Affinity 2.0 and Mojave

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, prophet said:

Got this old Macbook Air running High Sierra as my backup machine should anything go horribly wrong.

Keep in mind that Affinity files edited in V2 will not open in V1, so it would be a good idea to backup your V1 files before editing them in V2.

[prophet]

Just now, R C-R said:

backup your V1 files before editing them in V2.

Sage advice.

Report: upgrade went well.

Fun to see the big "does not work" overlays on my CS6 apps. I'll keep the old laptop on hand for a couple of months should I need Illy or Acrobat's particular features in a pinch.

To start, I'll only be working on non-critical files in v2 and those that need the fun new things we can do (warp mesh in particular). As files come up for review and revision, I'll start migrating v1 to v2. Will be much easier than the migration I just finished getting things from InDesign > IDML/PDF > Publisher

I also took the opportunity to cull my font collection of PostScripts (and duplicates) and switched from FontExplorerX to Typeface thanks to the good advice over here: https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/128244-good-font-manager-for-use-with-affinity-was-artzfartzy/

It was a trip down memory lane going through my 12,000+ fonts and paring down to 3300+

It's a brave new world!

[bici]

2 hours ago, R C-R said:

Affinity files edited in V2 will not open in V1

Good to know!!

[MiMiLi]

@PaoloT I am using this workaround to run Illustrator CS6 in Catalina. https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251055813 I have a very limited need for CS6 anymore since Designer covers most of my needs, so if there are limitations like those described in the post for Photoshop I'm not aware of them.

[loukash]

49 minutes ago, MiMiLi said:

workaround to run Illustrator CS6 in Catalina

Interesting!

Too bad it doesn't work with Acrobat X.  Or with CS5.5, for that matter…

[PaoloT]

1 hour ago, MiMiLi said:

I am using this workaround to run Illustrator CS6 in Catalina.

InDesign CS6 is a 32-bit application, so there is no way to go past Mojave, unfortunately.

Paolo

 

[MiMiLi]

2 hours ago, loukash said:

Too bad it doesn't work with Acrobat X.  Or with CS5.5, for that matter…

 

1 hour ago, PaoloT said:

InDesign CS6 is a 32-bit application, so there is no way to go past Mojave, unfortunately.

 

Yes, unfortunately CS5 and CS6 were mixed bags of both 32 and 64-bit applications in the suites. Sorry I couldn't help!

[bladerunner1948]

I'm running a Mac under Mojave. (late 2015 27" 4GHz core i7 32GB RAM)

I have Parallels 18 installed with Windows 10 Pro and Catalina set up as virtual machines.

I downloaded Affinity Photo 2 trials for both Windows and Mac. On the Windows VM AP 2 works very well. No problems found so far. Under Catalina though, it's a different story. I can open files (JPG and Canon CR2 RAW files) but thay are not visible. Nothing is displayed. On the control panel I can see the histogram, metadata, lens info etc but the image itself is not displayed. I used the same files for the Windows test without any problems.

Anyone running Catalina out there? Any ideas?

[PaoloT]

Sigh. Since many programs are no longer running on Mojave, I'm slowly but steadily preparing to upgrade to Monterey. It's like when you prepare your bags for a long leave.

First, I have had to put InDesign CS6 in my Parallels Desktop-Sierra virtual bag. It works fine, apart for being slightly slower, and inverting two keys. At the same time, it is more robust than when running on Mojave.

The sad part: I've been using Affinity Photo and Designer as my main drawing programs for a couple years, now, and I've been very happy with them. Since I can't open images with them right from inside InDesign in the virtual machine, I should decide either to install them in the virtual machine, or use Photoshop and Illustrator.

The obvious answer looks like I should be using the already installed Adobe CS6 programs for most of my everyday work. So, I'm now sort-of-forced to return to an all Adobe workflow, for the time being 

(Something that will probably not work in Monterey is another small app – Money 4, from Jumsoft. The developer has decided to destroy this jewel with the subsequent versions. Ah, if only someone decided to make a replacement app working like that old one…).

