GrahamMYC

Pixelcoder: Thanks some nice tips there that I shall follow up Dave 2017: I shot some snow shios this morning. I moved a very large 2 dimensional raw panorama involving 20 shots from the Nikon to the iPadPro, and found that Affinity Photo (AP) handled them well. Using documents it was (fairly) easy to move the resulting afphoto or jpg files to my NAS by moving them to the downloads folder in the Documents app, then uploading to my NAS (reasonably quickly too) where I created a special iPad Transfer directory. After that all things windows were possible. I could also go via dropbox or Google drive, but much more slowly. It would seem I should get direct access to Flickr, Facebook and other apps, but I have yet to explore the login arrangements. It all seems to work acceptably once the right pattern has been found.

I tried the Documents app by Readdle Well, DM1, that seems to work. I did the following 1: I was able to set it up to see my Google Drive and also my NAS 2: I took a photo on the Ipad 3: First attempt at transferring from photos on Ipad to NAS or Google Drive failed because the file format was .heim which seems to be a uniquely Apple format 4: Processed the photo via Affinity to Photo to produce a .afphoto file (it could have been a jpeg, but I thought the special affinity format would be a more severe test) 5: The image was successfully transferred both to my google drive and to my NAS by a drag drop process. The Google drive route was slow, but did not need a sign in. The NAS route was much quicker, but required a signin on each attempt I also move a jpeg image in the other direction In short, this app solved the basic problems. I have not yet worked out some of the more elegant features such as having 2 docs open at once, but this result is far better than anything I had seen before. Thanks for the headsup

Thanks DM1. That looks like a really constructive suggestion. I shall play with it today, and post a comment later

Thanks Dave 2017. More to think about. I am always amazed at the almost religious fervour with which Apple aficionados hate Windows. There are many applications that are only available for Wndows, including some weather apps, and some navigation software.That, plus the investment I already have in Windows based kit and software makes me want to stick with it. Also you illustrate well the fear I have of being caught in what I perceive as "the Apple trap"

I must confess, Paul, that I am hoping for some response from someone who has not taken the Apple shilling!

Paul: Do I take it that you have abandoned Windows machines and bought a Mac? If so that is total surrender! lol

Paul I am reluctantly drifting your way, because the next level iCloud seems relatively low priced. But I do not like the fact that because they have my "wallet", then, if I accidentally go over, they will not inform me, but just take the money from my credit card. Or am I just an old fogey (at 76)?

