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Author Topic: Affinity offers 90-day free trial/50% discount on all software  (Read 12179 times)

rjbull

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Affinity: Supporting the creative community

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.

Affinity Publisher
  Experience next-level professional publishing with this groundbreaking creative software.
     macOS    50% off - Only £23.99
     Windows  50% off - Only £23.99

Affinity Photo
  Create the perfect images with the fastest, smoothest and most precise photo editor around.
     macOS    50% off - Only £23.99
     Windows  50% off - Only £23.99
     iPad     50% off - Only £9.99

Affinity Designer
  Bring your visions to life with the ultimate graphic design and illustration app.
    macOS     50% off - Only £23.99
    Windows   50% off - Only £23.99
    iPad      50% off - Only £9.99

Affinity Workbooks
  The official guides to Affinity on macOS and Windows.
     Affinity Photo Workbook     Only £37.99
     Affinity Designer Workbook  Only £37.99


rjbull

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Offer extended to 20th May 2020:
We’re extending our offers for another month
https://affinity.ser...19&mc=COVID19E02


Four weeks ago, as a way to support the creative community amid COVID-19, we made a 90-day free trial (https://affinity.ser...19&mc=COVID19E02) available for the Mac and Windows versions of the whole Affinity suite while also cutting the price (https://affinity.ser...19&mc=COVID19E02) of all of our apps, including iPad versions, by 50%.

We originally planned to make the free trial and 50% discount available until 20 April, but because of the positive response we’ve received and since we’re still seeing so many people sign up to the trial, we’ve decided to extend the offer period for another month.

So, if you haven’t signed up for your 90-day free trial or purchased the apps for half price yet, you’ll have until 20 May to do so.

90-day trial
SIGN UP NOW (https://affinity.ser...19&mc=COVID19E02)

50% off all apps
BUY NOW (https://affinity.ser...19&mc=COVID19E02)

Also, due to its own overwhelmingly positive response, we’ve decided to extend the submission deadline for our 100 Days. 100 Commissions. (https://affinity.ser...19&mc=COVID19E02) initiative by a week — so freelancers can continue to submit their work to us for consideration until 27 April.
MORE INFO (https://affinity.ser...19&mc=COVID19E02)
/color]



rjbull

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Re: Affinity offers 90-day free trial/50% discount on all software
« Reply #2 on: May 20, 2020, 03:38 PM »
90-day free trial and half-price offer extended again, until 20th June.  This will probably be the last extension.


90-day trial
SIGN UP NOW (https://affinity.ser...19&mc=COVID19E03)

50% off all apps
BUY NOW (https://affinity.ser...19&mc=COVID19E03)

Deozaan

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Re: Affinity offers 90-day free trial/50% discount on all software
« Reply #3 on: May 20, 2020, 05:41 PM »
Thanks for posting about these deals. The Affinity suite of tools looks like very nice software. I wouldn't blame anyone for being tempted to buy.

My tl;dr warning is: Definitely make use of the 90-day trial before you buy, as you may be unhappy with the results.


I bought Affinity Designer in 2018 because, while I'm not an artist, I do occasionally need to make or manipulate an image here and there, and it seemed like really capable software and it was on sale.

So I bought it and played around with it for a bit, noticed some bugs and issues, including a serious performance issue. Then I posted on their forums to report the bugs or otherwise get support, and. . . nothing. No response to my post about terrible performance. But I was busy in my life with other things and wasn't ready to dive into seriously using Affinity Designer yet, so I kind of forgot about it. Then, about a year later, during another one of their sales, I bought the Affinity Designer Workbook. When it arrived, I opened it up and started reading through it so I could learn how to use the software. A within the first ~15 pages or so, still within the introductory chapter which explains the UI and basic tools, I noticed a few discrepancies between what the book showed me and what the software showed me. There was one button/tool I couldn't even find. But otherwise, as it explained each tool, I spent a couple minutes playing with it in the software to get a feel for how it worked and what it was for.

And that's when I ran into the big issue. One of the tools, the Vector Brush Tool, slowed my computer down to a near standstill when I used it. I actually recorded a video of it where I spent ~10 seconds drawing a single curve and it took ~4 minutes for it to actually render what I drew.



Now, to be fair, this video recording shows it as being worse than it actually was. Because Affinity Designer used up all my CPU, my video recording software ran even slower, so it actually looked smoother on my machine than it looks in the video. But the important part is that it still took the same amount of time even when I wasn't recording.

One of their big and prominent claims is how butter smooth the software is and how it is always so responsive. So once again I went to their forums to try to get some support because either they were lying about how responsive their software is, or there was something wrong on my end that needed troubleshooting. And once again, there was no response to my post. Finally I complained loudly on Twitter and that got their attention. I got a response on a Friday and I was busy that weekend so I didn't get back to them until Monday. They asked for more information from me and had a couple suggestions I could try. We sent a couple messages back and forth over a couple of days and then they went back to radio silence.

