Affinity Photo feature roadmap

[R C-R 2,608]

48 minutes ago, hifred said:

Well, there's simply an aweful lot of stuff inside Photoshop which is slimmer in its implementation, more cleverly thought out, matching more workflow preferences.

Whose "workflow preferences" are you talking about & roughly how many different preferences do you think there might be among that group of people?

[hifred 92]

18 minutes ago, R C-R said:

Whose "workflow preferences" are you talking about & roughly how many different preferences do you think there might be among that group of people?

I'm speaking of all of us. I have spent years teaching (3D) software and can confidenly state that everyone interacts with complex software in unique ways. I'm not even talking about chosen general methods and sequence of action within a certain procedure – I'm only speaking about command-input methods chosen.

 Even those who call themselfes hardcore keyboard shortcut guys will spot themselfes using the Menu for certain actions, those who swear that they can't live without custom RMB menus will constantly use some GUI buttons or rather drag and drop stuff. There's no two similar editing sessions, but people will always lean towards an input method.

As a software maker one is well advised to offer all methods which make sense. The Drag and Drop method used in Photoshop for moving and dropping copies of anything available in the Layer stack is extremely consistant, easy to learn and memorize and the least abstract concept of all*. Trying to force people into a certain workflow will not work – in particular when they have successful background in other applications with more versatile input schemes.

*I know, @Steps was talking about the RMB context menu entry

[R C-R 2,608]

2 hours ago, hifred said:

I'm speaking of all of us.

No, you are not.

[Steps 113]

@R C-R So, whats your background? What did you use before Photo? And did you expect nothing? Willing to throw away anything you learnt before?

[R C-R 2,608]

3 minutes ago, Steps said:

@R C-R So, whats your background?

I am a proud member of the group known as "all of us." I have been involved with photography for 50+ years, including darkroom work long before practical personal computers or Adobe existed. Aside from what has become fuzzy in my aging brain, I have not thrown away anything I have learned, or needed to.

[Steps 113]

7 minutes ago, R C-R said:

I am a proud member of the group known as "all of us." I have been involved with photography for 50+ years, including darkroom work long before practical personal computers or Adobe existed. Aside from what has become fuzzy in my aging brain, I have not thrown away anything I have learned, or needed to.

There must be a tool you used for many years and with it a workflow you got used to. On first contact with new software you expect things you know from similar software. Like you expect some things from all cars of different manufactors. Do you tell me otherwise?

[hifred 92]

58 minutes ago, R C-R said:

No, you are not.

It's hardly a sign of impudence for an Individual to state that we are all different, have different backgrounds and do things in different ways.

[Keith Reeder 98]

4 hours ago, hifred said:

I'm speaking of all of us.

Christ - the arrogance!

You have literally no idea whether you're speaking for anyone but you.

[hifred 92]

4 minutes ago, Keith Reeder said:

Christ - the arrogance!

You have literally no idea whether you're speaking for anyone but you.

Please read my statement just above your post. Let's not side-track this discussion needlessly.

[R C-R 2,608]

21 minutes ago, Steps said:

There must be a tool you used for many years and with it a workflow you got used to. On first contact with new software you expect things you know from similar software. Like you expect some things from all cars of different manufactors. Do you tell me otherwise?

I got used to whatever workflows & tools the hardware & software I was using at the time enabled. For part of the 1980's I was running GEOS & apps like geoPaint on a Commodore 128. When I got my first PPC Mac, I began using ClarisWorks (later renamed AppleWorks) & several similar third party 'works' apps whose names I can no longer remember. Later, I switched to Deneba Canvas, then to Freehand & PSE. After the Apple changeover to Intel Macs, for a while I kept buying upgrades to PSE (because the older versions would not work with newer OS X versions). From time to time I also have used Apple's 'iWork' apps & the newer stand-alone replacements like Pages. I sometimes use Apple's Preview & Photos apps, GraphicConverter, Pixelmator Pro, & other Mac-only apps, plus a variety of other apps with some bitmap editing or creation capabilities.

So a very long time ago I learned that if I expect to get the most out of any of this stuff, I must be willing to try new ways of doing things & not rely only on whatever I already know. As the old saying goes, what matters most is the journey, not the destination.

[Steps 113]

@R C-R I see. This explains our huge difference in mindset.

Before 5 years ago I occasionaly used GIMP when I need to do something, but not more than one used Paint because I did not understand most of the concepts.

2013 there was a Amazon Cybermonday deal that offered PSE 12 at half the price (50€). At that time I decided to get real with my photos, bought a workbook and learned in about 20 hours everything you can do with it.

