Affinity Designer is half off (vector graphics software)

[mikeroephonics]

https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/

"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."

I just purchased Designer a few weeks ago and started using it to make my first vector-based REAPER color theme. I like it a lot! I bought it for $50 before it went on sale, but now it's only $25, which I consider to be a great price. The copy protection is a simple user name and license key, so no dongles or online activation nonsense.

[Mordi]

That’s a steal! AD is super-capable and fairly easy to use.

[Quasar]

Originally Posted by mikeroephonics

https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/

"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."

I just purchased Designer a few weeks ago and started using it to make my first vector-based REAPER color theme. I like it a lot! I bought it for $50 before it went on sale, but now it's only $25, which I consider to be a great price. The copy protection is a simple user name and license key, so no dongles or online activation nonsense.

Thanks for the heads-up!

[mikeroephonics]

Here are some buttons I made after learning how to use Designer. I used "overlay" .png files for them, with pink lines, to render the glowing effect outside of the buttons. How do they look?
https://ibb.co/rkWD1sz

[ANDYZ]

Originally Posted by mikeroephonics

Here are some buttons I made after learning how to use Designer. I used "overlay" .png files for them, with pink lines, to render the glowing effect outside of the buttons. How do they look?
https://ibb.co/rkWD1sz

Looking good!

Thinking about purchasing the Designer as well for Reaper theming.

I have zero experience in vector graphics tho...I assume Designer is easy to learn and to use?

[mikeroephonics]

Originally Posted by ANDYZ

Looking good!

Thinking about purchasing the Designer as well for Reaper theming.

I have zero experience in vector graphics tho...I assume Designer is easy to learn and to use?

I find it pretty straight-forward. If you're familiar with Photoshop or Gimp, it's basically the same, except that Designer uses vector graphics instead of absolutely-defined pixels. Because of this, everything is scalable to any size, with no loss in resolution.

One big workflow tip specific to making REAPER images is to set the
document unit to pixels from the File > Document Setup window. Then set the dimensions to match the element size as defined by the WALTER code (i.e. - if your mute button is to be displayed at 20x20 pixels in REAPER's interface, set the document dimensions to 20x20, as well as the WALTER code to 20x20.)

Like this for the WALTER code in the theme's rtconfig.txt file:
tcp.mute [X X 20 20 X X X X]

Here's a really nice tutorial for Affinity Designer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd7FmjUxFnE

[vanhaze]

Huh ?!


Does this really mean you can create a Vectorgraphics based Reaper Theme in AD which will totally work in Reaper?!

[mikeroephonics]

Originally Posted by vanhaze

Huh ?!


Does this really mean you can create a Vectorgraphics based Reaper Theme in AD which will totally work in Reaper?!

Sorry, no. You still have to export the image to a .png for REAPER to see it. But since you can create different Layouts for a given REAPER theme, and each layout can use its own sub-folder within the main image folder, you can render the graphics at different sizes by changing the dimensions of the image in Designer's 'Document Setup' window.

So if you have a mute button for one layout that's rendered at 20x20 pixels, you can create another layout where it's rendered at, say, 40x40 pixels, but uses a sub-folder for the alternate mute button .png, which is rendered at 40x40 pixels.

[vanhaze]

Ok, thx for the info !

[Pashkuli]

Originally Posted by mikeroephonics

I find it pretty straight-forward. If you're familiar with Photoshop or Gimp, it's basically the same, except that Designer uses vector graphics instead of absolutely-defined pixels. Because of this, everything is scalable to any size, with no loss in resolution.

Affinity Designer = Adobe Illustrator, Inkscape, Corel Draw... work with vectors
Affinity Photo = Adobe Photoshop, Gimp, Corel Photo-Paint... work with pixels
Affinity Publisher = Adobe InDesign, Scribus, Corel Draw (page making/text formatting=editing)... work for page making (imports vectors and pixel images)

I just tried Designer and it crashed right when I imported its own asset, a keyboard vector design.

[ANDYZ]

Originally Posted by mikeroephonics

I find it pretty straight-forward. If you're familiar with Photoshop or Gimp, it's basically the same, except that Designer uses vector graphics instead of absolutely-defined pixels. Because of this, everything is scalable to any size, with no loss in resolution.

One big workflow tip specific to making REAPER images is to set the
document unit to pixels from the File > Document Setup window. Then set the dimensions to match the element size as defined by the WALTER code (i.e. - if your mute button is to be displayed at 20x20 pixels in REAPER's interface, set the document dimensions to 20x20, as well as the WALTER code to 20x20.)

Like this for the WALTER code in the theme's rtconfig.txt file:
tcp.mute [X X 20 20 X X X X]

Here's a really nice tutorial for Affinity Designer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd7FmjUxFnE

Thanks!