# Anyone trying Affinity Photo Beta?



## macfoto

There is a new photo editing program being developed called Affinity Photo. It is currently in a public beta and looks like it should be an excellent photo editor. The company is making this program as part of a design suite.


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## Macfury

macfoto said:


> There is a new photo editing program being developed called Affinity Photo. It is currently in a public beta and looks like it should be an excellent photo editor. The company is making this program as part of a design suite.


Haven't tried it but I will. I'm actively looking for replacements for Adobe rensomware on all fronts.


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## garf1108

Will give it a try.


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## yeeeha

It reached final release a few days ago. See a user impression here.


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## slipstream

Affinity Designer is amazing so I'm going to take advantage of the introductory discount for Affinity Photo. Looks pretty darned good: https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/photo/


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## wonderings

I purchased Affinity Photo yesterday. I am not a heavy user, but for the price and a potential option for moving away from Adobe, I am giving it a go. Runs very fast, but was not running anything heavy through it. Will be a bit of a learning curve I think, but not to bad. Giving Designer a try as well, Illustrator has been a dog on my 5k iMac. What I would really love is a viable replacement for indesign. Nothing out there comes close in my opinion and I hate the subscription program that Adobe as forced upon the users.


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## CubaMark

*wonderings* - how would you compare AP to Pixelmator? I jumped on the Pixelmator bandwagon when it was on (one of its very frequent half-price) sale for $14.99. For 99% of what I used to do in Photoshop, it fills the bill. Heck, it even has a vector mode you can toggle while working on bitmapped images. The only thing lacking - but not for long, given their (free) update schedule - is CMYK separation (though it has faux-CMYK proofing).


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## CubaMark

I realize it's a 'feature', but holy heck. Websites that use location to customize content can have unintended consequences. I popped over to the Affinity Photo webpage to check out the features, and the image below appeared:


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## heavyall

CubaMark said:


> I realize it's a 'feature', but holy heck. Websites that use location to customize content can have unintended consequences. I popped over to the Affinity Photo webpage to check out the features, and the image below appeared:


Use of the same symbol for dollar and peso confuses a lot of people who are new visitors to any Spanish speaking country (especially ones who don't know the history of the spanish dollar). I freaked out for a second the first time I saw an $18 bottle of Coke in a vending machine.

That said, their exchange rate is off -- I could save money by paying in MXN over CAD. $45 CAD is more expensive than $500 MXN.


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## 18m2

I participated in the Beta program and have enjoyed Affinity Photo. I like it and have abandoned Adobe Photoshop after over 10 year of use. I too am going to buy Designer a try.


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## heavyall

I definitely like the idea that Affinity has CMYK support. Pixelmator is a non starter for me because it doesn't.


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## Principal

For the folks that are using Affinity and/or Pixelmator, what App do you use for cataloging?


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## hexdiy

Affinity seems to run Aperture catalogue fine, but RAW capability seems to be tested. C'mon, let's test this opportunity!


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## wonderings

CubaMark said:


> *wonderings* - how would you compare AP to Pixelmator? I jumped on the Pixelmator bandwagon when it was on (one of its very frequent half-price) sale for $14.99. For 99% of what I used to do in Photoshop, it fills the bill. Heck, it even has a vector mode you can toggle while working on bitmapped images. The only thing lacking - but not for long, given their (free) update schedule - is CMYK separation (though it has faux-CMYK proofing).


I have never used Pixelmatr, this is my first time looking at anything other then Adobe... and still Adobe CC is what I use. Affinity Designer feels much much faster then Illustrator, but without the pantone library, it really is useless to me. I do not use illustrator a whole lot, Indesign is my main app. I go to illustrator to fix up/create logos mainly, and when doing that i am always using pantones or creating spot colours if it will be a digital job, so I have colour control.

It takes some getting used to... and I have not gotten used to it yet, not really using it much. Now and then I throw something in the try it out to see how it compares.


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## macfoto

I bought the program when it came out. It offers a lot and plenty to learn. I thought that I would mention for anyone that wants to check it out that a trial version has now been posted to the Affinity Photo website.


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## macfoto

Principal said:


> For the folks that are using Affinity and/or Pixelmator, what App do you use for cataloging?


I have my pictures in folders (with a year/month structure - sometimes adding folders for events) I use GraphicConverter to browse the pictures. I also use Apple Photos, but use that mainly just for my iOS pictures and syncing.


