[HN Gopher] Affinity 2
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Affinity 2
        
       Author : synthmeat
       Score  : 349 points
       Date   : 2022-11-09 12:05 UTC (10 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (affinity.serif.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (affinity.serif.com)
        
       | vladstudio wrote:
       | 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/
        
         | regular wrote:
        
         | hoistbypetard wrote:
         | 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?
        
           | vladstudio wrote:
           | I actually use Pixelmator Pro vector tools a lot, for
           | illustrating, not photo editing - they are quite basic
           | (comparing to Illustrator) but for my specific needs it's
           | quite enough.
        
           | CharlesW wrote:
           | Yes, Affinity Designer is a vector design tool, like
           | Illustrator. One would want to compare Affinity Photo to
           | Pixelmator (which is also very good).
        
         | mryingster wrote:
         | Interesting. I had the opposite outcome. I didn't like how
         | Pixelmator reinvented the wheel as far as interface goes. I
         | felt like Affinity Photo was a much better lateral transition
         | from Photoshop for my needs. I bought both though mostly to
         | support them. I'm glad we have options that aren't Adobe. I
         | just can't abide the idea of licensing software in perpetuity.
        
       | jiveturkey wrote:
       | I've been wishing for a long time that they would charge more
       | money -- so as to fund development of more features. Hopefully
       | this is that! I'm optimistic but only slightly, since the banner
       | feature is "completely redesigned UI".
       | 
       | The UI was fine.
        
       | tommica wrote:
       | Exciting - might really want to get these!
        
       | kowlo wrote:
       | Spent PS116 through the App Store on version 1 of this software
       | not long ago and now I can't upgrade, but instead, have to buy it
       | all again at a "discount". Downloading my versions means looking
       | through the purchase history too.
       | 
       | Not happy with that - would advise against it.
        
         | lidavidm wrote:
         | Hmm, I bought it about...a couple weeks ago? And they sent me
         | an email with two discount codes: a free copy of Affinity Photo
         | 2, and a heavy discount on the all-apps-all-platforms license.
        
           | bj-rn wrote:
           | Bought it exactly one month ago (all apps). No discount. Feel
           | kind of bummed.
        
         | dangoor wrote:
         | I suspect this move away from the App Store is probably because
         | the App Store _still_ doesn't have a reasonable way to do
         | upgrade pricing. Affinity v3 (whenever that comes out) would be
         | able to offer specific upgrade pricing because they've left the
         | App Store.
         | 
         | Edit to add link from another comment:
         | https://twitter.com/affinitybyserif/status/15903262690314649...
         | 
         | Serif actually said that this is specifically what happened
        
         | mrtksn wrote:
         | Similar situation(bought Designer V1 about a year ago, directly
         | from them) but I'm not angry. It makes complete sense from
         | their perspective and makes sense for me too.
         | 
         | I completely agree that continued work needs to be payed and I
         | don't expect to buy a software once and receive updates for it
         | forever. If I was using it in a professional capacity all the
         | time, I would have preferred a cheaper monthly subscription but
         | because I'm using it mostly now and then, pay for the V1 and
         | use it forever and pay again if I would like the newer version
         | works very well for me.
        
         | jug wrote:
         | Contact them first and explain your situation to be sure.
        
         | Tao3300 wrote:
         | Depending on what "not long ago" means, that's pretty
         | unfortunate timing. You should reach out to them. They've been
         | pushing updates and features for V1 for a long time and have an
         | established track record for being a company that isn't nickel-
         | and-diming people. The line does have to be drawn somewhere
         | though. Long term users have known this was coming, but I can
         | see how the short/mid term user might feel pinched.
        
         | xPaw wrote:
         | I purchased it directly from their site, and there is no
         | upgrade option either.
        
       | dr_faustus wrote:
       | Serif's Affinity suite has probably the greatest value for money
       | in the whole software industry. I mean 119 bucks ONE-TIME for
       | three pretty comprehensive graphics apps which are polished and
       | get constant updates is very hard to beat.
       | 
       | For people making their living with graphical work (designers,
       | photographers, etc.) Adobe is probably still the way to go (even
       | if just to keep using the muscle memory). However for the many
       | people who only need something like Photoshop or InDesign a
       | couple of times a year, Affinity is just great.
        
         | Slow_Hand wrote:
         | Seconded.
         | 
         | As an infrequent image editor/designer/publisher I'm just
         | casual enough that there is no way to justify an Adobe
         | subscription (even if I'd want to have one).
         | 
         | Affinity occupy a wonderful niche for people like me in that
         | they provide comprehensive, professional, and bullshit-free
         | software options. It's an incredible value for this day and age
         | and I love using their software. I have zero complaints about
         | the company or their products.
         | 
         | Upgrading when they have a release like this is a no-brainer.
         | Even if I don't really need the upgrade I'm eager to support
         | them for doing such a fine job.
        
         | reaperducer wrote:
         | In addition to it not being a subscription, I also love this
         | bit from the App Store's Privacy section:                  Data
         | Not Collected        The developer does not collect any data
         | from this app.
         | 
         | After I post this, I'm off to buy the desktop and iPad
         | versions.
         | 
         | I tried to buy a certain type of simple app a couple of weeks
         | ago, and while there were dozens of options available, not one
         | didn't Hoover up everything it could about me.
         | 
         | Really? You need to know my name, location, and track me across
         | apps for a card game? No sale.
         | 
         | Edit: Purchased. Thanks, Affinity. Go stick your head in a pig,
         | Adobe.
        
           | lynndotpy wrote:
           | Just so you know, that's not true. After all, they need to
           | collect your email to login for the perpetual license. At the
           | very least, this needs a "Data Linked To You - Contact Info"
           | card.
           | 
           | Generally speaking, 'App Privacy' cards are lies. Apple does
           | not check them, you need to do it yourself. Here is the
           | Privacy Policy: https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/privacy/
           | 
           | In the EULA (quoted from Affinity Photo 2 for MacOS), you
           | further agree to, among other terms:
           | 
           | > *Consent to Use of Data* > > a. 16. You agree that Serif
           | and its affiliates may use any information you give to use as
           | part of product support and other services provided to you,
           | if any, related to Serif Software solely to improve products
           | or to provide customised services or technologies to you and
           | will not disclose this information in a form that personally
           | identifies you.
        
           | drcongo wrote:
           | The Universal Licence gets you all three apps on all
           | platforms now. Incredible deal.
        
         | drcongo wrote:
         | Amazingly there's people moaning at them about the price in
         | their Twitter announcement.
        
           | netr0ute wrote:
           | $119 is only affordable if you're got a high-income job,
           | which billions of people on planet Earth don't.
        
             | melling wrote:
             | There's always GIMP, Krita, and Inkscape. Imagine if a few
             | million of those billion people worked on them.
             | 
             | I get that people can't because they have to earn a living,
             | but so do software developers.
        
