paristo

Please 'like' this post to add your vote for .BMP support in Affinity -
 
Yes! I would love Affinity to add support for the .BMP format

When I heard Affinity Photo, it was years ago and it just for my luck was in -50% sale. It was no brainer to pict it up for 25 € price tag.
Then when Affinity Designer was released, I waited some time and it came as well in sale for -50% and I picked it up. It is my least used Affinity app, as I prefer for many things in Inkscape.
Then when Affinity Publisher was released, again picked up in -50% sale. It is great when you need to do in horry some PDF's, but many ways I still prefer Scribus for layout.
But what I dislike overall in almost all PDF layout apps, is that they are not fully compatible with all features that Adobe push to PDF format. Like example interactive PDF creation is severely lacking various levels across alternatives to Adobe Acrobat.
 
Anyways, I am going to upgrade all Affinity apps to v2.0 ASAP, just to show more support for Affinity, as I have benefitted so much using their software.
And almost what ever they are going to release (or just announce) on 9th for new.... I likely get it.
 
The Teaser video was very well made. Exactly what such should be about.

When I heard Affinity Photo, it was years ago and it just for my luck was in -50% sale. It was no brainer to pict it up for 25 € price tag.
Then when Affinity Designer was released, I waited some time and it came as well in sale for -50% and I picked it up. It is my least used Affinity app, as I prefer for many things in Inkscape.
Then when Affinity Publisher was released, again picked up in -50% sale. It is great when you need to do in horry some PDF's, but many ways I still prefer Scribus for layout.
But what I dislike overall in almost all PDF layout apps, is that they are not fully compatible with all features that Adobe push to PDF format. Like example interactive PDF creation is severely lacking various levels across alternatives to Adobe Acrobat.
 
Anyways, I am going to upgrade all Affinity apps to v2.0 ASAP, just to show more support for Affinity, as I have benefitted so much using their software.
And almost what ever they are going to release (or just announce) on 9th for new.... I likely get it.
 
The Teaser video was very well made. Exactly what such should be about.

For videoeditor I use Kdenlive, as it offers all that is required in easy manner.  For video clippings I use commandline (you can just copy-paste video stream data inside the container for a new file) as it is 100% lossless process unlike the media cutter files (unless you use a lossless format). For 3D animations I use blender, as it offers more than needed. For 2D animations I use Synfig or Pencil2D and considering now to use ENVE. And here comes the BUT....
I would love to have a way to make an short animated files. Nothing serious, be it just "each layer is a frame" kind. Sure it would be very nice to have a timeline so one can go in time/frames to given position and then make a path that something moves between keyframes or morph the shape from round to box etc. Just very simple and basic ones. It could be used in Affinity Photo to morph even pixel images with its Liquify Persona. 
We do not need full animation studio suite. That is something that requires completely own level of features.  We do not need full video editor suite. Again that is so complex subject that no reasons.  We do not either need 3D modeling software. Again so complex subject that just no go.  So what we do need? I support idea that we need a very simple short animation feature that allows someone to get a layer to move around a given path at X seconds or make a few seconds vector changing etc. If it even would be exporting a series of image files so we can use other editors to do the actual animation, and it would be great. But the challenge really is to get some image data to be changing its form from A to B in time of X. Very simple animation, movement etc.
Challenge really is that how quickly something becomes "I want more" and it is can of worms situation. 
 

For videoeditor I use Kdenlive, as it offers all that is required in easy manner.  For video clippings I use commandline (you can just copy-paste video stream data inside the container for a new file) as it is 100% lossless process unlike the media cutter files (unless you use a lossless format). For 3D animations I use blender, as it offers more than needed. For 2D animations I use Synfig or Pencil2D and considering now to use ENVE. And here comes the BUT....
I would love to have a way to make an short animated files. Nothing serious, be it just "each layer is a frame" kind. Sure it would be very nice to have a timeline so one can go in time/frames to given position and then make a path that something moves between keyframes or morph the shape from round to box etc. Just very simple and basic ones. It could be used in Affinity Photo to morph even pixel images with its Liquify Persona. 
We do not need full animation studio suite. That is something that requires completely own level of features.  We do not need full video editor suite. Again that is so complex subject that no reasons.  We do not either need 3D modeling software. Again so complex subject that just no go.  So what we do need? I support idea that we need a very simple short animation feature that allows someone to get a layer to move around a given path at X seconds or make a few seconds vector changing etc. If it even would be exporting a series of image files so we can use other editors to do the actual animation, and it would be great. But the challenge really is to get some image data to be changing its form from A to B in time of X. Very simple animation, movement etc.
Challenge really is that how quickly something becomes "I want more" and it is can of worms situation. 
 

