There's a new kid in town! Affinity Designer (http://www.thegraphicmac.com/has-the-adobe-illustrator-killer-finally-arrived), a vector app meant to be an Illustrator killer much like Pixelmator is to Photoshop. For $40, I'll get it, and if they're working on a page layout app as it seems, for home use at least, I'd do that before I'd pay out of pocket for an InDesign subscription.
Competition = good for users!
:goodpost:
Serif? Well I sure as hell hope it is better than some of their other software. Their HTML web site creation software sucks majorly.
But yeah...any competition is great.
aaahhh there's a new Serif in town. Gonna be a shootout at the CS Corral.
Quote from: Ear on October 02, 2014, 03:16:44 PMaaahhh there's a new Serif in town. Gonna be a shootout at the CS Corral.
Ya know, it's a little known fact that the Shootout at the O.K. Corral was originally known as the "Gunfight on Fremont Street" by the local denizens. Upon release of the 1957 film "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral" the American public assumed that name and it still stands today.
;D Thanks Diane.
Shootout at the OK Corel Draw :banana:
Why pay anything? This is still free and it's been around for a while now. I don't know why more people don't use it.
http://www.scribus.net/canvas/Scribus
Scribus is a nice piece of software. But the big advantage of the Adobe products is, that everything is compatible together, for example, you can place a psd-file into InDesign and if you want to make changes to the picture, it takes you only two clicks and you're back in Photoshop to edit the pic. Most of the designers care a lot about time, and in their opinion, Scribus wastes too much of this precious good.
Another thing in Scribus are the output options, an option to output PDF-X1 is still not available (but the developers say it might be available with the next big update to 1.5), other options are only for various PDF-versions as well as for X3. Tried various times to output a CMYK-only PDF, but so far I didn't get deep enough into it to find out how to get this mission accomplished. I guess, once version 1.5 is available, I'll have a look at it again.
If you're just looking for a Creative Suite for home use, you can download CS2 for free at the Adobe website.
Or you can just use the your credentials from your work CC copy at home. Perfectly legal.
But make sure that nobody is using it at work at the same time while you are using it at home, otherwise the big red light starts flashing in Adobe's headquarters.
Except their employess think the flashing red light means it's time for a Starbucks break. ;D
Quote from: Designia(o_O) on October 03, 2014, 08:59:17 AMIf you're just looking for a Creative Suite for home use, you can download CS2 for free at the Adobe website.
...love the way they try and dangle an alternative to the low-end user like that; I assume to keep them away from Scribus-style software.
Quote from: DigitalCrapShoveler on October 03, 2014, 09:21:17 AMOr you can just use the your credentials from your work CC copy at home. Perfectly legal.
... a gap in my American entertainment culture database. Who is your avatar?
Quote from: frailer on October 05, 2014, 10:16:32 PMQuote from: DigitalCrapShoveler on October 03, 2014, 09:21:17 AMOr you can just use the your credentials from your work CC copy at home. Perfectly legal.
... a gap in my American entertainment culture database. Who is your avatar?
Carla's ex-husband, Nick Tortelli's new wife.
Here is a link from Adobe's user forums listing many alternatives to Adobe's stranglehold.
https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1206666
You can find substitutes for Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign but what you can't find a replacement for is the Acrobat/Pitstop combo which is an absolute must for me. And before someone mentions NEO it is not really affordable if it is even still available.
That's the problem with the replacements. Adobe is so embedded in our workflows or ways of doing things, it's almost impossible to switch, especially for the larger companies. Not to mention the fact that some are Windows or Mac only. For freelancers, it's a lot easier to switch.
And then we get the craptastic results from said programs.
They are many craptastic programs around. I had a booklet to print that dropped something or screwed up something different with each attempt to output. Figured it was too many hands using too many "free" programs to create it. Of course, making a PROPER PDF was out of the question.
Xara looks promising and more professional, Windows only. Pixelmator gets a lot of praise, Mac only. Some people swear by Corel products. There are better ones coming up.
Corel is of the devil.
HATE Corel. We do a fair amount of printing for a local marketing firm and one of the guys works in Corel. He tries to tell me how superior Corel is. I said, ya, that is why I bill an extra hour of prepress on all of your jobs, doctoring Corel infections.
