Affinity Suite for macOS 1.8.6 release notes

[Patrick Connor]

We are pleased to announce updates for the MacOS release of all of the Affinity Suite, to version 1.8.6 

These updates make our applications fully compatible with Big Sur and optimised for the Apple M1 chipset (Apple silicon).

This new support for Big Sur 11.0 comes in ADDITION to our existing support for macOS 10.9 to 10.14, and so this 1.8.6 release works on all of them, and is suitable for all our macOS customers.

New Press Release on what Big Sur and Apple M1 hardware mean for the Affinity Suite

Changes in this build

Apple just released Big Sur, its latest major macOS update. This update is something our developers have been working on for quite some time and we’re thrilled to share that our latest 1.8.6 update for the macOS versions of our apps is fully compatible with Big Sur, which means even better performance of Affinity apps on Mac. Perhaps even more exciting though is that 1.8.6 is fully optimised for Apple silicon, the new faster hardware architecture, starting with the M1 chip, as announced by Apple at a launch event on 10th November 2020. For more on Apple silicon, see this page on our website.

This update is a "universal" install, built for both the existing Intel based architecture and the new Apple M1 based architecture. Whatever hardware you are running on this new release is built for optimal performance. It also comes with a new icon, to reflect Big Sur styling, and some behind the scenes tweaks focussing on performance.

UPDATING TO THIS VERSION (Free for existing customers)

The software version can be seen on the splash screen and the About dialog (in application menu, for example "Affinity Photo" > "About").

These threads below (to the last update for each application) describe how to install these new 1.8.6 updates and the features and fixes in the earlier updates.

• Affinity Photo for macOS 1.8.4
• Affinity Designer for macOS 1.8.4
• Affinity Publisher for macOS 1.8.4

[Patrick Connor]

All Readers

This thread is locked, but a discussion thread for commenting on this announcement is here.

Please do not post bugs or problems that you find when using this version of the software in that discussion thread, instead make a new thread in the relevant Bugs on macOS section for Photo, Designer, & Publisher and any questions about usage go in the Desktop Questions forum.

[Patrick Connor]

To anyone following this topic, you will find your post and any subsequent discussion here instead