             | drcongo wrote:
             | 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.
        
               | innocenat wrote:
               | 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.
        
               | technothrasher wrote:
               | 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.
        
               | drcongo wrote:
               | If you only bought a month ago, drop them a line, there's
               | a good chance they'll discount further for you.
        
             | michaelmrose wrote:
             | Open source software like Gimp and Linux are free and can
             | be run on your $50 single board computer instead of paying
             | $500 for a laptop that requires a $139 OS license and a
             | $119 software license for Affinity.
        
               | hrbf wrote:
               | While it's certainly nice that those options exist, they
               | are also entirely unsuitable for any kind of professional
               | work. I assume the target user you're thinking of is
               | looking to do some occasional, light-weight editing. And
               | even this user will be frustrated with the irritating UI
               | and workflow of software like (and in particular) The
               | Gimp.
               | 
               | For me, it's close to unusable -- and I am someone whose
               | first computer was a TI44/4A. I'm a die-hard terminal
               | shell user. Even Adobe Illustrator didn't really click
               | for me. The Affinity suite made immediate sense.
               | 
               | There's value in usability.
        
             | alpaca128 wrote:
             | The number of people who cannot afford this but also own
             | the required hardware and need the full package of all
             | those licenses is probably not high.
        
             | GlacierFox wrote:
             | $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 Illustrator
             | for a fantastic perpetual price.
             | 
             | Affinity Designer is PS35 right now. That's insane.
             | 
             | The mind boggles.
        
               | netr0ute wrote:
               | 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.
        
               | jevgeni wrote:
               | Cynically: why would one want a market there then?
        
               | hoistbypetard wrote:
               | If one could sell software there in such a way that only
               | people in that market could buy it at that price, the
               | answer is obvious... software has effectively zero
               | marginal cost per copy.
               | 
               | So if you could practically limit your market at a
               | specified price in such a way that that offer doesn't
               | spread to other markets, then every copy you sell in such
               | places is still beneficial to you.
               | 
               | There are less cynical answers to the question, but you
               | asked cynically.
        
               | michaelmrose wrote:
               | Well keeping on the cynical train. Parts of the world
               | experiencing desperate poverty often not so
               | coincidentally experience substantial inequality with the
               | folks needing a professional tool not being so different
               | economically from better off areas. If 90% of your market
               | has no problem paying why would you not charge full
               | price?
               | 
               | Next how do you keep Jane in Seattle and Bob in Houston
               | from buying the poor market version? You can't really
               | restrict it by language or locale people use all sorts of
               | languages/settings in different parts of the world.
               | Desktop computers don't have location and people could
               | trivially block the app from having access to location
               | AND network data. You don't want your offline software
               | failing for lack of phoning home.
               | 
               | An argument could be made that Jane and Bob could well
               | pirate it too but friction matters. Lots of folks can
               | figure out how to pirate but fewer of them will actually
               | do it if they have to visit the skeevier corners of the
               | net, risk malware, and feel like a criminal instead of
               | clicking on a different locale on your website and feel
               | like they are cleverly getting a good deal. One weird
               | trick to make a substantial portion of your revenue go
               | away.
               | 
               | I would say that compared to software like Adobe that
               | costs $600 a year or $3000 over a 5 year horizon it's
               | already very inclusive.
        
               | sarlalian wrote:
               | How about a non-cynical answer. Software does not have
               | effectively zero marginal cost per copy. It does have
               | zero manufacturing cost per copy, however support is
               | quite an expensive on-going cost. When you have a
               | presence in multiple markets, you need localized support
               | for different languages, and that is even more expensive.
               | When you have different costs in different markets, you
               | encourage users in more expensive markets to try and game
               | the system, to minimize their costs. This sets up a
               | potentially adversarial relationship with your users, and
               | is mostly non-productive.
               | 
               | In the end this is a professional software suite, and
               | running a business has some fixed costs. By comparison,
               | Adobe's suite would cost much more per year.
        
               | GlacierFox wrote:
               | I've been to Cambodia and Mozambique. I'm not sure what
               | the point is you're trying to make.
        
               | drcongo wrote:
               | The same price gets you Creative Cloud for 2 months. What
               | exactly is the point you think you're making? Because
               | people earn different amounts in different countries is
               | not a revelation to anybody here, nor to Serif.
        
               | dandellion wrote:
               | The poorer countries where the equivalent of $10 is a lot
               | are probably not part of the market anyway, considering
               | that having a computer is a prerequisite to benefitting
               | from this software. Anyone who can save enough for a
               | computer can probably save $119, even if that's not cheap
               | by any means.
        
               | achow wrote:
               | $119 for getting 'professional software' which
               | potentially can add $119/month to the household income.
               | 
               | These are not selfie correction software.
        
               | Tao3300 wrote:
               | 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.
        
               | mirzap wrote:
               | They must have PPP enabled, so price depends on the
               | country. I see "regular price" as 169.99$, but now on
               | sale 40off for $99. It really is great value for the
               | money. I hope they stay on this path. I don't mind paying
               | for the upgrades every couple of years.
        
           | jscheel wrote:
           | Yes, and I'm one of them. I'm not moaning at them about the
           | price, but I think it's fair to consider what they are
           | actually saying. They are telling users that v1 is now
           | completely unsupported. That means, if you bought v1 last
           | week, you cannot expect any compatibility support moving
           | forward. The bugs that already exist? Those aren't getting
           | taken care of either. People like to point out that they've
           | owned Affinity products for a long time, and therefore have
           | gotten their value out of them. I've owned all of the
           | Affinity products for quite a while, so I've gotten plenty of
           | value from them. I also have a (quite) expensive Adobe
           | subscription. But at the end of the day, Affinity was
           | marketed as the answer to subscription bloat. They aren't the
           | first company to have to walk that back a bit with major
           | version releases. They should have a deprecation plan in
           | place for gradually winding down v1. Stopping all new
           | features but still releasing compatibility and security fixes
           | is incredibly common in software when major versions change.
           | Instead, their answer is to cease all development an support
           | immediately.
        
           | SanjayMehta wrote:
           | People on Twitter are only happy when they're unhappy.
        
           | jjtheblunt wrote:
           | I wonder if people forget the joke in Twitter's name, that
           | those writing are "twits".
           | 
           | You just reminded me of it.
        
           | kmeisthax wrote:
           | Is $100 for a universal suite license even that much of a
           | price hike? Affinity v1 was $50 a pop with no universal
           | license option - as in, you had to buy each platform's port
           | of the app separately. I happen to have one foot in every
           | tech ecosystem and bought all three apps, so I wound up
           | spending more on Affinity v1 than I will on v2's universal
           | license.
           | 
           | And, of course, it's still _hella cheap_ compared to
           | subscription-licensing Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign
           | over the _seven years of updates_ you got on Affinity v1.
        
