Polygonius

The WHOLE brush-concept is suboptimal. The functionality is almost great, but all aspects of access and the handling is... could be much more better
 
1. View of brushes
With hundreds of brushes in dozens of categories... you will become some problems to find which you want. The only possible preview-view is this stroke-view. This view is complete useless if you search for eg. a texture, or if the size is set to a small or extra-big value... There is absolute no option to show/order the brush just as big quader-view, showing the "texture", sort by size, sort by name.. BTW: when doing any other action, and going back to brush-panel... the highlight is disappeared, so what brush im currently use???
2. Fast access to standard or similar brushes overall
However in which category i am, which tool i use...  There a lot of situations i need a standard-brush during the situation i use other ones. Same by changing the tool. Its nice that last brsuh for this tool is remembered... in maybe 60% thats a good choice.  But as said often i need a standard-one. The way to panal-brush, hamburger to simple, choose one is very very long windowed, the way back is even more complicated, if do not remember, which category, which item...
The solution: Right-click: Besides other context-options, each brush-like-tool offers a right-context and here are in the first divide-area some entries like this "use standard 1,2,3..."  (i have defined 5 standard brushes); "go to favorite" (here i have maybe 7 favorite brushes... in maybe different categorys, the brsuh-panel will automatically react to this); and "go back"...here are my last 5 brushes (except the standard ones). 
Another right-menu- (better context-bar) should be: "Use current size" and "do not use tool"  Each brush has its own size, and some ones special tools.This is often a big advantage, but often not. If i just searching for TEMPORALLY POSSIBLE brush... i almost want the candidates in a equal chosen size, with same opacity... and of course i do not want wet edges or another tool, when just searhing for this job. This checkboxes, will narcotic the special UNIQUE brush-settings and call them in the most familiar way as the current one. This is only valid as long the check is active!
3. Edit a brush TEMPORALLY or as automic "OVER-WRITTEN"
There is absolutely no way to temporally change a brush, when using the brush panel. ALL settings there will immediately "stored" without asking. But in 90% i just want this changes just temporally...  There should be a "Save/Overwrite" button, if i want this changes PERMANENTLY,  otherwise all done settings are just temporally, just for this current job and only valid as soon i change to another brush! If i want this settings PERMANENT., i have several options: Overwrite, Save as (= duplicate+++, below the original), Save as in category....  save as VARIATION (later more)
As said before: A context-right for brush-tools would be great. Here could also be the entry "open further settings". This will popup  the brsuh-setting-panel  from above, but directly here. And this panel gets automatically closed if the mouse get outside the panel. EXCEPT: i hit the button: Stay in front, or so. Otherwise its a one or maybe 3 edit window, as long visible as the mouse is inside. 
As said before, all settings here are just temporally, if i change the brush, all is forgotten, except i EXPLICIT save as/overwrite... 
4. Do we need so much brushes? The Power of VARIATIONS!
What is a brush? Except the standard ones, a brush is just a HOLDER of a single- or several images... with special settings, how to repeat this images. I would say all "brushes" which use the same image(s) are one brush, but different variotions. Well the settings can be so extrem different, i would not say its a family, even if the definition above is valid. But for lot of brushes we could put them together as just "variation". Grunge-Edgy-brushes for example. We need this brushes as top, left, above, right... edges in maybe different sizes... Or texture brushes with the same images in different sizes/rotations/opacity/flow...This will grow up our librarys, lot of SAME brushes will appear as single-ones. With VARIATIONS that would be much more easy, faster, smarter... 
If i right-click of on a VARITION-brush i get all its "Variations" (size, rotation, flow, opacity... dynamics... and combinings)... as one-click-selection! This would, save lot of same brsuhes with just different soizes...rotations... organize all brushes in a significant better, very fast and really smart way. A piano-sound keeps a piano sound, even with different play-wise and lot of FX. Well, if i do a lot work, it maybe can sound like a contrabass... but why not use the contrabass as first element???? And if my piano-fx sounds like a saxophon... i will take this sample as new "parent" for new variations... The "family-idea" keeps under all circumtances the same. 
And yeah, normaly 0-1 sets the opacity for a brush... if i option, why not use this numbers instead for my dedicated, more precise VARIATIONS???? (i can use normal behavior or say: for this BRUSH use the fisrt 10 variations...)
5. Creating new brushes/behaviors/dynamics...
Why can i not rightclick a layer and say "create new brush from it"?  This longwindow via save and search in the brush dialog... ist sooooo unsmart!
Why not "repeating" part of the image but in front and end there will be take other parts of the images, like an audio- sample, its repeats just only the "middle" but will fade in/out... 
Why not using special-keys for special dynamics? With shift all dynamics will pressured and with command all dynamics will multiply by 2..... or control will change the size, even if sizedynamic = zero.... and so on...
6. Presets
Well ALL of the AP-Preset-SystemS (yes plural) in AP lacks of lot things. Some are rename, but not moveable, some one  can organzied inside a category, but the categorys not moved... and so on... It seems, dozens of single-people, without any ideas of concept and "anticipate user wishes; unslave them from lot of long-windowed" could try their luck! ALL this systems are inconsistent, each other, and long-windowed and i would say Semi-semi-semi-professionell. My 7 years old daughter would this better "concept", cause she knows, its better to have ALL colored pencils in separate boxes , not in the whole flat, room, garden... AND she knows sometimes its better to reorganize ALL pencils to project-ones... But even than, after each projekt, she is going back to her normally order... she likes most lexibility WITH basic-structure and she is very, very lazy... maybe thats the reason, she does not like to do things twice or long-windowed, or over-complicated... she is FLEXIBLE-PRAGMATIC, before doing anything, lets get an overview... is this the best way? who says???? what would be, if...!!!  

