Adobe Photoshop v Affinity Photo: What’s best for our creative team?

For years, Adobe Photoshop has been the industry leading photo editing software, becoming a household name that even non-designers can recognise. But is there an alternative to Photoshop? Jigsaw24’s Copywriter, Shariff Ibrahim, and Graphic Designer and Videographer, Simon Curd, got their hands on Serif’s Affinity Photo, a cross-platform software package that is challenging Adobe Photoshop’s long reign at the top.

By Conal Siddall March 16, 2018

Simon moved to Adobe Creative Cloud when it first came out, and pretty much all of his design software is contained within that. Photoshop is one of the apps that he uses most for all kinds of tasks, ranging from processing RAW images to creating graphic elements for the website and emails.

As a copywriter, Shariff uses Adobe Photoshop far less than Simon, but occasionally there is call for a small amount of image editing, like cropping and resizing. He occasionally creates header and thumbnail images for our blog, as well as ensuring any artwork attached to social media posts is correctly sized and optimised for the particular platform. Since Photoshop moved to a subscription model, Shariff has been using basic free programs like Pixlr, despite the loss of functionality.

Intuitive interface

Shariff found that many of the basic functions he uses were available in Affinity Photo and expressed how the lower price point was a big bonus for him. “It seems Serif have developed Affinity Photo very much with Photoshop users in mind,” he told us. “The interface, layout and toolkit are instantly recognisable to anyone who’s used Adobe apps in the past.”

Simon told us, “As soon as I opened Affinity Photo I started working in it exactly how I would in Photoshop, and for the most part I got the same results.” He explained that while Affinity’s design felt very intuitive and easy to use, the RAW processing tools in the Develop persona didn’t seem quite as responsive as in Photoshop, and the biggest thing that was missing was the ability to create any kind of animated graphic, a big part of his daily work.

Making the switch

But was this enough to encourage them to switch? “I think I would definitely switch from using free programs like Pixlr and buy Affinity Photo,” Shariff said. “I could never justify the price for Photoshop, but Affinity is a really extensive image editing app that does everything I need it to, and a whole lot more.”

Simon felt differently: “It wouldn’t make sense for me to switch over to Affinity Photo I’m afraid. Although I could get some of my work done fine, there are some key things I’d need including and improving before I could begin to consider moving away from Photoshop, and that’s before I think about the integration with other Adobe apps and the choice I get through Creative Cloud in the breadth of apps otherwise.” Even though Creative Cloud is more expensive in comparison, it also provides Simon with a whole bunch of other apps for vector illustration, print layout, video and animation, all integrated nicely with each other and this for him is the deal breaker.

We’ll soon be releasing a full video where we compare Photoshop and Affinity Photo in depth, to find out when it is released and for all the latest news, follow @WeAreJigsaw24 on Twitter or ‘Like’ us on Facebook. If you want to purchase Creative Cloud, check out our store, give us a call on 03332 409 251 or email sales@Jigsaw24.com.