Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Affinity Designer VS FontStruct

Compare Affinity Designer VS FontStruct and see what are their differences

Affinity Designer logo Affinity Designer

Professional creative software, exclusively for Mac.

FontStruct logo FontStruct

FontStruct. Build, Share, Download Fonts
  • Affinity Designer Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-21
  • FontStruct Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-09-28

Affinity Designer features and specs

  • Cost
    Affinity Designer is a one-time purchase, which is significantly cheaper in the long run compared to popular subscription-based alternatives like Adobe Illustrator.
  • Performance
    Affinity Designer is known for its smooth performance and stability, even when working with large files or complex designs.
  • Cross-platform compatibility
    The software is available on both macOS, Windows, and iPad, allowing for a seamless experience across different devices.
  • User Interface
    Affinity Designer features a modern, intuitive, and highly customizable user interface, making it easier for both new and experienced users to adapt.
  • Advanced Vector Tools
    Offers a wide range of vector editing tools, which are on par with industry standards, making it a powerful tool for professional designers.
  • Regular Updates
    Serif, the company behind Affinity Designer, frequently releases updates that add new features and improve performance.
  • Seamless Integration
    Affinity Designer offers seamless integration with other Affinity products such as Affinity Photo and Affinity Publisher, enhancing overall workflow.

Possible disadvantages of Affinity Designer

  • Learning Curve
    New users, especially those transitioning from Adobe products, might find the interface and tools slightly unfamiliar, leading to a learning curve.
  • Limited Third-party Plugin Support
    Affinity Designer has limited support for third-party plugins compared to Adobe Illustrator, which can restrict additional functionalities.
  • Community and Resources
    While growing, the community and available resources for Affinity Designer are not as extensive as those for more established software like Adobe Illustrator.
  • Lack of Cloud-based Features
    Affinity Designer does not offer built-in cloud storage or cloud-based collaboration features, unlike some other industry-leading design software.
  • Interoperability with Adobe Files
    Although it offers some compatibility, Affinity Designer may struggle with fully maintaining formatting and layers when importing/exporting Adobe Illustrator (AI) files.

FontStruct features and specs

  • User-Friendly Interface
    FontStruct offers a highly intuitive, browser-based interface that makes creating custom fonts accessible even for beginners.
  • Free to Use
    The platform is completely free, providing a cost-effective way to design and share custom fonts.
  • Community and Sharing
    FontStruct boasts an active community where users can share their creations and find inspiration from others' work.
  • Ease of Export
    Once a font is created, it can be easily exported in TTF (TrueType Font) format for use on various platforms.
  • Pre-made Shapes
    The platform includes a large library of pre-made shapes and components, simplifying the font creation process.

Possible disadvantages of FontStruct

  • Limited Design Tools
    FontStruct is based on a modular, grid-based system, which can limit the complexity and creativity of the fonts you can create.
  • Web-based Performance Limitations
    Because it is a web-based tool, performance may suffer on slower internet connections or less powerful computers.
  • Limited Advanced Features
    Professional typographers may find FontStruct lacking in advanced features found in high-end font design software.
  • Dependency on Browser
    As a web application, users are dependent on their browsers for functionality and may encounter compatibility issues.
  • Lack of Direct Technical Support
    While the community can offer help, official, direct technical support options are minimal compared to paid software.

Affinity Designer videos

Illustrator vs Affinity Designer - Review and Comparison

More videos:

  • Review - Affinity Designer Review
  • Review - A DESIGNERS Review : Affinity Designer on iPad Pro 2018

FontStruct videos

Fontstruct Advanced Tutorial

More videos:

  • Tutorial - FontStruct Intro and Tutorial
  • Review - Intro to Fontstruct

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Affinity Designer and FontStruct)
Graphic Design Software
Design Tools
76 76%
24% 24
Image Editing
100 100%
0% 0
Image Marketplace
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Affinity Designer and FontStruct

