cal.zone

I just ran into one of the use cases for which Affinity's approach drives me bonkers:
(I work in web development, so this actually happens a lot… but for a while I hadn't been working with images so forgot this exact workflow problem… until now)
I drag an image (typically a logo) on a website (or copy it to the clipboard) onto the Affinity Photo icon in my dock. I need to do some cropping or touch up work to it. The drag and drop action opens Affinity Photo and loads the photo for editing. Alternatively, if I copied to clipboard, I open a new blank document and paste. I make my edits. Because the file did not originate on my filesystem and doesn't technically exist yet, if I were to save my changes, they'd be lost… saved to some temporary cache deep within the filesystem. So I have to Save As… in order to save it as a brand new file onto my desktop. But Save As… doesn't give me the ability to save a standard non-proprietary format (like png or jpg). Indeed, if I dragged the image from the browser onto the AP icon, it has already opened up correctly as a flat png file. If I were to save, it would correctly save as png… (except not in the right place on my filesystem and the temporary files get overwritten very quickly, so even assuming I had the time and inclination to navigate to the temporary items folder and find it… it might be too late). I'm forced to use the export multi-step process to save a file that should naturally save in it's original format and specifications. I shouldn't have to decide whether it's going to be PNG or JPG or the resolution or quality or bit depth… or transparency… it's all ridiculous. Now, mind you, this exact same problem exists any time you create a brand new AP document. You are not allowed to save it as anything other than AP. Your only recourse is to export. So even if you don't work on the web, perhaps you create a new document and paste a jpg and doodle over it and flatten it… nothing serious. You're forced to save as AP or export,
There's no good reason for this behavior. It suits no one. People can defend it all they want, but in reality, what they're saying is: "I don't have this workflow problem so I don't care" or "I'm not bothered by having to go through extra steps to accomplish this so I don't care".
And you know, there's an awful lot of technological development that we can all live without or work around. We don't need word processors… we can use typewriters. We don't need automatic shifters in our cars, we can use manual transmission. We don't need electric mixers… we can whip by hand. We don't need calculators, we can do it long hand.
The point is: it should be a fairly trivial change for Affinity as changes go. And it has zero drawbacks and only benefit to lots of workflows.

I'm not seeing how it's more straightforward to have to deal with an export dialogue littered with various tabs and options if you've simply opened a png… and all you want to do is save it and be done.
In any other Mac app, not just Photoshop, the process is the same: Save As… if you need to put it in a different location than where it is currently (especially if it's but a temporary file). No options to select or confirm. Just Cmd-Shift-S… select the location you desire (Often simply by using Cmd-D for Desktop) and change the name if need be… hit enter… Cmd-W to close the window and move on with your life.
Maybe it's because I work under the drag-and-drop-to-open a file paradigm so much. I know of no better way to start with one thing and turn it into another. And it doesn't matter if the file you're dragging is even part of your filesystem. It can come from anywhere… the internet… an instant message… sometimes it can even be content from inside a different "file". Like if I'm editing text for a layout in a web development IDE and realize I need to quickly change a graphic… I can drag the image straight from the inside of one program and have it open in my image editor. I can do that with Aperture and Photos… it's very common.
And whenever I do this, 8 times of 10 I end up wanting to keep everything about the file (format, resolution, transparency, depth) the same but want to save it as a new version or in a different location. Export is way too tedious for this process. I don't see how it can remotely be more straightforward.
At the very least, Affinity Photo should respect the Cmd-Click on the titlebar paradigm that lets you quickly navigate the filesystem hierarchy for the file you're editing. With that, I could at least Cmd-Click and go to the parent folder of the file and then drag it out to my desktop and not worry about losing it when I hit Cmd-S.

I just ran into one of the use cases for which Affinity's approach drives me bonkers:
(I work in web development, so this actually happens a lot… but for a while I hadn't been working with images so forgot this exact workflow problem… until now)
I drag an image (typically a logo) on a website (or copy it to the clipboard) onto the Affinity Photo icon in my dock. I need to do some cropping or touch up work to it. The drag and drop action opens Affinity Photo and loads the photo for editing. Alternatively, if I copied to clipboard, I open a new blank document and paste. I make my edits. Because the file did not originate on my filesystem and doesn't technically exist yet, if I were to save my changes, they'd be lost… saved to some temporary cache deep within the filesystem. So I have to Save As… in order to save it as a brand new file onto my desktop. But Save As… doesn't give me the ability to save a standard non-proprietary format (like png or jpg). Indeed, if I dragged the image from the browser onto the AP icon, it has already opened up correctly as a flat png file. If I were to save, it would correctly save as png… (except not in the right place on my filesystem and the temporary files get overwritten very quickly, so even assuming I had the time and inclination to navigate to the temporary items folder and find it… it might be too late). I'm forced to use the export multi-step process to save a file that should naturally save in it's original format and specifications. I shouldn't have to decide whether it's going to be PNG or JPG or the resolution or quality or bit depth… or transparency… it's all ridiculous. Now, mind you, this exact same problem exists any time you create a brand new AP document. You are not allowed to save it as anything other than AP. Your only recourse is to export. So even if you don't work on the web, perhaps you create a new document and paste a jpg and doodle over it and flatten it… nothing serious. You're forced to save as AP or export,
There's no good reason for this behavior. It suits no one. People can defend it all they want, but in reality, what they're saying is: "I don't have this workflow problem so I don't care" or "I'm not bothered by having to go through extra steps to accomplish this so I don't care".
And you know, there's an awful lot of technological development that we can all live without or work around. We don't need word processors… we can use typewriters. We don't need automatic shifters in our cars, we can use manual transmission. We don't need electric mixers… we can whip by hand. We don't need calculators, we can do it long hand.
The point is: it should be a fairly trivial change for Affinity as changes go. And it has zero drawbacks and only benefit to lots of workflows.

