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Posted

I realise there are other threads about this but have seen no moderator saying when it is going to be fixed. All of my iPhone photography for a while now has been done in HEIC, so this is massive for me.

 

"HEIC not supported" on my iMac Ventura 13.7.1. APhoto 2.5.5.

Please fix asap as I have had to revert to Photoshop and would prefer to use APhoto.

Can I have recognition please that this is being looked at?

Posted

+1 

2021 16” Macbook Pro w/ M1 Max 10c cpu /24c gpu, 32 GB RAM, 1TB SSD, macOS Sequoia 15.1

2018 11" iPad Pro w/ A12X cpu/gpu, 256 GB, iPadOS 18.1

Posted
1 hour ago, captain_slocum said:

I have had to revert to Photoshop and would prefer to use APhoto.

You can use Quick Actions on Mac to convert HEIC to other formats that are compatible. I do this with screenshots to convert png to jpg. Just an option.

2024 MacBook Pro M4 Max, 48GB, 1TB SSD, Sequoia OS, Affinity Photo/Designer/Publisher v1 & v2, Adobe CS6 Extended, LightRoom v6, Blender, InkScape, Dell 30" Monitor, Canon PRO-100 Printer, i1 Spectrophotometer, i1Publish, Wacom Intuos 4 PTK-640 graphics tablet, 2TB OWC SSD USB external hard drive.

Posted

Thanks Ldina, there are several ways to convert it, but HEIC is higher quality, which I am compromising by converting to JPEG. I can convert to TIFF, which is uncompressed, but any conversion is going to make compromises to quality. It also adds complexity and time to my workflow. HEIC has been around a while now so I'm surprised that APhoto can't deal with them. (Or am I surprised? Affinity STILL haven't introduced flowing tables or span-across-columns into Publisher in spite of many people asking for these essentials for years. There is no real consultation with the people who use Affinity for their livelihood. Designer though is still excellent, the main reason I have the Affinity suite. But I am forced to use InDesign and Photoshop for the rest of my work).

Posted
28 minutes ago, captain_slocum said:

HEIC has been around a while now so I'm surprised that APhoto can't deal with them.

Seems to be an issue in combination with MacOS. HEIC works fine in Affinity Photo under Windows 11.

Regarding quailty of the pictures, have you ever considered to use Apple's ProRAW format?

Regards,
Otto

Affinity Suite v2.6.x - Windows 11 Pro

Posted
2 hours ago, captain_slocum said:

I realise there are other threads about this

I would have thought that someone who’s been a member of the forums for so long would know that adding new threads for issues that have already been reported goes against the forums guidelines.

2 hours ago, captain_slocum said:

but have seen no moderator saying when it is going to be fixed.

You will probably never see this, until maybe when it’s done, as one of Serif’s ‘policies’ is to not give timescales for changes/additions.

2 hours ago, captain_slocum said:

Can I have recognition please that this is being looked at?

See, for example: https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/220142-heic-supprt/&do=findComment&comment=1293520

Posted

@captain_slocum On my Mac, (running Ventura) Quick Actions to Convert files works fine with HEIC originals and I see ZERO difference in quality between an HEIC and a converted PNG using Quick Actions. I layered the original HEIC on top of the converted PNG in AP, set the top layer to difference blend mode, increased zoom level to 800% and I get a solid black image. You can select multiple images to batch convert using quick actions to make it fast and easy. 

My point was that you are not "forced" to use Photoshop for this. Lots of ways to do it, as @Return suggested (File > Export from Apple Photos also supports export to 16 bit TIFF and image quality is the same as the original HEIC).

2024 MacBook Pro M4 Max, 48GB, 1TB SSD, Sequoia OS, Affinity Photo/Designer/Publisher v1 & v2, Adobe CS6 Extended, LightRoom v6, Blender, InkScape, Dell 30" Monitor, Canon PRO-100 Printer, i1 Spectrophotometer, i1Publish, Wacom Intuos 4 PTK-640 graphics tablet, 2TB OWC SSD USB external hard drive.

Posted

I'm grateful for those who have taken the trouble to research this and come up with ways to convert without apparently losing quality. I appreciate I could take my photos using other formats, and when using my Canon pro cameras I always shoot in RAW. But I have a ton of HEICs taken in the past that I need to use for a project at the moment.

I think what is frustrating, as I have said many times in other posts, is that Affinity stuff is so close to being really useful, and it could be, if they would just listen to and interact with experienced users more. I am sure, given that Windows users can open HEICs, this is is a bug. But why can't Affinity just say so and let us know it is being addressed? I don't expect a time frame by the way, just an acknowledgement it is on their radar.

As for posting when there are other threads, guilty as charged, and apologies, but a measure of my frustration with Affinity's policy of secrecy.