In landscape photography you are same way in hurry as in wildlife photography and bracketing shots or taking high speed sequences. Sports and wildlife ain't only area that benefits from 60 FPS. So does as well macro photography.
And street photography ain't only area where quick deciding moment goes in time of raising camera for shot, it happens as well in landscape photography, and even more in macro photography.
Wildlife and sports photography can be done very effectively with a single frame and using manual focus, it just requires more skill and talent. But same thing is applied for landscape, macro etc.
But one limitation many does have is that they set artificial restrictions by using some custom ratios, instead being free to compose by best of the content and situation, freely.
When browsing old photographs, one can see that prints comes in all kind various sizes and formats when done byself in darkroom. But so many got stuck to these specific sizes in quick development and services as well now the displays.
 
 
If there just would be a way to set parameter settings as default.... Right?
All settings should have profiles to be saved in drop down list, and set one of them as default, as well having the factory default to ever get back to Affinity default.
 

Even if it would be a option in settings, it would be better than nothing.

Almost all of them don't have the basic features only and even when trying to offer more doesn't do it so well. As you have explained the options are very few.
Idea is that Serif already needs to develop lot of things for the PDF support in all their products, especially the Publisher. I don't see need for any major PDF specific application as addition to Photo, Designer and Publisher to allow people work with the PDF files. Instead put all that effort to core elements in those three applications. So if someone needs to work a lot with printshops, then buy these primary three versions as required. 
 
But the simple PDF reader that can nicely show the files without requirement to load Affinity applications (and hence to own them) and this way get more marketing for their primary products when people would get use to simple lightweight PDF application to open files. This is as well reason why Adobe maintains their free reader as they want to get people custom to their products, then get them to monthly fee business etc. 
Majority of the work is already done by Serif for their other applications, question is more really about selecting good set of basic features and make a dedicated reader so one application less from others to have installed to read PDF files and to create them with other Affinity applications. 

Personal project. Almost entirely done with Adesigner. Thanks to the new 1.9 feature Antialiasing control. Thanks to Aphoto and new pattern layer.

In landscape photography you are same way in hurry as in wildlife photography and bracketing shots or taking high speed sequences. Sports and wildlife ain't only area that benefits from 60 FPS. So does as well macro photography.
And street photography ain't only area where quick deciding moment goes in time of raising camera for shot, it happens as well in landscape photography, and even more in macro photography.
Wildlife and sports photography can be done very effectively with a single frame and using manual focus, it just requires more skill and talent. But same thing is applied for landscape, macro etc.
But one limitation many does have is that they set artificial restrictions by using some custom ratios, instead being free to compose by best of the content and situation, freely.
When browsing old photographs, one can see that prints comes in all kind various sizes and formats when done byself in darkroom. But so many got stuck to these specific sizes in quick development and services as well now the displays.
 
 
If there just would be a way to set parameter settings as default.... Right?
All settings should have profiles to be saved in drop down list, and set one of them as default, as well having the factory default to ever get back to Affinity default.
 

Yes, more options for the directories (defaults, as common defaults) are needed. 
 
- Save Affinity file to same location as the opened file by default, unless otherwise pointed elsewhere.
- Export file to same location as the opened file, unless pointed elsewhere.
- Remember different Export and Save As -directories per file opened (file from C: doesn't get offered being saved where file from D: got opened)
 
 
It would be nice to be able just unpack package full of image files, open to Affinity Photo and save file and get it saved to "Affinity" directory after pointing in first save time. Then get export as well saved to "Export" directory after pointing the first time there.
 
It would speed up the processing multiple files in same directory (detect the directory path is it same as "Session" or is it as "Project".
 
 

Common keyboards US layout vs another layout dilemma.
The challenge is that all these special shortcuts should be in standard letters, not behind special characters. And brush size and its other adjustments should be possible be done easily with mouse itself that is used to use it. So ctrl+drag or ctrl+alt+drag. No [ or ] buttons or similar special characters.

This was a nice gesture from the Affinity part. I lost directly least 4000€ in first month, and that as well made me to reconsider many new workflows and one of them was complete move to Affinity. It was inevitable change but now it was better to do at once.
The good side in this COVID-19 situation is that, as lensrentals own survey had results that 19% of the photographers considered career change because this, that it is now easier to recommend people try these Affinity applications as there is this great 90 day trial period. And some has decided to buy them all once they saw how easy it was to produce actual print materials with graphics etc. The workflow how easy it is in Affinity to move work between three different applications is just amazing. I demoed in ten minutes how to create PDF files with photos, add some graphics and then crate the layout quickly and go back and worth to edit the corresponding parts was really effective way in the eyes of Adobe users.
It is little shameful to say that world would need more of the episodes like these where people would learn to get out of their old habits and concentrate more to what is happening around them and see if they can make things better or if there are tools and ideas that helps everyone.   