I subscribe that the gradient tool should be overworked. Especially (like all "presets"-tools) for the handling of presets. State of the art of organizing presets is very uncomfortable. And the graident should support multiple gradients in one layer.
 
The good news: There are hundreds of free gradients in the Ressources sub.
To start take this and say thank you to sierra alfa  and good luck to organize them in your own way  
 
 

Maybe i overread/oversee this, in earlier version, but in v147 i nocticed an app-chrash-big is fixed and i just want to say thank you!
It the bug wehre an selection from the quickmask would crash the whole app if you try to run macro. Now its fixed. So thank you AP!
 

If you want this FX...style often, in other docs... than create a style, just rightclick on that text, shape... and select save as style. For shapes it will include the color/gradient, the stroke... and all in the FX panel. For text it will also save the font /size...

Am i to stupide?
Can not download the whole file. Just print single-pages like in the old version?????
Why to hell, not just a simple PDF???? 
The help itself (and the localization) is very good, but the access to the chapters or keywords is from the for-last centurry.
 
But at least - its now zoomable!

Booth has big advantages before each other. And i thing SERIF is goin a well way to take its concept.
SERIF has some advantages before PS, BUT also some big "we are years behind".
 
1. Preset-Managing  is in SERIF sometimes impossible or only extrem long-windowed.
2. SERIF can import PS-brushes, you can edit to your own... but its a torture to find a brush (if you have hundreds in dozens categorys)... No way for fast change via right-click (no brush-history), no preset manager for better organize, no smart folders/aliases (to keep one brush in different categories...) no other preview... no possibility "create brush-tip/texture from that layer/clipbord.... This is so last century.... The FREE Krita is much, much better in create/handling brushes.... Its really a shame how SERIF handle this!
3. Affinity lecks of "options" and templates and stuff like that. There are some "not changeable", questionable defaults - you have always to set to your like EACH time again... someting is NEVER changeable like the "wrong" after/before.... preview....  You cannot create templates in the size you want, with some layers you need...., the tool you want...
4. If you work with macros (actions) - Well Serif offers this possibility and ists working quite well for basic stuff. But lot of things are not recordable (eg. text/smudge...move a layer....) and you cannot EDIT a macro later. You can only de-activate steps, but never "start from here new".... or "replace this step". Also, you cannot range a slider (or give a "dropdown" for eg. 4 different styles....) or to wait of an user-action....  Its quite "basic"...
5. There are other things i forgot. The whole GUI/workflow does what it should, but its not really comfortable....  However SERIF does the job for what it is, and thats really well!
Sometimes you have to seacrh, sometimes it needs too many clicks/mouseways.... but under the hood, its a fantastic app. 
####
If you come from PS- there is some "re-learn", but mostly should be the same. In PS lot of things are faster/workflow better, others not. Both has apps  has "unique" ideas/concepts i cross-miss in each other. So both should "steal/advance-develop" the best ideas/concepts from the competition... That will give BOTH a developing! They should inspire cross-over! Or "steal" from Krita....!
 

