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Affinity Photo:

To the Executives at Serif. Should you choose to search the forums using the title of this post, you'll get at least 20 hits. Some of those hits include statements about a Digital Asset manager (DAM) in development. These requests/discussions go back to 2015. That's 7 YEARS at the time of this writing. 

Sooooooo, come on now; what's really going on? Taking 2 covid years out of the timeline still gives you 5 years to respond. Would you not agree that you owe your loyal users a DAM product by now? To the Executive in charge, please give us a release date (some hope). We're getting anxious.

Edited by hobbytobiz
Typo

MacBook Pro 15", Mid 2012, AP V 1.10.5

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53 minutes ago, hobbytobiz said:

To the Executives at Serif. Should you choose to search the forums using the title of this post, you'll get at least 20 hits.

I think you’ll need to correct the typo in the title if you want anyone to get more than one hit! ;)

Quote

DAM - Digital Assest manager

 

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Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen)

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OK like many others I need a DAM to work alongside Affinity Photo, at the moment I still use Lightroom 6 perpetual and due to it's age it cannot read my Sony files so I have to go round the houses with the adobe DNG converter, it would be nice to actually no if there is a DAM on the horizon from Serif in the next release of Affinity Photo so I don't   go throwing money away on purchasing another app that does have at least a DAM to work from.

Ball is in there court to give customers an update on the progress they have maybe made for the next release, it's called customer relations or loose some who are fed up waiting for what has been asked for many months/years ago.

Russ.

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I seem to remember trying to use a Serif-designed image catalogue tool that came with the previous range of products (PhotoPlus)?

I had to give up on it when I found it could only handle files on local disks. Most of my files are stored on a Linux server running Samba, which are access through a local mount point via a symbolic link. The Seric tool couldn't handle any of that.

I agree with the need. I'm currently still running Picasa, but Google dropped that years ago and at some point it won't be possible to keep it running on later versions of Windows.

At Serifs typical pricing points, often sub-£50 per product when ther are offers on, I would be happy to buy a DAM from Serif if it was a robust tool with a decent feature set. Remote file support, facial recognition (with data held locally only and encrypted), and multi-user support would be key for me.

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+1 for another WAAAITING (with wallet in hand) customer. I used to use Adobe Bridge with my previous Intel based Macs, but since I upgraded them to M1 based machines, I have to do without any DAM software as the Intel based Bridge does not play nice with Apple silicon. For whatever reasons Adobe still don't have a native version for the ARM based machines (1 1/2 year now), go figure.

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There are already so many such tools (freeware & commercial for all platforms available), so what should they do different here than hundreds already available such tools (?).

Try digiCam which is free or some of the other tools!

☛ Affinity Designer 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Photo 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Publisher 1.10.8 ◆ OSX El Capitan
☛ Affinity V2.3 apps ◆ MacOS Sonoma 14.2 ◆ iPad OS 17.2

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1 hour ago, Barnaby416 said:

I used to use Adobe Bridge with my previous Intel based Macs, but since I upgraded them to M1 based machines, I have to do without any DAM software as the Intel based Bridge does not play nice with Apple silicon.

I used to use Adobe Bridge, but sadly it feels as though Adobe largely abandoned it years ago. FWIW in my frustration in looking for a Bridge replacement I accidentally began using the Apple Finder to manage my media files—and have grown to prefer it. It gives me metadata, comments, previews, tagging, labels, aliases, multiple view options, search (via Finder and Spotlight), cloud sync via iCloud (or Google Docs/Dropbox), automation and scripting support (via AppleScript and Shortcuts).

No subscription, comes free with every Mac, and doesn't require me migrate my work every few years.

It's not a perfect solution, doesn't do everything other DAMs do, but it might be an option in some (relatively simple) cases.

Just putting it out there.

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9 hours ago, v_kyr said:

There are already so many such tools (freeware & commercial for all platforms available), so what should they do different here than hundreds already available such tools (?).

Try digiCam which is free or some of the other tools!

Thanks for this, didn't even no about it will give it a try. Russ.

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there are two alternatives, for windows is the Abemeda  and the neoFinder voor Macintosh.
AbeMeda works perfect and you can directly open Affinity.   For mac it will works the same I think.
You can use max 5 free databases with no subscribe.

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Affinity Photo2 - Designer 1.10-  Publisher 1.10 - ArtRage 6 - Lumina Aurora - ArtRage.
 

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On 7/2/2022 at 10:32 AM, hobbytobiz said:

Affinity Photo:

To the Executives at Serif. Should you choose to search the forums using the title of this post, you'll get at least 20 hits. Some of those hits include statements about a Digital Asset manager (DAM) in development. These requests/discussions go back to 2015. That's 7 YEARS at the time of this writing. 

Sooooooo, come on now; what's really going on? Taking 2 covid years out of the timeline still gives you 5 years to respond. Would you not agree that you owe your loyal users a DAM product by now? To the Executive in charge, please give us a release date (some hope). We're getting anxious.

We’ll, I guess I really screwed up. I was hoping a lot of AP users would agree that Serif needs to market a DAM. Now with all the alternate suggestions they’ll probably figure “No need for a DAM. Our customers have other products to use. No sense releasing a new product.”