Paolo

 

[loukash]

[offtopic]

2 hours ago, PaoloT said:

Money 4, from Jumsoft

I had a similar issue when moving from Mountain Lion to El Capitan a few years back: my favorite time tracking/expenses app never got upgraded for Capitan, and simply didn't work at all. After trying a whole bunch of them, I found none that did what I wanted it to do. But since I'm a FileMaker user since almost 30 years, and I was already using my self-programmed FM solution for invoicing, I simply dived even deeper into FM programming and added time tracking and basic accounting to my existing invoice database. I was even able to import all my time tracking data from over 10 years back. Alright, that all took me a few months of mainly nightly sessions, but it was actually fun (!) doing such work for a change.  

That's just the project time tracking view.
There's also an accounting section for tax purposes: the net income is already being calculated automatically from this project section, so I only have to manually enter my additional elligible expences and then export the required income statement and balance sheet PDFs on a single click.
FileMaker is pricey, but it's an amazing tool in the long run. And luckily, the file format doesn't change with every major version upgrade. I think the current version  19 is still backwards compatible with FM12… (Serif, take note!)

[/offtopic]

Edited November 21, 2022 by loukash

[PaoloT]

At least on my system (12-core MacPro 2013), there is another issue with Sierra under Parallels Desktop. Scrolling with the touchpad in InDesign CS6 is stuttering and imprecise. It is better to use the scrollbars. Useable, but not a great experience.

Paolo

 

[Pedrober]

On 11/19/2022 at 4:33 PM, bladerunner1948 said:

I'm running a Mac under Mojave. (late 2015 27" 4GHz core i7 32GB RAM)

I have Parallels 18 installed with Windows 10 Pro and Catalina set up as virtual machines.

I downloaded Affinity Photo 2 trials for both Windows and Mac. On the Windows VM AP 2 works very well. No problems found so far. Under Catalina though, it's a different story. I can open files (JPG and Canon CR2 RAW files) but thay are not visible. Nothing is displayed. On the control panel I can see the histogram, metadata, lens info etc but the image itself is not displayed. I used the same files for the Windows test without any problems.

Anyone running Catalina out there? Any ideas?

Parallels only gives Metal support in the OS X virtual machine if your host is Big Sur. The only way to have your document visible in Apub is choosing "Software" in Preferences/Performance/Display, but the performance is very poor. I use Apub 2.0 in the Windows virtual machine thanks to the Universal Licence. In the future, with a new Mac...

[bladerunner1948]

On 11/22/2022 at 9:34 AM, Pedrober said:

Parallels only gives Metal support in the OS X virtual machine if your host is Big Sur. The only way to have your document visible in Apub is choosing "Software" in Preferences/Performance/Display, but the performance is very poor. I use Apub 2.0 in the Windows virtual machine thanks to the Universal Licence. In the future, with a new Mac...

I tried your suggestion and that did the trick. It was Affinity Photo 2 I was using. Performance was actually OK. A bit slow in loading the file initially but after that it was acceptable. Thanks for the tip.

[thomaso]

On 11/16/2022 at 11:50 AM, loukash said:

Here is an archived copy of the DMG: https://archive.org/details/install-macos-sierra 
Use it at your own risk though! I have no idea who the guy is who uploaded it to archive.org and how safe it is to use it!

... or directly from Apple: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211683

Edit: the issue with the Sierra-link persists.
Edit 2: … or occurs in Firefox only? (see below Loukash's 2nd post)

[thomaso]

On 11/16/2022 at 11:21 PM, PaoloT said:

You can have the virtual machine running inside a separate frame, or let the client's document windows sit next to the ones of the host Mac. You can copy&paste or drag&drop between the two environments. It's really well integrated.

On 11/22/2022 at 9:34 AM, Pedrober said:

Parallels only gives Metal support in the OS X virtual machine if your host is Big Sur.

I haven't used Parallels yet and still stick with Mojave 10.14 for various software and thus with Affinity V1. Your thread made me like the idea to install Monterey 12 in Parallels to be able to use V2 occasionally – and without rebooting for one or the other.

• Does one of you know if it would be possible this way – or would I need to make Monterey the main ('host'?) macOS, with Mojave in Parallels?
[macbookpro 11,5 (2015), i7, SSD, 1 APFS container with 3 volumes]

• And can you recommend a site for questions like this for newbies with Parallels which might point me to the handling, respectively working speed and possible issues in particular?

