REVIEWS / DESIGN TOOLS / OWNER INSIGHTS
🦉 WE READ 200 OWNER COMMENTS
Affinity Designer 2: what owners actually say
Owners coming from Illustrator find Designer's masking and curve-baking paradigms genuinely confusing, but those who push through report the tools are powerful once understood
What owners complain about
- Mask workflow unintuitive for Illustrator users SOME
Users report that masking requires interacting with the layers panel — dragging objects over others or into folders — which feels alien compared to Illustrator where they never have to touch the layers panel for masking tasks.
- Curve and corner 'baking' is confusing SOME
Users coming from Illustrator don't understand when or why curves get baked, and one explicitly wishes they could forego baking entirely, fearing they'll mess things up. The concept of deciding when to bake feels like an unnecessary cognitive burden.
- Steep relearning curve from Adobe SOME
A user documenting their gripes admitted many were things they simply didn't know how to do yet, acknowledging the mental model differs significantly from Illustrator even for basic operations.
- Linux support is problematic FEW
The AppImage is hardcoded to libfuse2.so, meaning it doesn't work on Debian-Testing or Linux Mint. One commenter noted the developer's apparent disdain for older distros like Mint, which locks out exactly the less-experienced Linux users who'd benefit most.
- Bevel and emboss is raster-only FEW
A user working on bevel/emboss effects noted these are bitmap-based in Affinity Designer, not true vector, which limits output quality for certain effects.
What owners love
- Masks are powerful once understood
An experienced user stated that while masks are unintuitive from an Illustrator perspective, once it clicks they are fantastic, with toolbar flags to lock or control mask behaviour.
- Fast, accurate vector tools
Owners describe it as an incredibly accurate vector illustrator that feels fast and at home for creative professionals, combining crisp vector art with flexible layer management.
- Strong raster finishing tools inside a vector app
The range of high-quality raster tools for finishing work within a primarily vector workflow is highlighted as impressive and intuitive.
- Seen as genuine Adobe competition
Users actively root for Affinity to succeed, expressing hope it provides proper competition to Adobe's subscription model and forces improvements in professional design tools.
Surprising patterns
- Users are comparing Affinity's development pace not to other design apps, but to 3D software like Blender and Houdini, noting those tools iterate rapidly with new tools, workflows, and UI polish — setting an implied benchmark Affinity hasn't met.
- Several Stack Exchange answers demonstrate that specific techniques (subtracting letters from shapes, bevel effects) require workarounds or differ from how they're done in Illustrator or InDesign, suggesting cross-app muscle memory actively works against new users.
- One user's list of complaints was openly framed as partly a way to invite corrections, acknowledging that several gripes were knowledge gaps rather than software flaws — suggesting the learning curve is steep enough that users can't always tell the difference.
WHO SHOULD SKIP IT
Illustrator power users who rely heavily on mask workflows without touching the layers panel, or who need bevel/emboss as true vector effects, will find the paradigm shift frustrating rather than liberating.
Synthesised from 200 real owner comments across 4 platforms. Every point is grounded in the comments — no marketing, no AI guessing. How we do it →