Affinity Designer Now FREE with All features can be used, except for AI.

Subpath

You won't find me on YouTube, and I have no interest in doing so.
I don't know if that will change in the future, but I don't really think so.

I post my tutorials here in the forum to show features, for helping
new users, and serve as a reminder for myself.

monsterfox

@Subpath said in Affinity Designer Now FREE with All features can be used, except for AI.:

@EricP

You won't find me on YouTube, and I have no interest in doing so.
I don't know if that will change in the future, but I don't really think so.

Actually, I’d suggest posting your tutorials on YouTube. Here are the reasons: 1. They’ll reach a much larger audience, which can attract more new users. 2. People can subscribe to your YouTube channel to access all your videos—finding all your tutorials on the forum is practically impossible. 3. You can share the YouTube links on your tutorial page after uploading the videos, which kills multiple birds with one stone. Hope you’ll consider this suggestion!

monsterfox

@Subpath And here’s another thought: if your tutorial videos consistently draw a huge following—tens of thousands or even millions of subscribers—they could also bring in some extra income, haha!

Subpath

@monsterfox said in Affinity Designer Now FREE with All features can be used, except for AI.:

Hope you’ll consider this suggestion!

Well, I've already considered this and consistently decided
against it. And that will remain the case for the time being.

I get all your points. But in my eyes having and managing
a YouTube channel is a bit different ballgame.

My goal was and is not to have a large following or to
earn extra money on the side (which in Germany, depending
on income, could be taxable; you might even have to register
a business and deal with various other things).

People who are interested in VS and have questions can check
out the forum, ask their questions, and may find something
helpful in the Tutorial Section.

Daniel

This is too juicy to not respond to. This is actually very bad news for the design ecosystem. Pause and consider the true ramifications of this gesture. It is not generosity. It is not good will. It is not good. Especially for people who rely on design on to put food on the table. These are just the most obvious problems I can think of. There are probably others:

Affinity is now a loss leader: Something given away freely in the hopes that people will buy something bigger. If the intention is to dislodge Adobe in the enterprise, it is simply not going to happen. I should not have to point out why. Canva and Affinity both have Adobe accounts and used it throughout the campaign. To make animation and videos. If this strategy of loss leader fails, then what happens to Affinity? Development stalled. Original team pushed out. Features pay walled - because how else are they getting back the hundreds of millions of Australian Dollars they spent buying Affinity?
Affinity is now being subsidised by an AI company: Think about that for one second. Do you not see the sheer absurdity and incongruity of it? If you watched the keynote, the time dedicated to Affinity in 1.5 hours is literally 7 mins. Someone can tell us what the percentage is. This is a company that's on a singular mission to put actual designers out of commission by having their AI models aggressively wolf down human creations, and then reverse engineer and vomit tens, hundreds, thousands of variations of designs in a few minutes' time. Everything about this reeks of utter hypocrisy. It is Canva seeking to neutralise the one true competition they have. Freelancers and indie designers are not using Adobe. They use Affinity. SMEs also don't hire design agencies. They hire freelancers or indie studios. By acquiring Affinity, and possibly throwing it into development limbo, Canva is neutralising the one real threat it has. SMEs can now use Canva. This is not conspiracy theory. This is Business 101. Mind boggles at the sheer amnesia of the design community. How many times do you need to see this happen before you'll catch yourself in the moment?
This move has put Affinity in a precarious position: Parse the whole script and you'll notice something. Affinity can never again become a perpetual license software. That road is now closed. Because if it does become one time purchase software, people will mutiny, having become used to free software. They also promised to keep it free not just now. Free. Forever. For everyone. They'll get hung, drawn and quartered if they so much as try to implement subscription or introduce paywalls for key features. But as I said, it is impossible to go any other way, having promised to keep it free, forever, for everyone. There's only the freemium route. Which is just subscription by other means.
When it comes to software, there is only thing which can be called free and it is not what Affinity is. Free and Open Source software that allows complete and unfiltered access to the codebase, without any possibility of rescinding licensing, without any way of hindering adversarial interoperability is the only thing in the world of software that is Free. Free with a capital F. Free. Forever. For everyone. Every thing else, I mean, literally everything else, has a cost. It may not be obvious. It may be hidden under clever corporate-speak like Generosity. But you are always paying a price. In the form of data. In the form of behaviour metrics. In the form of attention to ads. Please, please do not be naive about this. If they're so generous, they can easily release Affinity's code into the public. Or at least the code to their file formats.