I was never a friend of this old "media-browser", but it was better than having nothing! I never understand why is SERIF not taken the infos from finder and create a fast and effective "Just searcher/opener" - in enclouure to its "native DAM". A DAM is for most people a RAW-studio and should be a separte app. A bridge-like "media-browser" is not a really app, its a feature, BELONG to an app like AP:
Adobe Bridge is just an "special gift" for use in other "allowed" apps... "Adobe Lightroom" is an autark app for RAWdys...... SERIF seems not the see the difference between an necessary and and i would say "just a gift" "file-manager" and a rellay autark RAW-seperate-DAM or however called. 
An integrated "picture/file-manager" (semi-smart-Browser/reorganisator = Bridge) should be  available DIRECTLY  from inside the app... is not really standard, but it will common!
A special DAM (light adobe lightroom) is another address, a seperate app.... But yes, a a DAM_like-just-browser/opener/organizer... should be part as "from inside the app" panel... 
 
The 16 media-browswer was a very bad "transfer" of this idea... but however, it was a little bit better than NOTHING!!! This is really a re-gress. To "ask" stock-www - this is possible, but to ask your finder/explorer... for folder, file-extension or some tags???? this ois too difficault? 
As soon there is no "perfect" Media-Browser, just do it like the STOCKS... Just present us our folders/tags... as far as possible. However keep in the BG work on a really DAM. But decide: THere is bridge (which should contain to the app as a GIFT) and threeis Lightroom (as real SEPARTE app). 
HOWEVER: in the meanwhile: Take your experinces from STOCHK and transform to "finder/Explorer"!  This is an im-perfect interim-solution, but better 1000x than absoluytly nothing!
 
 
 

I love this forum because its fast and has not this RTFM-and-other-NONE-educuaction.... tone/mentality.
There is a (really simple question) - SB answers or not! There is NO!!!!  RTFM.... or other "education"!!!! Just the answer!
I really like this!!!!
Completely different is the (german) libreoffice-forum! Here you can just ask, if you have read the manual AND some further articles for special situations!
Simple questions, will "answered" with "read first there and there!!!!!"...
The question there is: for what do i need a forum, if i have to find my answers in a labyrinth-manuael/ online-doc by myself first there? 
The other extreme are the Mac-community - very, very  help-friendly, but never, never ask for a faster/smarter/more intuitive... way!!!!!  All steve-jobs-work is holy,  its a sacrilege to look for a smarter way: There could not be a better way, cause Steve does not  impletmened!
 
THIS forum is so natural!!!! I really like it!
 
 
 

If you want this FX...style often, in other docs... than create a style, just rightclick on that text, shape... and select save as style. For shapes it will include the color/gradient, the stroke... and all in the FX panel. For text it will also save the font /size...

Aha, got it. Thanks guys!

Aha, got it. Thanks guys!

Yes it does! A parallelogram is any quadrilateral whose opposite sides are parallel, so a square (or any rectangle) is simply a special kind of parallelogram.

This is in photo using the rectangle tool.

This bug/report is still open. There wasn't time to fix it for this build. Hopefully in one of the upcoming versions....

Hi,
Thanks for this - fixed in 151.
Andy.

You say there are 
- Numerous fixes for live filter rendering - especially when grouped.
Maybe, but there is still a big bug like this.
1. open the file
2. create a duplicate of the group
3. render this group (rasterize to trim)
4. make the group below invisible!
 
 
Filetr bug.afphoto.zip

You say there are 
- Numerous fixes for live filter rendering - especially when grouped.
Maybe, but there is still a big bug like this.
1. open the file
2. create a duplicate of the group
3. render this group (rasterize to trim)
4. make the group below invisible!
 
 
Filetr bug.afphoto.zip

You say there are 
- Numerous fixes for live filter rendering - especially when grouped.
Maybe, but there is still a big bug like this.
1. open the file
2. create a duplicate of the group
3. render this group (rasterize to trim)
4. make the group below invisible!
 
