Affinity Designer gets update

Professional graphic design app, Affinity Designer, has gotten powerful new features in its latest update.

Developer Serif has upped the game with version 1.5 of the Apple Design Award-winning software, available now in the Mac App Store.

Upgrading is free to existing owners, while Serif is also offering new customers a limited-time 20% discount on the usual one-off price of $49.99 / £39.99 / 49.99€. And to celebrate the launch of the update, Serif is also offering a free Grade UI web design kit worth $58 to all Affinity Designer owners.

Serif believes Affinity Designer is the fastest, smoothest, most precise end-to-end graphics editor available for Mac … a fully-fledged design app, not a one trick pony.

That’s why Managing Director Ashley Hewson promises: “Whether you’re working on branding, concept art, print projects, icons, UI, UX, or web mock ups, Affinity Designer will revolutionise how you work.”

Updates in Version 1.5 include: MacOS Sierra optimised, Symbols, Constraints, Asset management, Text styles, Huge export improvements, New colour picker tool and Style improvements.

Constraints gives users the ability to control the position or size of an object relative to its container, making it possible to create reusable elements which perform in a pseudo-responsive fashion.

Meanwhile Symbols will allow users to have multiple instances of the same object, where editing one object will edit them all simultaneously.

Snapping power is another feature which continually wows Affinity Designer users. Alignment is easy with customisable grids and snap to pixel, while instant live feedback makes it a doddle to monitor the precision of your design.

Affinity Designer’s asset management panel – another key element of a smoother workflow – allows users to drag and drop items into, or out of, the panel for easy access when you need them.

Ashley Hewson continues: “With our core principles of performance, stability and lack of bloat, Affinity Designer is already loved by creative professionals working on branding, icons, illustrations, concept art and print projects.

“With the latest features in version 1.5, we’re changing the game for UI, UX and web designers too.”

The free Grade UI kit has been created by Russian designer Sergey Azovskiy. Sergey says: “This is one of the most ambitious projects on which I have ever worked with. I tried to make the Grade UI Kit as versatile and useful as possible for designers and developers. At the same time, I wanted to give users the ability to choose from a variety of design options for the same component.

“Creating from scratch takes a lot of time, so the presence of so many universal components means you can create an entire site design in just a few minutes.

“I’ve had really great reviews from people who’ve bought this Grade UI kit, and I’m delighted that I now have the opportunity to share it with Affinity Designer users.”

Mac users should follow the prompts in-app to download the kit. It will also be included in the Windows version of Affinity Designer, currently in public beta with a full launch due imminently.

And Ashley Hewson concludes: “We’d also like to thank the tens of thousands of Affinity users who took part in the public beta phases for both v1.5 and the Windows version. Their incredible response has really helped us fine-tune the software ready for release.”