:popcorn:
Quote from: Ear on October 07, 2014, 10:26:44 AMHATE Corel. We do a fair amount of printing for a local marketing firm and one of the guys works in Corel. He tries to tell me how superior Corel is. I said, ya, that is why I bill an extra hour of prepress on all of your jobs, doctoring Corel infections.
Anyone that's been in Corel and hits command-zero knows why Corel sucks.
Powerclip, what a novel and completely cluster-fuck way to do things, It makes Illustrator's Clipping Mask look stable.
Paste-Inside... THAT is how they should all be.
Even better... this client was comparing Corel to Photoshop, FFS, not even Illy or Indy. At that point, I just stopped arguing. :shrug:
Quote from: Ear on October 07, 2014, 11:00:59 AMEven better... this client was comparing Corel to Photoshop, FFS, not even Illy or Indy. At that point, I just stopped arguing. :shrug:
Like a Sherman tank versus a Twinkie. There is NO battle. Yes, the Twinkie is delicious, but that has nothing to do with the war.
Exactly.
we got twinkies?
:homer:
A few, but they don't post anymore. ;)
:lmao:
It also seems that the free download of CS2 is compatible with Windows 7 with a little tweaking.
Actually the CS2 installs without much problems on a Windows7 machine. The only thing it won't install is the Adobe PDF printer. It depends on if you can live with that, I personally use the PDF printer quite seldom, so for me it'd be no big issue.
You just have to tweak the path name and make sure all of the components live in the same folder. I'm having a problem with my icons not showing up, but hey, it's free.
Quote from: Slappy on October 02, 2014, 03:05:53 PMThere's a new kid in town! Affinity Designer (http://www.thegraphicmac.com/has-the-adobe-illustrator-killer-finally-arrived), a vector app meant to be an Illustrator killer much like Pixelmator is to Photoshop. For $40, I'll get it, and if they're working on a page layout app as it seems, for home use at least, I'd do that before I'd pay out of pocket for an InDesign subscription.
I know that this is something I plan to get for my iMac at home.
I know my Ill CS5 will someday not be compatible.
I read somewhere that they plan to add Pantone support which would be great as I can't find any Illustrator like app that support Pantone.
Also read that they are working on a InDesign app that could be released this summer.
So anyone seen the preview of the new Affinity Photo?
It looks really really good, might have a new photo editor.
https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/photo/ (https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/photo/)
I was looking at it this week, pretty awesome! I just got a copy of Pixelmator instead, finally having a Mac that can run it & felt NO desire to shell out for even the lowest subscription of Photoshop at home.
Check out the video overview on Designer too, if I was even remotely talented it would be a no-brainer to use over Illustrator:
https://youtu.be/j29POPiWN7M
Quote from: Slappy on April 11, 2015, 08:17:38 PMI was looking at it this week, pretty awesome! I just got a copy of Pixelmator instead, finally having a Mac that can run it & felt NO desire to shell out for even the lowest subscription of Photoshop at home.
Check out the video overview on Designer too, if I was even remotely talented it would be a no-brainer to use over Illustrator:
https://youtu.be/j29POPiWN7M
Slappy-
I got the Affinity Designer for replacement of Illustrator for my home Mac.
So far, I like it!
Cool! I'd like to get in on the Beta for their page layout app, not even sure what it's called, maybe it's closed now.
Quote from: Slappy on April 12, 2015, 05:31:31 PMCool! I'd like to get in on the Beta for their page layout app, not even sure what it's called, maybe it's closed now.
Page layout app is called Affinity Publisher.
It is suppose to go into beta this fall (2015) is what they say on their forum.
Awwwww, man. Couldn't they have kept "Publisher" out of the name? That's a dirty word.
Quote from: Syphon on April 13, 2015, 07:53:51 PMQuote from: Slappy on April 12, 2015, 05:31:31 PMCool! I'd like to get in on the Beta for their page layout app, not even sure what it's called, maybe it's closed now.
Page layout app is called Affinity Publisher.
It is suppose to go into beta this fall (2015) is what they say on their forum.
Gadzooks! But someone had to do it, right? Enough brainpower and computing power to put together a challenge to the Cloud Gouge Juggernaut.
Thanks for the link.
