What is the best practice for Affinity Photo users handling of their photo library?

[loukash]

7 minutes ago, RichardMH said:

XnView is a popular viewer  and sees .afphoto files.

Yeah, I can confirm that it works.
However, the issue with XnView and similar apps is its monolithic Thumb.db and XnView.db database files. If you have a lot of images, it's gonna be a backup nightmare. (Time Machine backups over network? Good luck with that!)

[v_kyr]

16 minutes ago, RichardMH said:

XnView is a popular viewer  and sees .afphoto files.

Honestly, that's trivial to add another recognized filetype extension to any viewer app, also then to show up the thumbs PNG preview file embedded in otherwise unhandled file types. Meaning here, any image viewer/browser could do so.

[v_kyr]

9 minutes ago, StMichealMinion said:

... Which I doubt they do since this issue has been around for years.

They won't.

If you are already using Apple Photos.app there are a bunch of tasks you can also automate with the help of macOS own automator/scripting etc. The Net should usually be full of examples of how to perform certain Photos.app tasks automated, like exchange & update image files between Photos and some third party app like APh etc.

See also this related thread ...

 

[StMichealMinion]

Thanks for the tip @v_kyr!!

[John_the_heroic_coward]

Why does Affinty Photo not have a photo viewer? Also why is there no full screen option in Affinity to view photo's at full size with no distraction? You know to see the end product, seems odd to me that there is not one.  I don't know how to program my alarm clock, so I'm questioning from a place of deep ignorance. It's like Ai deep learning but more human.  

[Hangman]

8 minutes ago, John_the_heroic_coward said:

Also why is there no full screen option in Affinity to view photo's at full size with no distraction?

Hi @John_the_heroic_coward and welcome to the forums,

You can try View > Toggle UI...

Are you on Mac or Windows?

[John_the_heroic_coward]

On 2/18/2024 at 10:39 PM, v_kyr said:

Honestly, that's trivial to add another recognized filetype extension to any viewer app, also then to show up the thumbs PNG preview file embedded in otherwise unhandled file types. Meaning here, any image viewer/browser could do so.

 

[John_the_heroic_coward]

I am quite computer illiterate I dont know how to "add another recognized filetype extension to any viewer app. How do you do it? Thanks

[walt.farrell]

5 minutes ago, John_the_heroic_coward said:

I am quite computer illiterate I dont know how to "add another recognized filetype extension to any viewer app. How do you do it? Thanks

What viewer app are you using?

[loukash]

2 minutes ago, John_the_heroic_coward said:

I dont know how to "add another recognized filetype extension to any viewer app. How do you do it? Thanks

1. the viewer app must support it
2. some do out of the box, for instance PixlPath (just updated to v1.29 today: it already supported afphoto and afdesign preview thumbnails, and the developer now added afpub compatibility on my request within 24 hours)
3. in some apps, the file extension must be added manually, usually in the respective app preferences (XNViewMP or DigiKam, for example)

[John_the_heroic_coward]

6 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

What viewer app are you using?

Canon Digital Photoproffesional 4  and the bog standard windows Photos, thanks for your reply.

[John_the_heroic_coward]

20 minutes ago, Hangman said:

Hi @John_the_heroic_coward and welcome to the forums,

You can try View > Toggle UI...

Are you on Mac or Windows?

Thanks! "View > Toggle" is pretty good. It's not full screen as there are pixel rulers and the menu table at the top, but it has got rid of the clutter on left and right of the screen which will help in a lot of situations. However, after I have used Affinity to work on an image I use full screen to work from photo's for paintings. However I have to change image to a JPEG to go full screen in Canon Digital Proffesional 4 or Windows Photo it would be so much less hassel if all this was in Affinity. I'm not complaining becuase I image there must be some good reason Affinity programers have chosen not to do these things. Cheers Hangman (as John the Heroic Coward it's a bit scary talking to Hangman!)  : )

[John_the_heroic_coward]

18 minutes ago, loukash said:

1. the viewer app must support it
2. some do out of the box, for instance PixlPath (just updated to v1.29 today: it already supported afphoto and afdesign preview thumbnails, and the developer now added afpub compatibility on my request within 24 hours)
3. in some apps, the file extension must be added manually, usually in the respective app preferences (XNViewMP or DigiKam, for example)

Thanks for your reply and help. I will give PixlPath a go. With regards to No3 when you wrote "the respective app preferences (XNViewMP or DigiKam" it was as if you were writing in Klingon, which I also don't speak. My loss .  I don't know how to "add manually" either.  I'm not asking you to tell me how to do it. I'll give PixlPath a go. Thanks again.  

[walt.farrell]

15 minutes ago, John_the_heroic_coward said:

Canon Digital Photoproffesional 4  and the bog standard windows Photos, thanks for your reply.

Neither will handle Affinity files, as far as I know.

[loukash]

1 hour ago, John_the_heroic_coward said:

With regards to No3 when you wrote "the respective app preferences (XNViewMP or DigiKam" it was as if you were writing in Klingon, which I also don't speak. My loss . 

Qapla'!

Yeah, my Klingon is a bit rusty, too…  

1 hour ago, John_the_heroic_coward said:

I will give PixlPath a go.