 
Filetr bug.afphoto.zip

Status: Release candidate
Purpose: Features, Improvements, Fixes
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Photo
Mac App Store: Not Submitted
Download ZIP: Download
Auto-update: Available
 
Hello,
We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of the first release candidate build of Affinity Photo 1.7.2 for macOS.
If this is your first time using a customer beta of an Affinity app, it’s worth noting that the beta will install as a separate app - alongside your store version. They will not interfere with each other at all and you can continue to use the store version for critical work without worry.
This beta is an incremental update to the 1.7.1 version recently released to all customers. We recommend that you use this beta in preference to the store version if you are affected by any of the issues listed below.
Affinity Photo Team  
 
Changes This Build
 
- Resize document fixes.
- Notarised for Catalina.
- Improved SVG loading.
- “D” key resets fills to black & white.
- Brush barrel rotation is no longer inverted when using Wacom stylus.
- Make Apple Sidecar work properly.
- Develop performance tweaks.
- Numerous small bug fixes.
- Localisation tweaks.
- Help tweaks.
 
Changes Since 1.7.1
 
- Added TGA export.
- Added “Remove Black Matte” and “Remove White Matte” filters.
- Shadows and highlights filter can now use either the 1.6 or 1.7 method.
- Flood fill too can now sample from layers beneath etc. Also supports blend modes.
- Flood select tool can now sample from all layers.
- Added keyboard nudge support to the crop tool.
- Added align and distribute toolbar button groups to Photo.
- Different icon for beta builds.
- Cancelling a crop will now preserve the “drag to set crop” state properly.
- Added a warning when deleting a global colour.
- Improvements to compositing performance with Metal compute enabled.
- General improvement to filter responsiveness.
- Improved clone brush responsiveness and fixed a couple of crashes.
- Assorted metadata improvements.
- Saving a JPEG will now replace the EXIF::Subject field with the document title.
- Restore support for .fff files.
- Prevent access to tone mapping / develop when recording a macro (the result would never be recorded).
- Improved the performance of median, blur brush with Metal compute.
- Fixed broken Japanese keyboard input (sorry!).
- Fixed printing CMYK documents on older versions of macOS.
- Fixed sporadic tile issues when painting with Metal compute enabled.
- Fixed crash when reentering export dialog under certain conditions.
- Fixed crashes when pasting screenshots into the app.
- Fixed some crashes on GPUs with 32GB of VRAM (!).
- Fixed vibrance slider in tone mapping.
- Fixed Lightroom data being stripped from Capture One XMP output.
- Fixed loss of legacy HSL adjustment HSV state after a save.
- Fixed batch job crashes when saving to .afphoto.
- Assorted small fixes and improvements.
- Help improvements.
- Localisation improvements.
 
- Selection refinement - performance and stability improvements.
- Fixed clone brush issues when sampling from current layer & below.
- Inpainting performance improvements.
- Import 16bit half float JPEG-XR files properly.
- Allow .jxr files to be dragged in.
- Text performance improvements.
- Improved LAB colour conversions.
- Fixed healing brush bugs.
- Fixed badly placed stepper buttons in tone mapping UI.
- Pantone palettes are now sorted alphabetically.
- Fixed crash when starting app in a folder containing weird characters.
- Fixed yellow colour cast on certain DNG files.
- Fixed 360 degree images losing metadata on export.
- Localisation improvements.
 
To be notified about all future macOS beta updates, please follow this notification thread 
To be notified when this Photo update comes out of beta and is fully released to all Affinity Photo on macOS customers, please follow this thread

Yes, those are the two folders you must keep with their contents exactly where they are. i.e Applications > Affinity Photo > Contents
Whether there’s anything else also required for the beta to run that’s shown in your first screenshot ,that AppCleaner found, I’m not sure but I don’t think so.
As a precaution though, before starting this experiment make sure you have no problems accessing your previous purchases on your Mac App Store account so if needed you can re-download Photo should this all go wrong.
Like I say, it’s at your own risk!

I was speculating on how Equations could be used to create a ripple-like effect in a reflection. I used an image of a Mill on the River Avon at Tewkesbury. I flipped the image vertically and then applied Filter > Distort > Equations as follows.
The main effect is to vary the position of each pixel on the y-axis in a sinusoidal fashion, so I began with:
y=y+100*sin(2*360*y/h)
The 100 is just a scaling factor for now. This had the right effect but was the same right across the image, so I added a cosine function which would vary the magnitude across the x-axis:
y=y+100*cos(10*x/w)*sin(2*360*y/h)
Again the 10 here is a scaling factor. The result was:
 
