Updated November 1st, 2022.
If you do any kind of creative computer work you should know about a company called Affinity. They’ve created three high-quality, powerful, and deep Mac apps: Affinity Publisher, Affinity Photo, and Affinity Designer. (Those are Mac App Store links.)
These are fantastic apps and they’re strong competition to Adobe’s InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator, respectively. You can go to the Mac App Store and download these apps for $49.99 each. Not per month, not per year–just $49.99, period. Make a one-time purchase and they’re yours forever. Compare that to Adobe’s $50/month for the Adobe Creative Cloud suite.
UPDATE 1-23-2021: the apps are now 50% off in an effort to help the Graphic Design community get through the COVID-19 lockdown. You can get the apps from the Mac App Store or from the Affinity website. Either way, you pay only $24.99.
Not sure you want to buy? Affinity will give you a 90 day trial. Ninety days! Get the trial from their website.
If you’ve used Illustrator, or Photoshop, or InDesign, you have an idea of how Affinity’s apps might work… and you’d be right, except they are so much nicer to use than Adobe’s!
For example, suppose you have some text, and you want to experiment by changing the size. The “Adobe way” to do it is you select the text, and you choose a size from a menu (or you type a size into a box), you see how it looks, you try again, you see how it looks, you try again, and so on. It’s not hard, and we’re used to it. In fact, this isn’t really “Adobe’s way.” It’s “the normal way.” But it turns out there’s a better way.
Affinity’s way is to dynamically change the size of the type, on the page, on the fly, as you slide up and down in the type menu. A movie’s worth a thousand words, so watch this real-life recording (I was trying to make the words “Meeting Controls here” fill the purple box):
Isn’t that cool? Of course it is. And of course it works the same way in all three Affinity apps.
If I were you, I’d get the free trials right now.
If you are even the slightest bit creative or design-y, or want to be, you have to take a look at Affinity’s apps. They’re a pleasure to use, smooth and fast and full of thoughtful features. This is what Mac software was meant to be. Even if you’re already using Adobe’s apps, give these apps a try. I think you’ll agree– the Affinity apps are a treat.
I bought all three– Affinity Publisher, Affinity Photo, and Affinity Designer– and am having a ball playing with them.
Affinity also makes iPad versions of Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer. They’re on sale for $9.99. Nice touches abound; would you believe you can flip a switch and the app goes into “left-handed mode”? (I bought these too.)
The apps are great, the offers are great, but THIS– this is really great.
Want to know why Affinity put their stuff on sale? Well, these paragraphs from their website say it all:
“The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have severely impacted people all over the world. To provide some support during this incredibly difficult time, we’re now offering a 90-day free trial of all the Mac and Windows versions of the whole Affinity suite. We’re also offering a 50% discount for users who would prefer to buy and keep the apps, including iPad versions.
The introduction of the 90-day free trial and deeply discounted pricing is done in the hope that this will make life a little easier for people who rely on creative software to make a living, but may be stuck at home without their usual tools, or for students who might not have access to their Affinity apps on their personal devices.”
Way to go, Affinity. That’s fantastic.
Read more on Affinity’s website.
I don’t have anything to do with the company that makes these apps. I don’t know them and they don’t know me. I just wanted you to know about some great apps, at a great price, by a company that really seems to get it. Download their trial versions, buy the apps if you want, make great documents for a tiny fraction of what you’d pay for Adobe’s bloat-ware. A public service message from your pal Christian Boyce.
P.S. Affinity’s video tutorials are excellent viewing. I’ve learned a lot from the ones I’ve watched. I recommend you watch at least a few before getting started.
P.P.S. They have Windows versions too. I don’t know anything about them but Affinity’s trial and pricing extends to the Windows versions too, so tell your non-Mac friends.
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Hi Christian,
Long time, no see…
It looks like a good deal compared to Adobe ($25 would cover less than a year of many versions of Creative Suite). Unfortunately, your readers outside the US should know that it’s $10 more in Canada at $35. I know the Canadian dollar is not worth as much as the US dollar, but that’s a bit more than the going exchange rate.
If I have Pixelmator for photo editing and Omnigraffle and Sketch for Vector Drawing (as well as some basic paste-up features in Pages and even Numbers if it’s data-intensive), is there a reason for me to get any of them, at $35?
Hi David! I think these are really nice apps. I own Pixelmator and use it all the time, but these Affinity apps are a little more “pro” and they are such a treat to use! You, more than almost anyone, will appreciate the nice interface touches. Get the 90-day free trials, watch a few videos, and see what you think. I’d love to know, seeing how you are Mr. UX!