Affinity and Aperture no longer compatible

[rontaube]

First of all you haven't responded to past messages so  I almost didn't write in again. I'm giving it one last chance before I give up on your software.  When I first got Affinity I was shown how to use your editing features within Aperture.  I did exactly as you taught me.  Now some months later after editing from Aperture to Affinity and back I find that the saved photos are no longer readable on Aperture.  I also find that photos that I uploaded to Flickr are no longer readable there.  They were originally so these were once readable and they are no longer.  All that editing work is lost.  I don't think that people at your company any longer care about the Macs.  You are all into getting the windows going  You haven't updated your software as promised for batch editing etc.  Someone should let the mac community know this so that serous photo editors don't waste their time on your product anymore.  I don't mean to be unkind but since your support seems to have disappeared and it happens at a time when I really need it there is no other way to put it.

Ron Taube

 

[A_B_C]

Hi Ron,

 

could you please provide some more information about your computer setup and the issues you are seeing? Have you installed a system upgrade on your Mac recently? You will surely know that Aperture is officially discontinued by Apple, so it is pretty expectable that there are features that do no longer work on more recent versions of the operating system. This is not necessarily a problem of Affinity Photo.

 

As you can see from the latest beta, the promised batch editing function is being implemented at the moment. Please have a look here:

 

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/24993-affinity-photo-customer-beta-15-beta-5/

 

You can install the beta alongside the Mac App Store version. They don’t interfere. Personally, I don’t have the impression that the Mac development is slowed down by the work on the new Windows versions of the Affinity suite. Anyway, it would be great if you were able to provide more details about the problems you are facing …

 

Thank you,

Alex  :)

[jkehoe]

Hi,

 

I'm not affiliated with Affinity staff; I'm just a Mac user that also runs Affinity Photo, Designer and Aperture. There's always something going on at Apple that leaves some Mac users left behind—Aperture being one of them. You didn't mention in your post what file format you want to move between Aperture and Affinity but if .tiff was involved in your workflow, others have reported problems with that, too.

Here's a recent discussion:

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/24996-large-tiff-files-not-displayed-in-imac/

 

Since I'm still using Mac OS 10.10 (Yosemite) and had bought a new Canon 80D, I had to adopt a new workflow. Under Yosemite, Apple does not offer the RAW converter for later Canon DSLRs. They offer the update for El Capitan only. Here's a workflow that I've adopted in recent months:

Open all Canon 80D RAW images in Canon's Digital Photo Professional 4

Process select images, convert to .tiff and save them in the same folder as the RAW originals

Open the .tiff files in Aperture (I still like some of its features) and create a new Aperture Project for them

Crop each image to my liking and tune as needed (exposure, black point, etc.)

Export that version as a .tiff but resized to the dimensions I like or need (I think Aperture does this part better than Affinity 1.4.x)

Open the new .tiff in Affinity Photo and process further (I really like the Live Filter Layers tools and the Curves Adjustment)

Export the final version to jpg from Affinity

 

I know this reads like a complicated mess of steps, but I can go through it pretty quickly. Best Regards!

[R C-R]

Regarding the comment about Affinity/Serif not caring about Macs anymore, they just released updates to the retail versions of Designer & Photo (to version 1.4.3) to iron out a few problems with the just released macOS Sierra. They are available via the Mac App Store > Updates category. The 15th (!!) update to the Designer for Mac beta was just made available yesterday. There has yet to be a retail version of either product released for Windows. They have said several times that the Mac & Windows products are being developed by two separate teams, & that development for Macs has not been slowed by development for Windows (or visa versa).

 

You may also have noticed if you browse through the Questions forum, the staff spends a great deal of time answering questions about the Mac products, & that for generic questions that would apply to both operating systems there still is a preference for using OS X symbols like ⌘ & ⌥ for keyboard shortcuts & such.

[MEB]

Hi rontaube, 

I'm sorry to hear you are having trouble with the application. There was in fact a few issues/bugs with TIFF files that we hope to have fixed in the latest Beta (Photo 1.5). Macros and batch editing were also implemented in the Beta and are still being improved/worked on. All these features/bug fixes will be available in the next Mac App Store update (1.5) in a couple months (maybe sooner if everything goes well).

If you are willing to try them out already you can download the latest Beta from here. Note this is a development version so it may contain some bug/issues. Just remember to keep the Mac App Store version installed since its needed to validate/run the Beta. Also note that files created or saved wit the Beta are NOT compatible with older versions (so you cannot open them again in the Mac App Store version if you save them with the Beta).

 

As A_B_C and R C-R pointed out the Windows and Mac teams are different. The work being done on the Windows version doesn't affect the development of the Mac versions.

If you want to know all the news that will be introduced in the next Mac App Store update (v1.5) and that are already partially implemented in the Beta check the first post from Andy here.