@VectorStyler: I beg of you to never make your software free of cost. People should be able to buy and own their tools. Like a carpenter, plumber, or electrician.

No amount of firewalling, no amount of creating back-ups will save your version of Affinity: In one year's time, it will call to the mother server. https://www.reddit.com/r/Affinity/comments/1omyuay/affinity_v3_stops_working_after_one_year_offline/
Read that thread for proof. You're a hostage to Canva, and they can leverage your files any moment into a subscription. Canva is not your friend. They are a billion-dollar conglomerate out for market dominance. Like every other company. Their kindness and generosity have strong business motives.
Canva will go public. The founders will lose voting rights unless they keep the majority share. They will be beholden to their shareholders. This is not a if, but when.

Over and out, Daniel.

Subpath

A few more thoughts have occurred to me.
I'm focusing on vector graphics.

My thoughts revolve around whether I would even consider
working with Affinity Designer even it is essentially free.

I used CorelDraw for professional work for many years. Tried
and know many other vector graphic apps too. I was never
impressed with Illustrator. The handling and the user interface
put me off at my first try, never miss it in my live.

I once bought the first version of Affinity Designer because the
symbol function and the ISO metric studio looks interesting to me.
Also the fact that you can create vector and pixel graphics in the
same app which is still, in my opinion, the biggest advantage of
Affinity Designer.

But I quickly found the vector graphic features and how to create
vector graphics in Affinity Designer too limited for my needs. Which,
incidentally, is why I ended up with VectorStyler through a post in
the Affinity Designer forum.

I don't believe that Affinity Designer will satisfy illustrators who
create vector graphics in the long run. And that, in my opinion, is
precisely the biggest incentive to come to VectorStyler. Because
you'd be hard-pressed to find this range of vector graphics features
anywhere else.

Daniel

In the time I have been away, I have convinced a few of my colleagues, and snooty Art Directors, to try VectorStyler. They had the following feedback to give, which is both a testament to @VectorStyler Csaba's insane efforts as well as a guiding North Star for his future efforts. I paraphrase, but here goes:

VectorStyler is the most advanced vector software in the market today.
While the effort to imitate Irritator (our by-word for Adobe Illustrator) is welcome, the developer should not go too far in this direction as Illustrator has many things that can be vastly improved.
The UI is cluttered and requires a cohesive philosophy to guide choices - I have already provided you my thoughts on how you could address this issue. But this is one of the most consistent issues that was raised. What they mean is there has to be a way to balance the sheer number of options/features available vs keep it simple, clear and instantly obvious. Please check out VIVA DESIGNER. Please. It has a brilliant way of making the interface simple based on your levels of expertise.
The program begins to lag behind as the number of effects, objects and nodes begin to increase together. A common issue in most vector programs. I don't have a solution here. This is true even in my experience and look at my monstrous overclocked computers in my signature.
Lack of RTL and Indic language support is a deal-breaker. Without it, we cannot use it as many of our clients come from India and Middle East. You can solve this either through plugins or through direct coding.
The developer should find out if it is possible to work with companies who can provide elements such as Fonts. Evanto was suggested. But I understand that this might take VS down the line of sub fees. Alternatively, you can tag team with such companies and cross sell each other. VS users get 50% off their Evanto license. And Evanto users get 10% off VS fees. Just an idea. This immediately widens your pool of buyers. But several colleagues mentioned that Adobe Fonts is a major, major selling point for them. These are enterprise users in a major design agency (which I have privately mentioned to you, but I can't publicly mention), and for them the lack of licensed professional-grade fonts is a major drawback.
VectorStyler should change its name to Vectorstyler - like a proper noun. Easier to remember. Bicapitalisation is so 90s!
Don't become sub based. Don't be evil. Provide quality. True quality. Profits will follow. Or you will set the standards. Either way, you'd have been successful.

Remember, these are the collective feedback of some of the best talent in the industry. You managed to raise their eyebrows and go "woah"! Kudos to you mate @VectorStyler !!!

achillepr

@Daniel I agree with the interface and the constant addition of new features, which make the program very complicated to use. I think everything needs to be simplified and streamlined. Otherwise, VectorStyler will remain an example of power and a plethora of features that are increasingly difficult to use, (at least for me). After this we would need some tutorials to cover at least the first steps of the program and some plugins to automate more complicated operations. Bye, and good luck!

