tallrob

The point of a Digital Asset Manager isn't just organizing files. Every OS has a native method of doing that. The reason we need a DAM is to facilitate non-destructive editing. This is where LR and Aperture (rip) excelled, and why people latched on to them. Before LR there was Bridge, which was good for the time but you could easily stack up many GBs of "versions" that shared 99% of the same bits. True DAMs solved that problem by storing master files and saving versions as editing instructions to be applied on export. Aperture was the king of DAM for photography, and happily stored whatever files you threw at it. It could even handle multilayered psd files with ease. C1P is pretty good but lacks Aperture's stacking and album features, plus it's slow as molasses with large libraries. I can't speak much to LR anymore since I haven't used it in ages. The other critical feature of a DAM is culling. That means ratings and filters. This is where amateur applications like Photos fall short. You can "love" a photo, but it won't do star ratings (honestly I would have used Photos if not for this lacking feature because the plugin implementation is pretty decent). I think it's really difficult to invent a method of storing any and every type of file while still allowing for a roundtrip non-destructive workflow. It's not impossible, but there will always be compromise.

But the whole point of this feature request is to remedy exactly that problem.

So, this post is pinned, and it says [Implemented], but I still don't see any obvious way to open an indeed file in Affinity Publisher. If it's indeed now possible, maybe it's a good idea to edit the first post to reveal the method of doing so.

Bingo.

DAM, or something that looks like it. I switched from Aperture to C1 and I'm regretting it, but like everyone else here (I assume) I won't do Adobe. Affinity asset management is a must.

I have to say I don't understand this type of response. Successful companies grow by adding products to their lineup in addition to improving existing ones all the time. They also grow by acquiring existing packages and rebranding them to fit their lineup. This attitude of "please don't add what other people need, just improve what I already have" is shortsighted. Serif is squarely aimed at competing with Adobe, which is their only chance of long term survival. They need to be doing what Adobe does, better and cheaper. So far so good, but asking them to stop short of a 1:1 parity in product offering is shortsighted. That means Serif should develop (or acquire) video editing, special effects and DAM programs to complete their lineup. Affinity is nothing if not a lifeline for folks drowning in the Adobe model.

Bravo. If Serif would just basically rebuild Aperture minus the bloat, their suite would be a miracle product and Adobe would feel it.

The print dialog is a mess. I have to drop down too many menus and the only color profiles that show are the built-in Epson .iccs – custom and paper manufacturer's profiles require another click and search, and don't persist. I have to do it again with every print. Also, can't recenter or reduce the print area, so I can't do test strips. Easier to go back to Photoshop for printing. Please give the print workflow some consideration. A pre-print dialog with an actual print preview based on page setup, that allows for scaling and repositioning would be wonderful. Thanks.

What the naysayers don't seem to understand is that an integrated DAM/RAW Processor/Pixel Editor is essential to maintaining a start to finish non-destructive workflow, and that nobody has come closer to this than Adobe, and even LR and/or Bridge still haven't gotten it right. Affinity has a better chance of taking on Adobe because they're doing it from the ground up. A DAM implementation should have been their TOP priority. Crowds of visual designers would have swarmed to Affinity and Adobe would be shaking in their boots by now. But they went the way of iPad apps instead, and too many ignorant folks say they don't see the point of a DAM app. Maybe they're ok with having dozens of versions of files in a mix of proprietary and destructive formats, floating around on an archive of hard drives, but high production pros know the value of a database-driven library where you can do it once and always know where to find it when it's time to go to the next step of the project. NON-DESTRUCTIVE workflow is the key. If Serif is brave enough to dive in all the way they'll reap the rewards. Until then, thousands of users will keep the Affinity suite at arms length if they can't see an end-to-end commitment.

Same here. Serif have been promising a DAM implementation into the Affinity Suite for YEARS. Now they say there are no plans for it. Oh well, not a chance I'm going to dive into Affinity now. I'll stick with Capture One plus an old version of Photoshop. *sigh*

I should add and stress: the lack of DAM/RAW is keeping from adopting Affinity as my full time solution.

Honestly I'm not sure why this is such a long-standing question. Any real professional media production suite needs a lossless DAM for managing versions and editing history. And integrating a RAW processor is critical to its success. This is a no-brainer. Just look at all the big names, present and former: Lightroom, Capture One, Aperture (R.I.P.), even Apple Photos and iPhoto before it. Apple doesn't use the finder to manage photos and videos, why should we? Adobe Bridge was good enough until the Library/Catalog database concept replaced it. Bridge still dumps dozens of near duplicates on your hard drive, and should your sidecar files ever become separated, good luck. And Managing RAW files in the Finder or Bridge is a lesson in frustration. Let's stop trying to reinvent the wheel here. A database DAM RAW editor tool is essential.

Yes, a Mac. I have an account from signing up for the first public beta in 2015, and later a different account (accidentally) when I downloaded the trial.

