stuartbarry

Walt Thanks for the reply, but it's not quite right. I referred to the linked afphoto file as a 'sidecar' (note the quotes) file because it acts in that way. It contains the settings from the last edit and needs to open the original RAW file to complete its operation. You can see this happening in real time. When I open the linked file it opens with a very pixelated image (conforming that it does not contain a good quality thumbnail) before switching to a high quality image as it completes the link. My RAW images do not have sidecar files. I convert them to DNG, which also does not have a sidecar file. I use Neofinder to catalogue my images at it CAN read all types of afphoto file, including this new, linked file. Neofinder DOES catalogue the file and allows me to write back certain metadata. But the issues still remain that certain exif data, notably GPS, is missing from this new file format, metadata is not synchronised between the linked file and the original, and the thumbnail in the original is of poor quality.

When using the linked RAW files new feature in Affinity Photo 2 I see that the metadata is not copied to the afphoto (sidecar) file. That creates a problem when cataloguing. My original DNG file contains loads of metadata and a star rating. If I later search my catalogue under star rating or other metadata the 'sidecar' file does not appear, so then I have to search again to see if I did create an edited version of that DNG. The GPS field is not available in the 'sidecar' file, meaning that these files do not appear on a map - very frustrating if I am searching for images by location. All of these things are especially important when I am working on an Alamy batch submission. Is this a bug or a missing feature?

In my continuing quest to match Lightroom features I have found that using a linked RAW image gives me a small enough file that I can use it in Neofinder to display the edited view of a RAW image. This leaves me clear to leave all the original RAW files as archive files and just work on the very much smaller linked images without saving a huge afphoto file. There is one problem left - if I hit spacebar on Mac to preview the original RAW file I get a reasonably large and clear preview. If I do the same with the linked file the preview is tiny and fuzzy. I cannot see anything that lets me control this embedded thumbnail size/quality. Am I missing something?

Thanks. I feared that this might be the answer, but I was hoping that I had missed something. I had already started working through all the masters doing just what you suggested. The only problem is that when I get to one side or the other of a 'split' master where it was linked to a page it unlinks the master and either I lose information or it gets messed up. But it looks as if I'll just have to work through it all and do some re-linking. What a pain. Not a very well designed bit of the application.

I have a document which had many master pages as double page spreads. I used these to create my pages. For ease of viewing I switched 'facing pages' off and on several times. The last time I went back to facing pages all my pages appeared correctly as double pages, but all the masters had turned to single pages. I cannot now get the masters back to their original double page spreads. If I start messing with trying to merge by copying and pasting I mess up my real pages. Any idea how I get out of this? I went back to an earlier backup but the problem was still in that one.

This is the first time that I have looked up this topic and could not believe what I have seen. An obvious and simple feature has been ignored for years. I have just started to design and print a communal newsletter. I asked contributors to submit articles with a certain word-count, assuming that I'd be able to check this with no problem. But the feature is missing. Now I either have to count manually or export to another pice of software just to count the words. It's been in all major word processors since dinosaurs ruled.

I can add some more information. I have just updated all my Affinity Apps to 1.9 and installed the latest 11.2 MacOS update that includes some changes to Photos. Nothing much seems to have changed, except that I noticed the following behaviour. Going from Apple Photos (APP) to Affinity Photos (AP) there are several options other than 'edit in AP'. If you select any of these other options, for example Affinity Retouch, you get the window supplied by APP that tells you to edit in AP then exit. This DOES include the latest APP edits. On the right hand side you just get that set of editing options, but not the full AP interface. Making changes followed by 'save changes' returns you to APP with the changes intact. If you choose 'Edit in Affinity Photo' from the APP extensions options you get the full AP window, but with the original file, NOT the latest APP edited version. If it is a raw file you end up in raw processing and have to develop as usual. When leaving AP you are asked if you want to save changes, and these are preserved back to APP. So the Apple and Affinity workflow is half way complete, but the ability to use the full power of AP is not there unless you create a new file and edit that independently in AP. I about to install a new Mac Mini and will test this again with a fresh set of hardware to see if there are any changes, compared with my old MacBook Pro.

