Since the new Affinity Designer Version 2 came out a lot of artists and designers have asked me:
- Should I upgrade now?
- Will it be hard to follow older tutorials with the new version?
- Are there a lot of new features?
I dove into the app to find the answers to all your questions and made a short tutorial explaining the basics.
More of a reading person?
Here are the basics in written format, but there is a lot more detail in the video above!
Overall, the majority of tools are the same, so you won’t have trouble following older tutorials using this new version. There are however a few things to get to know in the new app that may take Affinity Version 1 users a while to get used to.
- The Gallery got a total redesign:
- Now you can swipe left on a doc to rename, duplicate or save it
- You can drag projects on top of eachother to stack them
- The settings and menus moved to the left side of the screen
2. In the editing view, one of my most-used tools has moved – The Snapping Tool. It used to be on the bottom left, now it’s on the top right.
3. There is now a super-convenient quick menu that you can open by long tapping. It contains many of my most-used tools, so I’ve been really enjoying the faster way to delete, copy, paste, etc.
So Should You Upgrade?
I don’t think you have to upgrade now to keep following existing tutorials since the tools are all in the same place and have the same functions. There are a few new tools that you can use if you want to, but you can basically use the new app just like you did the first one if you want to.
That being said, don’t we all love having the new and shiny version of things rather than waiting for the old version to die out on us when Apple does some crazy update that makes it unusable?
Personally I’m switching now because I don’t like being caught off guard with an unsupported app at some unknown time in the future (like in the middle of an important pattern collection perhaps?).
Are you switching? Have you tried the new app and discovered some other features? Tell me in the comments!
Ready to Try Affinity Designer?
I share my whole process for designing patterns in Affinity Designer from sketch to finished pattern in my clases.
11 Responses
Thanks a lot.
But here is my question. I have not worked with Afinity, yet. If I now download the version 2 will I be able to follow your older tutorials which use the Afinity 1? Or are you planning on making a class for beginners with version 2. I would be very interested in that.
Thanks a lot
Andrea
Hi Andrea! Yes the versions are very similar with a few tools moved to different places so if you watch the video in this blog post you shouldn’t have any trouble using the new version!
Hi Liz,
thank you – this is super helpful, I have been debating whether I should switch…
One question: Do you use the desktop version of any of the Affinity apps as well? I am tempted by the complete suite offer atm…
By looking at the prices it seems like the desktop versions should offer more features and maybe faster processing as the difference in price is quite a big one compared to the iPad apps. Any advice on whether it’s worth investing in the whole bundle?
I don’t have an Adobe subscription and have been using Procreate, Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer on my iPad so far.
Thank you!
Ayoka
Hi Ayoka, I don’t do any creative work on my computer so I don’t use the desktop apps, but if you like working on your computer you may love it!
Hi Liz,
Thanks for the update:)
I’m wondering how to use the Divide action. When I duplicate a group and go to divide, the option is not active. I have figured another way to fill color, but it seems like a long way around. What have you figured out?
Again, thanks!
Joan
Hi Joan, You cannot divide a group, only an individual vector layer, so that may be the issue! I’m not sure what you mean by fill color. Feel free to email us at help@lizkohlerbrown.com for more help!
I love Affinity Designer. I want to do my vector illustrations for my surface pattern design in Affinity Designer rather than a pixel illustration in Procreate. Do you plan on teaching illustration in Affinity Designer for surface patterns?
Hi Jan! Yes it’s always possible that I create an illustration based class for Affinity Designer!
Hi thank you, I need a little more help in creating the tile and repeat, in V2. I start out creating the art boards and when I go to layers, with the rectangle with the orange highlight selected , on the art board 1, place my element it always ends up on the rectangle3 in artboard 2. It does not repeat at all. Is it possible to post a quick lesson in creating a repeat with V2? Even if I use it in the symbol layer.
Thank you
Maria Pezzano
Hi Maria! I’m sorry to hear the new app is causing you trouble! I’ve gone through the process of creating the repeat as I show in my earlier classes and the process seems the same to me so I’m not sure what could be going wrong. If you posted a screen recording of your process in The Studio community I could take a look and make a suggestion based on that! ~Liz
Thank you I will 😊