I should be able to tweak this into a macro where the user could vary the amplitude of the ripple, and the amplitude of the horizontal variation.
A further tweak could be to add a perspective effect so that the ripples nearer the observer look larger than those further away.
What do possible users think. Would this be a useful macro or are there easier ways to get the same effect?
John

Status: Beta
Purpose: Features, Improvements, Fixes
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Photo
Mac App Store: Not Submitted
Download ZIP: Download
Auto-update: Available
 
Hello,
We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of the second beta of Affinity Photo 1.7.2 for macOS.
If this is your first time using a customer beta of an Affinity app, it’s worth noting that the beta will install as a separate app - alongside your store version. They will not interfere with each other at all and you can continue to use the store version for critical work without worry.
This beta is an incremental update to the 1.7.1 version recently released to all customers. We recommend that you use this beta in preference to the store version if you are affected by any of the issues listed below.
Affinity Photo Team  
 
Changes This Build
 
- Added TGA export.
- Added “Remove Black Matte” and “Remove White Matte” filters.
- Shadows and highlights filter can now use either the 1.6 or 1.7 method.
- Flood fill too can now sample from layers beneath etc. Also supports blend modes.
- Flood select tool can now sample from all layers.
- Added keyboard nudge support to the crop tool.
- Added align and distribute toolbar button groups to Photo.
- Different icon for beta builds.
- Cancelling a crop will now preserve the “drag to set crop” state properly.
- Added a warning when deleting a global colour.
- Improvements to compositing performance with Metal compute enabled.
- General improvement to filter responsiveness.
- Improved clone brush responsiveness and fixed a couple of crashes.
- Assorted metadata improvements.
- Saving a JPEG will now replace the EXIF::Subject field with the document title.
- Restore support for .fff files.
- Prevent access to tone mapping / develop when recording a macro (the result would never be recorded).
- Improved the performance of median, blur brush with Metal compute.
- Fixed broken Japanese keyboard input (sorry!).
- Fixed printing CMYK documents on older versions of macOS.
- Fixed sporadic tile issues when painting with Metal compute enabled.
- Fixed crash when reentering export dialog under certain conditions.
- Fixed crashes when pasting screenshots into the app.
- Fixed some crashes on GPUs with 32GB of VRAM (!).
- Fixed vibrance slider in tone mapping.
- Fixed Lightroom data being stripped from Capture One XMP output.
- Fixed loss of legacy HSL adjustment HSV state after a save.
- Fixed batch job crashes when saving to .afphoto.
- Assorted small fixes and improvements.
- Help improvements.
- Localisation improvements.
 
Changes Since 1.7.1
 
- Selection refinement - performance and stability improvements.
- Fixed clone brush issues when sampling from current layer & below.
- Inpainting performance improvements.
- Import 16bit half float JPEG-XR files properly.
- Allow .jxr files to be dragged in.
- Text performance improvements.
- Improved LAB colour conversions.
- Fixed healing brush bugs.
- Fixed badly placed stepper buttons in tone mapping UI.
- Pantone palettes are now sorted alphabetically.
- Fixed crash when starting app in a folder containing weird characters.
- Fixed yellow colour cast on certain DNG files.
- Fixed 360 degree images losing metadata on export.
- Localisation improvements.
 
To be notified about all future macOS beta updates, please follow this notification thread 
To be notified when this Photo update comes out of beta and is fully released to all Affinity Photo on macOS customers, please follow this thread

For me a Media-Persona just for show and organize all relevant files would be enough. Like Bridge vs LR.
LR should be a separate App, the Media-Persona belongs to AP. For me Serif could improve the price moderat. Or we can buy "personas" which are not included in the standard apps. Eg i would extra buy a designer-persona with vector-brushes and so on. 
However as long as the DAM is not ready, i would like to have an Interim-Media-Solution like describes here 
 

In other words a "fix- or just nerd-subupdate" to the "main"- update??? Exactly what nerds like me want

Status: Beta
Purpose: Features, Improvements, Fixes
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Photo
Mac App Store: Not submitted
Download DMG: Download
Auto-update: Available.
 
