Jump to content
You must now use your email address to sign in [click for more info] ×

Affinity products for Linux


Recommended Posts

Meanwhile, in Inkscape 0.92.4 you have gradient mesh (in some ways , I like it more than Illustrator's!), envelope and perspective distort, a ton of other operations, live sculpt that works amazingly, trace bitmaps (not that I care, but seems a lot of people do), on screen ruler (in mm, for example) which also measures angles, a fully featured inking tool, surprisingly rich in options,  spirals generation (not as common among even advanced design apps),  many stroke operations, etc, etc. I mean, several aren't in Designer, and a few not even in Illustrator.

IE: Mesh gradients (sorry, not the more advanced tut out there, and he does not even go ahead and adapt the mesh to the shape of the fruit, which is one of the main advantages of the feature in both inkscape and Illustrator). But clearly seen how Inkscape totally capable in that feature (I'm tempted to do a longer and more involved video on how good it is.... )

https://youtu.be/u4HoF39cVZA

More examples, although, and I don't mean it about these particular ones, there's not a lot of pros posting videos (or even knowing the tool) , so, people would rarely get impressed. But that's far from being a reason for Inkscape being good or bad. Tons of the videos available, both for Gimp and Inkscape, the less than impressive moments, to call them so, are due to big lacks in pro knowledge, so you get to see bad selections/cutouts made, blurry details, non well harmonized compositions, in color and etc. That's zero to do with Gimp or Inkscape, is just that pros aren't making tuts, or non getting in the search results.

https://youtu.be/ZRwfqgALLyc

https://youtu.be/sCWq2uuinxg

Gimp, (same prob, a lot of hobbyists, few real pros doing video tuts or time lapses)  , in the app, since this year and a bit earlier, all is changing (GEGL, new coders, etc). The UI is ugly with those fat widgets, I know, and not as streamlined in workflows as it could be... but is far from being a toy... Not really advanced videos, but you could check some of what I mean here :

https://youtu.be/cvA9KmLg7sY

https://youtu.be/mDbdPd-f9RU

https://youtu.be/XKl6MG4a0lQ

https://youtu.be/I82Efhght64
https://youtu.be/HLmOpEETjEo

I mean, nothing against Photopea or Gravit , but I really see them as less advanced than Gimp and Inkscape, honestly. Logically as they're much younger, too (like it happens with Affinity and Adobe) .  But the ancient FOSS tools have a long way covered, and they're seriously underrated. It's a bit a vicious circle also in this case (JUST like the one you all often mention of no artists being in Linux (because there's no software, and etc), but here only related to the apps themselves, which are cross platform (both win/mac/linux) and FREE. So, simply people don't go there for prejudice as the only true reason (and an undeniable less friendly UI, in the beginning) . Pros don't dig deeper in those, so the tools are never considered, ditched without seriously trying. Don't take me wrong, I wouldn't choose these over AP and AD...But I still use them (in my case, on Windows) as companion tools in areas where, well, they do have those features, or I just prefer how it is done.

AD, AP and APub. V1.10.6 and V2.4 Windows 10 and Windows 11. 
Ryzen 9 3900X, 32 GB RAM,  RTX 3060 12GB, Wacom Intuos XL, Wacom L. Eizo ColorEdge CS 2420 monitor. Windows 10 Pro.
(Laptop) HP Omen 16-b1010ns 12700H, 32GB DDR5, nVidia RTX 3060 6GB + Huion Kamvas 22 pen display, Windows 11 Pro.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 minutes ago, msdobrescu said:

Oh God! I knew I should not watch Cutting the Cord series! I've ended here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXLNNBOSWvc

If I show it to my car's AI, might crash laughing! 

I don't see why you shouldn't watch the Cutting the Cord series based on a single feature that's lacking in a Corel product. In JCristina's videos he even says that it depends on what type of user you are when choosing a program, so you will need to do some of your own research as well.

He does not seem to work with panorama shots, so it doesn't affect him personally, and he even points out that his needs will not be everyone's needs when making his recommendations. Obviously if you absolutely need a specific feature for work you shouldn't buy a program that lacks it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, Frozen Death Knight said:

I don't see why you shouldn't watch the Cutting the Cord series based on a single feature that's lacking in a Corel product. In JCristina's videos he even says that it depends on what type of user you are when choosing a program, so you will need to do some of your own research as well.