This was a nice gesture from the Affinity part. I lost directly least 4000€ in first month, and that as well made me to reconsider many new workflows and one of them was complete move to Affinity. It was inevitable change but now it was better to do at once.
The good side in this COVID-19 situation is that, as lensrentals own survey had results that 19% of the photographers considered career change because this, that it is now easier to recommend people try these Affinity applications as there is this great 90 day trial period. And some has decided to buy them all once they saw how easy it was to produce actual print materials with graphics etc. The workflow how easy it is in Affinity to move work between three different applications is just amazing. I demoed in ten minutes how to create PDF files with photos, add some graphics and then crate the layout quickly and go back and worth to edit the corresponding parts was really effective way in the eyes of Adobe users.
It is little shameful to say that world would need more of the episodes like these where people would learn to get out of their old habits and concentrate more to what is happening around them and see if they can make things better or if there are tools and ideas that helps everyone.   

This was a nice gesture from the Affinity part. I lost directly least 4000€ in first month, and that as well made me to reconsider many new workflows and one of them was complete move to Affinity. It was inevitable change but now it was better to do at once.
The good side in this COVID-19 situation is that, as lensrentals own survey had results that 19% of the photographers considered career change because this, that it is now easier to recommend people try these Affinity applications as there is this great 90 day trial period. And some has decided to buy them all once they saw how easy it was to produce actual print materials with graphics etc. The workflow how easy it is in Affinity to move work between three different applications is just amazing. I demoed in ten minutes how to create PDF files with photos, add some graphics and then crate the layout quickly and go back and worth to edit the corresponding parts was really effective way in the eyes of Adobe users.
It is little shameful to say that world would need more of the episodes like these where people would learn to get out of their old habits and concentrate more to what is happening around them and see if they can make things better or if there are tools and ideas that helps everyone.   

Hi Marmite,
 
Welcome to the Forums :)
 
To select a colour from a photo and make it transparent you can do the following:
 
1. Go to Select and then Select Sampled Colour.
2. Click the colour you want and refine the selection until you are happy with it.
3. At the bottom right  of the App there is the Channels Tab inside this tab is the Pixel Selection Channel.
4. Right click this Channel and click Invert then click Create Spare Channel.
5. You will now see a Spare Channel below the Pixel Selection Channel.
6. Right click the Spare Channel and choose Load To Background Alpha.
 
This should then make the Colour Selection transparent :)
 
C

I think something where you get own "brush-kit" (widget on the side, or drop-down list from top) where all brushes are listed. And then you can create new ones with samples or using simple "layer mask" technique where black on the white scratch pad is turned to the brush itself.

DAM doesn't need to convert raw at all!
 
That is the whole point of the DNG as well.
 
The DNG file is "like a ZIP file", just like every other raw file is just a container. Most raw files inside holds a sidecar file with metadata, a low resolution preview JPEG file and then three TIFF files, one for each bayer filter color. 
The raw converter job is to import the TIFF files (and if manufacturer has done, decrypt the encryption) and then read the metadata and then proceed to do the demosaicing by combining three TIFF files to one by the commands that there are given. 
 
The DNG does the same thing, except that the TIFF files are never encrypted, there comes a sidecar file for metadata and all the modifications done to the image, there are two preview JPEG (large and small) and you can even embed the original raw file inside, to be used in future with a raw converter that can read the original file instead converted clear images DNG offers. 
So when ever you have a DAM, all it needs to know is to read the raw file container JPEG file for preview, read the metadata sidecar file and that's it. No need to what so ever to do conversion. 
 
So everytime you save your "non-destructive" file, its preview JPEG is updated and DAM reads that.
 
It is all already solved long long time ago, the only difference is that you really get a new window to do your image editing, instead swapping to "Develop module" or such "tab" otherwise. And that is as well better in multi-screen environments, with low memory systems etc as you have more flexibility to choose what you use and when. 
 
That is one of the great things with the Affinity Photo that you can just double click raw file in memory card to open it, make the adjustments, save the Affinity file to memory card. Take the card out and move to other computer and do the DAM import there and you get that Affinity file correcly with the original raw file and then you can just double click the Affinity file in DAM on any computer and get it opened in Affinity Photo in those computers. The raw file stays intact without any problems. 

Yes, more options for the directories (defaults, as common defaults) are needed. 
 