[Stuke]

Hopefully you test out this in Aperture.  I used Affinity Photo (either at 1.4.3 or the version before) with success using Affinity photo as an editor.  The problem is...when in Affinity, one does not know how to close the file and return it to Aperture.  Choosing Quit or Close or Save all seem to pull up the standard Open/Save dialog and my default storage location...not the enclosed file structure of the Aperture Library file.

 

Using El Capitan, Aperture, and Affinity Photo 1.4.3...the process is not broken.  Back in Aperture I get a warning triangle inside a black frame saying file format not compatible.  Something has changed either in El Capitan or Affinity Photo because, sadly, we know nothing is happening with Aperture.

 

I need Aperture!  I need Affinity Photo for my editor.  Please help make it work again.

[MEB]

Hi Stuke,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

In version Photo 1.4.3 you must first set Aperture to use Affinity Photo as an external editor going to Aperture ▸ Preferences..., Export tab (on top), then press the Choose button to select the External Photo Editor and point to Affinity Photo. For the External Editor File Format select TIFF (8 or 16 bits as you prefer). 

Now when you want to edit an image inside Aperture, right-click on it and select Edit with Affinity Photo app.... Affinity Photo will start with the image loaded (or open it if it's already running) ready to be edited. Edit the image as you wish then select File ▸ Save - a dialog will appear saying the image contains non-pixel elements -. Select Save Flattened to flatten the image before sending to Aperture. That's it. The edited image will appear in Aperture alongside the original.

 

In version 1.5 we have improved this workflow. You can keep Affinity Layers intact when sending the file to Aperture. To do this select File ▸ Save after you edit the photo in Affinity Photo - a dialog will appear saying the image contains non-pixel elements - then select Save with Layers. 

[GlennMcCreery]

Hi Meb,

I still use Aperture to store images. I am able to get Affinity to edit an Aperture image using the method that you describe, but when I try to save it back in Aperture using "File-Save", I do not get the dialog "the image contains non-pixel elements", and Affinity wants me to choose a location to save the image, but with no easy path back to Aperture. Neither does not say "Save Flattened".

[GlennMcCreery]

That last sentence should read: Neither does Affinity have the choice "Save Flattened".

[MEB]

Hi GlennMcCreery,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

The dialog saying the image contains non-pixel elements only appears if you have added adjustments, filters and other features that are specific to Affinity Photo. If you simply paint with a brush in the layer for example this message will not appear. Doing a Save in this case in enough to send the image back to Aperture. Note that sometimes Apertures takes a few seconds too update the thumbnail.

[GlennMcCreery]

It does not seem to work that way. When I click on Save in Affinity, the dialog Save As: comes up where I give the image a title, and then the dialog Where: . If I choose, say, Applications, it puts the file in the Applications folder, not back in Aperture. I see no option where I can scroll down through the list of choices to find Aperture. See attached thumbnail image.

[GlennMcCreery]

Hi Meb,

 

I think that I have it working now. But "save" only seems to send back the edited file to Aperture when I first export a tiff file to Affinity rather than psd. If I send a psd file to affinity, edit the file, and then click "save" it does not send the file back to Aperture, even if I choose tiff in the Affinity export persona. Am I doing something wrong?

[larsh]

Hi, may be I didn´t understand, for my English is small, but my expierence Aperture - AP is clear. Aperture makes a copy which is send to AP, after finish there AP asks: with layer (or gives the way where to save outside). With the: Save with layers it comes back to Aperture. May be for my OSX is 10.9.5 Marverick to AP 1.5.1.

 

regards

lars

[GlennMcCreery]

Thanks Lars,

So far, I am just making simple changes in Affinity, such as lens correction, cropping and saturation, without adding layers. Affinity edits the PSD document just fine, but using "save" does not save it directly back in Aperture.

[GlennMcCreery]

I should add that I am using Affinity 1.5.1 in an older (2010) Mac Pro running OS 10.10.5 Yosemite. Cameras: Canon 5d II and Sony Nex 6.

[MEB]

Hi GlennMcCreery,

You can only use one format to send the files between Aperture and Affinity Photo (PSD or TIFF). First set Affinity Photo as an an External Photo Editor in Aperture going to Aperture ▸ Preferences..., Export tab (on top) press the Choose button and point to Affinity. Then right below set the format you want to use for exchanging files between the two programs. You can pick TIFF or PSD (8 or 16 bit). Chose the format you want to use.

 

In Affinity Photo go to Preferences, General section and check Enable "Save" over imported PSD files, if you want to use PSD as the format to exchange data between them. This option lets Affinity save over the PSD file sent by Aperture so Aperture can keep track of the file.

You you prefer to use TIFF you don't need to set anything else in Affinity. When you save the Tiff back to Aperture we include all layer data with the file in private tags. If you later edit this TIFF file in Affinity Photo we are able to retrieve the layer data from it (third party programs are not able to read our private tags data so they are not able to see this layers structure/data).

[GlennMcCreery]

Thanks Meb. It was checking "Enable Save over imported PSD files" that was my missing step. However, after reading the warnings, perhaps I will stick with editing tiff files, after all.