jimh12345

I don't think we'll ever get it. Especially after the acquisition by Canva, I expect future releases to be all about bolted-on "powered by AI" hoo-ha while actual photography is de-emphasized. Canva has no interest in photography and will be wanting its investment in Affinity to pay off as quickly as possible.

Good God, man, this is pure gold. You ran it up the flagpole and I, for one, salute it.

I invested time in AP because it was becoming a full featured application for photography. When they added raw processing I was really excited, even though it turned out to be a weak implementation - I thought it was going to be developed further. Now that's probably not going to happen, because Canva has nothing to do with photography. So I start once again looking around for a new path. I'm out-of-date, I don't follow the market, just see names now and then. ACDSee? Lumina? DxO? Capture One is very good but increasing aimed at high-volume pros shooting events. They'll never add any sort of pixel editing. So I'm like a lot of users, sitting here in a stalled vehicle, wondering if it's time to get out and start walking somewhere...

I spent half my working life in software development, on projects large and small. These deals never, ever work out. All that stuff about "transferring technology", "synergy", "joining the family", and "adding functionality" is just leveraged execs blowing smoke as they collect bonuses and sell stock. What actually happens is that after a few months the key developers are gone, they're impossible to replace, and the product becomes a zombie. There might be a pathetic "feature release", and updates to run on the latest OS versions so sales can continue, but any faith in a more glorious future is misplaced. And with that I'll stop commenting. Good luck to those of you heavily invested in this tool, I hope to be proven wrong.

Reminds me of when Daimler bought Chrysler. The joke was: Q - "How do you pronounce Daimler-Chrysler?" A - "Daimler." When a product gets bought like this, its identity ends. Within a year its key developers are gone and the new owners realize they don't really know how to take it forward. So they hire new guys and hand them a list of "features" put together by marketing. In this case that's going to be more half-baked AI, like everyone else in the business.

One thing you can bank on: the next major release of Affinity (if there is one) will be stuffed with "AI" features. And I'm guessing 'raw' processing of camera files will go over the side as photographers are shown out the back door...

That's how I feel too. Sorry if I sound like a cynic, or an aging know-it-all. But I've been through Nikon Capture NX, PS Elements, and Exposure X7 before Affinity Photo. They were all either abandoned or left on life support (Elements), glowing "commitments" to the contrary. I worked in the software business and I know what acquisitions typically mean, for both customers and employees. I just read the email from Affinity (or Canva, we don't really know) with the big promises. Nice, but I've heard it all before; Affinity will end up becoming whatever some execs at Canva want it to be, period. I'd feel a lot better if I saw the word "photography" in there, somewhere, but that's pretty clearly not an interest at Canva. I wouldn't be surprised if "Affinity Photo" drops out of the branding, leaving just "Design". I'll keep using Affinity Photo for now but have already started looking at alternatives that are in active development and aimed at photographers.

Well if Canva isn't even interested in photography, it's probably over for Affinity "Photo". It hasn't been receiving much development anyway, in areas crucial to photographers - like raw processing, and export. I've been using the combination of Capture One and Affinity Photo; I guess it's time to move on to one of several products that claim to incorporate the best of both - with no subscription, of course.

I read this with dismay. I think we've all learned that any time a CEO makes an "exciting announcement", it means bad news for users. And I'd say most software acquisitions mean nothing but slow death for the product. The question is: who is Canva, really, and how do they currently make their money? Because all they'll do is try to torture and mangle Affinity into fitting some hole in their current product line.

Thanks Walt - I'd never used the Adjustments panel, had to find out what that was and how turn that on, now I see the presets. Thanks.

I add a Soft Proofing filter, choose the profile and rendering intent, click Add Profile and enter a name. I assume I just created a preset profile. Now - where is it? I've looked all around, and Googled, an I can't see how to use that preset on my next project.

It's an odd situation. AP is great software and I see it mentioned often - it's getting good buzz. It's just inconceivable to me that it wouldn't be getting active development and be moving ahead. But this missing "feature" - a core capability that everyone expects - has been ignored for years while other things that I'll never use have been added. Every time I use AP I miss being able to see masks, and it's frustrating. I really don't get it.

Yes that seems like just what I need, thanks.

Is there a way to persist the settings in the Print dialog? It's tedious to have to set things like "fit type" "color profile" and "rendering intent" every time I want to print. And if I forget one, I lose a print.

While I'm respectful of the awesome complexity of something like Affinity Photo, I will say that the problem the OP describes is one that I've encountered as well - and it's not confined to Affinity, it comes up in other big applications. I go to Help to find out how to do something - it describes how to use the So-And-So tool - but I'm unable to find that tool in the UI. Sometimes it's not even currently in the visible UI - for example, maybe it's not in a default toolbar. The Help doesn't tell you where it's hiding- and I think this is because in a big application you typically have way too many options for how toolbars are configured and what's in them...