Quote from: frailer on April 14, 2015, 05:59:47 PMQuote from: Syphon on April 13, 2015, 07:53:51 PMQuote from: Slappy on April 12, 2015, 05:31:31 PMCool! I'd like to get in on the Beta for their page layout app, not even sure what it's called, maybe it's closed now.
Page layout app is called Affinity Publisher.
It is suppose to go into beta this fall (2015) is what they say on their forum.
Gadzooks! But someone had to do it, right? Enough brainpower and computing power to put together a challenge to the Cloud Gouge Juggernaut.
Thanks for the link.
The weak link has always been an Acrobat replacement and even if they had that you would still need Enfocus to port Pitstop over to it. I'm pretty sure I'll be dead before I see all of that happen.
Sobering thought....
Quote from: Designia(o_O) on October 09, 2014, 01:40:38 PMIt also seems that the free download of CS2 is compatible with Windows 7 with a little tweaking.
I just did this today, because I'm a cheap bastarde and didn't feel comfortable paying into Adobe's monthly payment plan. It took me a couple tries and I almost gave up until coming across this post on - oddly enough - the Adobe support forum. Thanks Adobe! Pasting the instructions below in case they disappear someday. I downloaded the CS2 installers last year when the free offer was available, I don't think Adobe is still providing the download but there are other sources.
https://forums.adobe.com/message/4980474
Installing CS2 on a Windows 8 64bit systems worked for me using the instructions below, followed to a "T".
"Be aware, this won't be for everyone. These are old programs, intended for use on Windows 2000/ XP and Mac OS X v.10.2.8–v.10.3.8 (PowerPC® G4 or G5 processor). We've managed to install CS2 on a 64-bit Windows 7 system, but this is unsupported and there's no telling what issues might crop up.
If you'd like just to try, though, here's what to do. Follow the download link to open a page at the Adobe site, and at a minimum download CreativeSuiteCS2Disc1.exe, CreativeSuiteCS2Disc2.exe and CreativeSuiteCS2Disc3.exe from the links at the top of the page (that's a bulky 1.07GB in total, so choose a system with a fast internet connection).
Run CreativeSuiteCS2Disc3.exe, make a note of the default extraction folder (it was C:\Creative Suite CS2 for us), and click Next > Finish.
Run CreativeSuiteCS2Disc2.exe, change the default extraction folder name to whatever it was for the previous file, and click Next > Finish.
Run CreativeSuiteCS2Disc1.exe. The extraction folder should be the same as it was for the Disc3 file, but change it if not, and click Next. (The aim of all this being that all the CS2 content should end up in the same folder.)
The installer will appear. Click Next and accept the licence agreement.
The "Personalization" screen then asks for your registration details. Enter your name, (optionally) company, and the serial number 1130-0412-8377-1896-9751-5759 (you can paste this from the clipboard).
Next, the installer asks where to install Creative Suite 2. By default this was C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe on our Windows 7 x64 system, but it immediately complained that "The path your selected for installation contains unsupported characters". This is misleading; the real problem is just that the installer is using a long file name. Manually enter C:\Progra~1\Adobe as the folder name on 32-bit Windows, C:\Progra~2\Adobe on a 64-bit system, press Tab > Next and all should be well.
Read more: http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/downloads/3328873/adobe-creative-suite-2/#ixzz2TI45RP5Z
You then get to choose to install some, or all of the suite's components. Your options are Adobe Illustrator CS2 (600MB), Adobe InDesign CS2 (400MB), Adobe Photoshop CS2 and Adobe ImageReady CS2 (450MB), and Adobe Version Cue CS2 (300MB).
We opted for the "Entire Suite" option, and clicked Next.
A Summary screen appears listing all the choices you've made so far. If there's a mistake, click "Back" and change it, otherwise click Install.
If a message appears telling you to "Insert CD 2 to continue installation", open Explorer, and switch to the default extraction folder (we'll assume it's C:\Creative Suite CS2). Manually copy the C:\Creative Suite CS2\Adobe InDesign CS2 and C:\Creative Suite CS2\Adobe Version Cue CS2 folders and their contents to C:\Creative Suite CS2\Adobe Creative Suite 2.0. Switch back to the installer, click OK and it should now continue.