- Save Affinity file to same location as the opened file by default, unless otherwise pointed elsewhere.
- Export file to same location as the opened file, unless pointed elsewhere.
- Remember different Export and Save As -directories per file opened (file from C: doesn't get offered being saved where file from D: got opened)
 
 
It would be nice to be able just unpack package full of image files, open to Affinity Photo and save file and get it saved to "Affinity" directory after pointing in first save time. Then get export as well saved to "Export" directory after pointing the first time there.
 
It would speed up the processing multiple files in same directory (detect the directory path is it same as "Session" or is it as "Project".
 
 

Yes, more options for the directories (defaults, as common defaults) are needed. 
 
- Save Affinity file to same location as the opened file by default, unless otherwise pointed elsewhere.
- Export file to same location as the opened file, unless pointed elsewhere.
- Remember different Export and Save As -directories per file opened (file from C: doesn't get offered being saved where file from D: got opened)
 
 
It would be nice to be able just unpack package full of image files, open to Affinity Photo and save file and get it saved to "Affinity" directory after pointing in first save time. Then get export as well saved to "Export" directory after pointing the first time there.
 
It would speed up the processing multiple files in same directory (detect the directory path is it same as "Session" or is it as "Project".
 
 

Yes, that is a problem when having more than two files open and you lose track of the order where you are processing files. 
A slight lighter/darker color or even a single pixel thick line above the tab is good. 

Challenge with the progress bars is that you need to be accurate with them, and you need to know the ending time. 
 
Everyone should be familiar with the infamous Windows progress bars where it hangs at 5%, 6%, 7% and then suddenly jumps to 98%, 99% and sits there half of the time until gets to 100% and still rolls?
 
How to calculate the process then? Okay, you have 45 frames focus stacking, should we split the 100% to a 90 frames so first you show progress when a frame is processed for alignment so then when all 45 frames are aligned, you end up 50% part and then is focus stacking started. So after every frame is processed and added for the stack, you progress the bar?
Sounds easy right? But it aint'... 
 
How to calculate process when loading an image? By the amount of data read from disk, or by the processed the data in memory or what?
 
Then when it comes to simple "processing" informations like a circling balls in Windows now, or a circle going around like Google etc, it is as well not so good. As the animation is a own thread running, but doesn't tell that thread doing process hasn't hanged! So you can be in infinite loop in data processing, but the animation "I am working!" is as well in infinite loop. And ain't better from "Loading 1 Document"
 
One of the easiest really is the data input/output about reading and writing data to disk. But that too is very far from reality as there can be many complex background operations waiting to be processed. Like if you save a file to a memory stick, it can take anywhere from 180 to 720 seconds that the data is actually flushed from the RAM to the actual memory stick so it is there when you pull it out! Even when the application doing the writing says "100% completed"! That is why the correct drives ejection is required as you tell the OS that specific storage device is about to be removed and it needs to flush the data from RAM to it so it is there correctly. 
 
I worked with a few dozen Affinity Photo files last week in one day over a network drive. The Affinity told that the file was saved and then I went to make a phone call that lasted about 4 min and came back and shut the laptop and went away. Later on I opened the files on a another computer from the network drive, only to find out that the layers with TIFF files were corrupted by few pixels rows. Every single one that I had saved in a batch, had the similar effects, from few rows to tens of rows. 
The fault was mine, as I didn't follow my standard procedure, save first locally and only then copy the files over network drive and check the disconnection. 
I knew better, I just wanted to trust that things would go right as I didn't have time. And now, by trying to save the couple minutes, I wasted days! (Okay, I didn't as I had backups from the process elsewhere). 
 
Even when a simple "Save Dialog" gets closed as "Save is Completed", it doesn't mean it is! So how you make a progress bar for that?
 
 
 
 
 

Yes, that is a problem when having more than two files open and you lose track of the order where you are processing files. 
A slight lighter/darker color or even a single pixel thick line above the tab is good. 

Yes, in a way. But you said not to do a DAM while I recommend Affinity to go a head and do a DAM, but really get it right. Affinity should do a DAM that is purely focused for managing images. Then they have their Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer for working. And what they need to do is a "raw persona" that is own separate product for raw conversion that is used with all two (DAM and Affinity Photo) as integrated unit, instead both having something. Bring the updates to the raw converter quickly and even backport for older versions if possible. 

Yes, in a way. But you said not to do a DAM while I recommend Affinity to go a head and do a DAM, but really get it right. Affinity should do a DAM that is purely focused for managing images. Then they have their Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer for working. And what they need to do is a "raw persona" that is own separate product for raw conversion that is used with all two (DAM and Affinity Photo) as integrated unit, instead both having something. Bring the updates to the raw converter quickly and even backport for older versions if possible.