Is AFFINITY dead?

[Petar Petrenko]

On 7/25/2022 at 4:54 PM, dcr said:

For perspective, another company whose software I use (infrequently, mind you) hasn't released an update in nine years.  And the next version has been "coming soon" for six years.  On the flip side, if you ask them a question on their forums, they typically respond within a day or two.

Papyrus (Author)?

[hy13]

It was the "new" license model of Adobe that made me look into Affinity Photo. After a short time of trying out I found a lot of workflow improvements over PS and consequently changed to that new product. And this was not a bad decision. The other Apps I purchased mainly in order to support Serif because I hardly need and use them. However, nothing is perfect, and so I, too, have some wishes towards Serif regarding AP as the focus:

1. Stay with your actual license model and ask for extra money on updates when needed. On machines in production use, internet is a risk and costs performance. As we all are forced by leading companies to change hardware from time to time, it is convenient to keep internet on the "old" hardware separated.

2. Solve annoying bugs in acceptable time and reduce number of beta versions in return if that helps

3. Look more into workflow subjects (e.g. macro) than into new (Pro) features. Increase that intelligent little things that make it smart and fast to use

4. A DAM from Serif would be nice but is not the urgent thing. There are products like AcdSee in the market which are sufficient in their features and ultra fast when using two screens for photo work.

BTW: I am not a Pro, but working speed is a must for me. Its often that I have appr. 2000 shots per Event on my storage card with resulting 50 to 100 photos to develop and process. And then its a real difference if you need 5 hours for that or 5 days. At present that is my most important feature of AP when I compare to other products.

[hedrickbk]

On 7/27/2022 at 12:06 PM, debraspicher said:

Regardless, management would have to be clueless to change to sub-only model given the major appeal of the suite was that we didn't have to go all-in. A non-starter. As long as the applications are independently highly usable, then I think that they can still appeal to clients that aren't keen on Adobe.

I am one who came to Affinity because of the Adobe subscription model. I don't mind paying for worthwhile upgrades every now and then.

 

[Designer1]

Affinity Designer's strengths lie in the pen. You can really draw what you want very comfortably in Affinity Designer. The weaknesses lie in the export quality of PNG, which does not meet professional requirements. This is a big problem when fine lines and round shapes, typography are exported pixelated and not smooth enough.

Hopefully the export quality and the anti-aliasing function will be improved in Affinity 2.0. The subscription model is out of the question for me!

[Danielcz]

17 hours ago, Designer1 said:

Affinity Designer's strengths lie in the pen. You can really draw what you want very comfortably in Affinity Designer. The weaknesses lie in the export quality of PNG, which does not meet professional requirements. This is a big problem when fine lines and round shapes, typography are exported pixelated and not smooth enough.

Hopefully the export quality and the anti-aliasing function will be improved in Affinity 2.0. The subscription model is out of the question for me!

I dont know if its that issue but i have found that if i uncheck embed ICC profile and embed metadata in Export -> More... exported image has better quality.

its few months ago when i test it so dont know if its apply anymore. 

[Designer1]

4 hours ago, Danielcz said:

I dont know if its that issue but i have found that if i uncheck embed ICC profile and embed metadata in Export -> More... exported image has better quality.

its few months ago when i test it so dont know if its apply anymore. 

Thank you for the tip. I will try it out and deactivate the ICC profile during export.

[debraspicher]

23 hours ago, Designer1 said:

Affinity Designer's strengths lie in the pen. You can really draw what you want very comfortably in Affinity Designer. The weaknesses lie in the export quality of PNG, which does not meet professional requirements. This is a big problem when fine lines and round shapes, typography are exported pixelated and not smooth enough.

Hopefully the export quality and the anti-aliasing function will be improved in Affinity 2.0. The subscription model is out of the question for me!

I have no idea what you're talking about as far as PNGs, but I'm curious. Link to/start a new thread? I'm aware that without hinting, vectors can be "less smooth", but that's also true for AI. So what are the differences in AP/AD?

[ATP]

10 minutes ago, debraspicher said:

I have no idea what you're talking about as far as PNGs, but I'm curious. Link to/start a new thread? I'm aware that without hinting, vectors can be "less smooth", but that's also true for AI. So what are the differences in AP/AD?

I've personally seen Affinity Photo remove small details like single strands of hair if the subject is small enough in the frame, even at 100% export quality JPEG. Nothing major at all and you'd never notice unless zooming way in and comparing original versus edit, but still it's a loss of detail.