It's Mac only.

1 hour ago, John_the_heroic_coward said:

I don't know how to "add manually" either.

Fair enough. I just looked up in the XnViewMP app, but I couldn't find it either, as it suffers from heavy Preferencitis™. (Some applications are definitely a pain to use.)

[John_the_heroic_coward]

On 3/5/2024 at 5:26 PM, loukash said:

Qapla'!

Yeah, my Klingon is a bit rusty, too…  

It's Mac only.

Fair enough. I just looked up in the XnViewMP app, but I couldn't find it either, as it suffers from heavy Preferencitis™. (Some applications are definitely a pain to use.)

Qapla'!

Yea, so I am on a PC. Have tried all suggestions people have kindly put forward. None work. Just to be clear, all I want to do is scroll through full size images as I need to compare finished images in order to pick which one I'm going to use for a painting. Just like Windows Photo viewer does. I can't figure out why Affinity Photo would not have this function as I am sure lots of people need to scroll through full size images to properly compare photos quicky!

Qatlho'!

[loukash]

43 minutes ago, John_the_heroic_coward said:

I can't figure out why Affinity Photo would not have this function

Affinity apps store only a preview thumbnail in their documents for other apps to display. On Mac, the Finder can display this thumbnail via Quick Look out of the box. (No idea about Windows compatibility here.)

The rest of the Affinity document format is proprietary by design and no other apps can read it in full resolution. That's not much different from other proprietary formats like *.indd or even *.ai and *.psd if the latter are saved without the PDF stream or flattened preview respectively – with the exception of some 3rd party apps that reverse-engineered those formats. As for *.indd, apparently Adobe added a more compatible generic preview to their document format only just recently: https://helpx.adobe.com/ie/indesign/using/whats-new/2023.html#doc-preview. Before that, it was only possible by using 3rd party tools (I remember having even bought one many years ago)

43 minutes ago, John_the_heroic_coward said:

lots of people need to scroll through full size images to properly compare photos quicky

Simply export "sidecar" JPEG previews of your compositions. With APh, you may want to use the Batch feature: https://affinity.help/photo2/en-US.lproj/pages/Macros_Batch/batchjobs.html

[walt.farrell]

1 minute ago, loukash said:

(No idea about Windows compatibility here.)

Serif have said the thumbnail is available on Windows via standard interfaces, too.

2 minutes ago, loukash said:

The rest of the Affinity document format is proprietary by design and no other apps can read it in full resolution

There is at least one other application that can read/edit some Affinity files: PhotoPea

[loukash]

4 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

There is at least one other application that can read/edit some Affinity files: PhotoPea

Interesting!
Yes, it seems to work to an extent, at least for relatively simple bitmap documents. Complex vector designs not so much.

[R C-R]

9 minutes ago, loukash said:

Yes, it seems to work to an extent, at least for relatively simple bitmap documents. Complex vector designs not so much.

Assuming the online version is meant, I'm not sure on my Mac it is doing more than showing the preview thumbnails, & like you said it doesn't do vectors (& many *.afpub) files very well.

[4tea2]

Apologies for my late arrival to this discussion, but it seems to be the best match to my current dilemma.  I'm in the middle of improving my management of a moderate collection of images and improving my Affinity Photo workflow.

My current thoughts are that DigiKam could present a good solution - star ratings, keywording etc.  Using its "grouping" feature allows me to simplify my tendency to capture Raw+Jpeg.  The "Open with.." function allows me to open an image in Affinity Photo.

All looking good.  Unfortunately, the process falls down following Saving an edit in Affinity.  The .afphoto file is generated and saved in the source folder.  The missing element that would make this workflow comfortable is for the .afphoto file to appear in DigiKam so that next time I can select it when I want to return to the edits.

I've tried adding .afphoto as a supported Mime type, but it does not seem to work.

Does anyone know if it is possible to get .afphoto files to be listed in DigiKam?  I don't mind if DigiKam does not show a thumbnail. 

Any help and suggestions will be much appreciated.
 

[loukash]

1 hour ago, 4tea2 said:

it is possible to get .afphoto files to be listed in DigiKam?

Listed yes, but DigiKam can't read the preview thumbnail:

[walt.farrell]

6 minutes ago, loukash said:

Listed yes, but DigiKam can't read the preview thumbnail:

Can you describe how to find that view of the data?

Also, they will show up in the digiKam's Light Table module (but as you note, without the thumbnail):

[loukash]

2 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

how to find that view of the data?

You mean the list view?
Uh… first of all, I once spent likely hours to configure the horrible DigiKam UI somewhat to my liking, including the top toolbar which you now see in my screenshot only as text buttons.
Secondly, I don't actually use DigiKam at all. It just wastes storage space on the Mac in the silent hope that a future update might "magically" make it usable for me.
So… no idea off the top of my head.

Your mileage may vary, of course.  

[4tea2]

Thanks Loukash, that's just what I'm trying to achieve.  I'm sure I've tried changing that setting, but without success.  However perseverance is important and I'm going to double check and give it another go.

And yes walt.farrell, I do appreciate that the files will appear without a thumbnail, but at least I'll see the Affinity file is present.

Thanks both for your comments.