Once installation is complete (which should only take 3 or 4 minutes, not the "up to 20" suggested by the setup program) a Registration dialog will appear. There's no need to bother registering, really - these are free tools, you're not going to get any support running them on modern PCs anyway - so the best option is probably to choose the "Do not register" option, and click Next > Done.
And with any luck, you should now have installed CS2. The issues may not end there, but you should at least now be able to launch and try out its various applications.
Read more: http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/downloads/3328873/adobe-creative-suite-2/#ixzz2TI3v0aP3
The download of the CS2 version is actually only legal for those who have purchased a CS2 licence before. It became a free download because Adobe shut down the activation server for that software. Since it's an old version, Adobe does not to care too much about illegal use, but in the end they could still sue you if you cannot provide that licence upon request. Actually most of the people I know won't even think about installing a CS2 since there are plenty of cracked CS6 out there (I've heard it said that people already found a way to crack the CC).
Affinity seems to write software for Mac only, which is pity, because I'm on Windows machines both at home and at work. Talking about the Acrobat replacement, I'm pretty sure Enfocus has something in preparation already since there is obviously a demand for a "standalone Pitstop".
Quote from: Made in Taiwan on April 18, 2015, 10:19:27 AMThe download of the CS2 version is actually only legal for those who have purchased a CS2 licence before. It became a free download because Adobe shut down the activation server for that software. Since it's an old version, Adobe does not to care too much about illegal use, but in the end they could still sue you if you cannot provide that licence upon request. Actually most of the people I know won't even think about installing a CS2 since there are plenty of cracked CS6 out there (I've heard it said that people already found a way to crack the CC).
Affinity seems to write software for Mac only, which is pity, because I'm on Windows machines both at home and at work. Talking about the Acrobat replacement, I'm pretty sure Enfocus has something in preparation already since there is obviously a demand for a "standalone Pitstop".
Enfocus already has had NEO which I think now falls under the Esko umbrella but it was well above most peoples price point for a PDF editor since it was much cheaper to go with Acrobat/Pitstop Pro. Unfortunately we';; probably never find a Pitstop stand alone because it would only be much value to prepress people and the market would be too small for what it would cost to develop such an application. That is the exact problem that NEO had and nothing has changed.
Never say never, Joe. The pricing is indeed one of the main criteria or even THE main criteria for purchase, but there are other applications out there which are well affordable as a standalone version. An example is the Callas PDF toolbox, which is currently maybe not as advanced as Pitstop, but can be purchased for the same price either as Plugin or as standalone.
If Enfocus had NEO already, but people didn't buy it due to its high price, then there is at least some existing source code, that maybe could be modified to launch an affordable standalone Pitstop...
But you don't need that license to download the free version. The free v. license # is the same for everybody.
On a PC you just have to make sure that EVERYTHING is in the same folder.
There's no FREE version of the CS2 - see here:
http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2013/01/07/adobe-giving-away-free-copies-of-cs2-software-package-including-photoshop (http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2013/01/07/adobe-giving-away-free-copies-of-cs2-software-package-including-photoshop)
But honestly spoken, with publishing the licence number, Adobe pretty much gave away the option to check who is legal and who might be not.
You can use it freely until one day the cops ring your doorbell and ask for the original licence, which is probably never going to happen.
Eh, if I didn'thave to pay for it, I'll call it free. I do have a viable license for CS4 mac, I'm using CS2 on a PC.
They figure it's so old nobody will want it. They thought wrong.
Talking about PDF editor, has anyone use PDFpen Pro (https://smilesoftware.com/PDFpenPro/index.html)?
Since I have no plans of upgrading my old copy of Acrobat, I've been looking for an alternative.
Lastest version looks like it could be the replacement.
Unless it can run Pitstop it wouldn't do me any good.
If I check out their website, the main statements there are "made for MS Office, Cloud and Web". For office people it might be a good choice, but I don't think it's a good option for a commercial printer. Unless you're only editing text or resize images.
OOPS!
I meant for use on my personal Mac at home for which I have no need for PitStop at home.
Boss won't let me work at home and besides he doesn't pay me enough to take work home.
I wish my boss won't let me work from home.
We did have a designer in here yesterday that wants to intern in a production environment. Maybe I'll finally get some backup.
Poor, poor naive little girl.
Send her screaming!
:lmao: