Below is a press release about the release of a public beta of Affinity Designer for Windows. It is promoted as a professional-level tool for vector illustration. Thus it would be compared against products like Adobe Illustrator, CorelDRAW and Xara Designer Pro. I have downloaded and installed my copy and will give my thoughts once I’ve had time to give it a try.

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Affinity Designer, the award-winning professional graphic design software, is now available for Windows.

Today (Thursday, June 30) marks the hotly-anticipated launch of the first free beta version to more than 80,000 eager customers who signed up in advance.

Fast, smooth and precise, Affinity Designer has enjoyed rave reviews from Apple Mac users since it launched in 2014. Within a week it was the #1 ranked app and Editor’s Choice on the Mac App Store, before going on to win a prestigious Apple Design Award last year.

Nottingham, UK, developer Serif has since been bombarded with requests from customers wanting a Windows version.

Serif Managing Director Ashley Hewson says: “We know, because they tell us every day, that there’s a massive sense of excitement among Windows users who want the same professional design tools that our Mac apps deliver.

“The beta launch of Affinity Designer on Windows is a huge step towards that, although it’s important to remember that it’s not the finished product at this stage. Our beta phase for Mac was exceptionally valuable in helping us to refine the software and now we’re excited to work just as a closely with Windows users, to deliver a brilliant end product.”

People can still sign up for the Windows beta at http://affinity.serif.com/windows/

Affinity Designer for Windows from MacAffinity on Vimeo.

Designed to work on 64 bit Windows 7 and above, and available with support for eight languages, Affinity Designer is part of a trio of professional quality design software tools. Affinity Photo launched for Mac last year and will follow for Windows, while Affinity Publisher is expected early in 2017.

With core principles of performance, stability and lack of bloat, Affinity Designer contains all the tools needed in a high-end vector design app, meticulously crafted for professionals. It’s fast, meaning users can pan and zoom at 60fps and see all adjustments, effects, transformations and brushes in real time.

Affinity Designer works in any colour space . RGB, CMYK, LAB, greyscale, plus end-to-end CMYK workflow with ICC colour management and 16-bit per channel editing. It’s incredibly accurate, allowing users to zoom to over one million per cent.

Affinity Designer has the best PSD import engine available and full support for SVG, EPS, PDF, PDF/X and FH files means integrating Affinity Designer into workflow is painless.

The first full version of Affinity Designer for Windows is likely to go on sale in around three months, for direct download from the Affinity website. Customers will pay only an initial price of $49.99 / £39.99 / €49.99 for the software and subsequent updates — there’s no ongoing subscription.

A full feature list of Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo.