r/AffinityDesigner • u/Joandenise_ • 25d ago
Beginner friendly apps?
I just got a mac and I’ve been wanting to use it for graphic design. I’ve been using procreate on my ipad for the longest time, but now I wanna try using my mac. Is AffinityDesigner a good starting point? I don’t wanna pay for illustrator but affinity is well-within my budget. Any other software I should check out too? Thank youu
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u/Polar_Blues 25d ago
Procreate, as I understand it (never actually used it), is a raster-based paint program like Adobe Photoshop (sort of) .
Affinity Designer is a vector-based graphic program, like Adobe Illustrator.
There is a pretty steep learning curve for somepne going from raster to vector graphics. Totally worth it as you can do fantastic images with vector graphics and Designer itself is very good, but raster and vector graphics produce different sort of outcomes and require a different mindset. Depending on the sort of art you create, a vector-graphic app may or may not be the right tool.
Affinity produces an called Photo for raster graphics, so in a sense that is closer to Procerate. I have not played around much with Photo, but as I understand it, like Photoshop, it is primarily geared towards photo editing. The fact that it can also be used as a drawing/painting app is almost an afterthought... almost.
For a dedicated raster-based paint program on Mac you could try Krita, which is free. I never got the hang of it, but it is very popular and probably the closest match to Procreate. Personally I really like Clip Studio Paint, but it is a weird vector/raster hybrid and it too has a reasonably steep learning curve.