I used it since then regulary and yes, it's hard to unlearn stuff. If I have two layers and I want to copy an style I first automaticly try to do it with the RMB context menu.

But this may due to the thing that there was just PSE in my history.

In 30 years I may see that like you.

[Sapiento 18]

20 hours ago, R C-R said:

Do you mean something other than "Paste Style" & "Paste FX" on the Edit menu?

Indeed. I had not expected this command to be found there. Thank you!

[Sapiento 18]

20 hours ago, Alfred said:

You can’t curve text while keeping it as editable text, but after rasterizing it you can distort it.

 

I'm aware of this. But keeping it editable is exactly the thing that seems important for me when working with text. As a workaround it's possible to copy and paste a 'text on path' from AD, but it would be of course make it simpler and quicker to have this option in AP, too.

[walt.farrell 759]

4 hours ago, Sapiento said:

it's possible to copy and paste a 'text on path' from AD, but it would be of course make it simpler and quicker to have this option in AP, too

Affinity's approach is not to put everything into one application. If you own both Photo and Designer it's a simple matter to start in Photo, use "Edit in Designer" to do the work that Photo can't do, and then "Edit in Photo" to get back.

[Steps 113]

4 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Affinity's approach is not to put everything into one application. If you own both Photo and Designer it's a simple matter to start in Photo, use "Edit in Designer" to do the work that Photo can't do, and then "Edit in Photo" to get back.

You're right, but I still hope when with Publisher the "Affinity Trinity" is ready they do a merge of some kind to eliminate the cumbersome hand over.

Let's see how the Personas of Publisher will work out. Maybe Photo will get a Vector Persona and Designer a Photo Persona as replacement for the Pixel Persona.

I would like to have all Personas in one tool with a single installer one day.

[Sapiento 18]

1 hour ago, walt.farrell said:

Affinity's approach is not to put everything into one application. If you own both Photo and Designer it's a simple matter to start in Photo, use "Edit in Designer" to do the work that Photo can't do, and then "Edit in Photo" to get back.

It seems I'm learning a lot about AP and AD today. Thank you very much, I wasn't aware of that possibility, despite my efforts to find a solution.

[Petar Petrenko 320]

18 hours ago, Steps said:

You're right, but I still hope when with Publisher the "Affinity Trinity" is ready they do a merge of some kind to eliminate the cumbersome hand over.

Let's see how the Personas of Publisher will work out. Maybe Photo will get a Vector Persona and Designer a Photo Persona as replacement for the Pixel Persona.

I would like to have all Personas in one tool with a single installer one day.

+1.

[Petar Petrenko 320]

Maybe they will expand their offer by option to buy the core app with possibility to buy the personas you need for your work?

[Steps 113]

2 minutes ago, Petar Petrenko said:

Maybe they will expand their offer by option to buy the core app with possibility to buy the personas you need for your work?

I would really like that.

Or you can convert your key into a key that works for all apps you bought. So you have to enter it only once. So purchasing Publisher after Photo gives you a new key that works for both as example.

[Petar Petrenko 320]

Maybe it would be better to get a key for every persona you buy.

[Steps 113]

22 minutes ago, Petar Petrenko said:

Maybe it would be better to get a key for every persona you buy.

Yes, but entering multiple keys after every fresh Windows installation would also be annoying. I do that every couple of months to keep my system clean and fast.

[Petar Petrenko 320]

7 hours ago, Steps said:

Yes, but entering multiple keys after every fresh Windows installation would also be annoying. I do that every couple of months to keep my system clean and fast.

Much better solution would be to make a bootable backup of C:\ disk. You will have fresh reinstall in cca 5 minutes.

[Steps 113]

4 minutes ago, Petar Petrenko said:

Much better solution would be to make a bootable backup of C:\ disk. You will have fresh reinstall in cca 5 minutes.

No, no, no... I do not want something old. Every time a fresh Windows 10 version comes out (like build 1809 in Oktober) I download an ISO using the Media Creation Tool and install a fresh copy of the newest Windows. This clears every garbage out of old update files, what tools left of logs & cache in AppData and so on.

A fresh Windows of newest state is back up in 30 minutes with this process. But installation of apps takes some time.

But, however, this thread is not about backup processes and Windows installations.

I'd like a simpler single installer anyway. That's what I wanted to say.

[myclay 102]

It would be great to see TGA export support added.

[WillemFritz 4]

Sounds great, but PLEASE also update file support for your raw engine. Canon .cr3, for instance...