Serif's Image Editing App 'Affinity Photo' Launches for Mac

[mixel]

That's what Designer is for. On sale for 40 at the moment also.

I didn't mean vector illustration. About 60% of my Photoshop use is using its natural media-like painting toolset. I've dabbled with Designer, but its really not what I need. I'm currently experimenting with Photo though, and so-far things look promising using a Wacom tablet and custom brushes.

 

[mixel]

Hello guys,
I'm Andy Somerfield - Affinity Photo project lead.
[...]
Hope this helps - anything else you need answered, fire away..

Thanks for coming here and answering questions, I bought it just as you got here. Really good work, damn!

I keep thinking up questions, then trying the thing myself and being really impressed at the thing working better than expected. eg: text - even with text effects! It works! Jeez. Going back to ancient, really complex PSDs with tons of layers of text and effects and actually having everything work? I was NOT expecting that. Neither Gimp nor Pixelmator has ever been able to do that for me.

I'm going to try and ditch photoshop. Not that I dislike Photoshop, I enjoy using it - always have - but I don't particularly enjoy subscriptions if I can avoid them. And I like learning new things. XD You've really positioned Photo well, it's worth a hell of a lot more than you're charging right now.

Does is support content aware delete/fill? That was often really handy in PS.

 

[alembic]

@Andy Somerfield, any chance at all for Snow Leopard support?

 

[flat235]

Hello again,

- Yes, there is an "inpainting brush" which does a similar thing to content aware fill - or you can make a selection then just mash Option-Delete to inpaint it.

- Afraid not for Snow Leopard - it was a massive headache for us to go back as far as 10.7 - so much so that during the beta we kept breaking the app for the 10.7 guys! In hindsight, we probably should have supported only back to 10.9 - but we've shipped with 10.7 support so we're committed to that for the lifetime of the product.

- The plugin thing is weird for us - but Topaz Denoise should work just fine - my guess is that you need to specify a "support folder" in preferences. Because Photo is a sandboxed app, if plugins need to access files outside of the .plugin bundle itself, the user must give permission. There is a section in the help file which goes through the procedure.

Hope this helps,

Andy.

 

[jtrauscht]

I'm glad for this – glad for some viable competition for Adobe – a David to their Goliath. However, I won't be switching anytime soon. The Adobe workflow is essential for me. If they keep at it, in time this will get interesting. Might pick up a copy for my kids, tho.

 

[Emiljabo]

I'll grab a copy to support Affinity in there venture and so I can have a go at familiarising myself with the software for the future. Thanks Andy for answering my questions. If you would like a more in depth explanation on how running a brush along a path works then let me know.

 

[flat235]

Thanks - we'll look into the brushes on path thing today - it sounds like quite a cool feature

Andy.

 

[SaxPlayer]

What do you use instead of Illustrator? My only problem with switching is the Astute plug-in compatibility with any other app.

I'm not a heavy Illustrator user so have managed to remove it completely form my workflow. However, there are alternatives out there I've considered in case that situation changes such as Serif's own Infinity Designer and Sketch (although the latter's not really for print work).

I don't know about your plug-in. Serif seems to respond to queries, though, and one of their guys is kicking about on this very thread so it might be worth approaching them and seeing what they say about it?

I'm not sure if that's any help to you? Good luck!

 

[flat235]

I'm not the vector guy, but I know that the Pen tool in Affinity Designer seemed to get a lot of love from guys who have used Astute + Illustrator before - and guys who liked the Pen tool in Freehand, back in the day.

There's a free trial of Designer on our website - so you could kick the tires..

Thanks,

Andy.

 

[Jim Campbell]

Another weird question.. Does it support photoshop brushes? What's it like as an illustration tool? (Clearly not its primary intended use, but photoshop copes pretty well..)

Use MangaStudio (aka ClipStudio Paint) for drawing and painting. The standard version offers everything the EX version does, bar multi-page documents and a couple of print/export options at a fraction of the price. In use, it feels like a dedicated art application, unlike Photoshop, which is trying too hard to be all things to all people.

Affinity Photo —for me, at least— has a fractional brush lag and fails to pick up very light, very short strokes on my Cintiq, which makes it frustrating as an art package. As an image editor/manipulator, however, it's excellent.

 

[mixel]

Use MangaStudio (aka ClipStudio Paint) for drawing and painting. The standard version offers everything the EX version does, bar multi-page documents and a couple of print/export options at a fraction of the price. In use, it feels like a dedicated art application, unlike Photoshop, which is trying too hard to be all things to all people.