             | wlesieutre wrote:
             | Sales for v1 at $25 were pretty common, but even then if
             | you want two pieces of software on two platforms that's
             | $100 already.
        
         | achow wrote:
         | I have developed new muscles with dedication and effort, I had
         | Adobe logo in front of me all the while, I was falling down and
         | crying with pain but one look at Adobe logo would make me get
         | up and get going with newly found vigor - just to kick Adobe's
         | bucket and to embrace loving comfort of Affinity Suite.
         | 
         | Nah.. it was pretty easy to jump. Life is beautiful.
        
           | jdcarter wrote:
           | I used Photoshop and Illustrator for years and years (going
           | back to 1990's) and switched to Affinity about 2 years ago.
           | There's a lot of little details that are different--say, when
           | you grab a resize handle, does aspect ratio stay locked or do
           | you have to hold down shift?--but I found that it wasn't
           | tough to retrain. Most things are where you'd expect. It's
           | certainly not like Gimp or Inkscape, where absolutely
           | everything is different and it feels impossible to get
           | anything done.
        
         | amatheus wrote:
         | And that includes all platforms (Mac, iPad and Windows). Really
         | great value.
        
           | samtp wrote:
           | Not really all platforms is it though. Linux not supported at
           | all
        
             | mroche wrote:
             | That's not the context of the GP's statement. They're
             | referring to the Universal License being offered by Serif,
             | which provides you a "buy once use anywhere" on all of
             | _their_ supported platforms, not that they support all
             | platforms.
             | 
             | As a Linux user myself and a former (and upcoming again)
             | studio sysadmin, it's disappointing Serif doesn't offer
             | native Linux support. But let's not twist the discussion
             | here.
        
             | vladvasiliu wrote:
             | All _supported_ platforms, as in you don 't have to pay a
             | separate license fee to run it on one of the other
             | platforms they support.
             | 
             | Yeah, I'm not happy having to keep a copy of Windows for
             | graphics software either, but that's a different issue. If
             | you only have Linux or some toaster running NetBSD, then
             | it's pretty simple: don't buy it.
        
       | herval wrote:
       | Just some quick feedback, tioli - I read most of the page and had
       | no idea what this is, before going back to the top and reading
       | the small grayed text
        
       | ngrilly wrote:
       | I've been using Affinity Designer 1 and that's a great product!
       | Glad to see version 2 coming.
        
       | laurieg wrote:
       | I'd love to switch to Affinity from Adobe Illustrator, but
       | there's one feature I just can't live without:
       | 
       | In illustrator you can make a dashed line that nicely lines up
       | with the corners of a square (putting one dash in each corner).
       | Nothing else seems to handle this case. [1]
       | 
       | I use Illustrator to make stitching patterns and lining up the
       | corners in this way is absolutely essential, otherwise the
       | stitches come out looking lopsided.
       | 
       | [1]
       | https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/145760-how...
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | azalemeth wrote:
         | The other thing I really miss is the simple artboard tool to
         | effectively crop pdfs. Designer does have this, but it's not
         | quite as "nice", iirc.
        
         | regular wrote:
        
       | johnymontana wrote:
       | Is anyone using Affinity for cartography? I'm currently using
       | ArcGIS --> Illustrator workflow but am curious if a QGIS -->
       | Affinity workflow is feasible.
        
         | c0nsumer wrote:
         | So, I've been using Illustrator for years with an OSM ->
         | Illustrator workflow where I start with OSM XML, feed it to
         | osm2ai.pl, and then wholly style it by hand. It's... fine...
         | but Illustrator's cost is getting to me.
         | 
         | I gave QGIS -> Affinity a cursory look the other day and had no
         | problem taking my results from an Overpass query and exporting
         | it from QGIS as SVG and bringing it into Affinity. So, that
         | gave me a ton of hope.
         | 
         | The opening of Illustrator files in Affinity Designer kinda
         | sucks (my dashed paths for trails come in as tons of different
         | objects, like it's actually only bringing in the PDF preview)
         | but if I start anew on some of the maps I think it'll be fine.
         | 
         | I just bought the 2.0 package mentioned here and the next map I
         | do I'll be doing in Affinity Designer to see how it goes.
         | Fingers crossed!
        
           | johnymontana wrote:
           | Thanks for sharing. I wasn't aware of osm2ai - looks helpful!
           | 
           | I'm starting a new project this week and will test out the
           | QGIS -> Affinity workflow and write up any findings.
        
       | yosef123 wrote:
       | Great value indeed
        
       | kmfrk wrote:
       | As someone who doesn't have the latest and greatest, can anyone
       | figure out what the support cut-off is for iPads?
       | 
       | EDIT: Found the app page, and it states "Requires iPadOS 15.0 or
       | later."
       | 
       | https://apps.apple.com/app/affinity-designer-2-for-ipad/id16...
       | 
       | Assume that means everything that runs the OS?
        
       | Kelteseth wrote:
       | I pretty much use Affinity Designer every day since their Windows
       | launch (2017?) . This saved me hundreds of euros or more in
       | comparison to Photoshop. I will 100% buy this!
        
       | open-source-ux wrote:
       | 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/
        
         | AuryGlenz wrote:
         | 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.
        
       | geenat wrote:
       | Wow, first class JPEG XL support! :)
       | 
       | Google / Chromium developers, please take note!
        
         | vetinari wrote:
         | But still no AVIF support, which is supported by Google /
         | Chromium.
        
           | geenat wrote:
           | Would be very nice to have both! It's about time we got
           | better image formats.
           | 
           | That said, unfortunately AVIF is not a substitute for JPEG
           | XL...
           | 
           | 1. AVIF has an order of magnitude slower saving / encoding
           | speed vs JPEG XL.
           | 
           | 2. AVIF in "lossless" mode tends to be bigger than PNG- and
           | it isn't truly lossless, just best effort (based on the AV1
           | video format).
           | 
           | 3. JPEG XL supports orders of magnitude higher resolution,
           | bit depth, and is an actual replacement for lossless PNG.
        
       | timeon wrote:
       | DWG/DXF import is what I was missing from Illustrator.
        
       | c0nsumer wrote:
       | 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 of you suggest a GOOD alternative? Something that can
       | import my library from Lightroom Classic would be ideal, but I
       | can work around it if not. I'm very much willing to pay, and
       | would prefer well-supported closed-source to OSS.
        
         | belthesar wrote:
         | I know folks are going to recommend RawTherapee and Darktable,
         | and those are some admirable projects, but I also know that a
         | lot of long-time Lightroom users bounce off of them. I'd still
         | encourage you to give them a try, but also if you're willing to
         | catalog what things are missing and provide feedback to those
         | teams. Even better if you're willing and able to help make the
         | change you want to see in OSS, but additional reinforcement on
         | the things that are misses currently in their offerings will
         | help strengthen those projects.
        