I have been using Serif products since 2002, and Affinity (AD and AP) since the windows versions were produced. Very enjoyable experience! For a variety of reasons, I decided to try AP for Ipad on an Ipad Pro with pencil and SD card reader. I suspect others will, like me, come from a Windows environment, My setup is mainly based on Windows 10. my email is run by gmail and my backup system is a Synology Network attached Storage (with some irreplaceable data also copied to independent hard drives) With all that, I do not need or want Icloud. For me, the only reason I have an Ipad is to process photos "on the road" (and use its excellent camera as well as my Nikon D5300). I am finding the process of dealing with the Ipad a nightmare, though I love the AP app. It is the peripheries where the frustration lies Having read some other threads, it seems I am not alone. However, it seems to me that part of the problem is that some of us just do not "speak Apple", while other issues may relate to AP for Ipad. I decided that it would be best to break the problems (which have been driving me mad) into simple steps. What follows is a step by step record of some simple tests that illustrate the problems of locating and naming files passing through AP. I started with 2 new photographs DSC 5571 and 5572 shot on the Nikon in Large Raw+ jpeg format. 1: DSC 5571 and DSC 5572 imported via sd card reader to Ipad photos. 2: visible in photos, but no file name 3: Selected these 2 photos tried the SEND icon. The mail option allows an email to be created and attaches the selected photos. So I could send them to myself, except that file sizes frequently exceed email limits (though some engines such as gmail may use a cloud drive). The sent email can be recovered on my PC (the reverse process works too) 4: Returned to the 2 selected photos, tried SEND icon again. Selected “Save to Files”->”On my Ipad”-> “untitled folder”, and clicked “Add”. Returned to Home, and the photos were in the correct folder. Deleted the folder so that the only versions of the 2 files were the original ones in photo 5: Opened AP (Affinity Photo). Clicked on the + sign. Both visible in camera roll and marked RAW. Clicked left arrow (top left) and selected save. Saved as unnamed. This “unnamed” file cannot be found in either photo or Files. So where is it? 6: Reverted to the Photo icon, and selected the same 2 images, selected to send icon, and clicked on “save to files”-> “On my Ipad”, and ADD. The files were saved WITH filenames DSC 5571 and DSC 5572 (and a note of the file size) 7: Clicking on the image in FILES results in the message “downloading from icloud” and the file opens in AP, but not as a RAW image! This is odd, because the icloud on my Ipad has never been activated and is switched off in Files (and if it is enabled and examined it contains no files). I checked the file sizes by downloading the same 2 images to my PC where I could get properties of both the Raw and jpeg (the images had been shot as “Large RAW+jpeg”. The version transferred to the FILES directory is clearly the .jpg version The implications of this are 1: If the filename created by the camera is to be preserved, then the image has to be exported from photos to files in order to see the filename. 2: If you want to take advantage of shooting in RAW, do not (as a general rule) load an image into photos from the "On my Ipad" files directory. 3 Copy the filename from the image in files before processing an image in photo 4: Use the + icon in AP to start processing an image, and (if available) the RAW image will open. 5 Process as normal 6: When finished select save (left arrow at top left), then select rename, paste in the correct filename, then save 7 Click on image to reopen in AP 8 Export jpeg (or other format) to "on my ipad" or dropbox or similar, and the name will be preserved. 9: If you need to save a copy of the .afphoto file (e.g. for security purposes) , then you will need to “save a copy” to dropbox . Bear in mind that .afphoto files can be very big. So the number that can be transferred via dropbox may be quite small if you are relying on the free space. 10: The files in Dropbox can be picked up on the PC and directed to the appropriate directories on the NAS or offline storage devices This is bizarre! Comment and suggestions welcome. The problems do not end there For my archive I like to keep (a) the original nef (RAW) file (b) the .afphoto file (c) at least one jpeg or other type of publishable file If I am making a panorama or (say) a focus stack , then I may have a group of source photos as well as the finished result. At present, I am using PS elements as an image store. This has the advantage the the nef and any number of jpeg derivatives can be stacked and handles as a group. This has the disadvantage that all my .afphoto files have to be kept separately. Roll on the Affinity DAM! Now it starts to get messy. I can use a cable to connect the Ipad to my computer which sees the Ipad as a camera. This makes it easy to transfer files from the Photos section of the Ipad, but it cannot see the FILES section (“On my Ipad”). That is why any .jpg or .afphoto files need to be output to Dropbox and transferred from there. I must reiterate that Dropbox has limited free storage (probably 2GB). With some .afphoto files exceeding 300Mb, this means that not more than about 6 can be transferred at a time. That makes it essential to copy files out of Dropbox at the receiving end to a permanent destination so that the transferred file can be deleted from Dropbox to free up space. An alternative to this workflow is seriously needed! More advice and comment needed. Is there any way to connect the Ipad direct to the Synology NAS, for example?

Somone has reported installing 1.6.7 from the apple store I was recently invited to upgrade to 1,6.3 (Windows) and did so Others have not seen that invitation WHat is going on?

Something curious is going on On the Fans Of Serif Software facebook page, it is reported that someone has installed Photo 1.6.7 from the Apple store I recently updated to 1,6,3 when advised to do so as I logged in with my Wndows version We cannot find any information about either of these updates What the hell is going on??????? Sdd to tht the fact that I tried to star a new topic which seems to have overwritten an old one!

If you export an affinity photo file as a .psd file, then any fill layers are ignored. The workaround is to rasterise the fill layers. But this depends on remembering that a specific file contains fill layers. This effectively prevents batch operations for exporting to .psd as this wold be unsafe. Are there any plans to notify you that fill layers will be ignored? Or could a question such as "Convert fill layers to pixel layers?" be included if an attempt to export to ,psd occurs And Are there any other features of Affinity that do not save in .psd files?

Thanks MOB. I am trying to hack my way through this territory as a complete amateur. My understanding (vaguely( is that the WebPlus approach is not sustainable into the future for reasons that I do not understand. I will have a look at Pinegrow. Many thanks.

Of course you are right, but I am trying to deflect Serif strategy, so there is little point is fiddling about among the legacy forums. This needs to be UP FRONT.

It seems one is only able to make feature requests relating to Ipad. Sorry.Not all of us use Ipad. As I can find no other location, I am posting here. Having heard that Serif are withdrawing support for WebPlus I have sought alternatives. Currently I am trying to remodel my website in WordPress which is widely used. It is horribly clunky compared to WebPlus. Is there any possibility that Serif might reconsider its decision to abandon WebPlus? I feel it is a bit like Betamax, which lost out to VHS, even though it was superior, It would be a tragedy to lose WebPlus.

If you export an affinity photo file as a .psd file, then any fill layers are ignored. The workaround is to rasterise the fill layers. But this depends on remembering that a specific file contains fill layers. This effectively prevents batch operations for exporting to .psd as this wold be unsafe. Are there any plans to notify you that fill layers will be ignored? Or could a question such as "Convert fill layers to pixel layers?" be included if an attempt to export to ,psd occurs And Are there any other features of Affinity that do not save in .psd files?