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Hey guys, We desperately need some clarification. For the past two years it was mentioned several times here in these forums that you are working on a DAM. However, we haven’t really seen an update on that topic in the past weeks and months. And in your Twitter feed you mentioned a couple of times now that you are currently not developing a DAM. So which is true? With the recent changes from Adobe with their Lightroom software and with Apple still not improving Photos really, it would be a great time to put a great DAM out there right now. Many, many photographers are looking for a new solution to this old and essential problem. Also, MacPhun just announced a DAM for their Luminar app. In any case, we just need to know if we should wait for a DAM to be released by you guys or if we should look for other alternatives. Thank you!

I have just started to use Affinity Photo and I have been really impressed by it. It’s essentially been a bit of a Photoshop killer for me, almost, as I still use a number of panels such as Beautify that I use for portrait/fashion work. Like many of us I’d love to see Affinity create a DAM so all of my creativity can be joined up. I also find Creative Cloud useful for syncing across devices and its ability to share images with my clients. There is one other feature in Lightroom Desktop (not CC) that is really useful for portrait photographers; tethering. Being able to take a photograph and it to tether directly into a DAM would be a compelling reason to switch out of my monthly Adobe subscription. I hope that helps. Jon

Love the Affinity suite. Been a user from the AP Mac beta. Now I’m worried. A DAM persona would be the missing link in the suite, and there seems to be a business case here, so something might be holding back. But what do I know about Serif strategy and implementation? For now, others gets my money. And that is sad, since I really like the Affinity suite.

Hi all! I'd made a quick search but not found a specific topic for articulating wishlist items for a future DAM product, so I thought I'd start one and enumerate a couple features I'd like to see: Public API / Plugin Architecture. If this is implemented broadly enough, the following two items, might just be implemented as plugins. AND, if they could be implemented as plugins, I wouldn't be unhappy if they were features that came along after 1.0. Explicit support for NAS storage. If mounted filesystems aren't robust enough, then perhaps some application-based solution targeted for the common platforms (synology, qnap, etc) would be workable. Photo Service exporters. It's convenient to easily export photos to services like SmugMug, etc., from directly within the DAM. Thanks and I understand "it's early days."

It has been years since Affinity announced that a digital asset manager (DAM) was in the works. Then, conflicting information led people to believe that the DAM project was cancelled. Final word from Affinity clarified that a DAM was in production. That was a few years ago. Therefore, I think it appropriate to ask Affinity on the status of the DAM project. Affinity: what is the status of your DAM?

I'm struggling. I have or have used Adobe Lightroom Classic, Apple's (defunct) Aperture 3, Skylum Luminar 3, DxO PhotoLab 3, and now ON1 2020, as well as, of course, Affinity Photo. I currently use Lightroom to catalogue because of the peerless keyword support and PhotoLab to process my RAW files because of its peerless lens modules. ON1 is introducing ON1 360 which looks fantastic. And finally, nothing beats Affinity Photo for speed. In my perfect world, Affinity would produce a world class DAM as I know only they could, but would also buy DxO's lens module technology and build or buy a 360 service like ON1. I can dream, can't I? But seriously... Serif, please buy DxO's module technology. I cannot use any other RAW processor now because of it.

Hi. Im a fan and i really enjoy using affinity products. Just wanted to share my wishlist for 1.x versions. I’d like to know if there is any current plans for these. Cheers.

Hello, what I have seen from the Publisher so far (already made my first two projects in it), I will definitely switch over to Photo and Designer in the near future. As a feature request I am asking for a DAM. Unfortunately, ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate is a nice picture viewer, but useless regarding DAM. Adobe and its annoying subscription policy is also nuts. So a DAM from Affinity would be just will complete the Affinity Suite. You guys build the software for people, not for the convenience of the software engineers. Many thanks! Best regards,...

If you guys could please release the Digital Asset Manager that I know you guys are working on so hard, I and I'm sure many other people would greatly appreciate! It would make the Affinity experience completely perfect I believe. It is the one major thing lacking, and the only reason I would think about using something from Adobe now (especially with their rent-an-app model). I believe in you guys!