He does not seem to work with panorama shots, so it doesn't affect him personally, and he even points out that his needs will not be everyone's needs when making his recommendations. Obviously if you absolutely need a specific feature for work you shouldn't buy a program that lacks it.

No, 2018 and no automatic pano tool is middle ages thing. Sorry.

I know PSP before was purchased by Corel. It was a great software, it is now too. But in other aspects.

JC's tutorials made me reconsider and check it again... this was shocking. That's it!

To me, Corel's software was always amazing and I fail to understand the technical reasons to be less preferred, except than lack of marketing...

But there are cases when fails, this is one of them. They should not advertise that.

JC's point of view relates to painting, where, many very good alternatives exists. I've seen amazing drawings done in MS Paint too.

But photography is still Adobe's niche for some reason. There is no such complete and easy to use software as theirs in this regard.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@SrPx, indeed, Inkscape is a very capable software, but developed too slowly.

It is fun and pretty pro, I did things easier in Inkscape than Illustrator. Meshes are fantastic!

I have used it for a long time, but to me, it just have become something losing the grip somehow. Features and methods went impractical in time, or changed in a way that made it difficult to use. And its main issue is if you need to provide Illustrator compatibility, because Illustrator saves its own format in EPS files and refuses to import them as vectors in the absence of that format. At least, in 2018, when I stopped using Illustrator or providing Illustrator compatible formats. And it's so hard to make extensions for it in lack of a debugger support... Illustrator has a script tool.

But Gimp still does things in a very convoluted way, compared to Photoshop. At least for common photography use cases...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@SrPx Inkscape is indeed pretty cool. A friend of mine actually helped me clean up a raster drawing I did the other day with Inkscape by converting the image into vector and exporting it as an SVG file. I then imported it back into Designer and started cleaning it up using the newly added Sculpt Mode (super good feature for cleaning up your roughly converted vector shapes). I think Inkscape is a decent tool to have as a back-up plan whenever you need something Designer can't do (i.e. converting raster into vector). Can't wait till Designer has its own converter, though. :D

I just can't use Gimp, however. Way too clunky and uncomfortable for my taste. If I ever need a free solution to Photoshop for some reason I would just use Photopea, which works almost exactly like Photoshop and has from my own testing a near perfect one to one import conversion when opening Photoshop files (not to mention the non-destructive Adjustment layers which Gimp still lacks).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 7/9/2019 at 5:24 PM, SrPx said:

That was exactly my experience. 

 

But yep, for painting you have Krita, in Linux.  

It was kind of funny when I saw the amount of brush settings available. When it comes to the slowness of drawing, I read somewhere that the problem is not necessarily just the fault of the developer. Apparently the browsers themselves play a part in the performance issues, since they aren't built around stuff like touch controls among other things. So over time things could get a lot better as the browsers keep improving.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, msdobrescu said:

To me, Corel's software was always amazing and I fail to understand the technical reasons to be less preferred, except than lack of marketing...

well... if we mean the actual Corel Draw suite, which can't have its apps sold apart, over Adobe, IMO because except some specific print shops, and some entire types of business (always very related to printing) Adobe has won the match during decades. It'd get installed in every game studio, software dev, web dev, or advertising agency I have worked at. I only remember seeing it installed in some offset printers (but together with PS, ID or Quark, FH and Illustrator licenses, with the rare exception of very small publishers that indeed had solely  Corel for pricing reasons, as Adobe was even more expensive).  But today, if you want a permanent license, is still 700 bucks. And then the upgrades, of  course. And today you can't stagnate as much as before with an old version of a graphic app, IMO. If we talk about every other alternative that was born and then disappeared, or is alive yet today, well for pricing (mid range apps sold apart were always cheaper, even the sum of several to cover the same) and no option to purchase the vector package without the rest of the suite, so to be mor efficient on the money. There I believe it lost half of the match. But many small or bigger but very specific business have solid roots in the market, IMO they aren't going anywhere. Then there's the only ones for this field that it sells apart, which... each case is a different story. Until the appearance of new players, for digital painting, first it was mainly Corel Painter the undeniable king. Then, tons of people in the game industry swapped from only doing textures and UI stuff to become super key in concept art and related stuff, and happened also in part of the film industry, and others. So, at some point I saw my colleagues divided, some super enthusiast of PS for painting, others about Painter. Today, with Clip Paint Studio devouring the comic field, Rebelle getting such a hype, Art rage having very loyal user base among those first wanting trad media painting but on the cheap (high quality, tho), Paintstorm Studio, Krita, etc, etc, etc... Well, much more of a difficult situation for that one, as is still quite pricey while the others are dirty cheap, and I can tel u one can do wonders with them.  PSP... has had a lot of stagnation itself for a long time till recently (not sure about now) with things like a huge bug in the internal sRGB profile.  Made evident in the forums for a long time and not addressed. But even that and how it is now is much better than certain turn to a photo toy for the family that it did seem was gonna be its future, but that did seem to change. So, nothing is really random, if one remembers certain stuff. But I agree that the marketing could have been different. IMO tho, not its main prob. Pros do a lot the word of mouth : If a deal (money + quality, not just quality) is amazing, happens a bit how it's happening with Affinity, part of the marketing is just that. To me, all of these Corel tools are very good, there are issues in every freakin' app, including Adobe's, and that one has had a ton.

