Affinity Photo file sizes much smaller with Ver 1.8

[Granddaddy]

As someone who complained on the day it was released about the enormous aphoto file sizes introduced with Ver 1.7 of APhoto, I was disappointed that no mention was made about these sizes in @Patrick Connor's announcement of Ver 1.8 at
https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/107773-affinity-photo-for-windows-180/

This morning I downloaded and installed APhoto 1.8 without incident. The first thing I did was look at file sizes. I was very happy, but also disappointed. Here's what I found using one file that I'm calling TestPhoto.jpg that was 8,938KB straight out of my camera.

TestPhoto.jpg   8,938KB

Previously I had used APhoto 1.7.3 to add one Levels adjustment and one Brightness/Contrast adjustment to this photo.

The APhoto file saved by APhoto 1.7.3 with just two simple adjustments ballooned in size by a factor of 5.33. This was quite normal in Ver 1.7 where aphoto file sizes were always 4 to 10 times larger than the original jpg file, far larger than aphoto files had been in Ver 1.6 of APhoto. The forums contain many threads about this problem.
TestPhoto-(Ver_1_7_3).afphoto   47,668KB

Opening this file using APhoto 1.8.0 and making no changes at all then using Save As to save it with a new filename yielded a file slightly larger than that produced by Ver 1.7.
TestPhoto-(Ver_1_7_3)(Ver_1_8_0_584).afphoto   47,674KB

That ended my hope that I could reduce the enormous size of my existing version 1.7 files by resaving them using Ver 1.8.

 

On the very bright side, editing TestPhoto.jpg from scratch using APhoto 1.8.0 and making the same Levels and Brightness/Contrast adjustments yielded an aphoto file that was only a bit more than twice as large as the original jpg file.
TestPhoto-(Ver_1_8_0_584).afphoto   19,606KB

This is hardly larger than the file resulting from making no edits and adding no layers at all.
TestPhoto-NoEdits(Ver_1_8_0_584).afphoto   19,588KB

I am left wondering why opening the Ver 1.7.3 afphoto file in Ver 1.8 and using Save As to save it under a new name does not completely rewrite the afphoto file in the smaller Ver 1.8 format.

Perhaps more progress on reducing APhoto's enormous files will be made in future versions.

[Amateur John]

I would expect an afphoto file to be at least twice the size of the high quality jpeg file from which it was generated, even if no editing was done, for two reasons.

• The jpeg file uses eight bits per channel per pixel whereas the afphoto file uses sixteen bits
• The jpeg file uses destructive compression.

[Granddaddy]

My expectations differ from @Amateur John's based on my experience with APhoto 1.6 in which afphoto file sizes were hardly any larger than the original jpg files. 

As an example, here is a comparison of file sizes when TestPhoto.jpg from my original post above is processed using APhoto Ver 1.6 to make the same adjustments as above in Ver 1.7 and Ver 1.8:
    TestPhoto.jpg   8,938KB
    TestPhoto-NoEdits(Ver_1_6_5_123).afphoto   9,247KB    
    TestPhoto-With_2-AdjustmentLayers(Ver_1_6_5_123).afphoto   9,275KB   

You can see that in APhoto Ver 1.6.5, afphoto files were comparable in size to the original jpg file. This is just what I would expect given that the jpg file itself is not being altered by the use of non-destructive adjustment layers.

Of course we expect the afphoto file to be slightly larger than the original jpg file because the afphoto file has to include instructions for processing the jpg the next time it is opened in APhoto. It also includes a very highly compressed thumbnail image that can be read by other applications, such as Windows File Explorer in icon view. Saving with thumbnails can be turned off in Preferences General.

Several old threads are pertinent here including these:

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/87912-170380-huge-file-size-when-saving-16-image/
https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/87186-file-sizes-in-photo-for-windows-170-split/

The huge afphoto file sizes were a surprise to Serif support staff when Ver 1.7 was first released.   @Patrick Connor had this to say at that time:

"So this turns out to be an (unintended) consequence of a (late breaking) change to the code made for Affinity Publisher. It only affects compressed (like JPG) files.  Although Affinity 1.7.0 files are much bigger they will not continue to grow and grow, this should be a one off jump.

