About this release
Affinity Designer's defining trick is the persona switch. The same document can be worked on as vector art, with paths, nodes and boolean operations, or as raster art, with brushes and pixels, and you move between the two with one click and no export step. A logo can be drawn precisely and then have hand painted texture applied to it in the same file, which in most other toolchains means two applications and a round trip.
The vector side is complete and fast. Pen and node editing with proper curve control, the shape builder for boolean construction, corner tools that stay live, contours, non destructive boolean groups, unlimited layers and layer effects, and a grid and guide system that includes isometric setups out of the box. Everything renders at sixty frames a second while you pan and zoom, which sounds like a small thing until you have worked on a heavy file and noticed it never stutters.
Production output is handled properly for both print and screen. Documents carry full colour management with spot colours and overprint, artboards let a whole set of screens or a full brand system live in one file, and the export persona defines slices with their own formats and scale factors so a single export pass writes every asset a developer needs. The document format is shared with the rest of the Affinity line, so a file opens in the photo and publishing applications directly.
What it does
- Vector and raster work in the same document with a one click persona switch
- Full pen and node editing with live corner and contour tools
- Non destructive boolean operations that stay editable after the fact
- Unlimited layers, layer effects, adjustment layers and live filters
- Artboards for holding a full screen set or brand system in one file
- Isometric grids and configurable guide systems built in
- Export persona with slices, per slice formats and scale factors
- Full colour management with spot colours and overprint preview
- Pressure sensitive brush engine with custom brush creation
- Shared document format with the rest of the Affinity applications
Changes in this version
- Faster rendering on documents with many live filter layers
- Improved node editing behaviour on very dense paths
- Reworked export persona with clearer slice management
- Better pen tablet pressure response on current drivers
- Reduced memory use on files with large embedded raster layers
What the package contains
- Affinity Designer full offline installer
- Default brush, style and palette libraries
- Document presets for print, screen, devices and illustration
- All interface languages, selectable in preferences
- Readme with the install order written out step by step
Installation notes
Follow these in order. Most reports of a failed install come from skipping a step rather than from the package itself.
- Disconnect from the network before you start.
- Extract the archive to any folder, the package is not large.
- Run the installer as administrator.
- Do not launch it yet, apply the included activation step first.
- Open it once so the preferences are created, then close it.
- Reconnect to the network.
System requirements
| Operating system | Windows 10 version 21H2 or newer, or Windows 11 |
| Processor | 64-bit processor with SSE 4.2 |
| Memory | 4 GB minimum, 8 GB or more recommended |
| Graphics | GPU with DirectX 12 support for hardware acceleration |
| Storage | 3 GB free during install |
| Display | 1280 by 768 minimum, 1920 by 1080 recommended |
Things worth knowing
- Hardware acceleration can be turned off in preferences if you see redraw artefacts on older graphics drivers.
- Files exchange with the mainstream vector applications through the standard interchange formats rather than natively.
- Raster layers are resolution dependent, set the document resolution before painting rather than after.
Questions about this title
Can it open files from the mainstream vector applications?
What does the persona switch actually change?
Is it suitable for print work?
Does it share files with the other Affinity applications?
What people are saying
Drawing a mark and then texturing it in the same file without exporting is genuinely a different workflow.
Never stutters. Sixty frames a second on a file that makes other applications think about it.
Export persona writes every asset size in one pass. Set it up once per project and forget it.
Listing information
This entry is catalogued under Graphics & Design and carries the tags below. Language coverage is Multilingual, 11 interface languages, and the supported platform list is Windows 10, Windows 11. Version 2.6.5.3782 is the current catalogued build, last checked 6 days ago, and the entry has been in the index since it was added 3 years ago.