I have been doing an extensive amount of work on the link between NeoFinder (NF), Apple Photos(APP) and Affinity Photo (AP). It almost works (creating a neat DAM/editing solution to rival Adobe Lightroom (LR), but the link is broken in one significant place. Both LR and APP work in a similar fashion: they are catalogues that retain information about the development status of photos and allow you to make non-destructive changes. As such, your view of the image through either reflects the most recent changes made, but the underlying file is not changed. That is very useful, especially if you wish to retain a raw file (typically 25MB and more) as a reference and use that to drive further changes and outputs in various formats, without the overhead of retaining multiple, large versions of the file. Both LR and APP have a link to AP. The crucial difference is that LR asks the question "edit including Lightroom settings?" when jumping to AP. That gives a beautiful workflow with LR showing the current status and AP used to make edits based on the view just displayed by LR. But APP does not work this way. Clicking on the link from APP to AP causes AP to open the original file. So the link out to AP does not fully work. But the link back to APP DOES work. If you ask the image to be saved it knows that it came from APP and saves the current changes back to the APP editor (the document status box confirms that this is an APP photo). If you decide to make a change in future you have to start all over again. I don't know whether this requires a change on the Apple or Serif side, but it is certain that Serif could apply more pressure on Apple than I can to make the change. Can someone at Serif please, please consider this and make the change - you can then compete fully with LR and I can achieve my goal of switching my workflow.

I believe that I have partially solved this. Open image and edit. Click on ... edit in Affinity Photo (still takes 2 attempts) Edit in Affinity Photo. If RAW (this is the bit that I was missing) develop, then exit. When it asks you if you wish to save say yes and the edited image appears in Apple Photos, even though Photos says to exit without saving.

This may be an Apple Photos bug, and I have posted there, but wondered if there was some integration issue with Affinity Photos. This is the sequence. Delete all photos from Mac's library. Library now showing as empty. Delete all images in 'recently deleted'. Import some images into library. Open any one of the images (can be any type of image). Click edit, make some changes and it works. Repeat, on anything, click edit, then click ... edit in Affnity Photos. Nothing happens (even though Affinity Photo loaded). Click again and the image is opened in Affinity Photo. Make a change in Photos and exit and requested from Apple Photos. Apple Photos pops up with an image that was deleted from the library a long time ago and has subsequently been removed from disc. A message says that changes exceeded the 16MB limit and the image has been flattened. Cancel changes and the correct image appears, but without the changes. Several issues here: Why does it take 2 attempts to go to Affinity Photo? Where on earth does it find this old image from? Why is it not correctly editing the selected image? I have tried all sorts of combinations - different image files, images on external and internal drive, importing new copy into library, developing image in Affinity, but no joy.

I have a solution or workaround that may suit some people. I use NeoFinder in the normal way to catalogue all types of files, including photos. I keep new photos in a simple folder structure on an external hard drive. Once they are there Neofinder can index them as normal, and I import them into Apple Photos. Photos is set up to use links to these files rather than importing them into its own package. That way I only have one copy of the original files, although there are 2 catalogues. But I only have to maintain one set of metadata or file names through Neofinder and Photos picks this up. For initial, simple editing I can quickly work my way through a batch using Photos. It has roughly the same controls as Lightroom and is also non-destructive. I leave the files in their original raw format and export to another format for specific purposes. I can revert to the original with one click. For complex editing I click on one of the Affinity Photo links built into Photos. Once finished I just exit and Photos remembers what I have done. Viewing the photo through Photos gives me the latest edited version. If I wish to search for a specific file for later processing I use the extensive search facilities in NeoFinder. Once I have brought up the file I use an AppleScript that I have created. With a single click it opens the file in Photos and I can edit as above. Here is the script (feel free to use). -- This script takes a selected image name from NeoFinder and opens that image in Photos. No error checking -- is done at this stage. It is assumed that the image exists in Photos. tell application "NeoFinder" activate end tell -- Copy selected text from the active app to clipboard: tell application "System Events" to keystroke "c" using {command down} tell application "Photos" activate copy (the clipboard) to inputname set searchList to search folder "library" for inputname spotlight item 1 of searchList end tell I am just starting to use this approach extensively and may yet hit some problems. But it does give me a reasonably smooth workflow. My catalogues are effectively backed up in 2 different places and I have separate editing facilities, so can swap different components of the workflow if I wish. One bonus is that Apple Photos is well integrated with many applications. When adding an image to a document Apple Photos is often the first option that is given.

