Affinity Designer is a vector graphics software developed by Serif (Europe) Ltd, replacing the former Serif DrawPlus. It is designed for professional illustrators, web designers, game developers, and other creatives.
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Corel PaintShop Pro
Score 9.0 out of 10
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PaintShop Pro is an all-in-one photo editor with advanced photo management, editing & creative tools that deliver everything a photo & design enthusiast needs, from Corel Corporation.
It's well suited for projects that rely heavily on vector graphics, like logo design, icon sets, and any branding work where scalability is required. I've also used it for things like social media assets and print layouts. So to have branding consistency across formats within one file. The one-time purchase is a big plus, especially for small studios or freelancers who dont have a large software budget. It's not ideal for if you're working in a team that relies heavily on Adobe Creative Cloud for collaboration.
Corel PaintShop Pro is well suited for photographers wanting to adjust photos and also for designers who want to create designs from scratch, working in layers and merging various elements. Due to slow load times, Corel PaintShop Pro is not well suited when you only have a few small tasks to do and when a lightweight alternative will do the job just as well (e.g. cropping and red-eye removal).
I have the 2018 version and every now and again upgrade ads will pop up in the bottom right of my screen which I find rather annoying
How to save your work and where it gets saved is confusing. It took me a while to realize that projects were saved in "pspimage" files. The knowledge base article “The Basics Of Saving Files In PaintShop Pro” did not mention pspfiles. They also have the concept of workspaces, but I eventually realized that this is not where your work is saved.
I find that a tool called paint.net is massively easier to use, but, then again, paint.net has far fewer features. I think an option in PaintShop Pro for temporarily switching down the functionality and interface to resemble paint.net would be a useful feature, so users do not get blinded by the extensive interface.
I feel like the program is not only powerful and intuitive, it's also extremely affordable. I've been a PSP user for many, many years, and I've really not looked at any other alternatives since then. At the time, anything remotely close was very expensive. PSP does everything (and MUCH more) that I need it to effectively and affordably. As long as that continues, I'll continue to be a satisfied user.
Coming from Photoshop and Illustrator, the transition was pretty smooth and most tasks translates well. There was a bit of a learning curve with certain tasks, like masking images, but nothing too steep. The align tools are excellent and the use of personas (especially the Export persona) adds a lot of functionality when exporting slices or working with different formats. The interface is user friendly with frequently used tools easily available
This program is not dependent on outside resources. Again, this is a desktop app. Load it up and use it. As long as your machine is reasonably powered and otherwise behaving, PSP runs great.
I have not had much opportunity to go directly to support, but the training modules that are employed by the company are fantastic. I also find that if I need to understand something, there is always another user ready and willing to share their secrets. As this tool becomes more accepted local communities will also start to organize
Nothing in particular. This is a desktop app. Install the program and use it. It's very straightforward for general graphic manipulation, and very intuitive for more complex processing.
The product appears to be just as powerful for what I need. Affinity is easier to use, and the results I get are phenomenal. The tools are inexpensive, so my colleagues can also purchase them to use with me. Right now, I am a pleased and excited Affinity user. Also, I have more in my pocket to spend on other tools.
From an ROI perspective, we moved entirely away from PhotoShop because we could not justify the cost vs performance. Corel PaintShop Pro is simply more cost-effective and offers the same performance and tools.