         | SanjayMehta wrote:
         | Check out dxo.com - recommended to me by a professional
         | photographer.
         | 
         | I'm stuck on LR 5 myself as I'm too lazy to move my library.
        
         | darekkay wrote:
         | > All I need is basic DAM (digital asset management) and
         | crop/rotate/color. Can any of you suggest a GOOD alternative?
         | 
         | Check out digikam. I'm using it as DAM only and Affinity Photo
         | for RAW development and image manipulation (but digikam can
         | handle that as well).
        
           | mr_tristan wrote:
           | I've been using digiKam in a similar way, where Affinity
           | Photo is where I do manipulation, and digiKam for
           | organization. It's been working well enough, though, I am
           | very much an amateur hobbyist.
        
         | CharlesW wrote:
         | > _(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 also works great with RAW Power1 -- by Nik
         | Bhatt, who previously led Aperture and iPhoto development at
         | Apple -- which is itself looking more and more like a complete
         | Lightroom replacement.
         | 
         | 1 https://www.gentlemencoders.com/raw-power-for-
         | macos/index.ht...
        
           | c0nsumer wrote:
           | 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!
        
         | Kye wrote:
         | This is probably next on their list. I know they were at least
         | thinking about one the last time I saw someone ask about it.
        
         | datalopers wrote:
         | darktable
        
           | t0bia_s wrote:
           | 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.
        
             | virtualritz wrote:
             | 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
        
               | palotasb wrote:
               | I'll substantiate regarding UI: On a Mac it has no items
               | in the menu bar. The default cursor is changed to a low-
               | resolution raster image instead of the default OS cursor.
               | The image metadata pop-ups keep appearing even though
               | darktable is in the background and I'm typing in a
               | textbox in my browser. Something's really off with the UI
               | toolkit they rely on.
               | 
               | I agree with the GP that the UI makes it practically
               | unusable. Prehistoric, and I'd be surprised if this can
               | be used by anyone as-is. I'd take a look at the features,
               | but while it's importing my catalog I can't open any
               | subfolders to look at images already imported. Once I
               | click open my top-level Pictures folder, it closes it
               | again after half a second.
        
               | palotasb wrote:
               | To be fair, this was using Darktable 3.6 (I had to open
               | /Applications/darktable.app/Contents/info.plist to check
               | as there is no About menu). Updating to the current
               | latest 4.0.1.1_arm64 at least the metadata popup issue is
               | mostly, but not 100%, fixed, and I could navigate through
               | my catalog.
               | 
               | Adding: Even though my Fujifilm X-T4 is listed as
               | supported on https://www.darktable.org/resources/camera-
               | support/, and the preview images in grid mode appear,
               | opening a single image displays two visually overlapping
               | error messages about not being able to open the raw file.
               | (One message is about switching to lighttable, the other
               | about not being able to read white balance info. The
               | image is not displayed.)
        
               | michaelmrose wrote:
               | Your post is full of great information but didn't need
               | the heading. Odds are really good that the poster you are
               | replying to isn't actually lying. Instead they just
               | aren't as familiar with DT as you are. You could have
               | imparted the same information beginning with an opening
               | that educated the user instead of insisting they were
               | lying and a demand for proof.
               | 
               | Firstly calling someone a liar basically shuts down all
               | discussion in most cases and secondly after you have
               | provided the proof you needn't demand it of them. You can
               | instead wait for them to absorb the data you have
               | provided.
               | 
               | Example:
               | 
               | > Darktable in fact has the features you mentioned and
               | more. I enjoy using it for professional work myself so
               | let me tell you a little bit about the features that make
               | it competitive.
               | 
               | This would refute the position without directly engaging
               | in negativity which is more likely to be read especially
               | by poster but I think we are all a bit tired of people
               | calling each other liars on the internet at this point.
        
               | stonogo wrote:
               | Shutting down the discussion should be the priority when
               | one participant is just confidently asserting
               | misinformation. Their motivations for doing so are not of
               | interest.
        
             | orbital-decay wrote:
             | Huh? It has all that. UI is optimized for hardware
             | controllers and customization, and I think if you value
             | workflow and features you can tolerate your dog barking at
             | your app. I personally observed darktable being used in a
             | mid-to-large studio along with C1. I think the weakness of
             | darktable in production is mainly speed and highlight
             | restoration, not anything of what you said. And possibly
             | its filmic module which confuses a lot of people.
             | (subjective, many swear by it; you can use classic curves
             | instead)
             | 
             | RawTherapee being less nerdy is also bizarre to hear, since
             | it exposes much more technical details at once, without
             | offering a definite workflow.
        
             | regular wrote:
        
         | highhedgehog wrote:
         | Maybe RawTherapee?
        
         | AuryGlenz wrote:
         | CaptureOne. Many of us pros use it for a reason. They have both
         | a subscription option and a one time fee.
        
       | awill wrote:
       | How does purchasing work? How can you purchase from Affinity
       | directly, and get the iPad version. How are they getting around
       | Apple's restrictions?
        
       | eye_street wrote:
       | 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 PS30 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.
        
         | CharlesW wrote:
         | 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.
        
           | regular wrote:
        
       | microflash wrote:
       | I have used Affinity products for years so this was a no-brainer
       | buy. It is a pity though that V2 products can't be activated
       | offline; they require you to login with your account to activate.
        
       | boomskats wrote:
       | I've just bought this without even looking at what's new or
       | different. That's how much I love their software.
       | 
       | Hopefully the performance in isometric grid mode is better in v2.
       | My only issue with v1.
        
         | dineshk78 wrote:
         | Same, just commenting to share my love for Affinity! Such a
         | breath of fresh air compared to anti consumer Adobe.
        
         | hoistbypetard wrote:
         | I did too. I had v1 licenses for Photo and Designer on my
         | Windows laptop and on iPad. I've recently switched my daily
         | driver to Mac, and was planning to get Mac licenses for those,
         | but was holding out for a Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale. This
         | was a no-brainer for me.
         | 
         | (I'm not a professional user of these... but I find them super
         | useful during game jams or while putting together ideas for web
         | things.)
        
       | can16358p wrote:
       | Last time I used Affinity Photo years ago it was well behind
       | Photoshop especially in RAW editing.
       | 
       | Has it come to somewhere comparable? I really want to go Affinity
       | instead of paying Adobe every month but I want something at least
       | capable as Photoshop and Camera Raw. I heavily do
       | astrophotography/night photo editing and Affinity was just not
       | good enough. But it was years ago.
       | 
       | Any recommendations from anyone who used both recently?
        
         | Tao3300 wrote:
         | Can't you download the latest version of the one you own and
         | see?
        
       | pier25 wrote:
       | Interesting Affinity has removed their products from the Mac App
       | store and only selling through their website now.
        
       | uxcolumbo wrote:
       | No subscription is a big deal. Been using Affinity tools since
       | Adobe introduced their cloud bloatware and subscription model.
       | 
       | I'm praying to the design gods that Adobe won't acquire Affinity
       | - surely this must eat into their revenue.
        