Affinity Photo —for me, at least— has a fractional brush lag and fails to pick up very light, very short strokes on my Cintiq, which makes it frustrating as an art package. As an image editor/manipulator, however, it's excellent.

I use Manga Studio a little too.. But my app usage is generally quite schizophrenic apart from Photoshop that has always sat in the middle anchoring everything (a very long-standing habit that may be difficult to shake). It seems funny having this whole range of software with specialisation and this other big one that sits in the middle doing everything - but nothing except for automation and photo retouching quite as well.

So far the only prob I've really found with AfPhoto is that if you save out a file with text in it as a PSD, then load that into Photoshop again, the text is rasterised.. I don't know if i should just bite the bullet, do all my text in Manga Studio too and use AfPhoto for photo retouching.

Also, FOTN respect.

 

[Jim Campbell]

Use MangaStudio (aka ClipStudio Paint) for drawing and painting. The standard version offers everything the EX version does, bar multi-page documents and a couple of print/export options at a fraction of the price.

Standard version of MangaStudio currently on sale from SmithMicro as a download for just fifteen dollars!

Also, FOTN respect.

 

[Mainyehc]

That's because I'm thinking no one in their right mind really likes Adobe, and I think no one can honestly say they actually enjoy using Photoshop, but rather up to this point they had no other options. […]

A million times this. I was about to say the exact same thing…

But I should add that the few, true fanboys are probably sitting quiet on the sidelines for fear of sounding ridiculous. As far as the creative market is concerned, amateur hour is definitely over and the competition will heat up, quickly. The nice people from Serif stopped short of formally promising a DAM which could legitimately claim the title of Aperture's successor and, considering their engine was mostly coded in C (please correct me if I'm wrong), it is conceivable that, if their prospects are good, we may one day see a cross-platform version of Affinity (at version 2, 3, 4? Who knows which and, really, who cares? As long as it comes to pass…).

And that, my friends, would mean “game over” for Adobe (or for the CC subscription model, at least). That's also another reason why the fanboys are not very vocal right now… On one hand, more licensing options on the Adobe camp would serve their interests; on the other hand, another strong player in the market could conceivable make the tables turn or, at the very least, force many of them to buy a second package in order to be able to open an influx of .af* files sent by their colleagues. Oh, I also forgot to add that one of the reasons Affinity's performance on OS X x64 is so great is the fact that its development was originally geared to iOS and A-class processors… So we may end up seeing some very cool companion iOS apps from Serif as well.

I believe the fanboys are taking a wait-and-see approach, and though that may be smarter than badmouthing a serious contender, it's definitely not as smart as taking advantage of Serif's special offers (which make them even more of a no-brainer… Case in point: with Affinity, I will end up spending just €120 on a [almost] fully featured and fully, perpetually licensed suite, instead of the €300 I plunked down for CS5 Design Standard for Education back in the day!!) and skating to where the puck may very well end up being. Interestingly, many here are taking the latter approach, which is extremely commendable. You all make me proud of belonging to the MR community, really.

By the way, hi Andy! JGD here!

 

[Jim Campbell]

Oh, I also forgot to add that one of the reasons Affinity's performance on OS X x64 is so great is the fact that its development was originally geared to iOS and A-class processors… So we may end up seeing some very cool companion iOS apps from Serif as well.

There's a video floating about online that I can't seem to find just now that shows Designer running perfectly well on an iPad…

Edit to add: Found it.

 

[Donka]

Wow, I didn't realise development was initially geared towards iOS. Now that would be something if a powerful companion app was available.
You do realise you guys are only a quality DAM application away from legendary status! I genuinely hope you can deliver such an application as I know one day Aperture will be non functioning. Till then though, I'll be happy with the Aperture\Affinity Photo combination.

 

[mixel]

A million times this. I was about to say the exact same thing…

I don't think it's just Stockholm Syndrome and everyone dislikes PS. I'm pretty many of us enjoy PS a lot - it's just a tool, etc. It's not "exciting" though and I like experimenting with fresher, more inspiring stuff. It's still a workhorse for many people.

-
If they do make a DAM, I really hope they do a good job at DNG de-messing. Adobe didn't do a good enough job of warning LR users of the dangers of DNG once you leave their stable - if I try loading much of my photo library into Capture One everything comes out very wrong. The pure NEF files come out gorgeous though, better than they look in Aperture or Lightroom.. Why are things never simple? (hopefully serif would make it simple, ha.)

 

[KernelG]

I'll say it, then. I actually love Photoshop. It never crashes on my system and I know it front-to-back. I don't love Adobe's new subscription system at all, but their deal for PS and Lightroom at $10 per month is worthwhile for the work that I do.