After about another two weeks I complained loudly on Twitter again which prompted them to respond to the thread once more, but with a very unhelpful "there's nothing we can do." A little bit later, a different person from Serif asked me to try it out on another machine and see if anything changed, and asked for a video if I could record one. So I obliged and recorded my testing on another machine and posted the results to the forum thread. Can you guess what happened next? If you guessed "nothing" or "radio silence" you are correct!

So the software may or may not work well for you, depending on who-knows-what. The Workbook was outdated and/or incorrect the moment it arrived, and had printing blemishes (ink smudges or whatever) in it as well. And it's nearly impossible to get anyone from the company to respond to you when you try to get support.

Buyer beware.

wraith808

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Re: Affinity offers 90-day free trial/50% discount on all software
« Reply #4 on: May 20, 2020, 07:59 PM »
I've just never used those strokes, though I've used the vector brush and it's been fine for me.  I just tried switching the brush, and my results were similar to yours- so it seems to have to do with the custom brushes on the vector brush.  It seems that it's trying replicate fluid movement in the brush the whole extent of the stroke.  Not sure why they'd even do that- no paint brush I've seen alters the far end of the line as it's painting the end of the stroke.  The stranger thing is that it does the same thing no matter the brush type!  It really makes no sense in the case of a pencil to do that.

But I've had it since before Christmas- I use it basically to create book covers and composite artwork, and it's been fine for that.  I guess it really depends on your use case.

Deozaan

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Re: Affinity offers 90-day free trial/50% discount on all software
« Reply #5 on: May 20, 2020, 10:25 PM »
I've just never used those strokes

I probably wouldn't have either, but the book told me about them so I decided to try them out.  ;D

And actually I just opened it up and see that it's on v1.8.x now (I had problems previously with versions 1.7.x and 1.6.x). It seems a lot better in this version. It still gets a little sluggish as I continue to draw a curve, but if I draw for about 10 seconds it takes maybe only an additional 5-10 seconds to finish rendering, as opposed to the 4 minutes it used to.

wraith808

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Re: Affinity offers 90-day free trial/50% discount on all software
« Reply #6 on: May 20, 2020, 10:50 PM »
Oh yeah... mine was nowhere near that sluggish.  I'm on 1.8.3

rjbull

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Re: Affinity offers 90-day free trial/50% discount on all software
« Reply #7 on: May 21, 2020, 05:49 PM »
Definitely make use of the 90-day trial before you buy, as you may be unhappy with the results.
All too true.  I've been bitten several times myself, and I'm struggling with Affinity Publisher.  I think there are several reasons:
  • I haven't ever done desktop publishing before, and barely understand what the program is trying to do.
  • It's a big complicated program, so there's a steep learning curve anyway.
  • Too much if it is hair-trigger; too easy to change things inadvertently.
  • I suspect its Mac heritage might be causing difficulties for anyone used to Windows. UK magazine 'ComputerActive!' thought Affinity Photo ran better on a Mac than a PC.
  • I'm using a laptop.  It's probably better on a big monitor.  Some of the dropdown icons are tiny.
  • I suspect I might have run into a bug...

noticed some bugs and issues, including a serious performance issue. Then I posted on their forums to report the bugs or otherwise get support, and. . . nothing.
I've only posted once, and received a couple of helpful replies from experienced users rather than Serif.  I haven't posted about what I think might be a bug yet, until I get a handle on it.

I bought the Affinity Designer Workbook. When it arrived, I opened it up and started reading through it so I could learn how to use the software. A within the first ~15 pages or so, still within the introductory chapter which explains the UI and basic tools, I noticed a few discrepancies between what the book showed me and what the software showed me.
This is annoying, but the book is always going to be behind the software ("Documentation - the worst part of programming").  The books seem to me very expensive.  If they want people to use, and evangelise for, the software, maybe Serif should make the books freely available as a PDF or something.  They would be easier to keep up to date in a purely electronic format.

So far, getting Publisher to do what I wanted has been a nightmare, but bear in mind the issues I mention above.  At the moment, I feel like I never want to go through this again, but I assume it's much better than I give it credit for ("can't be much worse") and the pain is  mostly because of my own ignorance.  Even so, the learning curve is far too steep.

wraith808

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Re: Affinity offers 90-day free trial/50% discount on all software
« Reply #8 on: May 21, 2020, 06:53 PM »
If you have questions on Publisher, start a thread and I'll chime in if I can help.  My designs are rather simplistic, so not sure of my depth of knowledge.  But I can try.

Deozaan

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Re: Affinity offers 90-day free trial/50% discount on all software
« Reply #9 on: May 22, 2020, 01:39 PM »
This is annoying, but the book is always going to be behind the software ("Documentation - the worst part of programming").  The books seem to me very expensive.  If they want people to use, and evangelise for, the software, maybe Serif should make the books freely available as a PDF or something.  They would be easier to keep up to date in a purely electronic format.