I have just found the solution. Paragraph styles does have a language option that was set to German. I tried it on one area and worked and am now going through the document to ensure that all paragraph styles are set to English. Sorry for the false alarm, but the solution was buried in the style box. I found it after going through one of the Affinity video. It did not point out our this particular issue but got me looking in the right area.

I looked all over but could not see anything linking text, word or text frame to a language. I tried removing a link from a master page, so that it was standalone, but no joy. My default language in Publisher preferences is English, as is my system preferences. If I try the following I get strange results. Creat a text frame. Type in: This should be checked in English. 'should' and 'checked' are underlined as I type. If I ctl click on 'should' or 'checked' I get a list of German words as suggestions. Doing the same on the non-underlined words produces no suggestions. For all of the words, if I right click and look up the word the English dictionary is opened in all cases. So there is no consistency. Running 'check spelling' also picks out those 2 words, even though some of the other words are not German.

I received an inDesign template that originated in Germany. I opened it with no problems and could manipulate pages and so on, but when I entered text it flagged nearly every word as an error. The clickover spellings were all in German. I changed the default language to English, but it is took several re-starts for it to take effect, and then only when I had no document open. I re-opened my original document and the clickover suggestions are still in German. The default language is showing English and if I ask for a spelling suggestion it gives me an English dictionary option. Running a full spell check still gives German spelling option on clickover. Am I missing a setting somewhere?

I agree with the points made in your posts and have similar issues with high volume workflow. I have been testing the Affinity Photo + NeoFinder combination and made some notes on the attached file, in case people want to read about my experiences.workflow affinity and neofinder.pdf

This is a very difficult subject and everyone has their own workflow and valid opinion. Nevertheless, I am going to risk wading in and give some of my experiences. I am not making a recommendation, just saying what I think is important and what works for me. I was a full time professional photographer and latterly videographer for 10 years. I have closed my company but have a back catalogue of 100,000+ photos and videos. I still actively submit work to Alamy. During those years I largely worked on PCs, but a few years ago switched mostly to Macs, which I now much prefer. But I have data and programs on both platforms. In catalogue terms I started using a small PC program about 10 years ago and gradually moved to MS Expression, Media Pro, the original beta Lightroom then versions of Lightroom up to CS6. I have the entire CS6 production suite and updated every new release, but once Adobe switched to a subscription model with no backward compatibility I vowed never to touch an Adobe product again. Lightroom is the last program to be turned off - and I am getting there. For several years I have used Lightroom 4,5,6 as an essential tool in cataloguing and initially processing my images. All my images from about 2005 onwards are Canon RAW, converted to DNG, and since I take care to get most things right in the camera I can do about 95% of my processing only in LR Developer and leave the RAW files untouched, with few jpg or psd copies. I have produced books, albums and prints directly from here, so a huge productivity gain. I have now been using Affinity Photo and Publisher for some time and they are both fantastic products. I have for a long time kept my eye open for a LR replacement and in the last few weeks actively tried lots of them. I finally (and with some difficulty) found NeoFinder (same product on Windows with a slightly different name). You can have a free version or, for a modest charge, an unlimited version. Within minutes I had imported loads of files from various network drives (something severely limited in LR). I could easily jump directly into Affinity Photo or Publisher for editing. But here is the missing link. With RAW processing the viewer changes the view of the image, but nothing changes on file. So NeoFinder and APhoto cannot write back changes. Those changes are the things that LR or Apple Photos stores, and you can easily revert original - the beauty of RAW. This gives me an awkward workflow. If I process the RAW image in aphoto I have to develop and save as aphoto, jpg, psd or whatever, increasing my storage and file viewing complexity. I also have to jump in and out of APhoto. Interestingly, Apple Photos is tightly integrated with APhoto. You can do basic image corrections through Apple Photo with APhoto, and Apple Photo then represents these changes in the latest view. In this respect the system works a little like LR. If only Serif would create the same integration with NeoFinder as with Apple Photo my problems would be solved. I'd have more or less the equivalent of LR, but with far more extensive searching capability and some extra good bits with Apple Photos sharing images in iCloud if I wish. They would save a lot of development time and be able to tap into a good DAM almost like a plugin. As things stand I'll probably continue with NeoFinder (handles all file types including video with metadata), does not create sidecar files (other than with aphoto format). Since I can almost simultaneously import a folder into both Neofinder and Apple Photos I'll use this approach so that I can quickly go through all my RAW images using the Apply Photos interface, then use the power of Neofinder for finding, geotagging, things with Apple Script and so on. Sorry it's such a long post but I have used many generations of DAM and my experience has led me to where I am - still searching.

