I’ve covered Adobe graphics alternatives extensively in 2025, and surprisingly, good free tools aren’t that hard to find - it’s just a matter of finding the ones that best suit you. Open-source apps are also catching up to speed with sleeker interfaces and more frictionless workflows. There’s never been more capable, polished, and professional software available outside of Adobe than now.

As a hobbyist designer, one of my favorite things to do is try variations of the same tool, so when Affinity released its free new unified app, it was impossible to ignore. Combining what used to be different apps into a single app meant accessing the Affinity graphics suite without juggling multiple licenses or installs. It replaces a good chunk of the Adobe suite. But I’ve yet to properly dive into the vector workspace until now, which makes Illustrator feel increasingly unnecessary for most everyday vector work.

What is the Vector workspace in Affinity?

Everything you need for vector design

The Vector workspace in Affinity is the app’s dedicated space for creating and editing vector graphics. It’s basically the old Affinity Designer app with all the same features and functions, packed into a new app alongside the old Photo and Designer tools. While it now integrates with the rest of Affinity’s creative suite, it’s still a standalone environment, so you can focus purely on vector work without having to tool-hop.

The vector space is for creating graphics that need to remain scalable, such as logos, icons, illustrations, and any design that relies on resolution-independent shapes. Everything is organized around layers and objects, giving you precise control over each element with property adjustments, transformations, effects, and a suite of vector tools.

It’s built to be intuitive enough for designers familiar with Illustrator or other vector tools, but approachable enough for newbies who want to learn vector design without being overwhelmed. Combined with Affinity’s Pixel and Layout workspaces, it fits into a broader creative workflow that lets you blend vector art with raster graphics or page layouts without leaving the app. For both simple and serious vector work, it effectively replaces Illustrator.

Shape tools

A massive selection of predefined and custom shapes

One of the first tools I started playing around with in Vector was the Shape toolkit. Affinity has a massive collection of predefined shapes, from simple rectangles to donuts, square stars, and arrows. You can drop these onto the canvas and immediately manipulate their size, rotation, corner styles, colors, proportions, and more. I actually really like using these tools for creating scalable diagrams.

There’s also the Shape Builder tool that lets you take multiple overlapping shapes and merge, subtract, or intersect them to create new custom shapes without manually redrawing everything. For anyone used to Illustrator’s Shape Builder tool, it works the same way.

The line and path toolkit

Creating lines, curves, and everything in between

Affinity pulls through with a robust path and line toolkit. The Pen tool lets you place anchor points and adjust Bézier curves, which gives you precision for clean paths. The Pencil tool is more free-form, turning hand-drawn strokes into editable vector paths; this one is perfect for sketching ideas naturally. The Path Brush tool applies brush-like strokes to paths, letting you add some texture or character. And the Knife tool makes splitting shapes and paths effortless, which is useful for cutting elements or creating custom edges.

Together, these tools let you move seamlessly between precise technical work and creative drawing. And everything you create with them is fully editable at any point since Affinity is non-destructive.

The Text tool

Working with vector typography

The text tools in Affinity’s Vector space are built for real design work and not just dropping labels onto the canvas. You can work with the Artistic Text tool for one-line text such as logos, or the Frame Text tool for longer paragraphs of text. They come with fine-grained adjustments for kerning, tracking, leading, and alignment, plus support for text on a path, which lets you warp text alongside your shapes and lines.

The adjustment and refinement tools

Fine-tuning your vectors

Once you’ve drawn your shapes and paths, this is where Affinity’s precision becomes obvious. The adjustment tools are all about editing what already exists, not drawing it from scratch. The Node tool lets you grab individual points on a path and reshape curves with precision, while the Corner tool makes it easy to round or bevel sharp edges without manually tweaking every node.

The Contour tool offsets shapes inwards or outwards, which is great for creating outlines. With the Strike Width tool, you can vary the thickness of a line along its path, adding emphasis or movement. And the Crop tool lets you trim or isolate parts of the illustration without dismantling the entire composition. Together, all these tools turn vector shapes into refined and intentional designs.

The color controls

Flexible fills and editable gradients

Coloring in Vector is handled through Affinity’s mix of color tools and controls. The Fill tool lets you quickly apply solid colors, gradients, or transparency to any shape or path. The color controls in the top toolbar gives you some predefined color swatches, a color picker tool, gradient options, and HSL, RGB, and CMYK sliders for exact color values. These are accessible for every element or object you create.

Illustrator, replaced

The Vector workspace in Affinity delivers a full-featured environment for scalable graphics. It has everything you need; drawing tools, a massive shape kit, nodes, paths, and flexible coloring. Whether you’re crafting simple icons or complex logos, it gives both beginners and experienced designers the tools and control they need without having to rely on Illustrator.