"We will look at fixing this, but right now we are making Release Candidates of Publisher 1.7 now (with 1.7.1 updates for all other desktop apps due at the same time). So this close to Publisher release the developers do not want to risk putting a quick (untested) fix in. Therefore the 1.7.1 Photo and Designer updates next week are unlikely to be able to address this, sorry, but it will not be forgotten and there should be a beta soon after that addresses this issue."
https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/87912-170380-huge-file-size-when-saving-16-image/&do=findComment&comment=468418

We see then that the afphoto format was changed to accommodate features of APub. This had unintended consequences for users of APhoto. At least some progress has been made in correcting the problem of huge file sizes.

Now if only Ver 1.8 of APhoto could reduce the huge file sizes imposed upon us by APhoto Ver 1.7.

 

 

 

[Dan C]

On 2/28/2020 at 4:46 PM, Granddaddy said:

I am left wondering why opening the Ver 1.7.3 afphoto file in Ver 1.8 and using Save As to save it under a new name does not completely rewrite the afphoto file in the smaller Ver 1.8 format.

I believe this is explained in the below post from one of our devs, Ben -

As you aren't changing the file when using Save As, the streamline process is not being initiated and this is why the file size does not change in 1.8. I hope this helps!

[Granddaddy]

See my post at
https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/109471-use-aphoto-18-to-reduce-huge-size-of-aphoto-17-files/

for a way of using APhoto Ver 1.8 to reduce the huge file sizes produced by APhoto Ver 1.7.

[walt.farrell]

On 2/28/2020 at 11:46 AM, Granddaddy said:

I am left wondering why opening the Ver 1.7.3 afphoto file in Ver 1.8 and using Save As to save it under a new name does not completely rewrite the afphoto file in the smaller Ver 1.8 format.

Could you provide your 1.7.3 test file that you've been using in your attempts to get 1.8 to reduce the file size?

[Granddaddy]

Sorry, it's a family photo involving my grandchildren. In recent years I mostly photograph people having the experience of discarding thousands of 35mm slides that my father and I took beginning around 1954. I found that only people photos mattered, that landscapes and flowers just weren't worth scanning for my descendants and other relatives.

You could do your own testing using any photo you've previously saved with Ver 1.7 to test the effect. The one I chose to describe most recently in my thread describing how I was able to easily use Ver 1.8 to revise a Ver 1.7 file and save it at a much smaller size is just a bit more complex than the others I've played with.

It was @Dan C  above who told me that opening a Ver 1.7 afphoto file with Ver 1.8 and then using Save As under a different name will NOT reduce the afphoto file size.

Hence I thought of replacing only the Background layer as it seemed likely that layer had most to do with producing huge file sizes in Ver 1.7. Obviously APhoto Ver 1.7 does something to the original jpg file that is now done differently in Ver 1.8. And Ver 1.8 cannot change that old Ver 1.7 data to the new Ver 1.8 format.

It remains unclear to me why using Ver 1.8 to open an afphoto file originally saved using Ver 1.7 and then using Ver 1.8 to Save As under a new filename does not rewrite the document using the newer Ver 1.8 format for all layers, including the Background layer. It seems that only by deleting the Background layer copied in from the Ver 1.7 document can you actually force Affinity to use the smaller sized Ver 1.8 format.

I've had responses from others explaining why the afphoto files must be so much larger than the original jpg from my camera, even when the afphoto file contains only an unedited jpg file with no adjustments. And then suddenly with Ver 1.8 such files are much smaller again, though still not as small as in Ver 1.6.

As quoted above, huge file sizes introduced with Ver 1.7 were an inadvertent result of last minute changes made to accommodate APub. Apparently these changes had nothing to do with requirements for photo editing. That's why I'm now wondering why the afphoto format changes with every minor update to APhoto or to other applications in the Suite. Every decimal point upgrade introduces a new file format. I've not experienced such continuous changes in file formats in any other application I've used in the past 35 years.

 

 

[walt.farrell]

32 minutes ago, Granddaddy said:

Sorry, it's a family photo involving my grandchildren.

OK; thanks, anyway.

I'm not sure I have any files saved in 1.7 that demonstrate the problem sufficiently; that's why I hoped to use one of yours.