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Affinity 2

affinity.serif.com

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Re: Affinity 2

#121

Post by eye_street »

After using Adobe stuff for many years, my stubbornness, with regards to subscriptions and cloud things, led me to buy the various bits of desktop Affinity software. I think they were only about £30 a piece, which isn't bad, but you really aren't buying Photoshop or Illustrator. Designer is a bit of a kludge, and V1 did seem like a work-in-progress. I was hoping a knife tool would be added before we got to V2.

There are techniques I'd been using for a long time, complicated little tasks with, on the face of it, simple results, that I wasn't able to reproduce in AD without a lot of thinking and farting around. For better or worse, this pushed me to change things up and explore other methods, and now I've learnt how to achieve things with programming, whether that's Processing or little things for Blender.

I know people operating businesses who've just stuck with an old computer running an old non-subscription version of the Adobe software they depend on. They don't really need anything from modern versions (some have been doing things since the '70s, adding computers to the mix in the '90s, and their techniques have not really changed all that much), and its Affinity kinda-equivalent is missing some little thing.

For me, just looking at the changes, V2 isn't terribly compelling. There are things I was doing ages ago in Illustrator that don't seem to be in Designer v2, like vector pattern swatches. Once you really get going with it, the absence of features or rough edges (see post in this thread about dashed borders) will leave you frustrated.

All that said, good on them for creating this affordable software, with no subscription.

Re: Affinity 2

#122

Post by H1Supreme »

When I couldn't get my copy of Adobe CS3 (from 2007) to install on a new Mac (64-bit only), I bought Designer and Photo from Affinity. Up until 2015, I made my living as designer, and was intimately familiar with Adobe's tools.

Unlike everything else available (mostly open source), I slid right into Affinity's workflow without a hitch. Compared to CS3, this was actually quite the upgrade in terms of functionality. I suspect that might not be the case for people using the latest versions.

If I were still designing with these tools day-in and day-out, I might have a different view on Affinity's offerings. But, for my light usage, they tick every box.

Re: Affinity 2

#123

Post by virtualritz »

t0bia_s wrote: post #98
datalopers wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

darktable

Not a chance if you need it for professional editing. No clone tools, no camera profiles, probably lack of lens correction profiles as well. UI is prehistoric. RawTherapee is little bit less nerdy than darktable but still not suitable for serious photography work.

TLDR; lies.

Kindly substantiate your claims.

DT has a clone tool. It's part of the retouch tool.[1] Which is very powerful and allows way more than just cloning. It is also non-destructive, like anything in DT.

DT has camera profiles, new cameras get added regularly.

You can also create them yourself if you have access to a color checker using a built-in tool.[2]

DT has tons of lens correction profiles. Basically anything you find in lensfun.

If your lens is missing, lensfun has a service where you send images and they send you the calibration data back and add it to to their database.[3]

I shoot (often exotic) manual glass most of the time.

If someone tells me DT is lacking in this regard it's a good indicator for me they have no clue what they are talking about or never used the app seriously.

UI: it could see improvement in terms of parameter exposure (no novice/simple mode) and ranges (some sliders go from 0..1, others from 0..100%) but otherwise?

What in the UI is prehistoric?

The catalog part of DT is also great. i.e. when your catalog is on a slow network or cloud drive DT can automatically cache RAWs locally and send back the XMPs with the edits only.

Caveat: I regularly get paid for photography work (it's not fulltime but give I worked professionally in blockbuster VFX for two decades I think I qualify).

I do all my processing in DT. If I have to do compositing work beyond that I export to Fusion.

[1] https://docs.darktable.org/usermanual/3.8/en/module-referenc...

[2] https://pixls.us/articles/profiling-a-camera-with-darktable-...

[3] https://wilson.bronger.org/calibration

Re: Affinity 2

#124

Post by Auracle »

open-source-ux wrote: post #61

If you have the version 1 of the Affinty apps, here's a list of the new v2 features: What's new : https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/whats-new/ FAQ for version 2 (including answers for v1 users): https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/affinity-2-faq/

I don't know why Photoshop doesn't have built in masking tools like they now have. I shouldn't have to use an extension so (easily) make luminosity or color masks.