       | beingflo wrote:
       | Is my understanding correct that Affinity Photo doesn't have any
       | photo management capability? If you want to edit a series of
       | images similarly, do you create a custom preset that you then
       | apply to the other images and just reopen the editor for every
       | image?
        
         | moelf wrote:
         | you're right and it's a pain point for YEARS
         | 
         | https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/42372-file...
        
       | mortenjorck wrote:
       | It's great to see Serif finally offering a paid upgrade for the
       | Affinity suite. Serif is a tiny company, and their size versus
       | the incredible ambition of their products has resulted in some
       | often frustratingly slow development ever since the first release
       | of Affinity Designer back in 2014.
       | 
       | Even in the long-awaited V2, there are still popular features
       | Adobe Illustrator had twenty years ago that Affinity has yet to
       | offer an alternative to, such as vector pattern brushes, auto-
       | trace, and even shape blends, something Illustrator has had for
       | closer to 30 years. I really hope the infusion of cash from this
       | new release allows them to staff up and further realize the
       | potential of this excellent alternative to the Adobe hegemony.
        
       | dreamyfigment wrote:
       | I'm very tempted to get Affinity 2 for that price but lately I've
       | found that most Mac apps tend to release major versions weirdly
       | often and in that case there's not a lot of difference between
       | having yearly subscription and paying to update once a year.
        
         | spiderice wrote:
         | The difference would be the ability to stop paying at any point
         | and keep the software you bought. I thought that was the whole
         | point of buying software outright as opposed to subscriptions.
         | Not paying developers less for ongoing development.
        
       | oliwarner wrote:
       | Serif have always delivered great value. I remember netting last-
       | version packs in the 90s with colossal clipart libraries.
       | 
       | Just wish they did Linux versions.
        
       | npigrounet wrote:
        
       | corry wrote:
       | Has anyone switched to Affinity Designer from Illustrator for
       | vector work (logos, svg, icons, etc) and liked it? I've been
       | avoiding paying for Illustrator given the extreme monthly cost
       | for my use-case, but found Inkspace and other alternatives pretty
       | lacking. I pay for Photoshop since I'm so comfortable with it,
       | but can't justify the extra $$$ to add Illustrator given I'd use
       | it a handful of times a month max.
        
         | latexr wrote:
         | > Has anyone switched to Affinity Designer from Illustrator for
         | vector work (logos, svg, icons, etc) and liked it?
         | 
         | I found v1 frustrating. They've been touting their "precision"
         | from the get go, but in my experience it was _anything but_
         | precise. And I mean going into the transform panel, inserting
         | exact values by hand, and then the software moves it 0.1 points
         | to the right.
         | 
         | Making separate shapes then connecting them was also a fool's
         | errand. When it works at all, it often leaves two connected
         | points in the same location, as opposed to merging them. Even
         | if you insert their locations manually and exactly. I've wasted
         | many many hours due to their imprecision.
         | 
         | With all that out of the way, I'm trialing v2 and am cautiously
         | optimistic. I haven't been able to trigger any of the bugs so
         | far. Doesn't mean they're not there, but maybe they're fixed.
        
           | corry wrote:
           | Thanks! I'll give it a try. V1 sounds frustrating since those
           | use-cases are precisely what I do with Illustrator lol.
        
       | marban wrote:
       | So I bought all V1s back then and now they're gone from the Mac
       | App Store. I see.
       | 
       | Edit: Got it, have to download it from the purchase history
       | (which was 2014), not the offical now-gone link.
        
         | dkdbejwi383 wrote:
         | Apple is at least partly to blame here for stubbornly refusing
         | to add paid upgrades to the app stores, despite developers
         | calling for it for years.
        
           | danieldk wrote:
           | And if taking 30% wasn't enough of an offense, they are now
           | also stuffing search results of people looking for Affinity
           | products with all kinds of ad crap. I can fully understand
           | why they yanked their products from the Mac App Store and
           | will happily purchase the suite directly from them.
        
           | marban wrote:
           | Yes but devs usually leave the old version on the MAS and
           | don't remove it entirely.
        
             | g_p wrote:
             | The risk here would presumably be people unwittingly
             | purchasing an old version?
             | 
             | Neither way seems ideal though. I've seen some devs create
             | a bundle as a way to do upgrade prices, but that's not
             | perfect either.
        
         | brailsafe wrote:
         | Can you not download them from your purchases tab?
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | universenz wrote:
         | Also it appears the new v2 licensing approach does not support
         | Family Purchases, which is a step backward in my view.
        
       | kiawe_fire wrote:
       | This license, and alternatively the JetBrains licenses, are
       | awesome. I will always try to support them!
       | 
       | Being given the freedom to install this on whatever computers I
       | own, regardless of OS*, for one very reasonable fee, is amazing
       | compared to the standard guard of "only one OS and only x
       | computers", or worse, "subscription based and you lose it all if
       | you stop subscribing".
       | 
       | I've been living in Linux using GIMP for what I've needed, but
       | I'm definitely buying and supporting this for when I need a
       | little more than GIMP.
       | 
       | * sans Linux in this case, sadly
        
       | nailer wrote:
       | Affinity is great but... weird.
       | 
       | - Designer and Photo keep asking me to download and install a new
       | version manually every time I open it, rather than just taking
       | care of their own updates.
       | 
       | - Pasting if there's no document open doesn't work. You have to
       | do 'new from clipboard'.
        
         | ketzu wrote:
         | > Designer and Photo keep asking me to download and install a
         | new version manually every time I open it, rather than just
         | taking care of their own updates.
         | 
         | It's super annoying to upgrade, too. If they added an auto
         | updater I would instantly buy v2. But right now I don't really
         | see a reason yet.
        
       | yashg wrote:
       | I had shifted to Affinity photo from Photoshop few years ago. I
       | need to use it once in a while so Affinity photo does the job for
       | me. It has its own quirks but I can live with them. There is
       | still no real alternative for Lightroom unfortunately for bulk
       | RAW photo processing.
        
         | fetzu wrote:
         | There was talk of them working on a DAM solution a few years
         | ago, sadly this never materialized. I would love to be able to
         | move on from Adobe completely, but I still haven't find the
         | right replacement for Lightroom..
        
         | chillfox wrote:
         | What's Capture One or DxO missing to replace Lightroom?
        
           | yashg wrote:
           | Capture One is expensive. I need to use it a few times a
           | year. Didn't know about DxO PhotoLab, will check it out.
        
           | max51 wrote:
           | Last time I tried to completely switch to Capture One, there
           | were major features missing. I currently use both because
           | there are things that Capture One does a lot better than
           | Lightroom (eg. skin tones, tethered shooting)
           | 
           | The biggest one for me is the fact that you can't manually
           | remove chromatic aberration. If your lens is not in their
           | database with a profile, you can't do it at all. The database
           | is also very small; if you are using anything old or with no
           | electronic, it's likely not gonna be there.
        