MEB, I don't think you're reading my posts very carefully. I went to download the extras, and I was asked to either create a new account or log in with my old account. I have two accounts from previous purchases of Affinity Photo and beta testing. Neither of those logins worked, and neither does the password reset. I'm not talking about Forum login or old Serif accounts. Now your first reply told me I didn't need to log in, and now you're telling me I need to create a new account. The real problem is that the login and password reset aren't working. So perhaps you could stop replying with useless info and go see if someone knows something about that. OK? Thanks.

So I have to create a new, third account even though I already have two accounts? Your password reset is still not working.

MEB, I did that originally, but I have to create a new account or sign in in order to download. I guess I could try creating a new account but I already have two as far as I know.

I can't log in to my Affinity account to download the bonus content that's included with 1.6. It turns out I have two accounts, and neither of them works. Furthermore, I can't seem to reset my password for either account. I enter my address and click the reset button, but I never receive the email with instructions. I checked my junk mail and it's not there either. I can log in to the support forums (clearly) but that login uses a username, not email address. Help?

Teasers can only last so long. Still staying tuned... but a little info from the devs would be nice :rolleyes:

Mike, perhaps the difference is between Organizing and Managing. DAM is asset management, which goes a few steps beyond simple organization. Its primary goal where photos are concerned, at least from the birth of Aperture and Lightroom (as alternatives to Bridge) was to avoid file duplication wherever possible. That's the Management part. And it was particularly important for photographers who began seeing their hard drives quickly filled with duplicated files for every edit they made, even simple ones. So Aperture (I think derived from Photo Mechanic or something like that) provided photogs with RAW processing and simple instruction based (non-destructive but more importantly non-constructive) pixel editing, which left the original file untouched and didn't duplicate it either, but rather saved an instruction set that was only applied in viewing or exporting a version of the image. Add to that the ability to intelligently rate and organize projects, folders and albums, filtered searching and great batch processing, and you had an absolutely amazing, powerful tool that photographers loved. Right up until Apple killed it and left us with the mess that is LR. Capture One impressively picked up some of the slack, and even added editing layers and masks, but the price isn't so great and there's still room for improvement in their DAM implementation. So while the ability to organize multiple file types is great (Aperture could mostly do this), managing the assets with intelligent filtering, RAW processing and basic editing is critical for photographers, and I imagine others would like it too. The only thing I could add is that storage is always becoming cheaper, so maybe avoiding duplicates isn't so important as it used to be, although that gain is negated by the advent of expensive SSDs and ever growing RAW file sizes. Hope that helps to clarify why this is such an important feature for many of us.

Since this thread seems to have been effectively pinned as the future DAM app feature request thread, I'd like to copy what I posted earlier on two occasions, which never got any response. I guess I could sum up both of these by just saying "do it like Aperture did it", but here they are for reference. And this way back in Feb '15

Great news. Two things: 1) Please make the DAM application, as well as its utilization of Affinity Photo as an "external" editor, as non-destructive as possible. At its best, AP would not even be considered "external" at all, but just another editing instruction set that doesn't touch or duplicate the original file. This is a top priority for me. 2) Those of you who cite Bridge as the superior due to its "in-place" approach to file management, both Aperture and Lightroom (and Capture One) can do the same type of "referenced" management. Bridge is a god awful mess of an application. I hope nothing is modeled after it where DAM is concerned. Libraries/Catalogs have come a long way since iPhoto started hiding originals years ago. They're not a bad idea anymore. But it's always nice and necessary to allow files to remain unmanaged (just not the way Bridge does it).

It's really really really great that we're finally seeing some promising Photoshop competition. I've been following the Pixelmator development closely but they aren't aiming at the professional market. Finally somebody else is. Thanks so much and congrats. I'm buying the App as soon as it's released just to support the cause and keep up with it until such time as it fills all my needs. However... Perhaps the greatest need goes beyond Photo editing, and beyond what Affinity Designer is doing. Think bigger. The weak spot in any workflow is Digital Asset Management (DAM). Hierarchical Folder organizing is terribly inefficient and outdated. Adobe Bridge tried to solve that but .xmp sidecar files are messy. Lightroom is the king of photo DAM now that Aperture is being phased out. But Aperture had DAM right. It was the absolute best at organizing, sorting, rating, version stacking and keyboarding, and while its RAW engine was mediocre, it made up for it with the best roundtrip editing workflow out there. It was totally under appreciated except by those who dug in and used it to the fullest, and now there's a huge gap to be filled. We need something to compete with Lightroom, and it needs to be database driven. Forget sidecar files. If you can come up with a way to truly manage digital assets - not just photos, but video, vector files and (god willing) your future replacement for InDesign files, you'd blow Adobe and its cloud subscription service out of the water. Please please consider an application to manage our files. The Finder just doesn't cut it. (I'm not sure what type of integration will be possible with the new Photos app that's "replacing" iPhoto and Aperture, but word is you can't do star ratings or stacks, and it might never be up to snuff)