Affinity Designer Reviews

Figma Alternatives: 12 Prototyping and Design Tools in 2024
Affinity Designer has recently released version 2 of the app for professional photo editing, illustrations, and graphic designs. Itโ€™s used by millions of designers worldwide for prototyping, mind mapping, and other visual content.
5 Figma Alternatives for UI & UX Designers
And last but not least, the area in which Affinity Designer excels is its licensing system. You only pay for the software once ($60 + a free trial) and can use it on your Windows or macOS devices.
Source: stackdiary.com
10 Best Adobe Illustrator Alternatives
if you are looking for an editing tool that can switch between vector, export, and pixel modes, Affinity Designer is a perfect choice.
The best digital art software for creatives in 2020
Not only that, last year's upgrade (here's our Affinity Designer review) saw Affinity add support for the Apple Pro Display XDR monitor, and tweak the program to run faster than ever on new Macs. While this is a dedicated vector tool, you can switch to a pixel environment if you wish. A new version (Affinity Designer 1.9) is currently in Beta so watch this space for a new...
The best software for digital artists
Affinity Designer has everything you need to create custom designs and illustrations. With Affinity Designer, you have precise control over curves, brush stabilisation options, advanced blend modes, and best of all: one million+ per cent zoom. No, reallyโ€ฆ itโ€™s true! In fact, this might just be our favourite feature.

FontStruct Reviews

13 of the Best Font Sites
FontStruct is a little different from other free font websites. It has both free fonts available for download, but it also enables a designer to create their own font if needed. Users can browse their font library for choices but can also use their tool to design a font if needed and tweak the font size as needed.
10+ Best Places to Find Free Fonts
FontStruct is actually a font building tool that allows you to create your own fonts with geometrical shapes. The tool generates TrueType fonts using your designs that can be used with any app and for any kind of work you want.
Source: designshack.net
20 Best Font Websites To Get Free Fonts Online
FontStruct is a free tool for creating fonts. Create your fonts with the FontStructor editor and share them with other users to download. You can also pick from a variety of available fonts, with more being added regularly.
Source: adsterra.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Affinity Designer might be a bit more popular than FontStruct. We know about 47 links to it since March 2021 and only 37 links to FontStruct. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Affinity Designer mentions (47)

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FontStruct mentions (37)

  • A few interesting modern pixel fonts
    A few different resources with various ways to go about it, one of which may be near what you were hoping for: - FontStruct: https://fontstruct.com/. - Source: Hacker News / about 2 months ago
  • Fran Sans โ€“ font inspired by San Francisco light rail displays
    Check out https://fontstruct.com/ and https://glyphdrawing.club/ for a few editors that work this way (i made glyphdrawing.club). But please make one for this! - Source: Hacker News / 8 months ago
  • Help finding a font similar to this from early Pokemon games?
    If you wanted to find pixel fonts, I suggest you going to FontStruct and find one. A lot of people make pixel fonts there and I'm sure you'll eventually find the one that you liked. If you want one quickly, try RomByte, I made that on that FontStruct site, too. Source: about 3 years ago
  • Those of you who have created a writing system for your conlang and also made it for your keyboard so that you can write with it on the computer, can you showcase it? And can you share how you went about creating it on the computer?
    I know about FontStruct (https://fontstruct.com/) and maybe you do too, but personally I don't really like it in the sense that it's not very intuitive and even making curves is pretty complicated. Would you have any sites/software (free if possible) to recommend for creating decent characters? As well as sites/software that can be used to create your own keyboard? Source: about 3 years ago
  • Can I make a TTF-Font without paying money?
    Fontstruct.com - it'll let you make fonts from predetermined shapes and export as a TTF. Source: over 3 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Affinity Designer and FontStruct, you can also consider the following products

Sketch - Professional digital design for Mac.

FontForge - Free (libre) font editor for Windows, Mac OS X and GNU+Linux

Inkscape - Inkscape is a free, open source professional vector graphics editor for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

BirdFont - Birdfont is a free font editor which lets you create vector graphics and export TTF, OTF, EOT and...

Adobe Illustrator - Adobe Illustrator is a vector graphics editor.

FontCreator - This professional font editor allows you to create and edit TrueType and OpenType fonts.