       | keyle wrote:
       | I migrated to Affinity after Adobe put the last nail in the
       | coffin for me.
       | 
       | I have to admit that even with some experience, Affinity doesn't
       | get close to Photoshop in terms of shortcuts and ease of use
       | ("getting in the flow").
       | 
       | Sometimes I even resort to using photopea web, rather than open
       | affinity.
       | 
       | That said, I really appreciate their pricing model and hope they
       | stick to their guns.
        
         | detritus wrote:
         | Yeah, totally this - I recently cropped my Adobe CC suite down
         | to just Illy, which i _need_ , and bought Affinity's wares to
         | replace, but it's no contest. Aside from literal decades of
         | muscle memory, there's just too many speedbumps in the way of
         | my normal workflow. So, I've dug out my copy of Photoshop CS2
         | so I can do all my cleaning up and processing in there.
         | 
         | Once I've found out what the difference between Affinity
         | versions 1 and 2 is, I might yet buy 2 anyway, just to support
         | Serif some more, because I'm frankly fed up of Adobe's practice
         | of unhinged monolithic greed.
        
           | regular wrote:
        
         | rpastuszak wrote:
         | I'm in the same situation. I used the Photography subscription
         | for LR + PS, as I don't care about any other tools (RIP
         | Fireworks). I've been using Adobe Products since 1999. I just
         | feel like supporting them is unethical.
         | 
         | Figma + Procreate replaced Photoshop for me for design/game dev
         | workflows, but I'm still missing the right tools for
         | Photography and image processing.
         | 
         | The OSS LR replacements feel too clunky, CaptureOne is
         | fantastic but a bit pricey. I'll have to bite the bullet
         | eventually and choose between convenience and cost.
         | 
         | Two questions:
         | 
         | 1. Is Affinity desktop better than its iPad version?
         | 
         | 2. What's your use case for Affinity as a replacement of PS?
        
           | tmikaeld wrote:
           | Too bad you're still supporting Adobe, since they purchased
           | Figma.
        
             | rpastuszak wrote:
             | argh, to quote my favourite rougelike/hack'n'slash from the
             | recent years:
             | 
             | THERE IS NO ESCAPE.
             | 
             | Edit: I just remembered I'm a cheap bastard and I'm not
             | paying for Figma yet. yay?
        
           | dividedbyzero wrote:
           | C1 really is the only thing that comes close to LR right now.
           | There is a version of CaptureOne that only works with
           | Fujifilm cameras which is about 2/3 of the price of the full
           | license and I believe there is (was?) something like that for
           | other manufacturers too. They also still offer perpetual
           | licenses, so this isn't necessarily an annual cost (I'm on
           | 21). Still pricey of course.
        
         | jug wrote:
         | Yes, I don't even have very advanced needs but there are
         | surprising omissions or ill thought of workflows throughout the
         | software. I'm the most confused by the "personas" and sometimes
         | feel like I need to go "back" because I need some tool, but I
         | think there are some other strange design decisions too even in
         | fairly basic tools.
        
           | reaperducer wrote:
           | Some smart person should publish an e-book, or a web site
           | "Affinity Photo for Photoshop Users."
           | 
           | It should list every Photoshop function, and how to
           | accomplish the same thing on Affinity.
           | 
           | After 20 years of using Photoshop, I'm forever searching the
           | web for equivalent workflows in Affinity. Sometimes it's just
           | the name or icon of a tool is different. Sometimes it's been
           | completely re-thought. And sometimes, a feature is just
           | missing.
           | 
           | Honestly, this is something that Affinity should publish,
           | itself, to encourage people to switch.
        
         | leeches wrote:
         | I also migrated a few years ago, after having used Photoshop
         | and Illustrator professionally for a long time.
         | 
         | The underlying features are there, but the lack of "flow" is
         | the main source of frustration. A lot of common or frequent
         | actions require needless extra steps, or simple actions require
         | convoluted workarounds.
         | 
         | They would benefit from starting an in-house creative studio,
         | to get constant feedback from professionals using it for daily
         | production. That or just start copying Adobe workflows
         | verbatim, these are already solved problems.
         | 
         | Good product and good business model.
        
         | rchaud wrote:
         | I do the same: Affinity Photo + Photopea + GIMP
         | 
         | A combination of these usually gets the job done.
         | 
         | Adobe products are boycotted in my work setup. I'm voting with
         | my wallet!
        
         | TimTheTinker wrote:
         | Next month's news: Adobe buys Affinity.
         | 
         | (Please let it not happen!)
        
       | stevenkkim wrote:
       | I migrated from Adobe to Affinity years ago and have absolutely
       | loved it. In particular the abiilty to use both vector and raster
       | graphics in Designer is a game changer.
       | 
       | $99 for the universal license is an amazing deal. Well done
       | Serif!
        
       | Eric_WVGG wrote:
       | Wondering if they've added WEBP export (I don't see it in the
       | release notes).
       | 
       | I've been prodding Affinity on their forums with a feature
       | request over the past few years, but other forum-dwellers get
       | weirdly hostile over it... like, yeah, I wish JPEG-2000 had made
       | it too, but it didn't, and WEBP is here today and it works,
       | should our graphics apps not live in the present?
        
         | vetinari wrote:
         | WEBP and JPEG-XL yes, AVIF no.
        
           | Eric_WVGG wrote:
           | Awesome! Upgrading for the feature alone, everything else is
           | a bonus.
        
       | jiveturkey wrote:
       | Warning: To buy the bundle, you apparently need to have an
       | affinity id/registration. At least I can't figure out how to buy
       | it in the mac app store.
       | 
       | All the apps are "free" with in-app purchase. I did the in-app
       | bundle purchase for Designer 2. Now it won't let me apply that to
       | Photo 2, without "activating" (requires registration with serif)
       | or re-buying. Purchasing the bundle again asks for authentication
       | which I didn't complete because I don't want to get charged
       | twice. I was hoping it would recognize my previous purchase and
       | just be a pass-through. I suppose because it's an in-app
       | purchase, it will happily purchase as many times as I click. (As
       | opposed to straight-up app purchases, which you can only do once
       | per apple id.)
       | 
       | "Restore purchase" link is completely unresponsive.
       | 
       | One of the selling points of app store is that I don't give any
       | info to the developer. So even though I could (and always do) use
       | a one-time generated email address, they can still link that to
       | my apple id. bah.
       | 
       | If I had known this in advance I would have paid the extra $20 to
       | buy each individually, rather than the bundle. So maybe this will
       | help a scant few others.
       | 
       | The mac app store can have bundles, so either serif chose not to
       | create such bundle, or the app store simply didn't show that to
       | me. Indeed search doesn't find any of these apps at all. I had to
       | follow a deep link I got from I don't know where. That part also
       | is very mysterious. I believe
       | https://apps.apple.com/us/developer/serif-labs/id536107177 to be
       | the link to all serif apps on the app store.
        
