Making music artwork. Alternatives to Adobe?

[OddJuffAudio]

Anyone try arcbrush?

[BONES]

Wow! That looks f**king great. It seems to have a really useful toolset and the flexibility of a node-based set-up is not to be underestimated. And I like the idea of one-off payments for AI, rather than a monthly subscription. I bought a (second-hand) laptop last week, this is going on it as soon as I get the upgraded SSD into it. Thanks for the heads-up.

ARCBRUSH

[BONES]

I found some GIMP project files from ~17 years ago on a backup recently so I've given it many gos over the years but still it just doesnt click for me. I just find it so unintuitive, adding alpha channels before you can cut things out(?) and stuff.

Photoshop used to be the same. I installed GIMP a few months ago. I opened it a coupe of times but it's been too long for me, too, I just can't be bothered. As much as I really don't like Photoshop, I know it inside out and it makes sense to keep using it.

The only open source app that I like is Blender and it has come a long way.

Blender's development has been incredible. I first started playing around with it in 1999-2000. I bought the tutorial book and CD-ROM and did all the tutorials but the usability just wasn't there. I basically forgot about it for 20 years and when I rediscovered it, it absolutely blew me away. And the pace of development is mind-blowing. The business model they have now seems to really work for them and their customers. It's the gold-standard of what open source should be (but almost never is).

Now that Affinity is free, anyone who wants jump from Adobe or any other app should give it a try. Affinity Designer is a fantastic program.

I gave both their apps a red-hot go but I don't like their workflow any more than Photoshop's. It feels a bit more like CorelPAINT but, overall, I feel like I wasted money on them. I haven't installed them in years and couldn't justify the upgrade price to v2. Free seems to be about what they are worth to me.

[Tiles]

The (nearly) unchangeable grey in grey theme in Affinity Canva is killing me. Same as with Blender and the monochrome icons. I get headaches after ten minutes in both. My old eyes needs contrast. Lucky me that i still have Affinity Photo. And Bforartists ...

[pekbro]

Arcbrush would be cool if it did animation. For compositing, nodes are cool, for actual painting I don't think so. They are great for brushes though, like they are in BlackInk for example. IMO, YMMV

https://blackink.bleank.com/

[BONES]

Not everybody paints. Black Ink looks really good, too, but the toolset in ArcBrush is much more aligned to the kind of graphic design work I do.

The (nearly) unchangeable grey in grey theme in Affinity Canva is killing me. Same as with Blender and the monochrome icons. I get headaches after ten minutes in both. My old eyes needs contrast. Lucky me that i still have Affinity Photo. And Bforartists ...

The thing is, lots of contrast is bad for working with colour and images. You need neutral greys so you can get a clear perspective on how the thing you are working on actually looks. There is a SMPTE standard on user interface design that goes right into the nitty-gritty of it.

[Tiles]

Yeah, that's what they want you to believe. Photoshop worked just well with its initial bright interface. I've been there

Mh, i think there is a misunderstanding here. Unfortunately, I have to go into a bit of detail.

One of the old golden rules long before SMPTE discussions was having at least around 160 greyscale steps of contrast between icon / text and background for solid readability. (which is why it is a bad idea to start with a neutral background of 128 of 255 greyscales, you are already below this value). And while some of those older UIs were arguably ugly, they were often far more readable.

The original idea behind neutral grey UIs was reducing visual bias while still keeping controls clearly readable. Unfortunately, in quite a few modern apps this somehow turned into making the UI nearly invisible. And not longer readable at all. A lot of creative software completely overdoes it with dark grey on slightly different dark grey, ultra thin fonts, low contrast icons, and barely visible states.

That does not reduce eye strain. It increases it, because your eyes constantly have to search and decode the interface. And the reason is the lack of contrast. And also lack of color. Color coding can help so much.

Good ergonomic UI design is not about turning the screen into a glowing white flashlight or a Christmas tree or making it completely invisible. That's the two extremes. It is about maintaining enough contrast for instant readability while keeping the overall interface subdued enough that it does not constantly feel aggressive or overwhelming. (There is more that you can do here, proper grouping with enough whitespace, tools in hierarchies instead everything top UI level, and much more. But that's another issue then)

The real challenge is finding that balance, and unfortunately this is exactly where discussions tend to turn into a kind of belief war.

But there are rules that you can follow. To pick two online available sources:

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/doc ... _Luminance?
https://uinica.com/contrast-ratio-in-ui/

Low Contrast vs High Contrast in UI
Low contrast interfaces often rely on subtle color differences, such as light gray text on white backgrounds. While visually minimal, these designs can reduce reading speed by nearly 40 percent and significantly increase eye strain. Users may miss critical information or interactive elements without realizing why.

