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@v_kyr, @loukash, @R C-R, thank you for the hints! Yes, I found the plugins inside the folder where Photoshop is installed. Moved them to a common repository, and AfPhoto sees them perfectly fine! Paolo

Is there any way to use built in Photoshop plugins? I pointed AP to the Plugins folder in my Photoshop installation, but then I realized that it was empty. I swear Adobe used to leave the default plugins in that folder, but maybe I'm imagining things. Anyway, I'd love to have access to things like the filter gallery in AP instead of having to open that slug.

Precisely, TomM1. The reason why all of my current plugins -- Eye Candy 7, Xenofex 2, Filter Forge, more than a dozen Flaming Pear plugins, Topaz Labs Glow plugin, and SuperPNG -- work with Adobe Photoshop CS6, is because their developers did the hard work, and figured out how to make them work with Photoshop. They put in the hours. Perhaps I am wrong, but the impression I am getting on this forum is that perhaps Serif may not have that same level of motivation when it comes to making Affinity Photo compatible with Adobe-style plugins. If that is the case, then as I have said before, they are going to lose a huge number of potential Affinity Photo users who depend heavily on Adobe-compatible plugins to do their daily graphic work. Personally, over the years, I have spent thousands of dollars on Photoshop and Photoshop-compatible plugins. I am not going to sacrifice all of that time and money, and all of the plugins I enjoy working with, for a product -- no matter how shiny it may look -- where none of my plugins fully work, if at all. That just doesn't make sense, in my view. Adobe has years of experience in the graphics market. Their products are rock solid, and they work. So I think that R C-R's comments are a bit blown out of proportion. Photoshop is not the old buggy that he seems to think. Thousands -- if not millions -- of happy Photoshop users are testament to that.

If I open a JPG image (portrait mode) in Affinity Photo & then select Filters - Plugins - Nik Collection - Color Efex Pro 4 the image appears in landscape mode! I have tried rotating the image prior to applying the filter but it makes no difference. It works fine in Photoshop CC 2017 but not in Affinity. Any suggestions?

Is there any way to get Affinity to recognise third party plugins. I have ticked the accept third party plugin box but so far it hasnt actually recognised any plugin, even my nik plugins, now I know they are version 2 rather than 2.5 so I accept there maybe an issue there, but it wont accept ANY photoshop plugins. I have just bought abstract paint FX but again no joy with it, has anyone else had any plugins worked ok for them, are there any workarounds for third party plugins, or any plans to make them work in Affinity?

Can you guys get together with DXO and come up with a solution to integrate NIK effects with Affinity so that editing is NON DESTRUCTIVE. Currently I can't make any non destructive changes made using the NIK effects plugins from Affinity. I have to use my old Photoshop CS5 to edit using NIK Effects as a smart object, then impost into affinity And with the latest release of the plugin, Viveza 3 and Silver effect 3 don't work with PS CS5. Please, please, please, please ........

There are no real comparisons with the filters used from Photoshop, the only way to get a similar collection is to use third-party plugins like Jixipix and for windows G'MIC

I was looking into plugin development support for Photo 2 and I couldn't find much; it seems like it primarily relies on Photoshop plugins, at least for Photo 1. Has this been improved at all? I'd love if there was more comprehensive support for it.

I hope there is only a setting or something missing I tried to add the folder in settings of my adobe photoshop filters If my Photoshop Topaz plugins do not work in this program is totally useless for me and please refund my purchase from Appstore Stefan

When I first purchased Gmic I extracted it to an Affinity folder on my D drive (see image 1) where I store my prests etc. Image 2 shows the contents of the parent Gmic folder. I then added the parent folder to the Photoshop Plugins in preferences (image 3). Adding the directory gmic which is one below the parent directory didn't work. I hope this helps.

In Photov2 Edit / Preferences / Photoshop Plugins, click on Open Default Folder in Explorer. Does it open the correct folder to display the 3 gmic items?

Hi Holding ctrl key while restarting didn't work. It did reset everything, including all of my macros, and plugins, which, of course, I can't re-install because the PhotoShop plugin icon still crashes the system. Some background. I had been using the JR Astronomy macros, and had installed the Hasta la Vista Green and StareXterminator plugins with great sucess. Previously I had also been using the Starnet++ routine (not an AP or PhotoShop plugin, but a separate processing program) for star removal). The problem started after I installed the new Starnet V2 (again, not a plugin, but a separate program). My thought is that perhaps there is some wierd interaction between the new Starnet and AP. If I don't get any workable solution from you, my next move will be to remove and re-install AP. I'm currently out of business with my astroprocessing, as I can't re-install the JR Astro macros, now. Thanks

I know what a .dds file is, and I know there are other ways to deal with it. But not being able to import/export from Affinity Photo is really inconvenient and slows down my workflow massively. There are multiple plugins for photoshop to deal with this file format, but as of now there's absolutely no way to open a .dds file in AP directly other than converting it first, which as I mentioned before, really slows things down and makes the whole program really inconvenient.

