Use APhoto 1.8 to reduce huge size of APhoto 1.7 files

[Granddaddy]

In my post at
https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/108445-affinity-photo-file-sizes-much-smaller-with-ver-18/
I expressed my disappointment that Save As in APhoto Ver 1.8 would not reduce the huge file sizes of afphoto files originally saved with APhoto Ver 1.7.

Here is a simple procedure that will achieve this goal of resaving those huge, older Ver 1.7 documents  to the much smaller Ver 1.8 file format.

1. Open an afphoto file saved originally with APhoto Ver 1.7 (that afphoto file will be huge compared to the original jpg camera image)
2. Rename the background layer to Background-OLD (to avoid later confusion)
3. Open as a new APhoto document the original jpg file that was used in the Ver 1.7 file
4. Rename the background layer to Background-NU (to avoid later confusion)
5. Select and copy all layers including the Background-OLD layer from the original Ver 1.7 document
6. Paste all these layers from the Ver 1.7 document into the new document that contains only Background-NU, that is the original camera photo
7. Delete the Background-OLD layer
8. Click Save As to produce a new Ver 1.8 afphoto file. It will be identical in appearance to your original Ver 1.7 file, but it will be far smaller in size.

In one of my test cases, I had a jpg photo from my camera that was 8,204 KB in size. Using APhoto Ver 1.7, I had cropped the image and added a pixel layer plus 6 adjustment layers. Some adjustment layers affected only selected portions of the image. The pixel layer was used for some Inpainting fixes to the original image. Using Save As in Ver 1.7 the resulting afphoto file was 52,175 KB, about 6.4 times larger than the original jpg file.

After following the 8 steps above (copying all of the Ver 1.7 layers to the Ver 1.8 document and then deleting the old background layer copied from the Ver 1.7 document) the resulting afphoto file was only 19,091 KB. This is only about 2.3 times larger than the original jpg from the camera. Because I had also cropped the image in Ver 1.7, I first had to Unclip Canvas in the Ver 1.7 document and then crop the image in the Ver 1.8 document so that all adjustments and the pixel layer would be aligned.

 

 

[IanSG]

Doesn't this throw away any edits made with filters, inpainting dodging and burning, cropping etc.?  

[Granddaddy]

All of my editing in the Ver 1.7 document was done non-destructively so only layers are involved. There were no changes made to the actual pixels in the Background image, which remains completely unaltered during the editing process. I also had added a blank pixel layer on which I did Inpainting using the Current Layer & Below option to fix blemishes and remove distractions. That kind of Inpainting does not affect pixels in the original Background layer. As for cropping, I indicated that I had to first Unclip Canvas for the Ver 1.7 document to get proper alignment with the new Background layer in the final Ver 1.8 document. Cropping in Affinity Photo is non-destructive by default. (I almost never crop Affinity documents as I prefer cropping at print time as I've described elsewhere.)

My method will not work if you make changes to the pixels in the original background layer because I delete that original Background Layer from Ver 1.7. Complications might also arise with complicated child layer structures. All my layers, both Adjustments and pixels were above the single Background layer.

It seems the key to reducing the file size is deleting that original background layer from the document and replacing it with a new copy of the original photo image. I have no idea why Affinity Ver 1.7 creates such a large file when storing that layer in the afphoto file. Nor do I know why using Ver 1.8 to simply resave a Ver 1.7 file does not rewrite the original Background Layer using the new Ver 1.8 format. It seems to imply that the Ver 1.8 afphoto file is a container for files in different formats from different versions of APhoto. Something similar happened in the upgrade from Ver 1.6 to Ver 1.7 when Ver 1.7 could contain both Ver 1.6 and Ver 1.7 versions of the same Live Filter Layer in the same file. See, for instance, my post at
https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/88132-affinity-photo-live-clarity-filter-in-ver-17-vs-ver-16/

Perhaps I should also mention that I am working with jpg files from my camera. I do not know about file sizes when using developed RAW files. I do not know what Affinity does to the jpg file when it stores the image in the afphoto file.

I switched to Affinity Photo 2-1/2 years ago when I learned about non-destructive editing. I recognized Affinity had the better model for photo retouching and editing. I've used several different editors since getting into digital photography 18 years ago. None of them emphasized non-destructive editing. The dozen or more books I've studied using those editors never mentioned non-destructive editing. A major competitor for Affinity keeps sending me links to tutorials that emphasize destructive editing even for the simple things that Affinity does non-destructively. (No, not the company that shall not be named. I dropped that one 6 years ago when the new upgrade removed features I used regularly.) 

So I keep using Affinity despite my complaints. Affinity is improving in directions I like, but oh so slowly for an old, impatient granddaddy.

Does anyone else think it unusual for a software application to change its native file format every time the current version is updated by only one-tenth of a version number? Is the direction ahead so unclear that the file format could not have been designed before coding the application began? 

[Granddaddy]

Adding to the above, you can dodge and burn non-destructively in Affinity Photo. It's not something I've done myself. I tend to use curves adjustments on selections as I'm not good with brushes. See for instance these InAffinity tutorials

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCopkFkK1G0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5oYSKsvcJA

Also possible on the iPad as Bethany shows at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12IYIbzhR2Q

[DNA0101]

Very interesting and informative. I shall have to try and test a few things on my own.

Anything to bring down the file size is good news. 😁

Dan

[IanSG]

On 3/8/2020 at 5:52 PM, Granddaddy said:

Adding to the above, you can dodge and burn non-destructively in Affinity Photo.

True, but it's not something I'd do simply to keep the file size down.  I've been known to berate s/w developers for using Moore's law as an excuse for sloppy coding, but I still believe that disk space is now so cheap that large file sizes are  an acceptable price to pay for an easier / quicker work flow.  That said, it would be nice if there was some sort of lossless compressed archive format, but it's not high on my wish list.

<edit>

I've just had a look at the amount of disk space I use for my RAW and .afphoto files - I use twice as much space for the RAWs, and the total disk space is worth less than £10 in today's disk prices!  Back in the days when I was using Fujitsu Eagles, that would have been worth well over £5 million!!  That's progress for you!