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## hexdiy

Goodbye Adobe, look what Affinity Photo sent me, and this is no spam:



> Affinity | Forum
> Hi HEX_edit_,
> 
> The Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo 1.3.5 updates have recently gone live on the Mac App Store. Thanks for all your feedback that has helped shape these updates.
> 
> We are working hard to produce a bumper update for later in the year, so again we will need you help over the coming months to polish the beta for release. We will be releasing beta updates that will include some great new features so keep checking in to see what we are up to.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> When we released Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo we were so pleased and proud of the fantastic reviews and 5 star ratings we received. The feedback is so important to the team and the continued success of the project, so a big thank you from all of us at SerifLabs. Unfortunately, when we push an update to the Mac App Store our reviews and ratings are reset so we need your help again If you can spare 5 minutes to review Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo again, it would be very much appreciated.
> 
> Many thanks,
> Affinity Team @ SerifLabs
> Affinity | Forum


Meaning probably they have to be indexed all over again, the poor bastards! Give them confidence, it won't cost you a thing and they deliver a prime product. Although getting indexed by Google on the App Store is not obvious... So getting indexed by external links is their thing. Please write a comment or review.
Thankx mates!


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## Moscool

Yes Adobe has been taking all of us for an expensive ride for much too long! Their model is essentially that of the 'pure Pro' who doesn't mind spending $$$ for something they use every day. The issue is with the more causal user who may use InDesign once a month, Photoshop once a week and Illustrator once in a blue moon... Apple, for all their neglect of the pro market, have addressed the 'semi-pro' market in terms of pricing e.g. Final Cut now costs ⅔ less than the previous version.

Anyway, I digress... Here is what looks like a sensible comparison review between teh two programmes.


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## Moscool

eMacMan said:


> .


A strong, yet succinct opinion!


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## wonderings

Moscool said:


> Yes Adobe has been taking all of us for an expensive ride for much too long! Their model is essentially that of the 'pure Pro' who doesn't mind spending $$$ for something they use every day. The issue is with the more causal user who may use InDesign once a month, Photoshop once a week and Illustrator once in a blue moon... Apple, for all their neglect of the pro market, have addressed the 'semi-pro' market in terms of pricing e.g. Final Cut now costs ⅔ less than the previous version.
> 
> Anyway, I digress... Here is what looks like a sensible comparison review between teh two programmes.


I am a pro use and I do mind paying the monthly rental fee. Unfortunately there is no real alternative yet. I have toyed a bit with Designer (replacement for illustrator). But without spot colours and pantone it is a useless app for me. I have photo as well, not a power use by any means when it comes to touching up photos. Adobe has some great simple tools like the magic spot healing brush. I briefly looked at Affinity Photo but did not see that tool there. Again my use for photo touch ups are very light and the simple tools photoshop has for what I need are great. 

It is an uphill battle as the standard is Adobe. Corel dropped the ball years ago, Quark did the same and then the competition went away as it was all adobe. Now I like adobe, indesign is my main app of use and love it, have seen nothing I would replace it with. My real grievance with adobe is not giving me the option to pay outright. I prefer buying outright, I keep the software for as long as my computer supports it. If I cancel my Adobe CC subscription I lose everything, am left only with the work it has allowed me to do. So really paying about the same for every upgrade as I did before but not getting software I can keep and being stuck paying forever. 

I do like Affinities software for speed, runs very snappy and Designer handles more complex files faster then Illustrator does, but again, no spot/pantone colours so at the end of the day the speed means nothing.


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## hexdiy

There are workarounds:
https://affinity.serif.com/forum/index.php?/topic/10494-add-pantone-colors-in-affinity-designer/


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## wonderings

hexdiy said:


> There are workarounds:
> https://affinity.serif.com/forum/index.php?/topic/10494-add-pantone-colors-in-affinity-designer/


Thanks for that link. I imported the pantone library for solid and uncoated. It was pretty simple, not sure why Affinity would not just release it properly if it is that easy to import.

Just noticed that when I export a test file to PDF or EPS that it converts the pantone colour, which again makes it useless. If you cannot print or save a file with the colour info intact, whats the point of using a pantone colour at all? Maybe I have missed something and it can be done, but my poking around did not reveal anything. The colour spaces you can work in and save are CMYK, RGB, Grayscale and Lab.

Close but no cigar, hopefully they keep pushing this app with updates to bring it up to some industry standards.


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## Rob

Affinity is long past the beta stage at this point, so I thought it made sense to give folks an update. I used Photoshop CS3 for several years until Adobe stopped license support a few years ago. At that point is was really pissed off, so started using an older hacked version of CS2. I also was using Photoshop Elements on a PC, as well as doing a bit with Gimp. Earlier this year I downloaded a trial version of Affinity Photo, as well as Krita, for experimentation. I got a message from Affinity Photo in May that they were having a 50% off sale, so I bought a license for $40 Can (all in including taxes). This is a long term license, not a one year version like Adobe. The other nice thing is that you can install it on more than one of your own personal computers. There are both Mac and Windows versions, but the license is good for either one or the other, not both. Unfortunately, the sale has now ended, but the regular price is still only $75 Can, so it's still a lot cheaper than Photoshop Elements.

I would say that Affinity is very close the the full Adobe Photoshop in terms of features and performance, and significantly better than Photoshop Elements. If you want to get out of the Adobe rut, then this would be a great option in my opinion. Keep in mind that I'm speaking as a hobbyist, and not as a pro user that makes a living at this stuff.


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