The title of this topic is about Affinity Photo and Gigapixel plugins. You refer to Photoshop and multiple ehancer comparators with some have horrible member subscriptions. You're totally off topic.

G'MIC (file name: GmicPlugin.8bf) also appears to be using Photoshop's plugin API in order to achieve some degree of compatibility with Affinity Photo. I'm requesting a way to write plugins directly for Affinity Photo's native API rather than something else.

Many Photoshop plugins "just work" in Affinity Photo. Make sure you end up with a .8bf file (for Windows), and don't use anything too new in PS, and there's a good chance yours will, too.

Hi @rvst thanks for your reply. CC to @MEB, I address also you, because we already were often in contact, each time successfully, maybe you can forward my hints and thoughts below to the those who are responsible decision makers at Serif. For your convenience: I myself am a Mac user, but I am also experienced Windows user (and Solaris, AIX and Linux) helping a friend of mine. My first Affinity purchases (Photo, Designer and Publisher) were from the Mac AppStore, which acquires to run apps sandboxed. The trade-off: none of 3rd party plugins, usually for Photoshop, such as Topaz DeNoise AI, do NOT run with the sandbox Mac AppStore versions and for that I purchased all of the Affinity apps (V1) from the Serif store additionally (1). Now, Serif/Affinity comes up with that sandboxed BS thing for Windows, making everything worse. I can't understand it. (1) Totally OK to me, the price of Affinity products is in comparison to Adobe definitely no deal breaker, and it's purchase instead of subscription (what a nice word for "you will never own it"). I am often offline, so the subscription model is totally no go, Murphy's law works fine, they always want to check the Adobe servers if you are a valid customer when you are offline and for that you can't use them as long as you're offline. That's why I immediately purchased also the Universal License for the V2 versions. Affinity has yet unfortunately no own DAM (Digital Asset Managment) solution, Lr and LrC can't be used without valid Adobe subscription but you can use Bridge as DAM (without being able to use ACR), it even shows there are .afphoto files (without displaying the content). Lr, LrC and also C1 does not, they natively support only .PSD. TIFF is no solution, because you get rid of all advantages of the .afphoto file format, it is definitelty the best available, lightyears ahead of everything else. That's why I can't understand, it is still not supported by Capture One. C1 has in comparison to LrC, Lr and Bridge a superb development engine but a horrible content managment, however the possibility to purchase it would outweigh that - if it only would support .afphoto, but it does not and that's the deal breaker for C1. DxO's PhotoLab 6 also is not aware of .afphoto files and it is sloooooow. If someone can recommend a fast DAM solution flipping as fast throughout raw files like Photo Mechanics (what has unfortunately no developing engine) does, please feel free to recommend. Let's home Serif comes up with an own DAM solution soon. All the best, Roland

I'm not sure what you mean by the Photoshop Plugins disappearing. Some screenshots might help. Also, please confirm: This topic is about the Affinity applications on the iPad. Are you using Affinity Photo on the iPad? I didn't know that version of the application had support for Photoshop Plugins at all.

They don't appear now in the menus because they are not being detected by Affinity Photo (see Detected Plugins column on the left on your image right above my reply here - only Filter Forge plugins are being detected) which means your Photoshop Plugins configuration is not correct or the plugins were not installed correctly. Have you created a custom folder to where install the plugin files? If you didn't, you only have installed the stand-alone apps which cannot be used as plugins. To install them correctly follow the instructions on this video. Pay attention to the section that starts at 0:40s where James click the "+" button to add a custom folder to where install the plugin files. This folder must be created manually by you. James has created it on his desktop and called it Plugins but I advise you to create the folder inside the Applications folder on your Mac and call it Photoshop Plugins (or whatever you see fit). Then when you click the "+" button (as in the 0:40s in the video) point it to that folder you just created and continue following the rest of the instructions in the video. The Nik installer will create a new folder named Google inside the folder you created - this is where are located the plugin files. If you did create a custom folder as I described above and have the plugin files installed already (not just the stand alone apps), you have to add it to the Plugin Search Folders section in Photoshop Plugins Preferences in Affinity Photo (see you screenshot right above this reply - it's the right input filed on top). Click the Add button there and point it to the folder where you have installed the plugin files.

To install the G'MIC filter, go to the link mentioned by @nezumi, and install one of the .zip files for 32 or 64 bit operating system. While Affinity Photo is opened, go to Edit -> Preferences -> Photoshop Plugin. Click on "Open Default Folder in Explorer". This will lead you to the directory of Affinity Photo Plugins. Open the GMiC Plugin .zip file that you downloaded. Extract both he "gmic" folder and the "GmicPlugin.8bf" file from the .zip into the Plugin folder (like in the following example): (Note: status.json is a default file from the Plugin folder of Affinity Photo.😞 Go back to Affinity Photo. In the Photoshop Plugin window, check "Allow "Unknown" plugins to be used". The GMIC plugin should appear in the Detected Plugins list, like in the following example: Close Affinity Photo and reopen it. Now the GMIC filters can be found at Filters -> Plugins -> GMIC.

