarks about the Inkscape Pen tool will be considered.

                  B-spline for example:
                  Inkscape Bspline (YouTube)

                  ๐Ÿ macOS Sequoia Apple Silicon

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • BoldlineB Online
                    Boldline
                    last edited by Boldline

                    I always appreciate videos discussing the pros and cons of different software. I never used inkscape so it was interesting to learn more about it. The whole time I was watching it I kept thinking to myself, "yeah but VS can already do this or that!"
                    The expectation of only using one program for all your vector design needs is a relatively recent one .
                    We easily forget that 18 or so years ago before the infamous Adobe purchase of Macromedia, people using multiple professional apps that overlapped in functionality was the norm. I remember owning both macromedia and adobe back in those days. Even years after, the art director at the first screen print shop I worked in preferred Macromedia Freehand over Illustrator and only used it when necessary.

                    I use VS for almost all my vector designing right now, but I still use Affinity occasionally , I keep CS6 around for emergencies and I have several specific function vector apps like Vectoraster and Vector Magic and Patternodes, etc... that do a specific task well.

                    The pen tool functions in Inkscape look cool - I'd have to go play around with them more to gain an opinion on how well it fits within VS.

                    ๐ŸŽ macOS Tahoe 26.2, Mac mini (M1, 2020), Chip Apple M1, Memory 16 GB
                    Cintiq 27QHD Display and LG Ultra HD Display

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • IngolfI Offline
                      Ingolf
                      last edited by Ingolf

                      @vectoradmin I took the chance and downloaded the alpha version of Inkscape 1.2 for macOS to retry and re-evaluate the pen modes in Inkscape. B-spline is actually a helpful tool and Spiro too if one learns to use them.

                      Examples (Imgur)
                      Spiro spline tool for Illustrator (Pixeology website)
                      b-spline in CorelDRAW (YouTube)

                      ๐Ÿ macOS Sequoia Apple Silicon

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 4
                      • J Offline
                        Jayanta Das
                        last edited by

                        All the feature and functionality of pen/bezier tool explain here in detail. Some of its features are very good.

                        Mac Mini M4 Pro | 24Gb
                        WIndows 11 | Intel i5 11Gen
                        Wacom Intuos Pro

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                        • IngolfI Offline
                          Ingolf
                          last edited by Ingolf

                          Also related when speaking of b-spline and spiro, the good old Bezigon tool from Macromedia Freehand:
                          Bezigon demo (YouTube)

                          Can also be found in the free to try Gravit Designer that as I understand is created by former Freehand users:

                          Perhaps the bezigon tool is better explained here:
                          Gravit Designer basics. Bezigon tool (YouTube)
                          Explained in documentation (Gravit Designer homepage)
                          Bezigon tool in Gravit Designer (Facebook video)

                          ๐Ÿ macOS Sequoia Apple Silicon

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