Jon Thankfully I have now rebuilt the file. I started by recovering a backup from a couple of days earlier when things were going well. I deleted all the pages, modified a few master pages and created a new template. I recreated from there and successfully managed to add many new pages. With the old file I did quite a lot of changing master pages and replacing photos into the new formats. At one stage, when I clicked on a photo frame I could not get the 'replace image' box to appear unless I restarted. I also played around with modifying a photo using the photo persona, and things gradually went downhill. With the latest file I kept to a stricter regime. I created all of the master pages first then went through the book in sequence adding photos and text. I saved after each page, and the save happened very quickly. I did go back and insert a few pages, but all seemed to work well and I have just created a pdf for printing. So I don't think that you can help further with this one, but I thought it worth reporting. As I use Time Machine I'll make sure that it is running and I should always be able to get back to a working version of a file if I start to hit problems. Stuart

I have been working on a publisher file for several days. I created a new template and have been using that. The book is a photo book with lots of images linked. Things worked well for a few days, but today Publisher started crashing every time I tried to use the file. I cannot save it under a different name. I can create a new blank file, but I now have many hours invested in my new photo book with its template. I cannot save a new template from that book, so I appear to have lost everything. This is my first major project with Publisher, which I purchased mostly for this job, moving from another supplier. Any ideas on how to get out of this? Crash report attached. I am using MacOs 10.15.6 and Publisher 1.8.3. After typing the above I created a new, blank file and everything was fine. I also managed to restore a version of the file from 4 days ago using Time Machine and that opened and worked fine. I was able to save it and also delete all pages and save a nearly empty file, as well as create a new template file. So I have now almost rebuilt my document and new template, but am concerned that I'll get further into this project and lose it. All images used in the project are linked. The Resource Manager shows them as linked and nothing is missing. There is minimal text in the file. crash report.rtf

Thank you to all who replied. This does seem to be a fairly active forum, which is great. To summarise: I have had 000s of photos accepted by Alamy, but I have to follow their rules. Only once or twice in those thousands have I been less than careful and had photos rejected for file size (mostly something that I have cropped). Whatever the logic of this their rules state a minimum of 17MB uncompressed file size and suggest using the figure shown by Photoshop at the bottom of the document. All images submitted to them are jpg, so I convert them first, then check the size. Because every photo compresses differently looking at the actual file size is not a good guide. Any jpg of 6MB or more is generally safe, but for the rest I have to open the file and check. The best answers were from those who suggested the formula of multiplying the pixel count by 3. That comes pretty close to the figure in Photoshop. Thanks for the comments. I can now close this.

