Suggestion about names?

[Petar Petrenko]

Hi,

I would like to make a suggestion about changing Affinity app's names to match each other as they should be.

 

1. First suggestion

• Photographer
• Designer
• Publisher

 

2. Second suggestion

• Photo
• Design
• Publish

As you see, in the first suggestion the name of Photo is extended to Photographer, and in the second, the names of Designer and Publisher are changed to match Photo.

[R C-R]

As it stands, the names of the two released apps are "Affinity Photo" & "Affinity Designer." These are unique names, not used by any other software product or identical to any generic noun or verb names. This makes it easy to search the web for info on either one.

 

We do not need the same kind of search problems with Affinity that we already have with Apple's maddeningly generically named apps like "Photos," "Mail," "Contacts," or "Calendar."

[LexS]

Two questions for contributor R C-R:

Hi in another forum...

I just downloaded Affinity photo trial, to test next week.

I already use Lightroom (now v6) for ages, and DxO OpticsPro, do not like PhotoshopElements in Mac, am not a professional photographer just an old fart that makes snapshots, I want to get rid of LTR in the near future. I absolutely need a good organiser.

a. what do you recommend as organiser to use with Affinity?

b. is the the appstore version less than the developer version (as with so may apps on the appstore)?

thanks,

Lex

[Petar Petrenko]

As it stands, the names of the two released apps are "Affinity Photo" & "Affinity Designer." These are unique names, not used by any other software product or identical to any generic noun or verb names. This makes it easy to search the web for info on either one.

 

We do not need the same kind of search problems with Affinity that we already have with Apple's maddeningly generically named apps like "Photos," "Mail," "Contacts," or "Calendar."

 

Sorry, are you a member of Affinity stuff, or maybe a spokesman?

[Peterkaosa]

Two questions for contributor R C-R:

Hi in another forum...

I just downloaded Affinity photo trial, to test next week.

I already use Lightroom (now v6) for ages, and DxO OpticsPro, do not like PhotoshopElements in Mac, am not a professional photographer just an old fart that makes snapshots, I want to get rid of LTR in the near future. I absolutely need a good organiser.

a. what do you recommend as organiser to use with Affinity?

b. is the the appstore version less than the developer version (as with so may apps on the appstore)?

thanks,

Lex

Hello. I guess you will be lucky with the photo editing possibilities offered by Affinity Photo. But it is unlikely that it will help you organizing your files. So I recommend using either Mac's own Photos App for pretty easy access or Adobe Bridge for more professional support. If you get to know the features of a Mac better (like Terminal or the Automator) you will find out that on board apps can be very helpful as well. But it takes some time researching or a good book.

And on to topic B: I do not know that App Store versions would be "less" by any means. As far as I know you find new features in the dev version, but most likely not everything runs as stable as the official release.

[R C-R]

Hi Lex, & welcome to the Affinity forums! Nice to see another familiar face avatar from that other forum here.  :)

 

Regarding your questions, since I have never used Lightroom I am sure someone else will have more to say about transitioning from that, but as just a hobbyist I am making do with Apple Photos as my organizer. Affinity Photo (& Designer) have a builtin Media Browser that works much like the OS X Sidebar > Media one I think you are already familiar with (& you can use either one to access photos in the Photos Library) so it is easy to open those files in AP. (You also get the Affinity extensions for Photos with AP so you can use them in Photos, too.) Saving edits done in AP back to Photos is a bit more convoluted though.

 

If you buy the MAS version of AP, you can download & run the current beta version from here -- these are public betas that expire once they have been tested & released to the MAS as a regular updates. You have to have the MAS version installed to run the beta & you can use either or both concurrently. It is a much simpler & more straightforward approach than with Apple's OS X & other betas. The beta forum link also lists the fixes & added features, so in that sense the MAS version is (temporarily) less than the betas.

 

The best (or at least most surprising) thing about these forums is besides the very helpful & responsive staff, the developers themselves sometimes contribute to them, so together with the frequent user contributions they offer an amazing amount of support for just about anything you might want to know about the products.

[Peterkaosa]

Hi,

I would like to make a suggestion about changing Affinity app's names to match each other as they should be.

 

1. First suggestion

• Photographer
• Designer
• Publisher

 

2. Second suggestion

• Photo
• Design
• Publish

As you see, in the first suggestion the name of Photo is extended to Photographer, and in the second, the names of Designer and Publisher are changed to match Photo.

Just for having similar looking names? I am not too keen on this idea, sorry mate. Would it improve anything but your aesthetic mind?

[R C-R]

Sorry, are you a member of Affinity stuff, or maybe a spokesman?

No, just someone who is all too familiar with the problems of searching the web for info about generically named apps.

[Petar Petrenko]

The names of Affinity trio is as much generic as possible. There are plenty apps with original names like Pixelmator, Picasa, Snapheal, Capture One... But, what's wrong with generic names? They are much easier to find.

[LexS]

R C-R said: Nice to see another familiar face avatar from that other forum here

It is a selfie... :lol:

Ok, I will use AP on Monday next and after, to see if it fits as editor in Lightroom; if it is good, I will try Bridge to do the organising or keep on using Lightroom, until Affinity comes with a combined app. I don't like Apple Photos at all (especially as organiser).

Your last remark was rally convincing.

See you here or elsewhere, thanks.

Lex

[LexS]

Peterkaosa:  thanks for your comments as well. Does Affinity sell direct or only in the Apple Appstore? My question is superfluous when only Appstore...

[LexS]

a general question: where do i find the list of supported cameras and lens profiles (especially for Raw).

[MEB]

Hi LexS,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

Here's a list of the supported cameras. There's isn't one for lens profiles. This is still being worked.

As far as i know Affinity for Mac will be only available thought the Mac App Store. The Windows version will be available directly from Serif.

[R C-R]

But, what's wrong with generic names? They are much easier to find.

Try doing a web search on "Photos" (or even "Apple Photos") or on "Photographer," "Publish," or any of your other suggestions. The words are so generic & apply to so many different things that it is unlikely anything relevant to the apps will make it to the 'top hits' list.

 

Besides that, the two existing products already have a high level of name recognition because of their successes in the Mac App Store. I doubt Affinity/Serif would be very interested in compromising that with any name changes at this point.

[R C-R]

Lex, regarding camera RAW support, the Develop Assistant in the Develop Persona of AP allows you to choose between the Serif & OS X "RAW Engines," so I think that means even if AP does not currently support a new camera's RAW format, if Apple has released an OS X update that does, you could use that engine until AP does too.

 

Also, I am much less sure about this but I think that currently there is no support for profiles for specific lenses.

[LexS]

Hi LexS,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

Here's a list of supported cameras. There's isn't one for lens profiles. This is still being worked.

As far as i know Affinity for Mac will be only available thought the Mac App Store. The Windows version will be available directly from Serif.

Thank you MEB, the camera list is very large and all cameras I had and have (from the digital period) are in it.

[LexS]

R C-R: Also, I am much less sure about this but I think that currently there is no support for profiles for specific lenses.

Not important at the moment: I have most lenses in Lightroom, and with most modern cameras the lens profile is inside the raw file.

Thanks, Lex

[R C-R]

... and with most modern cameras the lens profile is inside the raw file.

Thanks, Lex

Again, not sure about it but I think AP does not currently do anything with lens profiles -- no automatic corrections based on which lens was used, whether or not any info about it was embedded in the RAW file.