Excuse me for starting on a semi-offtopic note, but in the DxO Photolab forums there was recently this thread. You'd deem it innocuous had it not come up just a few days after the last post in this monstrosity. Now, unlike Affinity Photo, DxO Photolab is not a 50$ general imaging software, but rather a 220$ specialized RAW developer. You could call it a photo workflow app, but its database/DAM capabilities are rather limited and its pixel editing tools non-existent, i.e. it usually needs both a front-end app for culling photos and a back-end layer based one in order to form a smooth workflow. Something like On1 pretty much provides all three of these steps at just a 100$, as well as even more features in the actual development stage. So, why choose DxO then? Superior RAW rendering, optics module and noise reduction. An obsession with pure image quality is literally the only reason one would pick Photolab over anything else in the field. So, we can all imagine that a Linux version of this app is going to become a hit and sell like hotcakes, right? After all, that's what Linux users tell us. If only DxO take 4-5 months out of their yearly development cycle just so they can port it... So, @MattyWSyou wonder why people are hostile to your request? We wouldn't mind if you pestered Adobe or some other corporate monolith about Linux. But what you are trying to achieve here is to actively deceive a small independent company that Linux is a financially viable market. Sure, Serif are in all probability smart enough to ignore this, but that doesn't excuse the desire to push them into a venture that would both harm them financially and severely slow down the development of what they already have. In this sense, your request is objectively malignant. Not intentionally so, I'm sure, but still ignorant at best and morally objectionable. But most of all, it's self-centered. Consider this: There are a lot of request threads for an Affinity DAM (the number is comparable to the Linux threads, actually). You don't see any resistance there, do you? Now, I positively don't need nor care about an Affinity DAM, but I still support it. Why? Because it'd be beneficial to Serif; it's the missing link in their suite that would allow most photographers to switch over from Adobe. On the other hand, I personally could certainly use an Affinity After Effects alternative much more than the DAM, but I wouldn't request it. I realize it's a bad business idea. And indeed, there is skepticism in such threads. You see, the world doesn't revolve around me/you. One has to think about the future of his chosen software. I do care about the future of Affinity because I have invested in the apps (time much more so than money). In the last 5-8 years, we've had a lot of small creative software studios that punch well above their weight and provide rather valuable alternatives to the industry giants. Please, do not take this for granted - they are already utilizing all of their resources. Stop trying to push them into doomed ventures just because it suits you. A few - even a few hundred - users on a forum do not demonstrate actual demand. By the sheer virtue of being here, you are already an edge case and not representative. Just for a moment, step out of your VFX industry bubble and look at the world. A for-profit business doesn't have any moral obligation to think about The Future of Computing (TM) and try to push an outlier OS at their expense. This is not a chicken and egg situation - we all know what comes first. It's not the commercial software.

A DAM that does more than photos, but covers all the digital assets from all its packages would go way beyond Lightroom. But it could also go as far as maintaining version control between asset files e.g. which version of an Affinity Photo edit is used with which version of a Designer doc or Publisher doc. By maintaining referential integrity, it could for example warn you that deleting a version will break one of the other documents. Any changes to that version could be automatically replicated in those documents or the user could be given the option of creating a new version, or new versions automatically created if the referencing document is locked. As a photographer, I would appreciate being able to lock down different versions of photos and the DAM keeping track of where it has been posted e.g. to Facebook, IG, Flickr, Squarespace, etc assuming export plugins are developed for those sites. Similarly, I’d like to track which versions were used with different publishers, again assuming plugins are created. These plugins could also allow the publisher to pre-set the file export settings so that publishing for print or web becomes seamless. There are lots of useful features that could be developed along the line of version control to help teams/companies manage complexity.

Hi guys, with the StudioLink launched, it would be awesome if there was an Affinity DAM. Complete suite?

At the present time I use Adobe Bridge to look through my files for images that I need for my work. Because I'm now using Affinity products instead of Adobe products (PS, AI, ID) I cannot see previews of the Affinity images. A DAM product that replaces what Adobe Bridge does but adds support for Affinity images would be very helpful for graphic designers. It would also show PDFs, TIFF, JPEG, and GIF image previews and allow moving or opening images. This is a very specific use but one that most users would, I believe, support.

This sounds like you are requesting a DAM (Digital Asset Manager). An Affinity DAM has been discussed (ad nauseam) elsewhere, just search the forums for “DAM” (without the quotes). If you don’t want a DAM, could you explain what it is that you want?

I haven't posted much here for a while as the current MAS version meets my editing needs quite nicely - thanks to all for your great work. However, it seems like a lifetime ago that we were assured that a DAM was coming. Is this still the case or has it been dropped?

