Need to distinguish between Photo and Designer postings

[HaroldL]

Wow, this sure has sparked a lot of conversation. :o I didn't think there would be any easy answer, especially now that there is so much already posted on the forum.

There was a comment about the Serif forum so I had a look at it and, ya know, it looks like someone had a plan to organize that forum. There is even a General section for stuff that's not specific to any software.

If I were a new user, oh yeah I am one, I would like to see some organization to the forum, which is why I posed the question in the first place. I am one of those struggling to understand layers, masking and color management. But I know that I am working with Photo and not Designer. I don't know if the concepts and techniques/processes are the same in Designer as in Photo but IF Photo had its own section it would make in a whole lot easier for me to find information about it. And if Designer had its own section and I wanted to see what its issues were, well, then there would be its section. If the Windows and Mac version of both were in the same section that wouldn't matter much since, as I understand it, both have the same work flows. They only differ in the hot keys, as far as I know.

[Alfred]

Checkboxes, tags, title prefixes, & so on are fine for topics that fit comfortably into some clearly defined category or subject area, but many do not, particularly for those who are struggling to understand basic concepts like layers, masking, or color management.

 

Not to mention those who are struggling to understand that Affinity is a suite rather than a single program! :P

 

If the Windows and Mac version of both were in the same section that wouldn't matter much since, as I understand it, both have the same work flows. They only differ in the hot keys, as far as I know.

 

Importantly for Affinity Photo users, they also differ in their implementation of support for Photoshop-compatible filters, so an effect which is available on one platform may not be available on the other.

[R C-R]

I am one of those struggling to understand layers, masking and color management. But I know that I am working with Photo and not Designer. I don't know if the concepts and techniques/processes are the same in Designer as in Photo but IF Photo had its own section it would make in a whole lot easier for me to find information about it.

Quite possibly, much less than you might think. The reason is layers, masking, and color management concepts (among other things) are mostly the same for both apps, so if you looked only for topics about those things in a dedicated Photo section, you likely would miss a lot of helpful info posted to a dedicated Designer section.

 

The Affinity apps are unusual in that they use exactly the same native file format. The "afphoto" & "afdesign" file extensions just indicate the default app that will open the file if you double-click on it, but either app is fully capable of opening a file created by the other one without importing, converting, or altering anything in it. A consequence of this is both apps must support the same functions & features, even if they cannot be used to create them.

 

For example, you cannot create an artboard in Photo or apply a live filter in Designer but you can edit their properties in either app once they have been created in the app capable of doing that. If you have both apps, you can even seamlessly switch between them without having to save the file first, using the File menu > "Edit in Designer" or "Edit in Photo" command.

 

This is a big part of why designating topics as relevant to just one or the other app is so problematic. In a sense, they are less separate apps than separate modules of the same program that can be bought & used independently or together.