Affinity, experienced professional designers and photographers who care about your products are gold - why don't you listen to them?

Posted
11 minutes ago, captain_slocum said:

But why can't Affinity just say so and let us know it is being addressed?

Isnt this enough?

Maybe it is a good idea to stick to a single/existing topic. ;)

Regards,
Otto

Affinity Suite v2.6.x - Windows 11 Pro

Posted

@captain_slocum FWIW, I can open my HEIC files directly using AP v2.5.5 on my Mac (Ventura). From AP, File > Open > navigate to Apple Photos and select the HEIC file I want, click Open. These were HEIC formatted HDR images taken with an iPhone 8. Not sure about HEIC images taken and encoded with the newest iPhones. 

 

2024 MacBook Pro M4 Max, 48GB, 1TB SSD, Sequoia OS, Affinity Photo/Designer/Publisher v1 & v2, Adobe CS6 Extended, LightRoom v6, Blender, InkScape, Dell 30" Monitor, Canon PRO-100 Printer, i1 Spectrophotometer, i1Publish, Wacom Intuos 4 PTK-640 graphics tablet, 2TB OWC SSD USB external hard drive.

Posted

I cannot open HEIC (iPhone 15 Pro Max) files in Affnity Photo (latest: 2.5.5). Error: "The file type is not supported." I can see the photo in thumbnail of Windows Explorer and open in standard viewer. I can also load this file into GIMP. Could you please add support for it? No need for export. Import only. I think this is a common format that should be supported by a program like Affinity Photo. It doesn't seem like this is an operating system issue. Makes no sense for me. I'm on Windows 11 (23H2). I installed the Affinity Suite via setup exe.

Posted

 

2024 MacBook Pro M4 Max, 48GB, 1TB SSD, Sequoia OS, Affinity Photo/Designer/Publisher v1 & v2, Adobe CS6 Extended, LightRoom v6, Blender, InkScape, Dell 30" Monitor, Canon PRO-100 Printer, i1 Spectrophotometer, i1Publish, Wacom Intuos 4 PTK-640 graphics tablet, 2TB OWC SSD USB external hard drive.

Posted

oops, sorry about that. I assumed it was RAW. Perhaps High Efficiency format is the issue, raw or not, but someone probably has the answer. I'm still on a lowly iPhone 8!!

2024 MacBook Pro M4 Max, 48GB, 1TB SSD, Sequoia OS, Affinity Photo/Designer/Publisher v1 & v2, Adobe CS6 Extended, LightRoom v6, Blender, InkScape, Dell 30" Monitor, Canon PRO-100 Printer, i1 Spectrophotometer, i1Publish, Wacom Intuos 4 PTK-640 graphics tablet, 2TB OWC SSD USB external hard drive.

Posted

Here is a HEIC file shot from my iPhone 15 Pro Max with iOS 18.0.1 (also tested with 18.1.0). I also have an iPhone SE2 with 18.0.1 where the HEIC works in Photo. Not sure, but maybe it has to do with tmap support. But please don't ask me more about this. I just randomly read something about this on web. Anyway... Funfact: GIMP can load and save this HEIC. Would be great if Affinity Photo could do that too.

iPhone 15 Pro Max HEIC.zip

Posted

@Domske I have to suspect there is something wrong with that HEIC file. Maybe it is the high efficiency compression.

I get an error when trying to open it in AP v2.5.5 on my Mac (Ventura).

When I use Quick View on my Mac, I get no image preview, which seemed odd. So, I tried using the Mac Quick Actions, Convert HEIC to JPG, and that also failed and generated an Error message from Apple. Since HEIC is heavily promoted by Apple, I'd expect this to work fine, but it doesn't. Below is the error message generated by Apple when trying to convert HEIC to JPG.

Screenshot2024-11-14at11_15_53AM.png.a8506092c61bc416ef2fa54cbb2c2278.png

EDIT: I also tried adding it to my Apple Photos Library, and nothing happened. Something seems weird with that file, or perhaps Ventura doesn't handle that format?

2024 MacBook Pro M4 Max, 48GB, 1TB SSD, Sequoia OS, Affinity Photo/Designer/Publisher v1 & v2, Adobe CS6 Extended, LightRoom v6, Blender, InkScape, Dell 30" Monitor, Canon PRO-100 Printer, i1 Spectrophotometer, i1Publish, Wacom Intuos 4 PTK-640 graphics tablet, 2TB OWC SSD USB external hard drive.

Posted

OK, your last ZIP file displays the HEIC file properly in QuickLook and downloads properly to Apple Photos, but still doesn't open in AP v2.5.5. 

If I use Apple Quick Actions to Convert HEIC to JPG, the JPG opens fine in AP.

Looks like the latest HEIC Max doesn't open with Affinity Photo on my Mac Ventura OS.