PD: I've done pano by hand... is relatively recent that we have the new toys.

AD, AP and APub. V1.10.6 and V2.4 Windows 10 and Windows 11. 
Ryzen 9 3900X, 32 GB RAM,  RTX 3060 12GB, Wacom Intuos XL, Wacom L. Eizo ColorEdge CS 2420 monitor. Windows 10 Pro.
(Laptop) HP Omen 16-b1010ns 12700H, 32GB DDR5, nVidia RTX 3060 6GB + Huion Kamvas 22 pen display, Windows 11 Pro.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, msdobrescu said:

And its main issue is if you need to provide Illustrator compatibility, because Illustrator saves its own format in EPS files and refuses to import them as vectors in the absence of that format.

Well, in all honesty, Illustrator makes it difficult the I/O with any other vector tool... Sth not new in Adobe, (neither in Autodesk, and it is known that these practices are often to protect the dominant position, ofc. )

AD, AP and APub. V1.10.6 and V2.4 Windows 10 and Windows 11. 
Ryzen 9 3900X, 32 GB RAM,  RTX 3060 12GB, Wacom Intuos XL, Wacom L. Eizo ColorEdge CS 2420 monitor. Windows 10 Pro.
(Laptop) HP Omen 16-b1010ns 12700H, 32GB DDR5, nVidia RTX 3060 6GB + Huion Kamvas 22 pen display, Windows 11 Pro.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Frozen Death Knight said:

Apparently the browsers themselves play a part in the performance issues, since they aren't built around stuff like touch controls among other things.

And access to hardware, system libraries... there's a freaking entire browser in the middle, and some stuff is not even allowed to be accessed....

AD, AP and APub. V1.10.6 and V2.4 Windows 10 and Windows 11. 
Ryzen 9 3900X, 32 GB RAM,  RTX 3060 12GB, Wacom Intuos XL, Wacom L. Eizo ColorEdge CS 2420 monitor. Windows 10 Pro.
(Laptop) HP Omen 16-b1010ns 12700H, 32GB DDR5, nVidia RTX 3060 6GB + Huion Kamvas 22 pen display, Windows 11 Pro.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, SrPx said:

Well, in all honesty, Illustrator makes it difficult the I/O with any other vector tool... Sth not new in Adobe, (neither in Autodesk, and it is known that these practices are often to protect the dominant position, ofc. )

Yes Adobe is evil and ai is evil so is psd/indd.
They are interfering file potability and free competition.
 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

To be fair to both to Photopea and Pixlr (just checked that it has the same performance issues with the brush than Photopea) it's increasingly clear for me that this is due to be a browser based application. Sumopaint 2.0 beta is QUITE a smoother painting experience, but not as smooth as any desktop application, and in any other operation (image edit), is like the other online tools. They are all way too slow. (they're beyond extremely limited in everything, even for hobbyists ! They're eons away even from Gimp or the like). But IMO, Sumopaint 2 beta, for some sketching online can be fine.

Edit: Actually, scratch that. For some online painting (sketching, doodling,  dabbling with some idea) when you're away from your desktop and tablet, it's seems kleki.com is a winner. By solid K.O in just the first round. But for image editing stuff (extremely light, again, far away from even Gimp) Photopea or Pxlr.