So over the past few weeks I downloaded and test drove skylum's Luminar 3 ... and it was terrible. Slow (operations taking longer than 5 minutes), unresponsive, missing components ... it was really really bad. I remember reading that Serif is in the works of making the often requested DAM. I'm so glad they have made the decision to go this route. I think it would be a good time to start a new category in the forums specifically for this. Then move all appropriate threads into this area. Suggestions for Affinity (name here) I remember there being a poll about If the product should be made and what it should do. Personally, i'm interested in something that can compete with Capture One, outperform lightroom, and be reasonably priced.

Why should you keep coming back to Photoshop? Like APhoto, it's a photo editor, not a catalog (DAM), and going back to it wouldn't do you any good (comments, star). https://www.google.com/search?q=DAM+site:https://forum.affinity.serif.com

As Adobe has decided to make the import screen in Lightroom suitable for Instagram users, I have concerns wether Lightroom should be replaced in the future. Adobe makes this concerns even bigger by publishing buggy apps too early which ruin lives of professionals. Last year, Serif came out with this Affinity-suite and I have high hopes that they will release a Lightroom alternative. I am serious about that, since Capture One, well, does not work for me. But if you do, make sure that people can transfer 100k photos with any adjustments non-destructively. I don't know if you have plans for this, or if you have resources for this. But if you have, well, I would be the first to buy. Adobe is going for Instagram users with all their iOS-photoshop-mix-fix crap, which is not what professionals want. I know that one day, I will enjoy Affinity Designer on my iPad without compromises. And I hope you guys could rescue the professional photography business. I know this post has not the right spot in the forum, since everything is about Designer or Photo. But I just want to post this to see wether this could be the future of photography. Any name suggestions for a Lightroom alternative?

I chose to go with C1 because IMHO the raw engine is much better than Adobe's and I prefer AP to PS. But to your point I pay a premium for using C1 instead of LR. As primarily a photographer, I am keenly aware of the library features of both LR and C1. An application such as PS or AP is not useful for a high volume photographer, you have to have the basic DAM functionality of LR or C1 (et al). I think most photographers are also very much aware of this. I am not sure why Serif has not created "Affinity Develop" to compete with the other RAW developers out there (the RAW developer functionality is already present in AP, write a DAM already!!!). But that in my opinion is the huge factor in photographers not switching to Affinity apps. If C1 keeps raising prices like that are then I might head back to Adobe... Then PS would also replace AP on my machine. Edit: As an aside, I don't think Serif has any intention of releasing a LR/C1 competitor. It is a glaring hole in their lineup and should have been released concurrent with Affinity Photo. There is some strategic reason for not competing heads up with Adobe that we are not seeing. Very unfortunate...

Just been pointed to this thread. The very simple reason I would like an Affinity DAM is because Serif have proven that they know how to build great software, and the same reason Adobe built Lightroom is a reason for Affinity to build a "darkroom" product. I'm sure there are photographers who use Photoshop to process RAW files, but I reckon an awful lot more use Lightroom because that's what it is designed to do. I believe both the Photoshop and Affinity Photo names are less than ideal. Both products are way, way more than photo-based tools, and because of this, they aren't well geared to a photographer's workflow. Indeed they shouldn't be. In my past and/or current repertoire of "darkroom" applications are: Lightroom, Aperture, Luminar, PhotoLab, ON1, and Apple Photos. Aperture is no longer for this world, and without it nothing equals Lightroom when it comes to managing and processing photographs. Lightroom I now find boring, but it can't be beat as an all-rounder (subscription pricing aside). Luminar is a capable processor with some interesting processing features (not including sky replacement) but its DAM is barely there. PhotoLab has fantastic RAW conversion, a good feature set, and its DAM is workable, but with some critical issues. It also has some severe performance issues. ON1 is a decent all-rounder, most closely matching up to Lightroom but not quite there just yet, and bettered in some areas by others in my list. Apple Photos ... not sure why I included it in the list to be honest, but it does have a DAM. Why? Because Apple recognise that photos need a place to live where you can find them again. But... try putting a 100 MB, 24 megapixel, 16 bit, full colour TIFF scan of a 35mm slide into any of these applications and they struggle. Again, Lightroom is capable. Some of the others almost seize up. One of them actually crashed my computer. Put that same TIFF in Affinity Photo, whack a new pixel layer on for non-destructive workflow, and use the infill brush to remove hundreds of dust specks and it doesn't even break a sweat. And I can do it on my iPad with a Pencil, too! Affinity product performance is next level. For an Affinity DAM, I would not be surprised to see jaw dropping performance with great workflow, and, of course, fantastic integration. Imagine Selecting "Place" in Publisher and having your DAM library as an option to pick the file - just like Apple do with Pages and Photos. However, the current Affinity RAW conversion appears to be relatively basic. Elsewhere, I asked that Serif buy the technology developed by DxO for PhotoLab 3, because it does astounding things with RAW files. By profiling actual lenses on actual cameras they are able to bring out razor sharp images that no other product in my list, nor Affinity Photo, can do. Their noise reduction is the most impressive I've seen, too, because it de-noises the RAW data based on those same camera and lens profiles, not the decoded image like everyone else does. When it comes to clever coding, fantastic implementation, and next level performance, Affinity products have it in spades, but DxO put some leg work into working with the hardware that is providing the images and it shows. I don't expect Serif to go that far, but the results speak for themselves.