I submit photos to Alamy and need to check the uncompressed file size before sending. I can do this in Photoshop (it appears at the bottom of the document) but am trying to wean myself off Photoshop. I can see the document size at the top of an image in Affinity Photo, but it does not correspond to the size in Photoshop. For example: a dng image in Lightroom has a file size of 12.51 MB If I open this in Photoshop the uncompressed image size is shown as 72.8 MB. If I open in Affinity Photo it creates a tif file with a size of 12.72 MB. If I export this to a jpg the actual file size is 12.72 MB. If I re-open this in Affinity Photo the file size is shown as the same, the compressed file size. I need to identify the uncompressed file size as this is the measure that Alamy uses. Any idea where I can find this information in Affinity Photo? Or am I stuck with Photoshop?

Having some basic page layout templates for photo books is a feature sorely missing. I design and produce photo books in Lightroom, Graphistudio and other programs and most come supplied with basic layouts that can be customised. Of course you can create your own, but a professionally designed, modifiable starter kit would be a great help.

DAM requirements for Affinity Photo Some background on why I need a DAM - sorry for the length, but I am sure many fellow professional photographers are suffering from similar problems. I am a professional photographer and videographer. I have been using Adobe products (mostly Bridge, Photoshop, Premiere Pro, After Effects, Lightroom) for the last 15 years. I have around 75,000 images in my active catalogue and boxes of about 500GB of archived wedding photos on DVD/BluRay. In addition I have about 1 TB of video footage. I am trying to keep on top of this lot. I started to move away from Adobe products when they introduced their subscription service and am stuck at CS6 for the remaining products I use. At the same time I moved from PC to Mac. I still have a PC with my main Lightroom catalogue but am desperately trying to move everything to my Mac, both because I love the experience and because I want to ditch all things Adobe. I recently bought both Affinity Photo and Affinity Publisher. I love the software and the integration between the two packages. But I am stuck with Lightroom and keep getting warnings that it will not work in future OSX releases. The maps module has already stopped working, so I am running out of time to find a replacement. I have completed the poll, but wanted to add some specific points on what I really need to keep an efficient workflow going. A Lightroom type view of my images. I always start from a thumbnail preview and all of the initial review and rating before going deeper is done there. It just about works now with doing the bulk of the work in Lightroom then editing in Affinity, but a simpler switching in and out of deep editing would speed up the workflow considerably and reduce errors and duplications. A referenced file system rather than a database, although either is acceptable. But either way it is vital that network drives can be included in the catalogue. I take my Mac on travels and use a temporary catalogue which I import into the PC. But I often want to refer back to my main catalogue (a copy with reasonable resolution is too big to carry), or to share data between my various computers. I have a mixture of 4 iOS, Mac and PC systems that use where convenient. Sidecar files create thousands of extra files, so if the only way to avoid this is a catalogue then that is the better way. Post Photoshop and since Lightroom I do 95% plus of my editing in Lightroom. I rarely need to drop into Photoshop or Affinity Photo. I’d like to be able to do this with a DAM/Affinity photo integration. I use RAW on all cameras bar one, and keep everything in RAW, but the editing needs to be indistinguishable between RAW and other formats. Metadata is critical and this is what is currently stopping me from moving to another package. I frequently search on any of the metadata items. I have built up a huge library of keywords for use with Alamy. This needs to be on display and editable with the image. The usual range of flags, ratings and so on goes without saying and must be there. The ability to print directly from the DAM interface with ICC profile options, as in Lightroom. A map view (as taken away from non cc versions of Lightroom). Essentially this is Lightroom on Affinity, but there is a good reason that Lightroom is the market leader. A halfway house, and one that would let me move away from Lightroom right now, is to use Photos on Mac for the basic file structure and viewing and to add a strong metadata and searching model to Affinity Photo. Photos already allows for network files as well as files integrated into the Photos library.