AD, AP and APub. V1.10.6 and V2.4 Windows 10 and Windows 11. 
Ryzen 9 3900X, 32 GB RAM,  RTX 3060 12GB, Wacom Intuos XL, Wacom L. Eizo ColorEdge CS 2420 monitor. Windows 10 Pro.
(Laptop) HP Omen 16-b1010ns 12700H, 32GB DDR5, nVidia RTX 3060 6GB + Huion Kamvas 22 pen display, Windows 11 Pro.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 7/9/2019 at 6:56 AM, Frozen Death Knight said:

Glad to hear that there are people out there taking the initiative to push development forward. You have my respect. :D

Yeah, I agree with your assessment regarding the communities for these FOSS tools being more on the cheap side. I use Blender and I can't really afford spending money on the Blender Foundation every month, but I've bought a few add-ons that I thought would help my modelling workflow and done what I can reporting bugs during the 2.8 Beta as well as provided as much feedback as possible on how to improve various aspects of the software. If I had a job and a decent income I would donate some to the Foundation since they have done such a good job working on Blender since I started using the software for the first time in December last year. Until then, I will do what little I can to improve the software, since I vastly prefer its UI and workflow over Maya which I actually started off learning (although Maya does have some really great tools).

Photopea actually looks pretty promising for giving Linux some needed love in that department. It's not really good for painting or drawing because of how slow it is on large canvases (tried opening an old artwork file and drawing on it was super slow, not to mention the extremely primitive brush engine), but it has lot of the essentials for photo editing and manipulation (non-destructive adjustment layers ftw!), which would work pretty well with a painting program like Krita. As an old Photoshop user it was pretty much identical to the software and far less cumbersome than Gimp. I just hope the developer gets enough funding to be able to employ more people so he can keep working on the project for a very long time.

Yeah, I kind of figured that would become a problem. The game platforms I am the most concerned with being supported on Linux would be Battle.Net and Steam, since I rarely if ever use any other platform for gaming. As for the PSDs locking me in, I am not so concerned about that anymore since my files can be opened and converted to the Affinity file format. ^_^

I'm not criticizing you or your budget. :) It's pretty awesome there's even a zero cost solution that can compete with enterprise lock in, and anything given back is very much appreciated I'm sure. There's a contingent of people who will never give any money for software because of digital entitlement. Often, they are very vocal.

Photopea might be a competitor to Affinity Photo, but not Affinity Design. It looks like a Raster editor. Could be fine for basic editing, but I don't find GIMP to be cumbersome as you do, in fact I find Photoshop to be cumbersome. Anyone used to 10+ years of one UI is going to find a different UI cumbersome as you learn the flow. That doesn't discount GIMP as a competitor, as much as your own preference. CMYK, that actually is a useful feature that GIMP lacks.

Photopea lacks artboards, symbols and vector layers which is a modern design workflow, and also it seems to be Nagware with a GIANT AD on the right that takes up like 25% of my real estate. :(

Steam runs great on Linux, but not all games support Linux so you are going to run into an issue where some of your games wont run.

Also, you are now locked into Serif's file format (.afdesign and whatever photo), which is arguably worse than being locked into PSD, since Affinity isn't industry standard (as bad as that standard is), so if you move to another photo editing software you wont have an affinity converter.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Quote

Photopea might be a competitor to Affinity Photo, but not Affinity Design. It looks like a Raster editor. Could be fine for basic editing, but I don't find GIMP to be cumbersome as you do, 

I had tested it in the past, but this thread revived my curiosity about it.... Might be the browser, but the super big problem is performance... There's not even a way to start a comparison with Gimp in terms of performance, and that counting I'm on Windows, I guess Gimp runs even faster on Linux. And Gimp has bazillions more features that any of those online editors... It's a huge trade-off to choose the others instead of Gimp just for having UI familiarity with PS.  I have to say I don't find either PS cumbersome. Indeed, is like an extension of my brain (after 24 years). Everything flows well . But for some reason, so happened as well with A. Photo...in...er....10 minutes.

Quote

CMYK, that actually is a useful feature that GIMP lacks.