       | 0xFEE1DEAD wrote:
       | Just 4h ago I went to affinitys website because I wanted to
       | download photos for my work laptop and I got a page "we're
       | working on something big. stay tuned". And now I'm seing this.
       | I'm hyped.
       | 
       | Edit: Looks like there's no discount if you already own a license
       | which is a bummer considering they advertised with selling you a
       | lifetime license.
        
         | hoistbypetard wrote:
         | If you bought a lifetime license to the previous version, you
         | can still use the previous version. (That's most commonly what
         | "lifetime" license means... it's called that in contrast to a
         | "subscription" where you can't keep using it if you stop
         | paying.)
         | 
         | Usually people who offer upgrades for life will use those
         | words.
         | 
         | I bought photos and designer for Windows and iPad. My daily
         | driver is now a Mac, and I was hoping for a cyber Monday type
         | sale to pick up a Mac version. This seems good to me, and the
         | sale feels like a nice upgrade discount.
        
         | Espressosaurus wrote:
         | It's life time _for that version_. You can continue using your
         | old version forever. I paid my $40 or $60 whatever 3 years ago
         | and have gotten way more than $40 of value out of it.
         | 
         | I'm about to happily plunk down money again because the price
         | is right, it's a perpetual license, and it's a solid product.
         | 
         | I just wish they'd release a DAM, because that's the one item I
         | need right now.
        
       | TeddyDD wrote:
       | I would gladly buy the whole package if they supported Linux. One
       | can dream.
        
       | monkin wrote:
       | I love Affinity, but why on earth there's no Hand tool in
       | Designer on iPad? It is so frustrating to work with mouse and
       | keyboard.
        
       | H1Supreme wrote:
       | 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.
        
       | sleepless wrote:
       | So does version 2 of Affinity Photo add support for AVIF? Can't
       | find it listed on https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/photo/full-
       | feature-list/ (rather hard to search, since sections have to be
       | uncollapsed one by one).
       | 
       | Strange price model where existing customers do not get an
       | upgrade discount.
        
         | wdb wrote:
         | Problem is that it's difficult to give discounts in the
         | different App Stores so they give the discount to everyone
        
           | regular wrote:
        
         | reaperducer wrote:
         | _Strange price model where existing customers do not get an
         | upgrade discount._
         | 
         | I'm an existing customer, and I look at it as 40% off for
         | existing customers to upgrade, and also 40% off for people
         | upgrading from Adobe.
        
           | jbverschoor wrote:
           | That's a strange way of reasoning..
        
           | least wrote:
           | I bought Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer in May of this
           | year, less than 6 months ago. Some companies that offer
           | perpetual licenses would simply give me the upgrade to the
           | next version for free since it came out within a year, and
           | basically all of them would offer an upgrade discount that
           | isn't simply a launch sale, into perpetuity.
           | 
           | The price is good for decent software but it's kind of
           | discouraging me from wanting to upgrade, when their goal
           | should be the exact opposite of that.
        
         | kyrra wrote:
         | This was one thing that annoyed me about Affinity as well, no
         | AVIF or WEBP support. There are a number of threads on their
         | forums asking for it, but Serif staff stopped responding to
         | those a while ago.
        
         | jbverschoor wrote:
         | Yeah I used them since some beta, and got the paid version
         | almost immediately, also just to support some good competition
         | against adobe malware suite.
        
       | lynndotpy wrote:
       | Longtime GIMP user, never spent much time on any alternatives.
       | 
       | This hit all my checkboxes:
       | 
       | - No arbitration clause in the ToS - Rest of the ToS, PP is a
       | breath of fresh air (comparatively speaking.) - One-time payment,
       | not subscription based - License across all platforms is
       | surprising and good, and is what made this an instant purchase.
       | 
       | It's nice to know I'll have Affinity 2 forever, even if Adobe
       | (god forbid) purchases Affinity.
        
         | rchaud wrote:
         | The good news here is that Adobe suite is not really threatened
         | by Affinity products, as they're ahead in terms of features and
         | enterprise presence.
         | 
         | They acquired Figma because Figma was quickly becoming the go-
         | to collaborative UI design tool in the workplace, something
         | Adobe did not have with AdobeXD. If they were to try to acquire
         | another company in this space, it would likely be Canva, rather
         | than a comparatively small player like Serif.
        
           | bogwog wrote:
           | Consumers/the free market told Adobe to fuck off, but Adobe
           | ignored them and forced their way in by buying the
           | competition. This is something they've consistently done
           | throughout their history, and it doesn't seem like there's
           | anything consumers can do about it.
           | 
           | /end-lossely-related-rant
        
             | Vt71fcAqt7 wrote:
             | Can you give some examples? I'm thinking of flash, but that
             | was bound to die anyway.
        
               | bogwog wrote:
               | FreeHand is probably the most high profile, if not well
               | known nowadays, since it led to a lawsuit brought by
               | pissed off ex-FreeHand customers (which ultimately ended
               | in a shitty settlement).
               | 
               | There's also a full list of their acquisitions here,
               | which might be fun to scroll through: https://en.wikipedi
               | a.org/wiki/List_of_acquisitions_by_Adobe
        
               | lynndotpy wrote:
               | Figma is the most recent. Behance and Frame.io are some
               | other high-profile Adobe acquisitions.
               | 
               | FWIW, Flash is still very widely used in the 2D animation
               | industry, as Adobe Animate.
        
       | moelf wrote:
       | All platform is a lie, IIRC a long time ago they actually
       | promised a Linux version, but never realized that.
        
         | alpaca128 wrote:
         | It includes licenses for all supported platforms. No, it
         | doesn't support the Nintendo Switch, Android, Linux and many
         | others, but calling it a lie because of that is a bit much.
         | 
         | > IIRC a long time ago they actually promised a Linux version
         | 
         | Did they actually "promise" it or just didn't outright reject
         | it from the start?
        
       | yakubin wrote:
       | A single licence for all apps on all platforms at a reasonable
       | price? Sweet.
       | 
       | Previously I've only been using Affinity on Mac. Now I'll be able
       | to see how it performs on Windows as well.
       | 
       | I wonder though if they fixed the crop tool. The rectangle
       | wouldn't stay within photo borders, i.e. any "constrain
       | proportion" setting would be useless, and trying to align the
       | crop with one of the borders was very mundane, pushing me to do
       | all my cropping in ACDSee.
        
       | boomskats wrote:
       | 89 GBP vs 119 USD. Something is finally cheaper in GBP than it is
       | in USD. Wow.
        
         | Tao3300 wrote:
         | I'd been meaning to become a paid subscriber to a certain
         | British podcast, and the recent Tory discount was the perfect
         | time to do it.
        
