Upgrade your design process and boost Affinity's value with a SDK for Affinity Designer, Photo, and Publisher

[Greg T]

Creating an SDK (Software Development Kit) for Affinity Designer, Photo, and Publisher would greatly enhance the value and utility of these applications for users, as it would enable them to access the underlying functionality of the software and extend its capabilities through custom plugins and integrations. This would allow for greater flexibility, automation of tasks, and streamlining of workflows, resulting in increased productivity and efficiency for users. Additionally, a SDK would open up new possibilities for collaboration and integration with other software and tools, making Affinity Designer, Photo, and Publisher even more valuable for designers, photographers, and publishers. Furthermore, providing SDK would attract and retain more developer community, and allows the company to expand their market share and revenue by providing customized service and solution to their clients and customers.

A SDK (Software Development Kit) for Affinity Designer, Photo, and Publisher allows programmers to access the underlying functionality of the applications and extend their capabilities through custom plugins and integrations. This allows for greater flexibility and customization for users, as well as the ability to automate certain tasks and streamline workflows. Additionally, a SDK can also open up new possibilities for collaboration and integration with other software and tools. Overall, a SDK allows for more efficient and powerful use of the Affinity Designer, Photo, and Publisher applications, making them even more valuable for designers, photographers, and publishers.

Multiple reasons to create a SDK:

• Increased flexibility and customization for users
• Automation of certain tasks and streamlining of workflows
• New possibilities for collaboration and integration with other software and tools
• Greater efficiency and power in the use of Affinity Designer, Photo, and Publisher
• Attract and retain more developer community
• Expand market share and revenue by providing customized service and solution to clients and customers
• More features and functionalities can be added to Affinity Designer, Photo, and Publisher
• Provide an open platform for the community to contribute
• Increases Affinity's value in the eyes of potential customers
• Enhance Affinity's reputation in the industry

• The ability to create custom plugins and integrations
• Better organization of tools and resources
• Improved data exchange and interoperability with other software
• Customizable shortcuts and keybindings
• More efficient use of system resources
• Increased productivity and efficiency
• Easier integration with other software and tools
• More effective automation of repetitive tasks
• The ability to create custom scripts and macros
• Improved performance and speed
• Better support for different file formats
• More advanced color management options
• Greater control over typography and text formatting
• Better support for different input devices
• Improved printing and output options
• More advanced image editing and manipulation capabilities
• More advanced vector editing and manipulation capabilities
• Improved image and vector asset management
• More advanced layout and composition tools
• Improved support for different languages and scripts
• More advanced web and mobile design capabilities
• More advanced animation and motion graphics capabilities
• More advanced audio and video editing capabilities
• More advanced 3D modeling and animation capabilities
• More advanced interactive design capabilities
• Better support for accessibility and inclusive design
• Improved support for different screen resolutions and aspect ratios
• More advanced data visualization and information design capabilities
• More advanced game design and development capabilities
• More advanced AR and VR design capabilities
• More advanced scientific and technical visualization capabilities
• More advanced cartography and mapping capabilities
• More advanced educational and e-learning design capabilities
• More advanced marketing and advertising design capabilities
• More advanced digital signage and display design capabilities
• More advanced urban planning and architectural design capabilities
• More advanced industrial design and product design capabilities.

 

[fde101]

This has already been discussed, and Serif has already confirmed that they are creating one.  It wasn't ready on time for the 2.0 release, but evidently they have a team actively working on it; they have indicated that there will be both scripting support and a C-based API for plugins.

[Greg T]

3 minutes ago, fde101 said:

This has already been discussed, and Serif has already confirmed that they are creating one.  It wasn't ready on time for the 2.0 release, but evidently they have a team actively working on it; they have indicated that there will be both scripting support and a C-based API for plugins.

I wonder which scripting support?  LUA?

I'll probably create a wrapper for the C-based API for Delphi.

[fde101]

2 hours ago, Greg T said:

I wonder which scripting support?  LUA?

I wish they had gone with Lua - that would have been at least tolerable.

Instead they picked the second worst of the common scripting languages:

 

2 hours ago, Greg T said:

I'll probably create a wrapper for the C-based API for Delphi.

Suggest looking at Lazarus instead to make it more accessible for others if you have any plan on sharing:

https://www.lazarus-ide.org

 

Also suggest moving any further discussion to the thread I linked above to keep it together in one place.  No need to proliferate lots of threads requesting the same thing.

[ceocan]

Serif should create an easy to use marketplace for the plugins that will be creating for the Affinity Suite when the SDK is released

[Greg T]

Lua and JavaScript are both popular scripting languages used in various software development projects. However, in the context of photo, design, and art based software, Lua may be a more suitable choice for some reasons:

• Lua is designed to be small and efficient, making it well-suited for use in resource-intensive applications such as image and video processing.

• Lua has a simple and easy-to-learn syntax, which makes it easy for designers and artists to write and maintain scripts without needing a computer science background.

• Lua has a built-in garbage collector, which can help prevent memory leaks and other performance issues that can occur when working with large image and video files.

JavaScript can be less efficient than Lua and it can be slow in certain situations. JavaScript is also a more complex language, which can make it more difficult to learn and use than Lua for non-technical users.

There's a reason why LUA is used in World of Warcraft.  Computers with less processing power can handle LUA better.

[fde101]

1 hour ago, Greg T said:

Lua has a built-in garbage collector,

This is true of ECMAScript / JavaScript as well.

I definitely would have preferred Lua over JavaScript for practically *any* software, but this particular feature is not a differentiator between the two languages.

[josbin]

+1