And this is exactly the problem of Blender and Affinity Canva. There is a reason why I get headaches after ten minutes in them. Even an SMPTE designed UI can have a good readabilty. These two are not.

[pekbro]

I haven't tried the latest in a while, but you can make blender look however you want pretty much. You can make it do, whatever you want actually, if properly knowledgeable.

[Tiles]

Ah no, the monochrome icons remains monochrome

Well yeah, you can change the source code. We at Bforartists are doing exactly that since 2015. At the icons, and so much more.

[pekbro]

Never had a problem with it myself. I actually liked the old UI, back when it was still owned by Not a Number. Was kinda funky, but easy once you got used to it. I still use the original blender mappings.

[Tiles]

2.xx? It had no UI to speak of, just a hotkey list and the occasional graphical experiment gone wrong. Just to remember, see attachment. I came from trueSpace, that's what one could call a graphical UI. I loved to work with it. And it was me a pleasure to be even a beta tester for a while.

But yeah, we drift a bit offtopic here

In the end allowed is what works.

[pekbro]

2.xx? It had no UI to speak of, just a hotkey list and the occasional graphical experiment gone wrong. Just to remember, see attachment. I came from trueSpace, that's what one could call a graphical UI. I loved to work with it. And it was me a pleasure to be even a beta tester for a while.

But yeah, we drift a bit offtopic here

In the end allowed is what works.

Heh that's it. I never used it for much back then. Mostly I worked with Maya or Softimage.
Anyway, a long time ago...

[Tiles]

Softimage <3

I had the modtool installed for a while. trueSpace lacked a few things ...

[pekbro]

Maya was a beta back then I believe, was pretty lucky to get to play with that. Irix

[BONES]

I'm a 3D Studio Max guy. I used it from v1.2 up to about v 2009. I haven't touched it in 12 or 13 years but I guarantee I could get on it again tomorrow and be productive straight away. (Maybe not a new version but certainly an old one from 2009.) It's baked into my brain. OTOH, I have been keeping my Blender installs up to date for the last 4 or 5 years but all I ever do is fiddle around. It would take me months to be proficient with it but who has the time?

Yeah, that's what they want you to believe. Photoshop worked just well with its initial bright interface. I've been there

Yeah, scientists and engineers, what the f**k do they know, right? It works and the proof is in any of the hundreds (thousands?) of optical illusion memes out there. Of course, lighting is also key but nobody seems to pay much attention to that, either. Unless/until you get into the serious end of the business, like Industrial Light & Magic, Weta Digital, Digital Domain, etc. Those guys take it all very seriously.

One of the old golden rules long before SMPTE discussions was having at least around 160 greyscale steps of contrast between icon / text and background for solid readability.

Under what lighting conditions? You're talking generalities, professional software is not for use in well lit rooms or broad daylight and professionals shouldn't be working in those conditions. It's too fatiguing. Control the lighting and you don't need nearly as much contrast. And when you're working with colour, don't you think you have prioritise the images you're working on over ultimate utility of your GUI?

Unfortunately, in quite a few modern apps this somehow turned into making the UI nearly invisible.

Can you give an example because it's not something I have ever encountered. Studio Pro lets you play around with it yourself, so I suppose t is possible to make it unusable but that's just down to personal preference. I just use a shade of grey that doesn't hurt my eyes during long sessions, which turns out to be a bit darker than neutral, but not much.

And not longer readable at all. A lot of creative software completely overdoes it with dark grey on slightly different dark grey, ultra thin fonts, low contrast icons, and barely visible states.

I imagine that's so the Ui gets out of the way, allowing you to concentrate on the content. But, again, it's not something I can recall encountering.

And this is exactly the problem of Blender and Affinity Canva. There is a reason why I get headaches after ten minutes in them. Even an SMPTE designed UI can have a good readabilty. These two are not.

You either need to overhaul your working environment or get an eye test because Blender is NOT greyscale, icons are coloured, and the contrast between the background and text elements is, if anything, excessive. Seriously, the text and icons are tiny on my monitor but easily legible from my longer than normal viewing distance (90cm, about 50% further than at work).

Screenshot 2026-05-23 091401.png

See, even though the text is half the size of the text in the forum, it is still perfectly legible.

Heh that's it. I never used it for much back then. Mostly I worked with Maya or Softimage. Anyway, a long time ago...

You should have seen it before v2. The whole UI was drawn using OpenGL and you could zoom in and out of toolbars just like they were viewports. It's was very weird and particularly ugly.

HY708VW65LwmnsYX4ixcxP7tZ34wPXiAXCZGfSHWp1Y.webp