Serif has announced some major upgrades to its Affinity page layout and graphic design software – just six months after unveiling the feature-filled V2 of its award-winning creative suite.
Dubbed V2.1, the developers are promising “better-than-ever workflow and user experience” thanks to a sweeping combination of new features and smaller, incremental updates.
And no-one’s left behind, with the all new feature set for Affinity Designer, Affinity Photo, and Affinity Publisher, available across Windows, Mac, and iPad apps.
What’s new in Affinity V2.1?
The list of updates and fixes for Affinity V2.1 is vast – we did say it was major – so it’s worth checking out the full release notes (opens in new tab).
When it comes to headline items, Affinity Designer’s new Vector Flood Fill tool and Running Headers in Affinity Publisher both make the cut.
The former lets users fill areas created by intersecting objects and curves with one click. The latter provides a way to add the name of your document’s topic to headers and footers. Users will also finally get support for keyboard shortcuts for changing the blend mode in whatever layers they’re working on.
Alongside the likes of snappable Vector warp modes and an Auto-select toggle come a raft of smaller tweaks. This includes balanced dash lines, an enhanced cropping tool in its photo editor and Brush Panel improvements based on community feedback.
“We pay meticulous attention to what our customers tell us their requirements are for improved professional workflow and usability,” said Serif CEO Ashley Hewson. “Sometimes a very small improvement can make a huge difference and give somebody their best experience of using Affinity. All the new features have been requested heavily by our customers, and thousands of those users have helped us put 2.1 through its paces during the beta period.”
Existing Affinity users get the latest update to the design and DTP software completely free. For everyone else, V2.1 is available for a one-off cost that’s surprisingly affordable given the power of the tools. Cheerfully, there’s no subscriptions either. That alone is one of the main reasons why we named Publisher as the best alternatives to Adobe InDesign, while Affinity Photo is a serious contender for best Photoshop alternative. With the latest advances in the creative suite rolling out now, that position is only strengthened.
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