Agreed. The book is fairly spendy, plus you have to pay extra for shipping since it's a big hardcover book. I think I asked on Twitter if the book came in digital format so I could avoid the (relatively small) extra cost of shipping. And I also hoped that maybe, as you suggested, it would be more likely to be or kept up to date. They told me they only sold it in dead-tree format. :(

I bought it, on sale, but of course the shipping costs weren't discounted, which brought the total cost back up closer to the non-sale price.

rjbull

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Re: Affinity offers 90-day free trial/50% discount on all software
« Reply #10 on: June 17, 2020, 04:40 PM »
Official confirmation of the end of the offers, received 2020-06-17 by email:

The 90-day trial in particular proved to be especially popular since so many creatives, students and others had lost access to their usual tools. In fact, over 250,000 people downloaded the trial—a whole lot more than we were expecting. Because of that, we extended the 90-day free trial and half-price offers well beyond what we originally planned, but they will now officially end on 20 June.

tomos

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Re: Affinity offers 90-day free trial/50% discount on all software
« Reply #11 on: June 24, 2020, 07:07 PM »
Along with Designer (now @ full price of 55€) you get "Fine Liner Brushes by The Artifex Forge --
over 50 vector Fine Liner brushes, plus 10 Fine Liner textures."

Havent tried them out yet, but they look interesting:

Screenshot - 2020-06-25 , 01_39_15.jpgAffinity offers 90-day free trial/50% discount on all software

The Artifex Forge have a few other very nice sets of brushes -- see https://artifexforge...s-affinity-designer/
Tom

Deozaan

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Re: Affinity offers 90-day free trial/50% discount on all software
« Reply #12 on: June 24, 2020, 07:19 PM »
Along with Designer (now @ full price of 55€) you get "Fine Liner Brushes by The Artifex Forge --
over 50 vector Fine Liner brushes, plus 10 Fine Liner textures."

Where can I find more information about this? Is it for new purchases only? Or is this free for anyone who owns Designer (even if purchased years ago)?

tomos

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Re: Affinity offers 90-day free trial/50% discount on all software
« Reply #13 on: June 24, 2020, 07:36 PM »
Along with Designer (now @ full price of 55€) you get "Fine Liner Brushes by The Artifex Forge --
over 50 vector Fine Liner brushes, plus 10 Fine Liner textures."

Where can I find more information about this? Is it for new purchases only? Or is this free for anyone who owns Designer (even if purchased years ago)?
I suspect for new/more recent purchases. [ EDIT// it's not free seperately. ]
If you're registered with Affinity, they allow you to redownload purchases -- it should show there if you have it or not.

(The brushes cost $19 direct from their site.)
Tom

tomos

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Re: Affinity offers 90-day free trial/50% discount on all software
« Reply #14 on: June 24, 2020, 07:42 PM »
They offer some more basic (but nice) sets for free if you sign up for their newsletter.
https://artifexforge...y/free-design-tools/

It's not immediately clear which are for Affinity (as opposed to Illustrator / Photoshop) but I got the Outline & Wax Crayon brushes.
Tom

tomos

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Re: Affinity offers 90-day free trial/50% discount on all software
« Reply #15 on: July 26, 2020, 11:20 AM »
Along with Designer (now @ full price of 55€) you get "Fine Liner Brushes by The Artifex Forge --
over 50 vector Fine Liner brushes, plus 10 Fine Liner textures."
one way of seeing if you qualify for these (or maybe other) free vector brushes --
Enable the welcome panel via menu: Help >Welcome and scroll through the images/advertising/tips

Screenshot - 2020-07-26 , 17_29_41.pngAffinity offers 90-day free trial/50% discount on all software

took me a while to figure out how to install --
eventually found this on yt from the author of these ones How To Load Affinity Designer Brushes
Tom

Deozaan

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Re: Affinity offers 90-day free trial/50% discount on all software
« Reply #16 on: July 27, 2020, 10:43 PM »
one way of seeing if you qualify for these (or maybe other) free vector brushes --
Enable the welcome panel via menu: Help >Welcome and scroll through the images/advertising/tips

Thanks! Looks like I qualify. :Thmbsup:

rjbull

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Re: Affinity offers 90-day free trial/50% discount on all software
« Reply #17 on: January 19, 2021, 09:52 AM »
And again:


In response to the pandemic last year and as a way to lend some support to the creative community, we made a 90-day free trial available for the Mac and Windows versions of the whole Affinity suite, while also cutting the price of all of our apps, including iPad versions, by 50%.

When those offers ended, it appeared things were getting better and we all hoped that by now the situation would have continued to improve. Sadly, it’s clear that the pandemic continues to have a serious impact and so we’ve decided to bring back these offers once again.
Moreover, the free trials are available to everyone, including those who have previously completed one—so even if you used the free trial last year, you can do it again. There’s also 50% off content in the Affinity Store too.

50% OFF ALL APPS

90-day free trials

50% off all content

tomos

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Re: Affinity offers 90-day free trial/50% discount on all software
« Reply #18 on: June 25, 2021, 08:22 AM »
50% off is available till the 30th of June. See rjbull's post above for links
Tom