Affinity Intro Course

The Affinity workspace

How Affinity brings Vector, Pixel and Layout into a single application

Understanding the three studios — Vector for scalable illustration, Pixel for image editing, Layout for multi-page documents

Getting around the interface, toolbars, panels and the Studio switcher

Customising your studio layout and saving setups for different project types

Setting up new documents with the right dimensions, DPI, colour space and bleed

Canvases vs artboards and when to use each

Importing existing files including PSD, AI, PDF and native Affinity formats

Vector Studio: building artwork from shapes

Drawing and combining basic and special shapes

Combining and cutting shapes using Boolean operations to build complex artwork

Flipping, rotating, aligning and distributing objects precisely

Working with the Layers panel to order, name, group and lock objects

Using the Knife Tool to slice and divide shapes

Vector Studio: colour and fills

Using the Colour Wheel, Colour Picker and manual RGB/CMYK entry

Creating, saving and reusing colour palettes in the Swatch Library

Applying linear, radial, conical and mesh gradients

Working with spot colour and transparency controls

Vector Studio: paths and freehand drawing

Drawing precise curves and straight segments with the Pen tool

Adjusting anchor points and curve handles with the Node editor

Creating freeform paths and organic lines with the Pencil tool

Working with brushes including stroke types, pressure, opacity and flow

Setting stroke width, dashes, caps and the scale with object option

Vector Studio: type and text effects

Using the Artistic Text tool for headings and display typography

Adjusting tracking, kerning, leading and baseline shift in the Character panel

Placing text on a path and fitting text to a shape outline

Adding outline fills, gradient text and other creative text styling

Pixel Studio: image editing fundamentals

Switching to the Pixel Studio and understanding raster vs vector layers

Placing, cropping, resizing and straightening images

Making precise selections using the full range of selection and masking tools

Working with adjustment layers including Brightness, Curves, Hue/Saturation and Levels

Keeping edits non-destructive with live filters and layer effects

Pixel Studio: retouching and compositing

Removing unwanted elements with the Healing Brush and Clone Brush

Filling areas naturally with the Inpainting Brush

Using masks and clipping masks for non-destructive compositing

Choosing between embedded and linked images to manage file size and updates

Layout Studio: document and typography setup

Switching to the Layout Studio for multi-page document work

Setting up documents with margins, columns, bleeds and guides

Placing, linking and flowing text between frames

Creating paragraph and character styles for consistent typography

Building master pages with headers, footers, page numbers and repeating elements

Layout Studio: images and complex layouts

Placing and scaling images within frames

Wrapping text around images and shapes

Running Preflight to check for common errors before export

Exporting finished work

Using the Export persona to batch export with slices and named layers

Choosing between PNG, JPG and SVG with the right colour profiles and compression

Setting up PDF export for print-ready and screen-optimised output

Exporting multi-page documents and individual artboards