I don't know if this is perfectly normal for all programs and I know it's not a PNG in my example, but similar with loss of quality.

[Designer1]

2 hours ago, debraspicher said:

I have no idea what you're talking about as far as PNGs, but I'm curious. Link to/start a new thread? I'm aware that without hinting, vectors can be "less smooth", but that's also true for AI. So what are the differences in AP/AD?

 

[Designer1]

19 hours ago, debraspicher said:

I have no idea what you're talking about as far as PNGs, but I'm curious. Link to/start a new thread? I'm aware that without hinting, vectors can be "less smooth", but that's also true for AI. So what are the differences in AP/AD?

@debraspicherIf you have suggestions on how to improve export quality of PNG, that would be really helpful. I've tried several settings, unfortunately I don't see any way to achieve export quality with smooth outlines like Illustrator. Incidentally, the font outlines in Affinity Designer are not rendered as smoothly as in Illustrator.

[cc7]

Any update for new version? Too quiet?

[Patrick Connor]

40 minutes ago, cc7 said:

Any update for new version? Too quiet?

Sorry, it's private/internal testing only at the moment

[fde101]

On 8/18/2022 at 7:57 AM, BAKAI said:

LTR

Left-to-right text is already supported (the only kind that is at the moment, in fact)?

[Petar Petrenko]

On 8/18/2022 at 1:57 PM, BAKAI said:

Wonderful. Wish a full LTR support.

LTR or RTL?

[Petar Petrenko]

8 minutes ago, BAKAI said:

complex Script's

What kind? What is this?

[walt.farrell]

18 minutes ago, NNN said:

What kind? What is this?

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/search/&q="complex script"&quick=1

[Alfred]

18 minutes ago, NNN said:

What kind? What is this?

Indic scripts (such as Devanagari) which are LTR but have complex shaping behaviour.

[DesignerUSA]

On 8/18/2022 at 5:48 AM, Patrick Connor said:

Sorry, it's private/internal testing only at the moment

Will the new version support RTL?

[Patrick Connor]

1 hour ago, DesignerUSA said:

Will the new version support RTL?

No, sorry that's not in development yet

[DesignerUSA]

16 hours ago, Patrick Connor said:

No, sorry that's not in development yet

This is very disappointing news.  

We were all sure there would be exciting news about language support in the upcoming version.

Affinity is now DEAD for me.

[PetervL]

4 hours ago, DesignerUSA said:

Affinity is now DEAD for me.

Not for me. Not by a long shot.

I have mentioned this before, we need to realize that Serif is working with limited resources. If we make the comparison with Adobe and their vast company (read resources) then we can draw the conclusion that Serif is doing a marvelous job! They are also not charging us an arm and a leg for a beautiful program.

Perhaps we need to be a little more patient.

Best Regards Peter.

[DesignerUSA]

14 minutes ago, PetervL said:

Not for me. Not by a long shot.

I have mentioned this before, we need to realize that Serif is working with limited resources. If we make the comparison with Adobe and their vast company (read resources) then we can draw the conclusion that Serif is doing a marvelous job! They are also not charging us an arm and a leg for a beautiful program.

Perhaps we need to be a little more patient.

Best Regards Peter.

I agree with your point, and that's why I understand why Affinity is still lacking lots of essential features. I'm fine with that, and I'll patiently wait for their progress.

But the lack of Arabic Language support is not another "feature request" we are asking for, it is the reason why I can't use my purchased Affinity programs in an effective and creative way. (and millions of RTL users can't join Affinity)

Please make the Affinity suite useful for everyone around the globe!

[PetervL]

11 minutes ago, DesignerUSA said:

But the lack of Arabic Language support is not another "feature request" we are asking for, it is the reason why I can't use my purchased Affinity programs in an effective and creative way. (and millions of RTL users can't join Affinity)

Thank you for well made point

I understand you position and I sincerely hope that Serif will come up with a suitable update. Perhaps we have to ask Patrick to give this request the priority it really needs (no doubt he will read this). Like you indicated, it will give them a lot more business as well.

Best Regards again, Peter.

[ATP]

I'm tensely looking forward to see what new features 2.0 will get if better support for text isn't one of them, earlier posts have indicated 2.0 apps will have new major features.

[Mithferion]

15 hours ago, DesignerUSA said:

But the lack of Arabic Language support is not another "feature request" we are asking for, it is the reason why I can't use my purchased Affinity programs in an effective and creative way. (and millions of RTL users can't join Affinity)

I don't think I'll ever use RTL in any way, shape or form, but I'll be glad when that happens.

Best regards!