Their buggy CC system and recent PS updates aren't very interesting, however, especially the replacement of things like "Save for Web" with the new "Export" function, which is slow and featureless. And I'd never pay another $29 per month (or more) for Illustrator or any other CS apps, which is why I'd been looking for an AI replacement and now, I am VERY happy Affinity Designer. Love may come with auto-trace. We'll see. I am eagerly awaiting Affinity Publisher as well, as a former owner and despiser of both QuarkXpre$$ and InDesign.

Affinity Photo? I am 110% open minded. I've tried everything from Gimp to Pixelmator, and while good, not good/fast enough. I'm in no rush, but Affinity Designer surprised the heck out of me, so I'm interested in whatever Serif is doing now. More power to them.

Maybe I'll just buy Photo to make Adobe blink.

 

[Mainyehc]

I don't think it's just Stockholm Syndrome and everyone dislikes PS. I'm pretty many of us enjoy PS a lot - it's just a tool, etc. It's not "exciting" though and I like experimenting with fresher, more inspiring stuff. It's still a workhorse for many people.

Well… Over-generalising is never a good idea… Hence my acknowledgement that, in fact, there are fanboys. And while some of them may in fact suffer from Stockholm Syndrome without even realizing it, others may genuinely like the software.

Personally, I've always found Ai, Ps and ID to be a bit on the cumbersome side. I've never found Photoshop that intuitive to begin with (it has too much hidden functionality, actionable only through not-so-discoverable weird modifier combos – like option-clicks for selecting masks… srsly, Adobe? –, which make me have to resort to tutorials much more than with any other piece of software to get the job done). As for InDesign, while I do find it waaaay more intuitive and powerful than QuarkXPress (though I never used Quark for more than two years, anyway), the UI discrepancies between that one and the rest of the suite always made it stick out like a sore thumb… As for Ai, while FreeHand was not any more cleaner UI-wise (though it was at least coherent with Flash and Dreamweaver, I'll hand them that), it was and still is miles ahead of it as far as multiple artboards and vector editing are concerned.

The fact that Adobe bought Macromedia and killed off such a beloved piece of software raised a lot of bad blood among the creative community. There is no way you can spin that: a lot of people also hate Adobe in more deep and general terms as a company for that decision. Having to deal with an inferior piece of kit (yes, Illustrator did get better as a result, but it never surpassed FreeHand MX in terms of UX), with no prospects of its shortcomings being addressed as its developers, more often than not, treat their users as uneducated morons only added insult to injury (that whole gradient-gate is pretty telling, IMHO: http://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/photoshops_gradient_editor_needs_an_overhaul ). As for the whole CC debacle, well… That was, for many people like myself, the last straw.

I was so mad, in fact, that I immediately scoured the market for alternatives and ended up writing a letter to Serif (guess what: they were the most credible competitor), basically begging them to port their Plus suite to the Mac, without even dreaming they were developing Affinity. So much so that my initial gut reaction when the suite was announced was “what the hell, they actually took my plea seriously?”, only to realize that, duh, such a complex product was and pretty much had to be in development for years. I guess that the advent of CC *and* Affinity was the biggest and happiest coincidence ever in the creative software market…

 

[Emiljabo]

I think the complexity of PS as a program is caused by how it has been developed over the years into what we are seeing today. If you started using PS in the early days then it was still reasonably basic, which has grown more and more as and when each new feature was added with every new iteration of the application. It was easier to take in the additional features piece by piece as and when they were included over the years. A new comer to the program these days would find the sheer complexity of PS a bit daunting imo especially now that it tries to do so much that the other standalone Adobe apps cater towards. I also don't think that anyone can ever master PS. I see learning the program as being quite similar to learning and attempting to master the guitar: "you never really master the guitar". There are so many ways that you can come to the same conclusion, adapt to a quicker workflow. Realistically anything is possible in Photoshop. You can throw an image into photoshop and mangle it into a completely different, abstract and unplanned, yet visually stunning piece. How can you possibly master something like that? Everyone, no matter how much of a wizard they think they are in PS is still merely learning the software. Much like guitar playing...

Personally, I can't believe that Adobe can actually have the audacity to push Illustrator as a precise illustration tool. When you have to get things literally accurate to the nanometer, it fails miserably. It is so inaccurate that you spend half your time zooming in to the maximum level, checking to see if it has actually put the point where it has told you it has put the point whilst zoomed out. Which 99.9% of the time it hasn't... The amount of times that I have blindly trusted it's accuracy and I have then found a few hours down the line that it has seriously screwed me up are numerous to say the least. A joke imo, but again, currently what do you use instead that has got the same kind of interaction with PS, the other program that we are forced to use on a daily basis...