Hello,
We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of the latest beta of Affinity Photo 1.7 for macOS.
Photo 1.7 is a (very) significant change to the currently shipping 1.6 version, so, as ever, I would strongly urge users to avoid the 1.7 beta for critical work. This is a pre-release build of 1.7 - we will release more builds before 1.7 ships. Things will be broken in this build - please use it to explore the new features and not for real work.
If this is your first time using a customer beta of an Affinity app, it’s worth noting that the beta will install as a separate app - alongside your store version. They will not interfere with each other at all and you can continue to use the store version for critical work without worry.
It’s also worth noting that we aren’t done yet - we are still working through reported bugs from previous releases and hope to fix as many as possible before the final release of 1.7. To be notified when there is a new beta please press follow on this announcment thread
With all that said, we hope that you will enjoy the new capabilities introduced in this release and we look forward to any and all feedback you give to us.
Many thanks (as always),
Affinity Photo Team  
 
Changes This Build
 
- Fixed horrible Metal compute crashes with pixel layers with masks layers inside, when doing any sort of filter (sorry!).
- Fixed PS plugin crash on launch.
- Attempted fix for crashing PS plugins.
- Initial attempt to improve performance of multi-brushes when Metal compute is not enabled - more to come.
- Fixed Linear Burn blend mode in non-Metal.
- CMYK shadows / highlights filter improvements.
- Leica Monochrom / All mono cameras RAW - load fixes & improvements.
- Localisation tweaks.
 
Changes Since 1.6 Release
 
EDR
- Added support for EDR displays to Photo. When editing a 32bit document, enabling EDR will switch macOS into a mode whereby it will increase the backlight intensity and darken screen content - increasing the dynamic range available when rendering content.
Performance
- The core processing engine in Affinity Photo has been rewritten to take advantage of the powerful discrete AMD GPUs in modern Mac hardware. It will now automatically use any compatible discrete GPU, alongside the Intel GPU support present in 1.6. Typically this improves compositing / editing performance by at least 1000%. Performance when using integrated Intel GPUs has also been massively improved.
- External GPUs (eGPU) are also supported - including hot-plug-and-unplug support.
- Multiple GPUs are supported - if you have more than 1 GPU (ie. Intel + AMD in MacBook Pro, or Intel + eGPU in other Macs) Photo will use them all, at the same time, to improve performance. There is no limit to the number of GPUs which can be used.
Brushes
- Photo 1.7 introduces a new “sub-brush” mechanism, developed in conjunction with Paolo Limoncelli (DAUB® Brushes). This exciting feature allows any brush to have a list of other brushes attached which will draw at the same time. Each sub-brush has a fully separate and customisable set of dynamics. You can control when the sub-brushes are drawn and how they blend with the main brush.
- The brush engine in Photo has been rewritten to use the new GPU architecture described above. With GPU support, even huge brushes with 1% spacing will perform well. All brushes / brush tools are accelerated.
- Symmetry (up to 32-way) is now supported - including on-canvas controls and optional mirroring. We have more symmetry features on the way - so stay tuned during the beta process.
- Wet edges and accumulation are now available on colour brushes and brushes with HSL variance.
- Brushes with multiple nozzle textures have always chosen the nozzle at random. In 1.7, the nozzle choice has a dynamic controller and ramp for greater control.
- All brush tools now support left and right arrow keys for rotation - a common feature request.
- Allow Ctrl key to be held when typing numbers in a brush tool (will change flow instead of opacity).
- Fixed ABR brush import (would ignore "random" controllers).
RAW
- The RAW processing engine in Photo has been rewritten - producing better results and improved performance. It also takes advantage of the GPU architecture changes described above.
- RAW files now load much more quickly - especially if you have a compatible GPU.
- Reimplemented support for XTrans sensors.
- The denoise algorithm has been rewritten. It produces better results and takes advantage of the new GPU architecture.
- Hot pixel removal is now automatically performed by the Serif Labs engine.
- Profiled lens correction are more stable, apply more quickly, and can be toggled in the Develop UI.
- The histogram in the Develop persona is now presented in the output colour space - as opposed to always being linear.
- Develop now respects the output profile when previewing.
- Added support for CR3 RAW when using the Core Image engine.
- Show which autofocus rectangles were in focus and which were selected by the camera (yellow, green respectively).
- A large number of new cameras are supported for RAW development (we will provide a list of the new supported cameras as soon as possible!).
- Automatically fall back to Core Image for cameras which are not supported by Serif Labs.
Filters
- New “Procedural Texture” filter with advanced presets support.
- New “Voronoi” filter.
- Denoise, Clarity and Shadows / Highlights filters have been rewritten (using technology from the Develop Persona).
- More filters are now available as Live Filters - including the new Procedural Texture filter.
- Live filters have been rewritten to improve performance - especially when multiple filters are used in a document.
- Improved Polar to Rectangular and Rectangular to Polar filters.
- Added round dot type to the halftone filter.
- New “Lens Correction” filter - apply lens correction from the built-in lens database.
- Bilateral blur accuracy improvements.
Adjustments
- The HSL adjustment layer has been rewritten. It now supports custom hue ranges, a new algorithm, new UI and picker controls.
- The Levels adjustment layer now supports output levels - a common feature request.
- The White Balance adjustment layer has been rewritten.
- The Selective Colour adjustment layer has been rewritten.
- PSD import / export of adjustments has been improved.
- The Vibrance adjustment layer has been rewritten.
- The Recolour adjustment layer has gained a lightness slider.
Layers
- Layers page - added option for transparent background for thumbnails.
- Layers page - added multiple thumbnail size options.
- Layers page - added ability to tag layers with a colour - including PSD round-trip.
- Allow adding an empty group from the Layer menu.
- New “Duplicate Selection” item in Layer menu (old behaviour). Duplicate now duplicate the whole layer ignoring pixel selection.
- Alt / Option is now used to make a pixel selection from layer luminance. You can now also hold shift to add the result to the current selection.
- Hide / Show / Show All Layers options in layers menu.
- Ability to either rasterise or rasterise and trim a layer. Previously recorded macros will trim.
 