Thank you.
Agreed. 
My use case is that I import a file in .tif format and process it. That processing may occupy weeks of my time if it is a complex composite image. I wish to save the file in its semi-processed .tif state. Affinity forces me to make an Affinity Photo file which I have already no need to keep. I am working on my .tif image and I would prefer to keep it in that format without the need for overwriting any previous work or creating an Affinity Photo file every time I process the same .tif file.
My digital negative is the RAW image and that is what I keep and file, so that I can always process my image again as required by the client or when techniques improve. I process my RAW images in DXO Optics Pro because I can rely on the conversions and I am not being forced to create a file I have no use for. The Affinity RAW conversions are not as good as DXO Optics Pro just yet but assuming that they would serve the purpose, I would have no need to keep an Affinity Photo image file because my 24Mb RAW .ARW file is my insurance that I can always recover my images. Affinity Photo (just like DXO Optics Pro which I use now) would be just the intermediate file used for processing the image.
My interest in an image is the subject matter, followed by the manner in which it portrays the subject and meets the brief. I treat the RAW file (A) as the digital negative and the finished file as the work derived from the digital negative (B). The manner of getting from A ~ B is immaterial and purely a matter of convenient workflow and method. My interest in the software only extends to the point of understanding what the software can help me to do and what its effect on the quality of my work is.
My linked piece discussed the behaviour of the software and how it is currently not quite as easy to use as the professional epithet would suggest. For my own use case it is incredibly tedious to keep pulling up the same file for multiple times and many hours of editing work and having to specifically say that I do not want my carefully produced .tif file to be turned into an Affinity Photo file. When my work (.tif) is saved, I want the file path remembered and I do not want to overwrite any previous work. 
The parallel that I can use to illustrate my ire is this; what I find irritating is when Windows software observes the user doing something that they wanted to do, it asks "are you sure?" despite the fact that the user initiated the action. Affinity Photo feels like that to me. I am editing a highly complex 16bit .tif file because that is what I want to do. I understand why I am doing it and I don't want the software interposing itself between me and my objective because of some notion that I may not understand the implications of choices which I have made. 

The issue is that Save As and Export are two different, yet equally important concepts:
Export assumes you care to retain your current file as-is and create a copy of some other format for use elsewhere.
Save as assumes you don't care to retain your current file as-is and instead want to convert it to a different format (or name). It can be used for versioning and (common with digital image editing) it can be used to implement a series of complex transformations to a file… only to decide you don't care to preserve layers or editing history, etc… and just want to save it and forget it… or to convert a work to a format other than the one that is native to the platform you're working with. This last example is extremely common for people who start work with files that are ultimately intended to go to a different application and never come back to the app used to start work. For example, you may not have MS Excel on your Mac but you need to create a spreadsheet that a co-worker will be using Excel to read and edit. So you would want to open Numbers to create the spreadsheet but then Save as an MS Excel file and not bother keeping the Numbers document.*
Export is entirely different because it assumes you do care to preserve the current file as-is (whether native format to the app or not).
In Photoshop, they have the "save as a copy" checkbox, which is effectively identical to using an Export function. It means you keep your current document as-is and create a new copy of a different format. Save as, on the other hand, assumes you're abandoning your current document and using it as a starting point for a new document of a different name and/or format. All changes get saved to the new document and the original document is effectively reverted to last saved (or, if never saved, there is no original document at all and you have simply used Save As to dictate to your software what your preferred destination format is for this file).
Having to use Export in Affinity effectively kills this entire workflow branch and forces you to always keep an Affinity Photo version (either on disk or in memory) while exporting your copy elsewhere.
 
* Note:
I'm not claiming you can do this with Numbers (you can't)… only that this is a perfect use case that Save as would cater to (so it should… indeed, IMO, any format you can Export to, you should be able to also Save as).

I can't count how many times I've opened a bitmap not on my normal filesystem (someone iMessaged it, I dragged it from a browser, I pasted it, etc) and went to crop it, resize it, or do some other light editing work and then, when the time came to save it, I was unable to save it on my desktop because Save As forces me to convert it to an Affinity Photo document.
 
Or I've opened various bitmaps with the intent of creating some type of simple composite image… even if I flatten it, I can't save it as a bitmap anymore.
 
A lot of the work we do involves some tedious temporary image editing tasks that we have no desire to keep a master document behind. We're just converting something into something else and moving on.
 
With other software titles throughout history, Save As let you save this modified final output file and never look back.  Affinity Photo doesn't let you do this. Instead you have to export. Which is a tedious effort compared to Save As. Not only that, but after you make your export, you have to discard your master document.
 
Life was so much more streamlined when you'd open the bitmaps, edit, flatten, Save As, quit. Boom. Your final output is where you want it and you have no detritus to manage.

Hi,
I wrote a similar topic last week, it's illogical and slows down your work process.
How many time has anyone here gone to "Save As", located a path to save, then pressed the pointless dropdown menu at the botom of the file dialogue to find only one option, Affinity's native format.
Then you have to go back and start all over again and choose "Export" instead.
The Affinity brand is popular to those that can't afford an Adobe subscription, but no other software can read its file proprietary format. Archiving work in Affinity Photo's native format is disastrous for future purposes currently.
It just feels like Serif is forcing its own branded file format onto the user when it's users are being treated as dumb that they don't know the difference between a destruction format and a re-editable one. Affinity Photo is aimed at professional/semi users who do know what they are doing.
It's these small and simple things that Serif are so fixed on, that prevents Affinity competing with Photoshop - which is the point, isn't it?