Hello, with the advent of macOS Catalina in a few months, and the fact that Adobe Photoshop CS6 Extended will more than likely break, due to it having some components which are still 32-bit, I have been taking a serious look at Affinity Photo as a possible -- and more affordable -- replacement, instead of biting the bullet, and paying Adobe $20/month for Photoshop CC 2019.
Having said that, I would like to share a few of my first impressions for the developer's consideration.
1. To begin with, I have to strongly agree with previous posters who mention the fact that the size of the selected area is not retained in the "Info" panel, once the mouse button is released. Having to perform another step -- by switching to the "Transform" panel -- in order to see the size of the selected area is simply not acceptable. Not only that, but I also discovered that if you change the size of the selected area on the "Transform" panel, and then switch back to the "Info" panel, the "Info" panel is NOT showing the new size. It is still showing the originally selected size, even though the selection is now larger in the actual image. On a related note, similar to Photoshop, when one selects an area in an image, the dimensions of the selected area should show right there in the image. We shouldn't have to divert our eyes to the bottom right "Info" panel to see the size of the selected area. For the record, I use the selection tool a lot in PS so that I can determine the correct size for an image I want to paste into a new layer. I also use the selection tool to make sure that new elements are centered properly in the image.
2. Unless I am missing something, what I also find unacceptable is the fact that while the "Flood Fill" tool is located on the left side of the window, in order to actually change the color of the fill, one has to go to the other side of the window, switch to the "Colour" pane, and then select a color for the fill. While this may seem like a minor point for some people, the fact of the matter is that on a 27" iMac, having to cross the screen with one's mouse in order to change the fill color is quite an annoyance. In my view, when one selects the "Flood Fill" tool, a small window should pop up right there where one can choose which fill color he wishes to use, without having to go to the other side of the screen.
3. As a longtime Adobe Photoshop user, one of my biggest concerns is the fact that over the years, I have paid A LOT of money for plugins, such as Alien Skin plugins, Flaming Pear plugins, Filter Forge and Topaz Labs Glow plugin. What I have discovered thus far is that most of them do not work properly, or do not work at all. Very disappointing. I was reading about the "Nik Plugins Collection". I am going to see if I can get that one to work. Can anyone suggest any plugin collections -- similar to the aforementioned ones -- which work 100% with Affinity Photo? Thank you.
4. All in all, Affinity Photo is a very nice program. I can tell that a lot of hard work has gone into its creation. I am also impressed by the developer's dedication to making tutorial videos for it. Even without watching the tutorials, and just by conducting a little bit of online research, in a matter of a few hours, I have already figured out how to perform some of the basic tasks that I do in Photoshop.
5. Price-wise, you won't get any complaints from me. I have used Photoshop since version 5.5. Not CS 5.5, but 5.5, that used to be distributed on CDs. So you can imagine how much money I have dished out over the years for each PS upgrade, plus PS plugins. It is in the thousands of dollars, no doubt. So, if I can master Affinity Photo, and learn how to do the same things that I can do in Photoshop, paying $40 per version -- as opposed to $240/year for Photoshop -- is not a problem. I will pay it gladly.
That's it for now. I hope the above is helpful.