Hi Tapper; Thanks for the additional info. If you have the plugins working in Photoshop, set Affinity Photo Preferences, Photoshop Plugins section as below: 1. In the Plugins Search Folders, click the Add button and browse to: Macintosh HD/Applications/Adobe Photoshop 2021/Plug-ins/Google 2. In the Plugin Support Folders section, remove any entry that may be there if necessary, then click the Authorize Global button, then press Authorise button again in the Finder dialog that will open. 3. Tick Allow "Unknown" plugins to be used 4. Restart Affinity Photo After the restart it should look like the screenshot below:

I would hold onto the V1 installs for a little bit if you can. It didn't move over everything in my case. Settings also were reset (for me anyway), so if you had Photoshop plugins, etc, you'd have to go back and note where each of those were installed and put it back into Preferences.

But the program is being advertised as a photoshop alternative. But it doesn't really replace it. Even photoshop plugins don't all work in affinity photo (dds texture plugin) doesn't. We are buying a product only to discover that we still need another software to take care of the work for us because affinity photo doesn't do the full job. Also, the bmp format is supported by many freeware programs like paint.net. So if a free open-source program can do it, I would at least expect the same from a commercial product.

Hello, with the advent of macOS Catalina in a few months, and the fact that Adobe Photoshop CS6 Extended will more than likely break, due to it having some components which are still 32-bit, I have been taking a serious look at Affinity Photo as a possible -- and more affordable -- replacement, instead of biting the bullet, and paying Adobe $20/month for Photoshop CC 2019. Having said that, I would like to share a few of my first impressions for the developer's consideration. 1. To begin with, I have to strongly agree with previous posters who mention the fact that the size of the selected area is not retained in the "Info" panel, once the mouse button is released. Having to perform another step -- by switching to the "Transform" panel -- in order to see the size of the selected area is simply not acceptable. Not only that, but I also discovered that if you change the size of the selected area on the "Transform" panel, and then switch back to the "Info" panel, the "Info" panel is NOT showing the new size. It is still showing the originally selected size, even though the selection is now larger in the actual image. On a related note, similar to Photoshop, when one selects an area in an image, the dimensions of the selected area should show right there in the image. We shouldn't have to divert our eyes to the bottom right "Info" panel to see the size of the selected area. For the record, I use the selection tool a lot in PS so that I can determine the correct size for an image I want to paste into a new layer. I also use the selection tool to make sure that new elements are centered properly in the image. 2. Unless I am missing something, what I also find unacceptable is the fact that while the "Flood Fill" tool is located on the left side of the window, in order to actually change the color of the fill, one has to go to the other side of the window, switch to the "Colour" pane, and then select a color for the fill. While this may seem like a minor point for some people, the fact of the matter is that on a 27" iMac, having to cross the screen with one's mouse in order to change the fill color is quite an annoyance. In my view, when one selects the "Flood Fill" tool, a small window should pop up right there where one can choose which fill color he wishes to use, without having to go to the other side of the screen. 3. As a longtime Adobe Photoshop user, one of my biggest concerns is the fact that over the years, I have paid A LOT of money for plugins, such as Alien Skin plugins, Flaming Pear plugins, Filter Forge and Topaz Labs Glow plugin. What I have discovered thus far is that most of them do not work properly, or do not work at all. Very disappointing. I was reading about the "Nik Plugins Collection". I am going to see if I can get that one to work. Can anyone suggest any plugin collections -- similar to the aforementioned ones -- which work 100% with Affinity Photo? Thank you. 4. All in all, Affinity Photo is a very nice program. I can tell that a lot of hard work has gone into its creation. I am also impressed by the developer's dedication to making tutorial videos for it. Even without watching the tutorials, and just by conducting a little bit of online research, in a matter of a few hours, I have already figured out how to perform some of the basic tasks that I do in Photoshop. 5. Price-wise, you won't get any complaints from me. I have used Photoshop since version 5.5. Not CS 5.5, but 5.5, that used to be distributed on CDs. So you can imagine how much money I have dished out over the years for each PS upgrade, plus PS plugins. It is in the thousands of dollars, no doubt. So, if I can master Affinity Photo, and learn how to do the same things that I can do in Photoshop, paying $40 per version -- as opposed to $240/year for Photoshop -- is not a problem. I will pay it gladly. That's it for now. I hope the above is helpful.

They are the apps, not the plugin. I'm on Monterey, with Affinity Photo 2 and NIK 5 installed. As part of the NIK install there is a point where it lists host applications, at this point you need to point to Affinity Photo's plugin folder. see the screenshots below. The Affinity Photo plugin folder is located at Username > Library > Application support > Affinity Photo 2 > Plugins While in Finder or when you click on the + to point NIKs installer to the plugin folder, you can show the hidden Library folder by pressing Shift + Command + . (Full Stop) This is a toggle command so repeating the keystroke again will hide the revealed hidden folders. Once you have added Affinity Photo's plugin folder to compatible host applications window you can click on Install. The Affinity Photo plugin folder is listed as an Adobe Photoshop Custom 1 folder.