Affinity Creative Apps 1.10.3 Update Brings macOS Monterey Support and 'Stunning' Performance Optimizations on New MacBook Pros

[macpanzer]

Some posts already mentioned it before, but the long start (icon bouncing) issue is really annoying. Just tried now - Affinity Photo, latest version, 43 bounces to open. And that is on an i9 MBP.

 

[Think creative]

I so wanted it to succeed but ultimately the whole Affinity suite is just gaining dust on my hard drive. They've overpromised on pro features and underdelivered. A pity.

Funny, because most of my publishing peer friends are blown away by the feature set and ive been easily able to switch over and it runs better than adobe.

there’s only a handful of features the photo shop had that affinity doesn’t. And basically every update affinity is taking one or two of those features and implementing them. That’s at least with affinity photo. I don’t have any experience with the other apps yet.

 

[Kierkegaarden]

Serif always seems prepared to optimize their software with the latest Mac & iPad hardware — great company!

 

[Tagbert]

Some posts already mentioned it before, but the long start (icon bouncing) issue is really annoying. Just tried now - Affinity Photo, latest version, 43 bounces to open. And that is on an i9 MBP.

If it was the first time run after an update that's not surprising.

Are you running the version from the App Store or did you download directly from Affinity? The slow start issue seems to only affect what is installed via the App Store.

If you are still seeing that, the support threads at Affinity support had a process you could do to fix the issue for a given install but it recurred when you installed an update. I stopped bothering after the first time. it doesn't matter to me if it takes a few seconds longer to load or not. I spend more time with it after it is open than while it opens.

 

[Cyber-Zombie]

I’ve never used the Affinity apps but I’m planning to give them a try today as it happens.

I already know that it doesn’t have a Digital Asset Manager so can’t replace Lightroom but, boy, would I jump on board if it did. Could finally cancel my Creative Cloud subscription.

Affinity Photo is not meant to replace lightroom. It's more of a photoshop replacement. The raw editor just isn't up to par which is why I use Capture One and then push it to Affinity Photo.

 

[macpanzer]

If it was the first time run after an update that's not surprising.

Are you running the version from the App Store or did you download directly from Affinity? The slow start issue seems to only affect what is installed via the App Store.

If you are still seeing that, the support threads at Affinity support had a process you could do to fix the issue for a given install but it recurred when you installed an update. I stopped bothering after the first time. it doesn't matter to me if it takes a few seconds longer to load or not. I spend more time with it after it is open than while it opens.

I have the App Store versions. The slow launch happens every time after the app has been closed for a while, or after a computer reboot. It isn't a major issue, but if an application starts up over 30 seconds then that is just not OK...

Thanks for the tip for the Affinity forums, found the thread there. Surprisingly, the suggested "workaround" (link) does make a difference, speeding the launch from ~40 bounces to 6-8 bounces.

Hopefully they will fix it some day (although currently it seems they are trying to blame Apple for the behaviour).

 

[aleksander]

Funny, because most of my publishing peer friends are blown away by the feature set and ive been easily able to switch over and it runs better than adobe.

there’s only a handful of features the photo shop had that affinity doesn’t. And basically every update affinity is taking one or two of those features and implementing them. That’s at least with affinity photo. I don’t have any experience with the other apps yet.

Photoshop is not publishing. In my work I'm using 95+% of features in each of the main apps – PS, AI and INDD plus scripting. While Photo may be the closest to PS, the other apps are far from being useful in pro environment. I'm sure they cover a spectrum of a creative's needs but they just can't be considered a replacement to Adobe suite. It's a false promise, that many have been caught into.

 

[Think creative]

Photoshop is not publishing. In my work I'm using 95+% of features in each of the main apps – PS, AI and INDD plus scripting. While Photo may be the closest to PS, the other apps are far from being useful in pro environment. I'm sure they cover a spectrum of a creative's needs but they just can't be considered a replacement to Adobe suite. It's a false promise, that many have been caught into.

To clarify, I'm talking e publishing and book publishers (mostly amazon based). Plenty of them are pros, and ones I know have switched to affinity products. Maybe if you're still doing a lot of print stuff it's not there, but Affinty clearly knows they can take back some of the market from Adobe who's become stagnate, and doing just that. I know on the e side of things with photo that at least in terms of things like cover design (for books) it's basically where it needs to be.

 

[aleksander]

To clarify, I'm talking e publishing and book publishers (mostly amazon based). Plenty of them are pros, and ones I know have switched to affinity products. Maybe if you're still doing a lot of print stuff it's not there, but Affinty clearly knows they can take back some of the market from Adobe who's become stagnate, and doing just that. I know on the e side of things with photo that at least in terms of things like cover design (for books) it's basically where it needs to be.

Sure, a subset of pro features is covered and some of the tools work much better than in Adobe. So all the best to those that are satisfied with it. But you just need to go to Serif forums to see what I mean – a ton of features, some of them basic and requested for years are still not there. For me to make a jump I'd need a close to 1:1 feature set parity (bar the superficial Sensei stuff etc) and that simply ain't happening anytime soon.