uncoy

Hi Walt,
I could of course do that, though it sort of negates the idea of using Affinity Photo as my 'software of choice'. To be honest I think the majority of what I need to do with the files will 'likely' be compatible with how the relevant layers and effects work in Photoshop but until I've created the files and tested them I won't know for sure which was the reason for my original question.
I guess my question really realted to how much it is possible to rely on the PSD export option within Photo for file compatibility and whilst I appreciate there is never going to be 100% compatibility between the two programs, in my mind I would like to understand where the real issues and incompatibilities lie so I know what I can and can't reasonably expect. The whole idea is really ideally 'not' to have to 'invest' or 'rent' Photoshop as it makes the move to Affinity Photo kind of redundant (although I do use it for other projects) but I do understand there is no one easy answer to my original question but maybe as a result of this project I can build my own list of incompatibilities and share with the forum.

For some fonts problems arise in Designer in the font style dropdown. As you can see in the images below Windows shows the several types of the Bahnschrift-font the correct way, but in Designer there's only a list full of 'Regular's for this font. The font is included in the attachments.


Bahnschrift Bold Condensed.otf

Variable fonts will be the way to go in the future.
Having the possibility to adjust your font with high precision is a key feature.
And I'm talking for print. There are great typefaces where variable axis play an important role.
PLEASE ADD VARIABLE FONT SUPPORT. OUR GOAL IST TO BE BETTER THAN ADOBE.

I've just finished implementing ICC profile support in plugins, so check out the next beta and let me know how you get on...

Dirty? Why? You don't lose anything. It's inconvenient, yes I already wrote that. But it works perfectly and the color space stays consistent throughout the whole processing chain. And to be honest it also does not take up too much extra time because starting the plugin from within Affinity, making the desired adjustments and handing the result back to Affinity also takes up some time. But I agree, Serif should definitely fix this issue, in fact they claim their software is compatible to Photoshop plugins when in reality this compatibility is somewhat crippled as we can see in this thread.

I agree that it's very disappointing that these issues still have not been fixed. But there is a workaround: Export the image as 16 bit Tif in the desired color space, use the standalone version of the plugin (the Nik tools have them and most Topaz plugins too), process the image as desired and export again to 16 bit Tif. After this you can continue in Affinity Photo. Certainly not very convenient but it works.

Agree, would bring serious added value, I really don't know why it isn't seen by Affinity developers.
 

I just can say that I completely understand you.
I also gave up Affinity wrt to the Nik tools. I really do not understand why Affinity keeps ignoring this issue. They would collect so many more people if they would support those.
In my opinion they really underestimate this wish. 

However, because I anyway dislike the RAW importer from Affinity up to now I use Nikon Capture NX-D upfront any Affinity edit.
Colors are much to saturated, blue purple is handled very bad with the raw import (see my other posts) and lens support is very slow. 
I have to ommit, Adobe will stay as reference here, but also adobe is not reaching the C-NXD quality.

So what I did:
I start my raw images in Nikon Capture NXD. 
Inhere you have the option to do local adjustment which is build in (Vivenza kind)



Here after I import my image as tiff to affinity.
Or if I need more Nik tools adjustments I use the standalone versions.
Once done I read the tiff into Affinity. 

Other option is to export to Vivenza2 or another Nik tool from Capture NX-D.
Once done, pick-up the tiff file and import it into Affinity for further editing.

I agree, the complete flow is much better in Adobe, but I also prefer starting Capture-NX-D upftont Adobe. Specially because I use an older (non-cloud based) Adobe Photoshop.
This tool understands my new cameras & settings where Adobe stopped any support.
And I get much better results now that direct raw import in Affinity.

MakSpyat,

I agree that it is frustrated and this lack of working wioth plug-ins does not a make Affinity the software to go instead of Adobe.
However, do not under estimate that NXD is also able to do almost the same Vivenza2 does.
Once done, you can start Affinity from NXD. From that moment colors are handled or, also the raw convertor doe not mess-up and Affinity does a great job.
Yes, the plug-in are still a very weak point at Affinity.
Yes I would accept to pay more for Affinity if this would work perfect.

I have a conspiracy theory:
Adobe got a patent for plugins that work, preserve the colors and could store their state in smart object layers that may be retouched multiple times.
Serif worked around the patent: they also allow plugins, but those plugins don't actually work - the whole thing is just messed up. Problem solved!

Yes, but that takes already years at Affinity. That is why I still use adobe beside Affinity. 
If Affinity want to grow seriously, and want to have user moving from Adobe to Affinity, because many people want to switch, decent plug-in support accepting Adobe plugins should be a focus area.
If I was product manager at Affinity I would go for this.
 
I bet this will increase the nr of licenses seriously and also makes it more interesting for 3th party developers to develop plug ins for Affinity too.
This will turn around in even more users. 
Next point is the x1 color card adoption. 
Both are mainly realted to color handling which makes the program professional or not. 
 

The workaround is to choose Document-> Convert Format/ICC Profile, then convert the ICC Profile to sRGB IEC IEC61966-2.1, call Studio, do your work and then when you go back to Affinity convert back to your original ICC Profile using the same dialog.

Hi Mark,
Like WMax70, it works well with ColorEfex 4, but it still does not work with DFine 2 and Viveza 2 ... (file in ProPhoto)
 

I've never managed to get the free version working properly in AP (although the 32 bit version works fine in PhotoPlus!).
I was thinking of purchasing the DxO version, but, reading the comments, I think I'll give it a miss.
I don't suppose there's any chance that Serif could get together with DxO to produce an AP optimised version!

I do own Affinity Photo but have to agree with GoCatGo, craigo and charisma that the black interface is really headache inducing. You seem to understand the issue as the colours of your forum here are about exactly right for a long term work environment. Black on white and grey with good contrast.
 
Please create a light interface option (even if it's not adjustable: we don't need sliders and colour wheels and time wasting tweaking, just a simple light interface).
 
Thanks!

I do own Affinity Photo but have to agree with GoCatGo, craigo and charisma that the black interface is really headache inducing. You seem to understand the issue as the colours of your forum here are about exactly right for a long term work environment. Black on white and grey with good contrast.
 
Please create a light interface option (even if it's not adjustable: we don't need sliders and colour wheels and time wasting tweaking, just a simple light interface).
 
Thanks!

"Today we have moved Affinity Photo from beta to Release Candidate 1."
 
As my only stated concern hasn't been addressed, this is another version of Affinity I can't use. At all. I'm a migraine sufferer and I can't look at the UI for more than a few moments. Affinity has already triggered one migraine … I won't be risking that again.
 
Last version, I did wear sunglasses to look around … it buys me a little time. I liked what I saw, but couldn't use the software in any meaningful way. Still can't.
 
I wish you guys the best. I wish I could participate.