Randy Williams Posted November 20, 2016 Share Posted November 20, 2016 These are some of my initial impressions: First, let me say that I am, at best, a novice photo editor. I have been shooting digital photographs for about six years. Up until about two years ago, I lived with what the camera gave me as a jpeg. I then started to use GIMP as a photo editing program. Although it is a powerful program, I found its interface to be cumbersome and I did not do well with it. I was looking for something else, when I heard about the Affinity for Windows beta. I signed up but in the interim was still looking for something other than GIMP. I tried the Photoshop free version. It was better than GIMP for me but still not as friendly as I would have liked. I finally decided to give Serif PhotoPlus a try and have liked it a lot. I had looked at most of the Affinity tutorials and still thought it was the program that I would like the most. So I, not so patiently, waited for the beta version to come out. As soon as I was notified that it was available, I downloaded the beta version and have been experimenting with it since November 11, 2016. Here are my initial comments: The download and installation speed were extremely good, especially for a program of this size and complexity. It appears that you simply ported over the MAC version of the help files. You should look for the MAC-PC differences in language and make the appropriate changes, e.g., replace "Finder" with "File Explorer." This will make Windows only users happy and limit some support questions. I added the NIK collection of plug-ins. After doing so, I received a message that using them "required a restart." From a Windows user's perspective, this generally means a complete reboot of the computer. Most Windows programs say something like, "These changes will not take effect until the next time you start the program." This, too, might save some support time. My initial impression of the user interface is that it is very intuitive. I know that others have said that it is not so intuitive, especially for users of Photoshop. After I do some real editing as opposed to just experimenting, I may have either changed my mind or reinforced my initial impressions. Some transition seem to be slow on my PC. It is only and Intel i5; that may have something to with it. I found zooming by using the mouse wheel could cause a delay and a not responding message. So, too, did going from a developed RAW image to the file menu. Changes in the develop persona work quickly, I find thinking of the personas as a user interface environment helpful. I would like to see a preference setting for default file open, save, and export defaults. Retain export profile selection from picture to picture not go back to best quality. File saving, especially the Affinty file type is amazingly fast. Cannot get "Location" to appear in the "Develop" persona with the proper security settings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff Patrick Connor Posted November 20, 2016 Staff Share Posted November 20, 2016 Randy Williams Welcome to the Affinity forums :) What a fantastic first post. Thanks for your input... I'll just go and start digesting it. Patrick Connor Serif Europe Ltd Latest V2 releases on each platform Help make our apps better by joining our beta program! "There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility lies in being superior to your previous self." W. L. Sheldon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeoPaul Posted November 20, 2016 Share Posted November 20, 2016 Although I'm new to Affinity Photo, I've been editing digital graphics since the 1970s and have used Serif products at times since then. At this point, I'm also at the "first impressions" stage, and have only explored the tool set and basic functions such as editing curves. From my viewpoint, the user interface is very traditional, which is a good thing! I already think that the app's intended functionality compares well with PhotoShop, and introduces a couple of interesting features that I want to explore. Not being a big user of "pre-sets", the ability to modify and save specialty tool functions is particularly attractive to me, and a capability that I've missed since PhotoStyler days. After reading some of the posts in this forum, it sounds like this is one area that may need some focus prior to the final release, and I hope that it isn't put on hold. My intended use is as an editor for photos for use in presentations on my notebook, and as such I am not all that concerned about it handling enormous files at comparable speeds to PhotoShop. To that end, I would like to add my voice to those who suggest that vector-based text paths would be a good thing to include, though it's not a show-stopper for me if Photo is well integrated with Designer. The short of it all is, I'm already sold on both! Patrick Connor 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randy Williams Posted November 21, 2016 Author Share Posted November 21, 2016 Randy Williams Welcome to the Affinity forums :) What a fantastic first post. Thanks for your input... I'll just go and start digesting it. Patrick, I worked in IT for nearly 50 years. I know the value of good feedback so I tried to do a good job of making my comments complete and cogent. Please feel free to contact me if you need any clarification. --Randy Patrick Connor 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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