Apps or add-ons to make Photo and Publisher function better?

[Ray B]

I am switching over from Adobe Creative Suite to the Affinity Suite. Although the transition has been bumpy, I believe I can make it work. However, it has become apparent that to make Publisher and Photo work for me, I need to purchase additional apps. By the bye, the only reason I am leaving Adobe is because I can no longer afford it. 

First, I have been using Photoshop’s Super Zoom neural filter for up-scaling old photos for publication, so need a professional-grade alternative or add-on to Photo that includes AI. I have been looking at Luminar Neo.

Second, I need a professional-grade OCR app, and am looking at ABBYY Fine Reader.

What do others think of these two apps. Any other recommendations? I publish books, so need high-end apps. It is a bit frustrating—I though I was getting off the yearly subscription treadmill, but it appears that to make the Affinity apps work the way I want them to, I am having to get right back on the treadmill.

Also, are there any other additional apps or add-ons I need to consider to make Affinity programs work better? For instance, I have read on various forums that the Affinity PFD engine is no match for Acrobat or higher-end stand-alone PDF apps.

[GarryP]

Some Photoshop add-ons work with Photo but some don’t.

The ones that don’t are usually the ones which need the user to give further input to tweak settings, or those which rely on the underlying Photoshop software rather than just using their own internal code.

Luminar Neo, for example, used to work with Photo but, as far as I know, the newest version(s) don’t: https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/203052-luminar-neo-plugin/

Publisher has no external-filter-based add-on capabilities so that’s simply not an option.

I would be very surprised if Serif introduced any OCR functionalities any time soon (if at all, but I could be wrong and only they can say) so you should probably be looking elsewhere for that sort of thing if you really need it.

There are no add-ons that I’m aware of which make the Affinity applications work “better” other than those which give additional functionalities, rather than modifying the existing functionalities.

[Komatös]

For upscaling I can recommending Topaz Gigapixel AI. Unfortunately, the Photoshop plugin provided by Topaz does not work with Affinity Photo either

For Windows, I opted for Ashampoo PDF Pro as a replacement for Adobe Acrobat.

For NAS owners, I can recommend Stirling PDF. This is a web application running on Docker for everything you need with and for PDFs.

By the way, the Snipping Tool included in Windows 11 has a limited but useful OCR function.

 

https://www.ashampoo.com/en-gb/pdf-pro?x-pos=PDFPro4BannerHome&currency=gbp

https://www.stirlingpdf.com

[emmrecs01]

21 minutes ago, Komatös said:

For upscaling I can recommending Topaz Gigapixel AI.

+100 to this suggestion.