VS Review on Youtube



  • @Prevalent-Arts did a review of VS on Youtube that I felt brought up some solid points.

    He mentioned some of the difficulties with the panels unlocking and moving around in ways he did not want them to and then not having a way to easily go back to the arrangement he had customized. This made me think maybe the lock on the panels should be "on" by default? I know I went in and locked them on my copy of VS and haven't given it thought since then.
    I know eventually we'll have the ability to customize panels and save their arrangements and easily switch between them like it can be done (or do it better than)in Illustrator currently. That would solve his issue with that.
    Some things he mentioned, like VS opening with a new file automatically can be set in preferences...
    He accurately described the current limitations with the smooth tool - I agree it needs a lot of refinement and I'd like to see it function more like the smooth tool in Illustrator.
    Documentation for newer features is not current - he mentioned the names of some tools not matching as well - these things matter, but understanding @VectorStyler is one man accomplishing so much and VS being updated and improved at such a rapid pace, this lag in documentation updates is understandable and not surprising.
    If I understand what he was saying, his review of the program was from months ago and he mentioned he ran into many bugs that caused him to shut down VS often. We know @VectorStyler has been eradicating bugs left and right this year especially, so I wonder if the ones he is mentioning have not already been fixed as of the recent build. This does not mean all the bugs are gone - there's always more to find and fix, but I know it's always been a priority.
    It can be a little discouraging to see people essentially sit back and wait for VS to get to a certain level before they use it or pay for it - I keep thinking how much faster we'd get solutions if everyone contributed to the forum and brought up the bugs they find, etc... That said, I'm glad he's shared his thoughts and even posting some of the issues he found with using VS is better than nothing 🙂


  • administrators

    @Boldline When using the Path Simplifier tool, the Smoothness in the context panel was set to 0.1. That will not do much smoothing. It needs a larger value (2 or 3) to have some effect.



  • @Boldline

    I don't see this as a review that really does VS justice.
    I thought it was a lot better than any other mention of VS on YouTube,
    but that's about it in my eyes.

    What I did like was that the Vimeo channel was mentioned,
    so those interested can check out some features there.



  • @VectorStyler I'll test out the path simplifier tool more and get back to you. I'll be aware of those settings when I do so - thanks!



  • @Subpath I agree the review only barely scratches the surface of what VS can do. I'd rather see more of a deep dive into the features. I suspect he was testing it out months ago and his free trial expired and so he ended up finishing the video now, based on where it was at back then and using some of the features highlighted on the website. He was last active on this forum back in November of last year. A lot has changed since then!

    To be more fair, he probably should have reviewed it again now and run a series of tests and real world scenarios to decide if it is worthy of full time use now. His main complaint for it not being ready for full time use is the bugs, but with the rapid rate of updating from the VS developer, issues in VS very well could be long eradicated 6 months after the fact.
    The few things he mentioned are all fair comments aside from the bugs.



  • Well, this review introduced me to a Vector Styler that I had no idea about. Options for text warping, tracing, shape blending and much more is what I miss in Affinity.
    I really like it and it will speed up my workflow 100 times, I see some bugs and inconvenient things like a bit laggy UI, but for now I'm using it for the 1st day.



  • Somebody should comment on YouTube that the Contour panel can be displayed from the Effects menu > Contour, or from Panels menu > Effects > Contour.



  • @plrang publicity, whether good or bad is still publicity right? I'm glad the review helped introduce you to Vectorstyler. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on it as time goes on



  • @Boldline To me, it was a weak review rather than a review of a weak program. So far it's fantastic and I've been testing it all day instead of working.



  • @b77 said in VS Review on Youtube:

    Somebody should comment on YouTube that the Contour panel can be displayed from the Effects menu > Contour, or from Panels menu > Effects > Contour.

    I can't get my comments on YouTube to show up after I type them. Maybe they are there as the comment counter seems to include it in the tally, but i don't see it displayed below.



  • @Boldline said in VS Review on Youtube:

    This made me think maybe the lock on the panels should be "on" by default? I know I went in and locked them on my copy of VS and haven't given it thought since then.

    Locked panels by default can make new users think this is a limitation of the app. And it's not something most people want.



  • @plrang

    ... So far it's fantastic and I've been testing it all day instead of working...

    recommend to go back to work 🙂
    i own VS since 9.2021 still testing/play with the feature
    sometimes it is my favorite RPG Game to play 🙂



  • @Subpath It's like training for me because I'm about to use VS in t-shirt production.


  • administrators

    @plrang said in VS Review on Youtube:

    I see some bugs and inconvenient things like a bit laggy UI, but for now I'm using it for the 1st day.

    Please post the bugs on this forum, and let me know also about where the UI is laggy!



  • @plrang

    of course it is training
    but VS Features are endless as you will see 🙂



  • @Subpath I love all those options available, but some are a bit overcomplicated IMO. Well, I'm just a 2 day old user of VS;)



  • @plrang said in VS Review on Youtube:

    I'm about to use VS in t-shirt production

    Very cool - I design t-shirts full time myself and use VS for most of that. Will be great to see what you like about VS and how you use it for thie shirt design purposes



  • @Boldline Sure, it will certainly speed up my text based designs. Affinity lacks those warping options, Inkscape is a slow chaos with some rudimentary lattices. I hate Adobe products, so I am in a constant hunt for a faster app. VS looks very promising, gonna know more in a week.



  • @plrang

    ...but some are a bit overcomplicated IMO. Well, I'm just a 2 day old user of VS;)...

    yes, VS often has an unusual approach, but the sky will clear up
    you just have to have some willingness to forget old approaches sometimes

    and we still have this forum, to improve the user friendliness of VS in the long run



  • Hi everyone,
    I am impressed that there is a forum discussion of my review a day after it was posted. Boldline, I really appreciate you taking the time to mention me and start a topic. I read through all of the comments, and I fully respect both the compliments and criticisms. I agree that there were inconveniences on my end that ended up hurting the proper review that others were looking for. I can respectfully accept that both a five-month delay and a less in-depth review made things inconvenient on the other end as well. I am happy to hear the things I can improve on, and when trying to create a following, learning from our mistakes is all part of how we do better!

    As mentioned in the video, I do plan on keeping a close eye on the product and watch the progress. Even though I mentioned that I would not be purchasing it at this time, you have my encouragement!