captain_slocum

eWalthert - Try it. It's free! Hollywood uses it for many big movies for editing, colourizing and SFX. There is nothing it can't do in my experience when it comes to making short films, which is what I do.

If you know how to use a video editing programme, Try DaVinci Resolve, completely free (no need for the paid for version). IMO the best NLE, free or paid for. So much better than Premiere Pro, more features, more stable. Used by major film makers in Hollywood. And did I mention it was free?. If you are simply trying to turn an existing video clip into a gif, then all you need do is import it into a timeline of your required frame rate in Resolve, edit it if you want to (zoom, crop, re-colour, etc) and export it as a gif from the Deliver page. If you want to create each frame of your GIF yourself and if you have downloaded version 20 beta of Resolve, then it is easy making GIFs using either Affinity Photo or Designer. Design your gif in Photo or Designer, with each frame of the animation on a different layer. (Make sure your layers are sorted into the order that the animation should follow, this will make it easier later.) Export the design as a PSD file. Create a new project in Davinci Resolve and import the PSD file, create a timeline and set a suitable frame rate, and drag the file onto it. Right click on the clip in the timeline and choose Split PSD Layers in Place. Each layer now appears on its own track and can be edited for length to create the animation; then render out on the Deliver page as a gif. I won't go into details of the process in DaVinci here, it's not the place, but if you know how to use DaVinci resolve (or any NLE) you'll soon work it out. Once in Resolve you have control over the timing, and can even zoom, change colour, etc on each frame.

RC-R, thanks for that, it didn't occur to me to try that, but it works, opens in Affinity photo, and preserves the quality and small file size. It looks like the problem is quite a simple one of AP not recognising the wrapper of the data, should be easy to fix, but far less of a problem now anyway as I can batch convert and then delete the originals.

Ldina, I have Ventura. Thumbnails in Finder, opening in Preview, and converting to JPEG (singly and batch) all work fine. My HEICs are taken with an iPhone 14 Pro, and iPhone 16 pro max. So I think you must be talking about a non-standard, or corrupted HEIC file. BTW, HEICs also open in Photoshop, DaVinci Resolve and Lightroom Classic, and can be placed or inserted into Word for Mac, Notes, Pages and every other app I have. It is only Affinity Suite that cannot open them. I will admit that MacOS does a pretty job at converting them to JPEG, although the JPEG file sizes are considerably larger, by about 60%, quite a difference in hard-drive/cloud storage space, made worse by the fact I would now have to have two files of every photo if I wanted to use Affinity Photo! A quick (non-scientific) experiment showed that a HEIC converted by Apple to a full size JPEG showed little if any difference (apart, as I say, the file size), while a photo taken with the iPhone 16 in HEIC, then another of the same subject taken in best JPEG, did show that the HEIC was a superior compression method in terms of quality, probably indicating that when Apple OS converts the HEIC to JPEG, it is keeping the 16bit virtues of the HEIC file, compared to the 8bit of an original JPEG. What this means is that to certain degree I must eat my earlier words - I assumed that the extra detail and colour information would be lost when converting my HEICs to JPEGs, but that seems not to be the case. However, I do need to more than double my storage requirement (eg HEIC = 3.3MB. HEIC converted to JPEG = 5.4 + the original HEIC = 8.7). Interestingly, Canon's take on HEIC, HEIF files (.HIF files taken with my Canon R6 Mk 2) do open in Affinity suite. I have now seen the post that says "Hi @captain_slocum, This is a known issue logged internally with the developers, i've bumped it with your report." which for some reason never got emailed to me (or maybe I overlooked it) so apologies for that. Still, worrying that it still isn't fixed, as this is quite a big clanger. I hope this is a one off and not a portent of what to expect under the new owners.