MacBook Pro 15", Mid 2012, AP V 1.10.5

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5 hours ago, hobbytobiz said:

We’ll, I guess I really screwed up. I was hoping a lot of AP users would agree that Serif needs to market a DAM. Now with all the alternate suggestions they’ll probably figure “No need for a DAM. Our customers have other products to use. No sense releasing a new product.”

I'm not sure those are real contender. I tried DigiKam for a while, the UI was clunky. Think about the Mac software that bundles with the X-rite 1Display Pro Colorimeter, may be not as bad but you get the point. The last time I checked (a few months ago) their development team still did not have a M1 Mac for development. I'll be glad to pay for a commercial (polished and properly supported) Apple silicon native DAM app.

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On 7/3/2022 at 4:33 PM, v_kyr said:

There are already so many such tools (freeware & commercial for all platforms available), so what should they do different here than hundreds already available such tools (?).

Try digiCam which is free or some of the other tools!

I tried it. Terrible to a 1st time user. After waiting 15 minutes for my file structure to populate, I quit. At that point only a third of the files were loaded.

MacBook Pro 15", Mid 2012, AP V 1.10.5

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Good morning, @hobbytobiz. If you're looking for a full-featured DAM, try out Photo Supreme. ( Link: https://www.idimager.com/home )It is available for Mac and Windows, in Single User and Server configurations. There is also a "Photo Supreme Lite" version, which is free (without any limitations other than a 5,000 photo limit) - an excellent way to evaluate the product.

Photo Supreme is a catalogue (not a photo browser) with probably the best keyword assignment process I've ever come across. It supports rating, geo-location, albums and portfolios (including "smart" albums), versions and stacks, full metadata editing with creation of custom metadata, and so forth. Searching is fairly easy, although it can be crazy complex if you need it to be. Speed is pretty snappy, too.

If you tell the application about Affinity Photo's extension (".afphoto"), it will be able to include AP's files in its catalogues, using the embedded JPG previews for its thumbnails. You can select any photo and (i) locate them on your disk; or (ii) open them in an application of your choosing. In other words, I can choose an Affinity Photo file inside of Photo Supreme, click on a button, and open that photo directly into Affinity for further editing.

It's not free (other than the size-limited "Lite" version) and it has no raw development or editing capabilities to speak of. It can occasionally be a little nerdy, but it is a database at heart so what would you expect? But it is a wonderful standalone catalogue and bears looking at.

Affinity Photo 2, Affinity Publisher 2, Affinity Designer 2 (latest retail versions) - desktop & iPad
Culling - FastRawViewer; Raw Developer - Capture One Pro; Asset Management - Photo Supreme
Mac Studio with M2 Max (2023}; 64 GB RAM; macOS 13 (Ventura); Mac Studio Display - iPad Air 4th Gen; iPadOS 17

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The lack of a DAM able to manage properly Affinity's file(s) (beyond the simple thumbnail preview) is frustrating.

I've been using Phase One Media Pro (formerly Microsoft Expression Media and iView Media Pro) for the last 12 years and I'm still pretty happy with it.

Media Pro could be configured to accept new file types but being limited to 4 digit extensions prevents Affinity's files to be imported. Having to rely on multi-layered Tiffs is the only workaround (only for pictures) at the moment, but at the expense of a huge waste of disk space. 

Since Phase One discontinued Media Pro a few years ago, my most cherished dream would be that Serif buys it up improving it only where needed, replacing Quick Time functions with a solid integration with Affinity's features and a full support to their proprietary file types. Reviving a robust software with a good reputation could be a good solution for them too if, despite the statements, they haven't been able (or didn't have resources) to develop one from scratch in at least 5 years or more.

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27 minutes ago, Clau_S said:

The lack of a DAM able to manage properly Affinity's file(s) (beyond the simple thumbnail preview) is frustrating.

I've been using Phase One Media Pro (formerly Microsoft Expression Media and iView Media Pro) for the last 12 years and I'm still pretty happy with it.

Media Pro could be configured to accept new file types but being limited to 4 digit extensions prevents Affinity's files to be imported. Having to rely on multi-layered Tiffs is the only workaround (only for pictures) at the moment, but at the expense of a huge waste of disk space. 

Since Phase One discontinued Media Pro a few years ago, my most cherished dream would be that Serif buys it up improving it only where needed, replacing Quick Time functions with a solid integration with Affinity's features and a full support to their proprietary file types. Reviving a robust software with a good reputation could be a good solution for them too if, despite the statements, they haven't been able (or didn't have resources) to develop one from scratch in at least 5 years or more.

I’ve been thinking along the same lines. Affinity should just acquire a DAM, make the necessary tweaks and get it out to the users. I think it was back in 2015 or 2016 there was rumble the product was in the works. Sounds like they are really not committed.
 

Sounds like the 2 apps you use may not be a good candidate for me to consider. 