         | ubercow13 wrote:
         | Might be something to do with it being a British company!
        
       | beardedman wrote:
       | Love Affinity products. Absolute steal for the price.
        
       | bowsamic wrote:
       | I was so convinced that they would have moved to a subscription
       | model out of pure fear that it took me ages to even convince
       | myself it was a one time payment even though it was on giant
       | letters on the page
        
       | AtticHacker wrote:
       | Darn I got excited for no reason. I first read "ALL PLATFORMS"
       | and thought that version 2 would also work on Linux. But alas!
        
         | zxspectrum1982 wrote:
         | Same here. I'll gladly pay for Affinity on Linux.
        
         | seanw444 wrote:
         | Supposedly they're a relatively small team. According to
         | another comment (I don't use it personally), they're missing a
         | lot of features Adobe has had for decades, so they would
         | probably understandably prioritize porting to Linux under _even
         | that_.
        
       | outcoldman wrote:
       | It was not very clear about the Universal License, but if you
       | purchase it, using your Account you activate also iPad versions
       | for free. So for $99 you get all 3 apps for macOS, Windows and
       | iPad, that is really cool deal!
        
       | rpastuszak wrote:
       | Protip for people trapped in an Adobe sub if you want to avoid
       | the fine[^1]:
       | 
       | 1. change your payment method to PayPal
       | 
       | 2. cancel your payments in PayPal
       | 
       | 3. add Adobe to your spam/archive filter
       | 
       | [^1] The "pay monthly" (small print: annual) subscription we all
       | love and cherish
        
         | fxtentacle wrote:
         | This works precisely because Adobe's terms are so exortionary
         | that they don't want to risk testing their validity in court by
         | suing you... Well played!
        
       | rychco wrote:
       | I was preparing myself for disappointment because I expected the
       | new version to be accompanied by subscription pricing, but this
       | is an incredible value.
       | 
       | I only casually mess around with the ipad version at the moment,
       | but I'm tempted to purchase the whole suite because it's such a
       | friendly deal.
        
       | piperswe wrote:
       | I've bought the whole Affinity suite (v1) on Mac, Windows, and
       | iPadOS over the course of the past couple of years, and I'm happy
       | to pay $100 to support further development and get access to v2
       | of all of it at once!
       | 
       | I only use Affinity software casually every now and then, but
       | it's a lifesaver when I do need it. Paying $100 every several
       | years for a new major version is absolutely a worthwhile cost,
       | and it's especially nice that it's not required ( _cough_ Adobe)
        
       | noizz wrote:
       | The best thing about Affinity is that Adobe noticed and I've been
       | on "first year only" Creative Cloud promo EUR30/mo for a couple
       | of years now, all it takes is a mention on chat whenever the
       | promo is about to end.
        
       | nbzso wrote:
       | I love the Affinity Designer. Also bought the Photo suite.
       | 
       | But if you are a serious graphic designer, all the available jobs
       | use Adobe tools. It is a factual thing.
       | 
       | Nowadays, I use mainly Figma (which is, again: Adobe) and wait
       | for the next AI thing to remove me from my design job duties. :)
        
       | qubex wrote:
       | I'm looking for (and haven't yet found) any mention of v1 to v2
       | discounts? Am I missing something or is it an entirely new
       | purchase?
        
         | ishitatsuyuki wrote:
         | Serif mentioned on Twitter that the decision is partly driven
         | by the absence of upgrading pricing options in third party app
         | stores.
         | 
         | https://twitter.com/affinitybyserif/status/15903262690314649...
        
           | qubex wrote:
           | A pity but it's reasonable.
        
       | lancesells wrote:
       | Really nice products and a pretty amazing price. I've used the
       | version one for maybe 8 years and think it cost me $49.
        
       | Pulcinella wrote:
       | Thank god it looks like they finally fixed the slider UI on iPad.
       | Previously the slider for something like a a stroke size appeared
       | radially which was awkward. Worse, it didn't actually function
       | radially. You could not drag the slider around the circle.
       | Instead dragging to the right increased the value and dragging
       | left decreased the value; also dragging up increased the value
       | and dragging down decreased the value. Both axis operated at the
       | same time so if you dragged right but also down slightly, some of
       | the dragging would cancel itself out. The only way to get it to
       | work properly was to drag diagonally between the bottom left of
       | the screen to the top right. Now it appears the sliders just go
       | up and down like every other UI on the planet.
       | 
       | It does not appear that they have added free form and mesh
       | gradients or gradients along a path. I really really don't like
       | Adobe, but it's all the little long tail features that makes it
       | hard for me to switch away.
        
         | regular wrote:
        
       | rcarmo wrote:
       | Kudos for not having a subscription. That is _so_ refreshing
       | these days.
        
         | shp0ngle wrote:
         | On the other hand, once the previous version stops working, it
         | stops working. With Apple and their constant changes and bad
         | backward portability, you can end up with broken app.
        
       | mikece wrote:
       | I don't want to renew my (annual) subscription for Lightroom and
       | Photoshop when it's up; ideally I would like to move this
       | workflow Linux (it's one of the few things keeping me on macOS).
       | Are there Linux alternatives besides Darktable and Gimp and are
       | they really able to compete with the Adobe (or Affinity)
       | offerings?
        
         | commoner wrote:
         | Krita (https://krita.org) is a Linux-compatible alternative to
         | GIMP, Affinity Photo, and Photoshop.
         | 
         | Linux-compatible alternatives to Darktable and Lightroom
         | include digiKam (https://www.digikam.org) and RawTherapee
         | (https://rawtherapee.com).
        
       | etra0 wrote:
       | Nice, I'm really vouching for Affinity since Adobe went to SaaS.
       | It has performed quite well for me and one time purchases are
       | welcomed.
       | 
       | I'd love for them to do a Lightroom replacement, since it's one
       | of the last tools I'd like to replace from the Adobe subset.
       | 
       | I tried Dark Table but the shadow slider would produce some weird
       | artifacting (halos) so it was unusable for me.
        
       | mhd wrote:
       | Is there any improvement on how Affinity Publisher 2 handles
       | multi column layout? This was one of the neat things that
       | InDesign _finally_ imported from Ventura Publisher etc. who did
       | this in the early 90s: You can have a paragraph style span
       | columns. Without that, the interaction of sections and columns
       | often gets rather tedious.
       | 
       | AP1 was a lot closer to the PageMaker style of things. (I don't
       | have a use case for vector graphics, and my limited bitmap needs
       | are more than served by Pixelmator, Gimp, ImageMagick and Paint
       | Shop Pro 7 via wine)
        
       | 65 wrote:
       | It's great Serif added the shape builder tool to Affinity. It's
       | one of the most useful tools in Illustrator. Now that Affinity
       | has it, I don't see any reason to keep using Illustrator.
        
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       (page generated 2022-11-09 23:02 UTC)