I'm grateful for those who have taken the trouble to research this and come up with ways to convert without apparently losing quality. I appreciate I could take my photos using other formats, and when using my Canon pro cameras I always shoot in RAW. But I have a ton of HEICs taken in the past that I need to use for a project at the moment. I think what is frustrating, as I have said many times in other posts, is that Affinity stuff is so close to being really useful, and it could be, if they would just listen to and interact with experienced users more. I am sure, given that Windows users can open HEICs, this is is a bug. But why can't Affinity just say so and let us know it is being addressed? I don't expect a time frame by the way, just an acknowledgement it is on their radar. As for posting when there are other threads, guilty as charged, and apologies, but a measure of my frustration with Affinity's policy of secrecy. Affinity, experienced professional designers and photographers who care about your products are gold - why don't you listen to them?

Thanks Ldina, there are several ways to convert it, but HEIC is higher quality, which I am compromising by converting to JPEG. I can convert to TIFF, which is uncompressed, but any conversion is going to make compromises to quality. It also adds complexity and time to my workflow. HEIC has been around a while now so I'm surprised that APhoto can't deal with them. (Or am I surprised? Affinity STILL haven't introduced flowing tables or span-across-columns into Publisher in spite of many people asking for these essentials for years. There is no real consultation with the people who use Affinity for their livelihood. Designer though is still excellent, the main reason I have the Affinity suite. But I am forced to use InDesign and Photoshop for the rest of my work).

I realise there are other threads about this but have seen no moderator saying when it is going to be fixed. All of my iPhone photography for a while now has been done in HEIC, so this is massive for me. "HEIC not supported" on my iMac Ventura 13.7.1. APhoto 2.5.5. Please fix asap as I have had to revert to Photoshop and would prefer to use APhoto. Can I have recognition please that this is being looked at?

"HEIC not supported" on my iMac Ventura 13.7.1. APhoto 2.5.5. Please fix asap as I have had to revert to Photoshop and would prefer to use APhoto. Can I have recognition please that this is being looked at?

RERPEAT: "Lets concentrate on getting AP the best it can be, not having pointless arguments"!!! I'm leaving this thread now as it's been hijacked by pointless nit-picking.

I didn't write that Alfred, you did! I wrote - "True". Meaning what you said was correct. Of course some people using Quark are serious users. Lets concentrate on getting AP the best it can be, not having pointless arguments.

True - I know someone who still uses it and loves it. I guess it's what you are used to.

I hope that now the Affinity suite is owned by a new company they will take notice. This is NOT a niche request. The lack of flowing tables (and also the lack of column spanning) is just about the only thing that stops me being able to recommend Affinity Publisher to all the people I teach DTP to. InDesign is still the only player in the game for serious publishing. Affinity Publisher could be a great publishing tool and knock InDesign off its perch, but at the moment it is just a very good leaflet and flyer app. I first posted about the lack of flowing tables in 2018, bemoaning the fact that Affinity did not seem to be listening to professionals who make their living at DTP. 6 years later, they are still not listening. I suggest here needs to be a dialogue at Affinity about what AP is for. Is it trying to be a market leader and professional tool (which it it could so easily be) or are they happy to stop developing it and leave it as a leaflet app?

I hope that now the Affinity suite is owned by a new company they will take notice. This is NOT a niche request. The lack of flowing tables in particular, but also the lack of column spanning is just about the only thing that stops me being able to recommend Affinity Publisher to all the people I teach DTP to. InDesign is still the only player in the game for serious publishing. Affinity Publisher could be a great publishing tool and knock InDesign off its perch, but at the moment it is just a very good leaflet and flyer app.

Thank you Return for the very helpful video. I was simply selecting the shape on the page or the layers panel, not clicking the disclosure arrow in the layers panel and selecting the shape within the shape. So all fine now. FYI, the information I was alluding to is in the Affinity Designer V2 Help section (From the main menu, Help/Affinity Designer V2 Help/Object Control/Symbols). It actually states: To edit a symbol instance: On the Layers panel, expand a chosen Symbol entry, then edit the objects within. [My italics]. I obviously did not read this carefully enough, assuming I just needed to select the shape.

BTW, by not working, I mean that what ever I do the other instances of the symbol do not not update. They show as symbols in the layers panel and have the solid red line by them, including when I alter an instance of one (no dashed red line, so not detached).