Serif’s award-winning Affinity apps have long offered a viable alternative to the Adobe Creative Suite, and they just got even better.
All three Affinity apps just got a significant upgrade, with Publisher making its way to iPad for the first time. That means the entire suite is now available on iPad, Mac, and Windows, with plenty of new features to dig into across the board with this huge Version 2 release.
Not just that, but Serif has doubled down on its no-subscriptions model with a Universal License that grants access to all apps on all devices for a single one-off fee. That’s increasingly rare for a package of this quality, and although $170/£145 might sound like a lot, consider you’d only get around three months of the full Adobe suite for the same price. Plus there’s a 40% launch discount right now meaning you can pick up the Affinity Universal License for $100/£90 if you act fast, making the comparison even more laughable.
Those who only need a single app for a single platform get that 40% launch discount too, making the individual iPad apps a bargain $12/£10 each right now.
If you’re not familiar with the Affinity suite, here’s the lowdown: Affinity Photo is a powerful photo editing and raster painting app, broadly similar to Adobe Photoshop. Affinity Designer is suited to vector illustrations and graphic design, much like Adobe Illustrator. Lastly, Affinity Publisher is a professional layout package akin to Adobe InDesign. A smart feature called StudioLink allows Publisher to utilize tools and projects from Photo and Designer for a more cohesive workflow.
We feel bad making so many comparisons to Adobe’s apps when the Affinity suite is more than solid enough to stand on its own, but the comparison is a useful one. Adobe has ruled the creative software roost for decades, and Affinity offers the best and most complete alternative for those looking to leave the tight grip of Adobe’s ecosystem. Although Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign still have a leg up in some areas, they’re all either limited or non-existent on iPad, making the Affinity suite the easy choice for anyone hoping to get serious desktop-grade work done on Apple’s tablet. Publisher, in particular, is unlike anything else available for iPad.
Serif’s Managing Director Ashley Hewson said it’s “by far the biggest, most exciting launch” they’ve ever done.
“For the very first time we’re bringing the very latest, highest performing versions of all our products to the market at the same time, with some simply stunning features. We have worked tirelessly to not only include many of the new features our customers have been asking for, but a whole host of usability and workflow improvements to make the apps more productive than ever. We think Affinity users both old and new are going to love it.”
You can buy the Affinity V2 suite from the Affinity website.