I second this. I was about to post my own wishlist request for a digital asset management tool, but then I found your post. Creation of a DAM that integrates with the Affinity Suite would be amazing. I use ACDSee today but I would rather be able to use an Affinity product that would let me right click on a number of phots or aphoto files and batch render them out from a DAM. Along with having a DAM, it would be great if Affinity Photo would support non-destructive sidecar RAW editing so one file could get a sidecar RAW edit and then apply that treatment to a set of imagine within an affinity DAM. (I have attached a couple fun mock-ups!)

Thank you for responding. Yes I am looking for a DAM. I will look into iMatch. Though a DAM seems like a no-brainer when it comes to Affinity product improvement. But then my viewpoint is now entirely as a customer. But as a retired software engineer I can well imagine that there are a host of reasons why you might not want to go there. Still it feels like a good product expansion.

Firstly, apologies if this not the correct place for this post, suggestions forum is closed and this space looks to be the closest to the nature of my post. I just dont quite get it guys. Adobe with the subscription plan has managed to frustrate lots and lots of its users and has effectively opened the backdoor to its competitors who can now penetrate adobe's market footprint and claim some of the clients who now feel alienated. They (ie competitors) have only one thing to do, present a good LR replacement. And I dont mean an alternative that introduces new workflows etc..When I say LR replacement, I mean something like a LR clone. Look at Google for example. When ios came out, they dint come up with an some other OS, they presented android the closest thing to iOS outside iOS. This is what the community needs now I think. There have been contradicting messages from Serif with regards to a DAM, but even that, just a DAM, wont be enough. If Serif presents a "LR clone" with its existing ecology (affinity photo, publisher) it will be in a very good position to attract users and grow its client base. It is disappointing (at least for me) to see however that Serif doesn't grasp the opportunity.

Hi guys, I'm the original poster of this thread and I feel all your pain. When I started this thread, Serif said they were thinking about creating a DAM for a couple of years already (and yes @R C-R you are right, somebody indeed said once "I'm sitting next to the guys that are writing the DAM... It's a thing". It was @MattP and it was in this thread in December 2017). Today, more than a year later, it feels like they're still about as far in the process as they were before. My humble advice to all of you is to stop worrying about it. I bet that nothing will be released anytime soon and even if so, it won't be the Lightroom killer we're all hoping for. Even if they actually are developing a DAM right now, it will take Serif another year or two to come out with something and even then, that product will probably be way behind of what Lightroom with its 20 years plus history is capable of today. The best example of this is Skylum with its Luminar software. They said in 2017 that they'll release a DAM in 2018 – pushing everybody's hopes up high. They barely kept their promise with a December 2018 release that was so underwhelming that many of us wished they wouldn't have created anything at all. It will take them another couple of years to catch up with Lightroom, if ever. It's my prediction that, even if Serif puts all their resources in the development of a DAM today, they won't be able to build anything great before 2021 or even later. I think it was a different story creating Affinity Designer and Affinity Publisher as both these apps have quite a lot of similar features to those of Affinity Photo. A DAM, on the other hand, is a whole different kind of beast and I started to realize that quite a while back. I still wish they would give us more clarity about the roadmap or if there's even one in existence, but I buried my hopes for an Affinity DAM and believe me or not, I'm a happier person today. Lightroom is great and what Adobe is doing with the new Lightroom CC ecosystem is only pushing them further ahead of the competition. My two cents.

We just got a "V2", but no Linux support and no DAM. Nothing new...