[loukash]

7 hours ago, thomaso said:

... or directly from Apple: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211683

Which means Apple fixed the broken link after we've reported it. See above.

[thomaso]

47 minutes ago, loukash said:

Which means Apple fixed the broken link after we've reported it. See above.

Oh, no. (Sorry, I had not tried to download Sierra). In fact the download link of the article and the Apple page is the same …

… and the Sierra-link courses an error for to me in Firefox before download + preventing the download:

[loukash]

2 minutes ago, thomaso said:

the download link of the article and the Apple page is the same

Sure.
But for some time until a few weeks ago, the "InstallOS.dmg" was apparently unavailable on the server for some reason.

That must have been fixed by Apple because I have just downloaded it from the original link without any hassle:

[Pedrober]

8 hours ago, thomaso said:

• Does one of you know if it would be possible this way – or would I need to make Monterey the main ('host'?) macOS, with Mojave in Parallels?
[macbookpro 11,5 (2015), i7, SSD, 1 APFS container with 3 volumes]

It's possible but in my i7 SSD Macmini late 2012 the performance is poor, because Mojave as host doesn't give Metal support to the Monterey virtual machine. As stated, I installed a Windows 10 virtual machine and the performance is better.

8 hours ago, thomaso said:

• And can you recommend a site for questions like this for newbies with Parallels which might point me to the handling, respectively working speed and possible issues in particular?

The Parallels site has a lot of useful information, manuals and so on.

[PaoloT]

8 hours ago, thomaso said:

• Does one of you know if it would be possible this way – or would I need to make Monterey the main ('host'?) macOS, with Mojave in Parallels?

Only in theory, I know it should be possible. But keep in mind that no OS prior to Big Sur will be able to run on a Silicon Mac.

8 hours ago, thomaso said:

• And can you recommend a site for questions like this for newbies with Parallels which might point me to the handling, respectively working speed and possible issues in particular?

The Parallels forum is not bad.

Paolo

 

[Jens D. R.]

1 hour ago, thomaso said:

Oh, no. (Sorry, I had not tried to download Sierra). In fact the download link of the article and the Apple page is the same …

… and the Sierra-link courses an error for to me in Firefox before download + preventing the download:

Click the little ! icon and allow download.

Worked for me.

Cheers

Jens

[Muscateer]

Just discovered this issue. So very annoyed.

[Hoanglien]

CS6 users and Catalina. Although I haven't tried it, CS6 supposedly runs fine on Catalina, but that is truly the end for CS6.

This compatibility game Apple insists on playing is one of the most aggravating things ever, like gluing in the batteries so they can't be replaced.

 

[PaoloT]

On 11/9/2022 at 6:47 PM, PaoloT said:

I can confirm CS6 works fine under Parallels and Sierra.

I found an important issue with this setup. The File Info dialog appears blank, with not even a way to close it with Enter or Escape.

While the file information can be then edited with Adobe Acrobat, or any other PDF editor, this may be a serious annoyance for someone.

Paolo

 

[XU3E]

There is a plenty options how to run newer OSX on an older macs. But it is not option for me as for others. Affinity made very unfortunate step with supporting just Catalina+. Of course - understandable. But I will not update to Catalina nor newer OSX because Apple stopped support 32bit apps after Mojave. There is plenty very good apps which will not run in Catalina. Also Catalina has worse performance on my devices. So that's it for me. I will stay with Mojave and High Sierra. I have to

Anyway CS6 has almost all functionality as Affinity and it is working for me. So yeah. Why bother for few things that Affinity try mimics. I was patient enough wait for v2 which is not working for me because of stupid short life-span OSX support. So unfortunately I will not upgrade to v2 till they make more professional features as backward compatibility with v1 because i cant use v2 files on my older devices. Also there is plenty missing features that we can find in CS6 which is really old.

I am not saying that Affinity is bad. On the contrary. It makes good job for an users with a new devices. But it is not good enough for my workflow. I still have to use the Photoshop in many cases. So why bother with affinity? Not sure? I gave a chance only because i have iPad version. But i have to be honest - ipad version lacks many features from desktop app. Also weird UX decision makes my work less professional and very time consuming. But again, for the users with new metal it makes more sense than CS6 or CC. Also there is none better solution on iPad. It is just pity that v2 is not more compatible.