Selections
- Significant improvements to selection refinement.
- When using selection tools with no pixel selection, default to New / Add as appropriate.
- Added “Alpha Similarity” to Select Sampled Colour tool.
Tools
- Grouped tool shortcuts now default to needing the shift key held to cycle (option in preferences).
- The Crop tool has been rewritten - it now supports resolution changes, absolute pixel size and has a much improved preset mechanism.
- The Sponge Brush tool now gives more correct / pleasant results.
- Allow brush rotate / size key changes while dragging.
- Added a “Reveal Canvas” checkbox to the crop tool - defaults to off.
- Added new “Transform object separately” mode into Move tool.
- A general tools overhaul has been performed - providing editing of grids, guides, page origin, across multiple tools (not just in the Move tool)
- Patch tool now supports arrow keys for rotate / scale.
- All brush tools can now be axis constrained once brush has started - not just the pixel tool.
History
- “Alternate futures” for document history have been added. Traditionally, if you roll back the undo history then do something else all your changes after that point are lost. Photo will now display a small branch icon in the history tab when you do this. Pressing that button will cycle between all the different “futures” after that history entry - meaning you will never lose work you have done.
- The History page now has an “advanced” mode - which shows thumbnails and time info.
I/O
- HEIF images can now be loaded directly into Photo. If they contain a depth map, this will also be loaded as a second layer. Because depth maps are typically lower resolution than the main image, optional “smart” upsampling will be performed.
- TIFF export now has user selectable compression method.
- Added support for 12bit TIFF files.
- Introduced new metadata mining - completely rewritten to improve performance, flexibility and correctness.
- Metadata is now dynamically synchronised with your document - so if you resize then export, the values will be correct.
- Added Focal Length to metadata summary view.
- Added a button in general preferences to open a folder from which Photo will read LensFun-style XML files - if users wish to add / experiment with their own lens profiles.
- Support 16bit CMYK TIFF import.
General
- New ability to control how macros are scaled / aligned when playing back.
- Added an “Assets” panel to Photo.
- New cube setup mode for grids.
- Add “Fill with Primary / Secondary” to the Edit menu for fast access.
- The batch process dialog now fully supports expressions for height and width - available constants are “w”, “h” and “dpi”.
- “Lock guides” added to menus.
- Support for drag dropping .afstyles into Photo.
- Support for drag dropping .afpalette into Photo.
- Photo now supports custom document presets - a popular feature request.
- A new blend mode - Linear Burn - has been added.
- New “Move inside / outside” commands have been added - useful for quick operations on clipping masks etc.
- The Hard Mix blend mode has been improved.
- New provider options have been added to the stock panel - support for Unsplash, Pexels and Pixabay. All of these providers offer full-resolution stock imagery which is free to use.
- Numerous text improvements have been made - including new features.
- Significant stability improvements when working on non-local files (network shares, USB drives, etc.).
- Significant PDF import / export improvements and fixes.
- New welcome screen layout and all new samples.
- Numerous other bug fixes - too many to list!