 

[Michaelgtrusa]

Pixelmator is a well know and respected brand with a solid rep for quality. So no need for this right?

 

[Emiljabo]

Hey, that's marketing for you... I take it you've seen how Samsung behaves towards Apple.

 

[MacAffinity]

Hi there,

No not marketing, just someone we had helping us out answering queries - I took that down as soon as I saw it as that attitude is not what we are really about. We have upmost respect for both Pixelmator and Adobe, we think both are great companies that produce great apps.

As full disclosure, I am the marketing manager for Affinity.

Sorry that happened!

Kate

 

[Donka]

Good to hear. I was disappointed when I first saw that tweet.

 

[Mainyehc]

[…] I also don't think that anyone can ever master PS. […]

I concur… It's not like Adobe could chuck features out and render entire workflows impossible just to streamline the application (though that was exactly what Apple did with Final Cut X and they might just get away with it and benefit everyone in the end) but, I mean, wasn't there anything they could have done to at least keep up with the times and fix the little nags? Maybe make stuff *less* modal and more real-time and non-destructive? It certainly feels like there's a lot of cruft, UX- and code-wise that could and should have been cleaned up, and much sooner, amirite?

Personally, I can't believe that Adobe can actually have the audacity to push Illustrator as a precise illustration tool. When you have to get things literally accurate to the nanometer, it fails miserably. It is so inaccurate that you spend half your time zooming in to the maximum level, checking to see if it has actually put the point where it has told you it has put the point whilst zoomed out. Which 99.9% of the time it hasn't... The amount of times that I have blindly trusted it's accuracy and I have then found a few hours down the line that it has seriously screwed me up are numerous to say the least. A joke imo, but again, currently what do you use instead that has got the same kind of interaction with PS, the other program that we are forced to use on a daily basis...

This. A million times this. I love working with geometric grids and modules (both for typography and illustration) and I always end up with nagging misalignments. UUUGGHHH, how I hate Illustrator in that regard… The snapping, especially with smart grids, and the fact that I can quickly select which nodes I wish to snap (both the origin and destination) is something I rather enjoy and am still waiting for Serif to get just right in Designer (I am keeping my hopes up, still), but the fact that Illustrator gives me that false sense of security and constantly lets me down after a few layers and iterations kind of ruins it. Right now, I'm in a bit of a lose-lose situation, but I am really banking on Serif to deliver on that regard (the practically infinite zoom – does it reach sub-atomic levels already? — certainly bodes well). Maybe those custom grids could become the answer to my troubles?? Guys? Andy?

 

[Emiljabo]

Thing is Illustrator never used to be like this. Version 8 and previous was very accurate and did what it was supposed to do. It was a decent technical illustration tool, but then I suppose it had Freehand to keep it on it's toes back then. Sadly not anymore. Since then it has gradually gotten worse and worse with each release. The snapping just cannot be trusted. It will tell you it has snapped to a point, yet as I'm sure you know, when you zoom in it has not snapped and is sitting slightly away from the intended location. I noticed this issue with the snapping when they started incorporating web capabilities and pixel snapping. Added a new feature to an already existing area and ruined something along the way...

It's the same situation with PS. Personally I found that most things worked great in 5.5/6/previous and then CC comes along and the developers seem to meddle with the workings of certain areas and break them so they do not work as well as they did. I just find the constant attempts to transform the already existing features into being able to do more and more with each version ruins what worked great before. For example they meddled with the paths palette to create the "Live Shapes" feature. In the process they really buggered up the existing capabilities of the paths palette. When you use paths in PS quite a lot in your workflow and this meddling causes you serious problems you start to get a bit annoyed. Why keep trying to make PS handle things that can be easily handled by Illustrator... Then when you actually tell Adobe what the problem is, it's as if they just don't care. They completely ignore you and you just have to put up with the new bugs... Not good enough imo. I keep getting told by the fan boys "well perhaps they have more important things deal with", well I'm sorry, but if you use these programs to make a living you expect them to do what the are supposed to and not be broken and it really is important to me and my specific workflow. You just have to like it or lump it which from a customer satisfaction and relations point of view is a disgrace...

Well, without turning this topic into "the middle aged grumpy graphic artists moan about Adobe topic" I really do wish serif all the best in their venture. It's a breath of fresh air to see a company trying it's best to communicate with the customer and WANT to help. It's something that I appreciate and therefore will support even if for the near future I am not specifically using your software. I'll be buying it though and as soon as it can handle my specific requirements I will ditch Adobe and it's BS.