2024 MacBook Pro M4 Max, 48GB, 1TB SSD, Sequoia OS, Affinity Photo/Designer/Publisher v1 & v2, Adobe CS6 Extended, LightRoom v6, Blender, InkScape, Dell 30" Monitor, Canon PRO-100 Printer, i1 Spectrophotometer, i1Publish, Wacom Intuos 4 PTK-640 graphics tablet, 2TB OWC SSD USB external hard drive.

Posted

I can confirm this. While I can view both files above on Windows 11, They do not open in AFPho. So obviously there is a difference in HEIC fies coming from the iPhone 15 Pro Max compared to those heic files from my iPhone 13 Pro, which open fine in AFPho.

Regards,
Otto

Affinity Suite v2.6.x - Windows 11 Pro

Posted

Metadata Comparision (random selection that might be helpful)

iPhone SE2 HEIC (works in AP)
Compatible Brands: mif1, MiPr, miaf, MiHB, heic
Image Pixel Depth: 8 8 8
General Level IDC: 60 (level 2.0)

iPhone 15 Pro Max HEIC (does not work in AP, but works in e.g. GIMP, Windows default image viewer, thumbnail, Mac preview, etc)
Compatible Brands: mif1, MiPr, miaf, MiHB, heic, MiHE, tmap
Image Pixel Depth: 10 10 10
General Level IDC: 63 (level 2.1)

---

Is there a log file of Affinity Photo with error details? Are Affinity Developers present here?

 

Posted

Ldina, I have Ventura. Thumbnails in Finder, opening in Preview, and converting to JPEG (singly and batch) all work fine. My HEICs are taken with an iPhone 14 Pro, and iPhone 16 pro max. So I think you must be talking about a non-standard, or corrupted HEIC file.

BTW, HEICs also open in Photoshop, DaVinci Resolve and Lightroom Classic, and can be placed or inserted into Word for Mac, Notes, Pages and every other app I have. It is only Affinity Suite that cannot open them. I will admit that MacOS does a pretty job at converting them to JPEG, although the JPEG file sizes are considerably larger, by about 60%, quite a difference in hard-drive/cloud storage space, made worse by the fact I would now have to have two files of every photo if I wanted to use Affinity Photo!

A quick (non-scientific) experiment showed that a HEIC converted by Apple to a full size JPEG showed little if any difference (apart, as I say, the file size), while a photo taken with the iPhone 16 in HEIC, then another of the same subject taken in best JPEG, did show that the HEIC was a superior compression method in terms of quality, probably indicating that when Apple OS converts the HEIC to JPEG, it is keeping the 16bit virtues of the HEIC file, compared to the 8bit of an original JPEG. 

What this means is that to certain degree I must eat my earlier words - I assumed that the extra detail and colour information would be lost when converting my HEICs to JPEGs, but that seems not to be the case. However, I do need to more than double my storage requirement (eg HEIC = 3.3MB. HEIC converted to JPEG = 5.4 + the original HEIC = 8.7).

Interestingly, Canon's take on HEIC, HEIF files (.HIF files taken with my Canon R6 Mk 2) do open in Affinity suite.

I have now seen the post that says "Hi @captain_slocum, This is a known issue logged internally with the developers, i've bumped it with your report." which for some reason never got emailed to me (or maybe I overlooked it) so apologies for that.

Still, worrying that it still isn't fixed, as this is quite a big clanger. I hope this is a one off and not a portent of what to expect under the new owners.

Posted

Converting HEIC to JPG is not an option due to the loss of quality. The HEICs are not corrupted. No special config on my iPhone. It's standard. Maybe Affinity Photo has a simple, unnecessary if-condition somewhere to detect the file like HEIC. Maybe doing less and just try it, would fix the issue. Or update the dependency. But I don't know the source code of this proprietary software. This is definitely an issue on Affinity side. Almost every other program can load it without problems. Including GIMP (free, open source, includes export too). Can you see more details on a debug build of your software or is there a log file? It would be great if Serif could fix this issue. But I doubt that a forum topic can change anything. Or are Serif Developer reading this? I think that's something that we should report in an issue tracker or mail support directly.

Posted
2 hours ago, Domske said:

Are Affinity Developers present here?

Developers are sometimes present in this part of the forum, but not often. QA and Tech Support are present here frequently, and communicate issues to Developers when necessary.

In this case, that communication should not be necessary, as the HEIC issue is already logged as AF-3873 and AF-4369 so the Developers definitely know about it.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
    Laptop 2: Windows 11 Pro 24H2,  16GB memory, Snapdragon(R) X Elite - X1E80100 - Qualcomm(R) Oryon(TM) 12 Core CPU 4.01 GHz, Qualcomm(R) Adreno(TM) X1-85 GPU
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 18.5, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sequoia 15.5

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