Affinity Photo waiting strategy

[Brak]

Due to the market segmentation decisions around the Affinity product line and PhotoPlus products there is no single place to ask a question about both products, so apologies up front for asking about a non-Affinity product here. Hoping some users of this forum have experience with Serif's PhotoPlus line.

 

Two part Question based on my situation – Windows User. As a very happy Affinity Designer Beta user, I know Affinity Photo is coming…I am currently using GIMP which has a steep learning curve I care not to climb because I know Affinity Photo is coming...so how to fill the gap:

1. PhotoPlus X7 is a steal right now…I was thinking it might not only fill the gap until the Affinity Photo Beta, but could be my editor until the the Affinity Photo Stable Release or beyond…should I just get PhotoPlus X7?  Thoughts on it?
2. Or is there a totally free photo editor which has a reasonable feature set and good usability that you could recommend to fill the gap until the Affinity Photo Beta later this year?

Brak

[Alfred]

Welcome to the Affinity Forums, Brak. :)

 

As a long-time PhotoPlus user I'm tempted to say you should just go straight for the PhPX7 'steal', but there are free programs such as PhotoScape that you might want to investigate first. Even IrfanView (which is essentially an image viewer) has some good editing tools, including support for Photoshop-compatible effects plugins; it's free for non-commercial use.

[Brak]

Alfred, thank you for the reply. I will look into PhotoScape and IrfanView. I have tried the GIMP as well as Paint.net, but will keep poking around.

 

Are you also thinking of doing the Affinity Photo beta or are you already super comfortable with PhotoPlus such that you are not predicting any benefit to switching?

 

Since AP is only avail on Mac and PhotoPlus is exclusive to PCs there is very little in the way of comparisons. What little I have found seems to imply that PhotoPlus is a less "professional" tool, more along the lines of Photoshop Elements (some advanced capabilities exists but are veiled behind an interface designed for beginners). Whereas Affinity Photo is the more full featured Photoshop competitor.

 

If the differences are major, then it makes sense to bring AP to PC as a pro tool and keep PhotoPlus as the more entry level tool. But the price points of each seem to be in favor of the opposite being true. If PhotoPlus is less feature rich than Affinity Photo, why does it cost nearly twice as much? Maybe Serif is planning to phase out PhotoPlus on PC as Affinty Photo adoption increases? It seems a bit confusing to me.

[Alfred]

Since AP is only avail on Mac and PhotoPlus is exclusive to PCs there is very little in the way of comparisons. What little I have found seems to imply that PhotoPlus is a less "professional" tool, more along the lines of Photoshop Elements (some advanced capabilities exists but are veiled behind an interface designed for beginners). Whereas Affinity Photo is the more full featured Photoshop competitor.

 

It isn't as ... er ... black and white as that. (Sorry!) PhotoPlus has been around for a couple of decades, so it's more fully featured than Affinity Photo. However, the latter has features that PhotoPlus doesn't have, such as panorama stitching and an undo brush (or history brush in Photoshop terms).

 

As for phasing out PhotoPlus, it has already been announced that there will be no further development of any of Serif's Windows-only software titles.