timlt

+1. Batch tool in AP + macros, pretty powerful. It's certainly true you can't do as much as Adobe "actions" plus scripting options, so if you're expecting that, need to reset your expectations a bit. But you can definitely do a lot more than you may realize at first glance.

I have Paintshop Pro 2020. It's a standalone app not a plugin, but it INCLUDES a few plugins, two of which I've already confirmed worked nicely with Affinity Photo. They are: * Pic-to-Painting (you download this one after installing PSP 2020). I found the plugin file and was able to point to that in Affinity and get it working. * Particleshop. This like a 'dynamic brush engine' that includes really fancy brushes. This one works in many apps: Photoshop, PSP 2020, and Affinity.

Thanks @Patrick Connor, that actually helps. Because if I have metadata created/tagged in other apps (for example, I use Daminion home server now for tagging, searching, etc. all my file assets including images with metadata), at least I can be sure that if I open/edit/save those images in Affinity, the metadata will be persisted not overwritten. For me that's the main thing. The ability to WRITE metadata to all the IPTC extension fields is a 'nice to have', for me personally, I can get by ok without that since I manage my assets in other tools outside of Affinity. Thanks again.

Thanks Patrick. Is it possible at this time to say that Affinity (version Xyz) fully supports all "IPTC core" and "IPTC extension" metadata fields (both specifications are here)? If the team could do that, I think personally, it would put to rest this issue for me and other users who use metadata. Obviously we'd still test, but would be helpful to know if in a current beta release and the intent of the team, all those fields are present and accounted for.

Yep, says it right on their web page. But it crashed in 1.7x, crashes in 1.8x. Calls to their support and issues submitted via their webform go unanswered. Cool app. Terrible customer service.

For those trying to use plugins with 1.8, here's my experience to date with plugins that were designed for Photoshop: Luminar 4.1: works with minor glitches that I'm not sure have any impact on the data. I use even on final quality photos, but with caution, paying attention to the output. Note that Luminar does not promise that this plugin is Affinity compatible. GRFX Studio Pro: Does not work at all...crashes the plugin and Affinity. Advertises that it DOES work with Affinity. AutoFX did not respond to 6 attempts at reaching out through phone calls and their online form for support. GRFX Studio is actually a great plugin, but it only currently works in Photoshop and Corel Paintshop Pro. PictoPainting: Works Corel Particleshop: Works. This is great, means you can add those fancy Corel 'dynamic' brushes to Affinity.

Posted by @tiffany111 Posted Wednesday at 03:38 AM About plug-in support: Is Luminar 4 a supported plug in ?? I use Luminar 4.1 and the plugin is recognized in Affinity 1.8. I can send photos from Affinity into Luminar, edit, and round-trip back into Affinity. There is some odd behavior suggesting to me that the support is not complete or 100%. For example, some of the editing menus in Luminar that display metadata about the photo (most notable, the filename itself) are garbled. Which suggests that possibly, not all data is being exchanged reliably between the two apps. But when I make ordinary edits on a photo in Luminar and send it back to Affinity, it appears all the changes are retained. I would say that support appears to be promising, but not complete. As is always the case with plugins, it's not clear whether the lack of compatibility issues lie with Affinity or the company that makes the plugin, and it's ALSO not clear if either company is working on the issue or prioritizing it. Luminar is clearly prioritizing becoming a standalone application, and they really only promote full compatibility with the Adobe apps. From one user to another, I'd say use Luminar as an Affinity plugin with caution, and definitely test thoroughly before using with any production quality photos.

Too late for me--been burned twice on this issue and that's enough. I'm not gonna take any more chances with metadata being lost on my old files.

In case anyone is curious about what fields are in the IPTC Core schema (which I think, IS supported by Affinity), and the Extension schema (which is not), here is the current standards doc at the IPTC site that lists and explains all the metadata fields that are in each schema: https://www.iptc.org/std/photometadata/specification/IPTC-PhotoMetadata-2019.1.html

Agree with the above comments. As I've started a big organizing project with old family photos--over 5000 of them, many of them tagged with various IPTC attributes--I will not be able to let Affinity photo touch those files. That is so disappointing, I wanted to like and use Affinity! So after all the testing of various apps I've done recently, I thought we'd reached a point where I could use Affinity as the photo editor piece, but now I find I still can't trust it with my old files as it may overwrite, omit, or 'lose' some of the metadata. What I'm back to as the fallback plan: I will continue my 10/month Adobe subscription with Photoshop and Lightroom. Photoshop will not overwrite or 'lose' my metadata values on my old files. Recently purchased Daminion home server edition for cataloging and managing all my files. As was said above, Daminion seems to be fully compliant with IPTC/XMP metadata. A similar app I tested before buying Daminion--which is also fully compliant with IPTC/XMP--is Imatch Anywhere. But I liked Daminion slightly better. Another nice thing I found with Daminion is that it plays very nicely with Lightroom as far as metadata tagging, both apps are standards compliant and so far that I've seen, both will recognize and respect the metadata tags set by the other. I will still keep my copy of Affinity around and hoping it reaches a point where I can use it again. Maybe by 2.0? Of course then, I'd have to buy a new copy though. Right now for me, it's gonna have to go on a back shelf.

Me too--I tested XMP support and thought it all looked good. Didn't realize that IPTC attributes would be lost (I haven't been using those). Hope this support will be added for full compatibility with other photo editors and management apps. Sadly....this means I'm back to using Photoshop with my Adobe subscription until this is fixed. I was about to start editing and organizing thousands of old family photos, a good number of those have IPTC attributes set on them. I hate to, as I prefer Affinity UI to Photoshop. But I cannot afford to be saving my family photos in non-standard file formats. And the current released non-beta version of AP is a long way from providing standard metadata support.

Agree. That should NOT be happening with the latest AP beta, I did some testing, it was carrying through all common metadata field properties on a file. ETA: OK I see in other thread this is talking about certain IPTC properties, I was testing XMP. That is not good--hopefully next beta gets this added.

And we're there. I just stumbled across this thread, but it's worth updating to note that the CR3 support is in and working in the 1.8 Beta. And loving it!

Ah...now THAT makes sense. The thumbnail support for the proprietary file types.....not something I use, but I get why you'd want that. Also I could never figure why so many on this forum in other threads mentioned they used Xnview, this must be "the reason" in most cases, that it supports Affinity filetype thumbnails. Mystery solved! 😎

Interesting--so you think it's a Mac-OS-specific thing? Have you heard that from other Mac users too? FWIW, my machines that it runs well on are all Windows. So I guess that aligns with your experience there.