Robotbenjy

Sincerely I am very sorry if I have upset people, Keith if that sounded patronising, it really wasn't meant to be, I really am not that type of person, if you had a pint with me you would see that, but forums with the written word are very clinical and when no body language or expression is included in discussion. 'OK' may sound similar to 'meh' it was meaning as in it does the job. And hobbyists, I mean people that do not need to access to different capabilities at different times with jobs that vary but instead have more a personalised work flow that uses a regular set of tools for their own interest/purpose and may not need to call in capabilities that are beyond this. If the intention of Affinity is not to replace, compete or provide alternative to a wider Photoshop user base and focus mainly on the needs of Photographers that would be a real shame. Then the discussion should probably be Affinity Designer you are aimed designers and that market sector, can we have bitmap editing features and creative filters if it is not a factor with Photo. There really is no alternative to Photoshop on the mac, or putting it another way alternative for the Photoshop user base, I'm not afer a lower cost clone, but something that performs the task in hand. GIMP is good, very good and should be commended for the effort developers put in to it giving up their time at no cost, but it has no CMYK and a number of other things mentioned many many times. Pixelmator is again very good, it has addressed CMYK but lacks in other areas, (you just keep trying to find an alterative solution). Affinity Photo through experimenting and experience with it ticks all the boxes, but the lack of creative filters closes it down, if this is going to be of detriment to the photography fraternity by ruining the experience through bloat etc then I can understand it not moving in to further areas of potential customer need. As discussed time and again, the Adobe leasing system has put me off completely, to get just Photoshop and Illustrator it means it is more or less the same cost of getting the whole suite at roughly £50 a month. I prefer to buy my software, have for as long as I need it and upgrade when I need to, which has mainly been due to OS updates, I'd still happily be using CS5, but on Sierra, Illustrator CS5 constantly crashes and as it is old it is no longer updated/supported forcing an upgrade, with the Adobe software approx £600 per year (£50 x 12months) as opposed to £650ish every 4 years (or more). I’m not brand loyal with anything, whoever offers the goods and is fair gets my custom. I moved from Windows to Apple in about 2003 due to my windows PC requiring constant attention with Firewall, Antivirus, Ghost clone backups etc, I found I was having to spend a lot of time looking after my computer like a Tamagotchi, things I’m sure are probably different now though on a Windows PC. Apple itself has gone from the underdog with a good customer ethos and solution provider to the ‘Master and Commander’ of the customer experience dictating in some ways how and what the customer gets and should act, you will have your music like this, you don’t need a USB port use an adapter instead etc, I’d move to Ubuntu Linux today if it had the graphics tools, it is really nice to use I put it on an old netbook, however I could really not live without Cheetah 3D which is fantastic and Mac only, the software/tools dictate my OS. Adobe has a monopoly on the mac for the wider graphics community, if there is a potential contender you want it to succeed, I have considered Affinity as being that contender, Photo is 90-95% there for what I need, Designer is there apart from the colour picker and distort effects, but can put up with that aspect if needs be by being a bit more long handed with what have been accustomed to. If the two pieces of software are aimed at just two different discrete user bases photographers and vector illustrators and not the bridge in between that is a lot of potential users out of the game. On the original post I suggested three versions Photo, Designer, Photo-Designer as being something great, not consolidating them both in to just one package only. The option for bloat not bloat would be there I guess. Genuinely sorry if I have rattled cages or irritated people, I’ll keep quiet from now on and go back to my former life as a reader only. Thanks Ben

Bought both Affinity Photo and Designer. Was hoping they could replace Adobe apps, it has to be said (and is many times on this forum) the Affinity software is very good, very good indeed, but after buying the software I find that I don't use it, can't use it really, not because I don't know how, but because it will not do the job in hand ...at least at the moment. Affinity Photo is being called a Photoshop killer, I wish it would, but Photoshop many many years ago stopped being a photo editor/touch up tool and became a graphics suite for image manipulation and lets be honest Affinity Photo is not, so therefore can't be considered even slightly a Photoshop killer. In a hobbyist sense for photo touchup ok it is, but then again isn't Photoshop Elements, for a full graphics suite the lack of creative filters hold it back from lurching in to an attack on Adobe software. I can cope with limitations on features I can work with workarounds on features, but when there is not even a basic feature in place then the software is redundant. Lets face it, the oil painting, palette knife, watercolour filters in Photoshop do not get used for these effects, they are poor in Photoshop if that is the outcome, but it is the combinations of these filters on blended layers that get the effects e.g. Blended layers of Cutout filter layer, plastic wrap layer, Neon Glow - desaturated and inverted and Distortion Glass applied with a good number of steps and filters in between to produce convincing paint and sketch effects. I would have thought these creative filters would have been one of the more important and primary features for Photoshop replacement consideration (in addition to standard Photo Editing capabilities that appears on all the different varieties of image editing software such as curves, masks, selections etc). Designer however is getting close to commiting the vigilante act with Illustrator, now that is a cracking piece of software, it isn't Illustrator yet, but is getting there. Creating 'low poly' art in Designer is an absolute pain as I personally find the ink dropper/selection workflow an absolute pain to use. Designer does need more of the effects (distort/transform types) to be implemented. I realise that there is much love and praise for Affinity apps on here, and so there should be, but am aware saying anything detrimental or critical on a loyal forum can result in a barrage of abuse and 'telling off'. But please if you are inclined to do so please consider this thought, I have brought this up as somebody that rarely if ever contributes to forums of any kind, I really want Affinity to replace my current workflow, have been patiently trying and evaluating software open source, trial software for the last 15 years for something that will replace the Adobe workflow, there have been few that have shown promise but then either stagnate or stop development. I am really hoping Affinity is here to stay and make my comments on the basis that myself and I'm sure other people really need these features. Secondly I have not just used the trial, but have bought this software even though it is quite frankly of no use to me yet, and I am not rich, am I disappointed, well in one respect yes because even though I want to, I can't yet use it, I can't drop Adobe yet until the features are in place, but... I am happy to buy this software though, play around with it from time to time, to get used to the interface and differences ready for future version switchover, in the hope that my contribution in buying the software continues the development of the apps and longetivity of Affinity. Without being too out there, Photo and Designer in one app? Now that would be something, no switching between apps for design work, even Adobe can't do that one (probably more from a business point of view than application development). Three apps to choose from Photo, Designer, Photo-Designer prices adjusted accordingly I'd happily pay the combined price or more even for the latter. OK, thanks for reading, hope it does slightly resonate with some. Ben