MacBook Pro 15", Mid 2012, AP V 1.10.5

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20 hours ago, smadell said:

Good morning, @hobbytobiz. If you're looking for a full-featured DAM, try out Photo Supreme. ( Link: https://www.idimager.com/home )It is available for Mac and Windows, in Single User and Server configurations. There is also a "Photo Supreme Lite" version, which is free (without any limitations other than a 5,000 photo limit) - an excellent way to evaluate the product.

Photo Supreme is a catalogue (not a photo browser) with probably the best keyword assignment process I've ever come across. It supports rating, geo-location, albums and portfolios (including "smart" albums), versions and stacks, full metadata editing with creation of custom metadata, and so forth. Searching is fairly easy, although it can be crazy complex if you need it to be. Speed is pretty snappy, too.

If you tell the application about Affinity Photo's extension (".afphoto"), it will be able to include AP's files in its catalogues, using the embedded JPG previews for its thumbnails. You can select any photo and (i) locate them on your disk; or (ii) open them in an application of your choosing. In other words, I can choose an Affinity Photo file inside of Photo Supreme, click on a button, and open that photo directly into Affinity for further editing.

It's not free (other than the size-limited "Lite" version) and it has no raw development or editing capabilities to speak of. It can occasionally be a little nerdy, but it is a database at heart so what would you expect? But it is a wonderful standalone catalogue and bears looking at.

Thanks, I may look at Photo Supreme.

MacBook Pro 15", Mid 2012, AP V 1.10.5

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36 minutes ago, hobbytobiz said:

Sounds like the 2 apps you use may not be a good candidate for me to consider. 

I only talked about one, anyway, out of curiosity, could you tell me why?


I tried other DAMs in the past and Expression Media 2 (I bought it when it was owned by Microsoft) was the most convincing for me back then. It was also the DAM of choice of Peter Krogh's The DAM Book, that was a sort of Bible of DAM. I think that now he may be most geared towards Lightroom, but I passed to Affinity suite to get away from Adobe subscriptions.

I stuck with Media Pro because of the integration with Capture One, that got lost when Phase One implemented cataloging functions directly into the raw converter.

Recently I just tried DigiKam discarding it almost immediately. Affinity files are the only reason I'd have to move to another manager, but in all those years other apps may have introduced features that I'm not taking into account and you could help me reconsider my needs. Thank you in advance.

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1 hour ago, hobbytobiz said:

I think it was back in 2015 or 2016 there was rumble the product was in the works. Sounds like they are really not committed.

 

-- Walt
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I was using Luminar as my main image editor when  they introduced their DAM. I quickly moved to another app. Initially it had a lot of problems and for some time it took up all their development effort. I believe ON1 had problems when they introduced theirs. I'm happy using a 3rd party app and would sooner Serif continued to develop the editing side (for Photo which is what I use). 

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So far I still use the now ancient, perpetual version of LR. It still works for me, well because I haven't updated cameras. I know it does not handle the newer Canon Rs and similar. Don't have one, so it does not affect me.

However like RichardMH, I'm happy to use a third party app, like FastStone, XnViewMP, to quickly look through images to use in AP. Serif seems to almost have their plate overloaded trying to get the bugs out of the apps they already have.

Affinity Photo 2.4..; Affinity Designer 2.4..; Affinity Publisher 2.4..; Affinity2 Beta versions. Affinity Photo,Designer 1.10.6.1605 Win10 Home Version:21H2, Build: 19044.1766: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-5820K CPU @ 3.30GHz, 3301 Mhz, 6 Core(s), 12 Logical Processor(s);32GB Ram, Nvidia GTX 3070, 3-Internal HDD (1 Crucial MX5000 1TB, 1-Crucial MX5000 500GB, 1-WD 1 TB), 4 External HDD

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On 7/17/2022 at 10:25 AM, Ron P. said:

So far I still use the now ancient, perpetual version of LR. It still works for me, well because I haven't updated cameras. I know it does not handle the newer Canon Rs and similar. Don't have one, so it does not affect me.

However like RichardMH, I'm happy to use a third party app, like FastStone, XnViewMP, to quickly look through images to use in AP. Serif seems to almost have their plate overloaded trying to get the bugs out of the apps they already have.

Does either app allow you to batch process images? I.E. select a group of image files, then adjust white balance to all selected images.

MacBook Pro 15", Mid 2012, AP V 1.10.5

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UPDATE:

As a Canon user, I have access to Canon Digital Photo Professional. I updated it and started looking at it. Turns out with a little exploration, trial and effort, I can accomplish most everything I used in Adobe Bridge and Photoshop. After opening my camera raw images, any edit made to an image file can be applied to all the other images selected. Very handy function. This will make work flow much more efficient. I may have just found my DAM!!

MacBook Pro 15", Mid 2012, AP V 1.10.5

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53 minutes ago, hobbytobiz said:

UPDATE:

As a Canon user, I have access to Canon Digital Photo Professional. I updated it and started looking at it. Turns out with a little exploration, trial and effort, I can accomplish most everything I used in Adobe Bridge and Photoshop. After opening my camera raw images, any edit made to an image file can be applied to all the other images selected. Very handy function. This will make work flow much more efficient. I may have just found my DAM!!

I use Capture One Express for Sony, which has similar capabilities.

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