Re: Affinity 2

#125

Post by Tao3300 »

netr0ute wrote: post #95
GlacierFox wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$119 perpetual is an insanely good price for three absolutely fantastic applications. What are you smoking? What's a fair price to you? $10? On one side you've got people complaining about these anti-consumer software subscriptions from the likes of adobe. Then on the other side you've got people like yourself that are for some reason complaining that there's still a company offering fantastic software on par with Il…

You haven't been to poorer countries where the equivalent of $10 is a lot, so good luck getting a market for $119 software there.

In those circumstances, you're not even going to be able to afford the hardware to run it. There's no point to be made along this line.

Re: Affinity 2

#126

Post by technothrasher »

innocenat wrote: post #107
drcongo wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These are pro level apps. Honestly can't think of a single bundle of 3 pro level apps that you can license on Windows, iPad and Mac for anywhere near that price.

I bought all 3 apps at 50% discount earlier this year. I paid 9,900 yen for it. The new universal license cost 15,800 yen. That's 50% price increase for me. I don't need apps for other platforms. I can afford it, and I will probably buy it. But I can't help but compared to what I paid not even a year ago.

I just bought photo a month ago at $50 and was annoyed at first that suddenly I have to pay more if I want the latest version, but then at $100 and I get a universal license to all three products, I’m still way ahead of having an Adobe subscription.

Re: Affinity 2

#127

Post by jevgeni »

netr0ute wrote: post #95
GlacierFox wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$119 perpetual is an insanely good price for three absolutely fantastic applications. What are you smoking? What's a fair price to you? $10? On one side you've got people complaining about these anti-consumer software subscriptions from the likes of adobe. Then on the other side you've got people like yourself that are for some reason complaining that there's still a company offering fantastic software on par with Il…

You haven't been to poorer countries where the equivalent of $10 is a lot, so good luck getting a market for $119 software there.

Cynically: why would one want a market there then?

Re: Affinity 2

#128

Post by CharlesW »

eye_street wrote: post #121

After using Adobe stuff for many years, my stubbornness, with regards to subscriptions and cloud things, led me to buy the various bits of desktop Affinity software. I think they were only about £30 a piece, which isn't bad, but you really aren't buying Photoshop or Illustrator. Designer is a bit of a kludge, and V1 did seem like a work-in-progress. I was hoping a knife tool would be added before we got to V2. There…

Illustrator is the undefeated champ, and I've loved it deeply since 1987. You're right that nothing can replace it at the high-end. For that audience, a $20/month subscription for Illustrator or an all-apps subscription is a given.

Still, this Affinity upgrade is an insta-upgrade for me. On a practical level, I'm lucky enough to be able to "vote with my dollars" to support small developers and non-subscription software. From a creative perspective, sometimes it's helpful (or just fun!) to work with different tools.

Re: Affinity 2

#129

Post by c0nsumer »

CharlesW wrote: post #104
c0nsumer wrote: post #92

I use two Adobe apps routinely: - Illustrator (for making PDF maps from OSM data). - Lightroom. It'll take a bit of work to move my workflow to Affinity, but I think I've got a solid plan for that. (No, Affinity Designer does not open AIs properly... It does funky things with lines.) But, I can't find a solid replacement for Lightroom. All I need is basic DAM (digital asset management) and crop/rotate/color. Can any…

> (No, Affinity Designer does not open AIs properly... It does funky things with lines.) I hope you'll report that! They seem to be pretty on top of fixing interop issues. > Can any of you suggest a GOOD alternative? If you need traditional DAM you'll want to look elsewhere, but if you're macOS-based I finally landed on Apple Photos with its extensions ecosystem (which includes software from Affinity, ON1, etc.). It…

Huh... I am on macOS and I never even considered Apple Photos. Thank you, I'll give that a look. This could work out very well. Thanks!

Re: Affinity 2

#130

Post by CharlesW »

hoistbypetard wrote: post #87
vladstudio wrote: post #11

I've been Photoshop user since, hmm, 2000? Gave up couple of years ago, and spent some time comparing Affinity Designer and Pixelmator Pro. For me personally, Pixelmator won, and it's been my editor of choice: https://www.pixelmator.com/pro/

How did it come down to those two? I'd have expected Affinity Photo to be more comparable to Pixelmator. Isn't Designer more similar to Sketch?

Yes, Affinity Designer is a vector design tool, like Illustrator. One would want to compare Affinity Photo to Pixelmator (which is also very good).
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