VectorStyler

@Daniel said in Affinity Designer Now FREE with All features can be used, except for AI.:

While the effort to imitate Irritator (our by-word for Adobe Illustrator) is welcome, the developer should not go too far in this direction as Illustrator has many things that can be vastly improved.

There is no intention to copy Illustrator, the goal is to have features that are sufficient for any user moving from Illustrator.

The UI is cluttered and requires a cohesive philosophy to guide choices - I have already provided you my thoughts on how you could address this issue. But this is one of the most consistent issues that was raised. What they mean is there has to be a way to balance the sheer number of options/features available vs keep it simple, clear and instantly obvious. Please check out VIVA DESIGNER. Please. It has a brilliant way of making the interface simple based on your levels of expertise.

UI improvements can and will be done. Some things are a bit more difficult. Some of the provided ideas will be in 1.3 (not all). Panels have a simple initial state. Ideas are welcome.
I have no plans to turn the UI into Canva, or anything similar.

The program begins to lag behind as the number of effects, objects and nodes begin to increase together. A common issue in most vector programs. I don't have a solution here. This is true even in my experience and look at my monstrous overclocked computers in my signature.

This is a known issue. There is an option in Object Options, to cache a vector object as an image and redraw only if its content is change. For objects with many effects this can be enabled.

Lack of RTL and Indic language support is a deal-breaker. Without it, we cannot use it as many of our clients come from India and Middle East. You can solve this either through plugins or through direct coding.

There is RTL support already (Paragraph panel menu Direction -> Right to Left) and also OpenType substitution and positioning features are implemented. But text shaping is not yet supported (it is planned for the future), so if the OpenType font does not define a feature, VS cannot do it.

The developer should find out if it is possible to work with companies who can provide elements such as Fonts. Evanto was suggested. But I understand that this might take VS down the line of sub fees. Alternatively, you can tag team with such companies and cross sell each other. VS users get 50% off their Evanto license. And Evanto users get 10% off VS fees. Just an idea. This immediately widens your pool of buyers. But several colleagues mentioned that Adobe Fonts is a major, major selling point for them. These are enterprise users in a major design agency (which I have privately mentioned to you, but I can't publicly mention), and for them the lack of licensed professional-grade fonts is a major drawback.

If APIs are available, these can be added in the future

VectorStyler should change its name to Vectorstyler - like a proper noun. Easier to remember. Bicapitalisation is so 90s!

Considering it.

Don't become sub based. Don't be evil. Provide quality. True quality. Profits will follow. Or you will set the standards. Either way, you'd have been successful.

Focus has been on quality and will be. No intention for subscription, or changing the model.

Boldline

VectorStyler’s toolset, brushes, and transformation options already go way beyond what Illustrator offers. No need to chase Adobe. Take what works, skip what doesn’t. Just keep refining and modernizing the workflow, keep some familiar muscle memory for those switching over, but focus on what actually makes sense.

I’ve seen a few people say the UI feels “cluttered,” but honestly, I don’t really get that. It’s not much different from any other full-featured vector app. VS just has more depth, way more than Affinity, for example. The number of panels can look intimidating at first, but that’s kind of the tradeoff with having real power and options. Maybe having some built in default workspace templates like Beginner, Advanced, Technical, Artistic, and so on could help new users get comfortable faster.

Coming from Illustrator myself, I see similarities, but those who use Corel or other apps say the same thing! VS seems to be its own entity, it just happens to have some pieces that feel familiar to everyone.

As for partnerships, I’d rather not see VS tied to Envato, Pantone, or any AI company. That kind of thing usually kills independence and flexibility. Font integration could be helpful, but keep it open, like through Google Fonts or something similar. Let users pick what they want instead of forcing anything in. Honestly, I love how easy it already is to load color palettes and fonts through the built-in tools.

No subscriptions, please! Everyone hates them with a passion I love how simple it can be: one-time purchase, optional paid upgrades for major version updates. People want to own what they buy, not rent it.

Kumr

@Boldline Totally agree.

VS is super functional and flexible. I think UI is pretty good and appreciate developer efforts to find a balance between functionality and usability.

VS’s core strength lies in its developer. His willingness to listen to user requests and find solutions is commendable. I’ve been using VS for complex artwork, and it’s been a great experience so far.

I’m okay with the subscription model or version upgrade pricing for future development of VS app.