DAM - Digital Asset Manager

[skua]

Serif does need to consider a DAM to go with their other products.  Some have asked "why bother when there are other tools out there?"  Because those tools do not support the native Affinity formats very well (or at all).  I've been using digiKam for years just to manage my photos, but it can't help me with .afphoto format files.  I shoot Olympus .ORF raw and also have a lot of .DNG... which are great.  But as soon as I develop in Affinity and maybe have layers involved I need to save .afphoto and we're lacking tools to manage those files.  I suppose I could output to .PSD, but Affinity seems to warn about the possibility of issues doing that and recommend using the applications native format. Serif wants us to use their formats? Then please provide the tools needed to manage them properly.  Don't get me wrong... I'm SUPER HAPPY with Affinty Photo and Designer... but could really use a tool to help manage photos AND artwork created with these tools.

Don't get me started on thumbnails. Heck, half the time Windows 10 can't even display thumbnails for .afphoto (it used to... I don't know if a recent Windows Update screwed that up or what?) There needs to be a simple way to repair this functionality, but I haven't found it yet.

[BlkPingu]

14 hours ago, skua said:

could really use a tool to help manage photos AND artwork created with these tools.

I currently use Dark Table. The learning curve is flat, but it works well and is free and has stuff like a good dark mode. Consider trying it. It has all the capabilities to be a great DAM, but it's not the more intuitive tool to use. Batch processing for example is harder to do than in Lightroom, but can be done with the same results, even though it's a bit convoluted with how to set up a processing template. I mainly use it for batch processing and photo selection after shootings. 

[loukash]

18 hours ago, skua said:

I've been using digiKam for years just to manage my photos, but it can't help me with .afphoto format files. 

You can add afphoto/afdesign/afpub to digiKam's list of file extensions but it can't display the embedded preview image (yet). Perhaps you may want to request the digiKam community to add Affinity compatibility, same as XnViewMP or NeoFinder already does.

And since Affinity uses a closed, proprietary document format, that will be all you can get at this time.

[walt.farrell]

Just now, loukash said:

And since Affinity uses a closed, proprietary document format, that will be all you can get at this time.

Except for the thumbnail preview, which is supported by standard Windows (and, probably, macOS) interfaces.

[loukash]

Just now, walt.farrell said:

Except for the thumbnail preview, which is supported by standard Windows (and, probably, macOS) interfaces.

Yeah, that's what I meant by "the embedded preview image"  

[Patrick Connor]

5 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Except for the thumbnail preview, which is supported by standard Windows

this requires that you provide/install (and correctly register in the Registry) a thumbnail provider app. The functionality does not work for free

[walt.farrell]

2 minutes ago, Patrick Connor said:

this requires that you provide/install (and correctly register in the Registry) a thumbnail provider app. The functionality does not work for free

True, but the Affinity applications do that, don't they?

Thus, as I understand it, any application that wants to extract the thumbnail from an Affinity application can do so using standard system interfaces.

[Bryan Rieger]

45 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Except for the thumbnail preview, which is supported by standard Windows (and, probably, macOS) interfaces.

I'm hopeful that one day we might see proper QuickLook previews on macOS available from the Affinity Apps. The current supplied thumbnail is indeed useful, but the low resolution often makes it difficult to see differences in similar files the way you can with PDFs, bookmarks, and any other app/format (Procreate, Markdown, etc) that provide QuickLook previews to the OS.

[loukash]

37 minutes ago, Bryan Rieger said:

proper QuickLook previews

A "proper" QL preview depends on the file format accessibility it previews.
For example, a GarageBand or a Logic Pro project can also only quick-look the embedded PNG screenshot of your saved document.
Just like Affinity does.
To generate "proper" previews, such an Affinity QL plugin would always have to render the document as if you'd be opening it with an Affinity app. I don't think that's a feasible solution, hence the JPEG thumbnail rendering upon save.

What would be helpful though:
A preference setting à la InDesign where you can define the size and scope (which or how many pages or artboards) of the embedded preview thumbnail.

Because in most instances, I'd like to keep my file sizes small, so usually I'm fine with the current QL preview dimensions of Affinity documents.

[yellowsaber]

I know Affinity has been working on a DAM for a while, personally, I don't see myself using it. I can use a shared NAS in Finder or file explorer just as easily. I'd rather see them tackle After Effects or Motion with a 2D animation program that can natively operate with their file system.

 

Right now a workaround I do is SVG to Pixelmator Pro to Apple Motion. However, its still not as nice as just importing a project to After Effects. Another program is Cavarly however its more node based.