It is coming soon, thanks to a google Summer of Code project, the person doing it, obviously, and GEGL, if I am not wrong. So, hopefully pretty soon, together with many interesting things thanks to integrating that library and all what it brings (don't ask me, I ain't coder). And to be fair, Paint Shop Pro, Corel Painter, Art Rage, Xara Photo and Xara Designer Pro, as far as I kno, don't have either a CMYK mode. Gimp has indeed sth similar to the Xara's solution, if I'm not wrong, which is an exporter to a CMYK file with whatever the color profile, and a soft proof checking (I could be wrong as I don't know Xara more than some testing. Was in the verge of getting it but decided for Affinity, for a bunch of reasons and heavy testing. To have something more market ready than FOSS at home, and some other apps I had purchased. ). Krita has a CMYK mode, surprisingly for the majority of painting apps (Corel Photopaint is another one).

So, in favor of Gimp, is not that common to count on that mode, although with good screen calibration and other matters, I consider it essential for a bunch of workflows.

1 hour ago, LucasKA said:

Photopea lacks artboards, symbols and vector layers which is a modern design workflow, and also it seems to be Nagware with a GIANT AD on the right that takes up like 25% of my real estate. :(

Thing is, its premium version, which is 5$ per month, does not seem to bring anything, is only a way provided to support his development, as a donation. It doesn't say it removes the ad...it's THE SAME app. Only it allows to convert from Sketch to PSD, and that's not present in other apps, but...today the tendency goes more and more towards figma and inivision, but dunno which will win in the end of web prototyping. About that, you seem to really need a vector package and not having enough with Inkscape, for whatever the reason. If you'd only prototype, Figma is enough. But for print, without any color management, not CMYK, neither many of the other things, and seems, not too good for very dense meshes... I'd look somewhere else. But for web/apps prototypes, is a jewel, imo.

Quote

Also, you are now locked into Serif's file format (.afdesign and whatever photo), which is arguably worse than being locked into PSD

You can always export to TIFFs or etc. I used to have always a complex version of the final file of a project in some other format than native.

1 hour ago, LucasKA said:

Photopea lacks artboards, symbols and vector layers

Well, you have shape layers and vector masks. Not bad for a young online PS-like editor. I gotta be honest : With a powerful machine this tool is surely bearable. But... If I can handle super heavy press file with my PC in other apps, and here it takes a 2 - 3 secons for any operation on an A3 300dpi....  The difference is like 20 x times faster in my other apps.

That said ! The passion put by Linux users, ready to make even the most complex acrobatic thing in Wine to get a PS-Like editor, the performance would be their smallest worry. I have always seen how all my linux friends (well, I was a linux freak once) have huge issues to put money on software but absolutely no restrain in hardware. If they need more ram, better cpu, or do a frankenstein with several xeons, they'll do so.... 

So... YEP. Photopea, considering how is the community... COULD be a solution... They're capable to mount a NASA machine to run it, then prob solved.... And the app is already very featured.  (IMO, Gimp is just way more mature, runs native, and full open source in all the ideology behind the whole thing.)

If what you need is vectors  (it really seems so, tho typically here people is more asking for a PS replacement, seems raster has more traction...)... if one does vectorial design, DTP, projects for print of some level past crude amateurish, imo is all about Affinity Designer, or the freaking cloud, or the kindda expensive Corel Draw (it's GREAT, win/mac, but dunno if anyone has tried to run on Wine. Can't compete in pricing with Affinity)  or have the patience of building your workflow exporting from Inskcape to Scribus so to print your stuff correctly.  Browser based there's Figma, too basic for design of other than prototypes and some flyer /basic logo, tshirt etc, as need sth to export to PDF or whatever anyway, and no cmyk... gravit... is yearly "cloudy" (50 bucks, but checks license every 15 days in your connection, ugh...) ... and... from videos...  way too basic compared to Affinity Designer. It seems has been acquired by Corel, also.

Really... Much less trouble to buy a win10, it's dirty cheap, and double boot. I was so for years, and I really didn't need Linux for anything, was just for fun, no biggie.... Then get the entire Affinity suite (super cheap). I can see more issues to buy a Mac, due to pricing and stuff,  but linux people already have a pc (which anyway, is having now the greatest moment in hardware innovation and prices going down).

AD, AP and APub. V1.10.6 and V2.4 Windows 10 and Windows 11. 
Ryzen 9 3900X, 32 GB RAM,  RTX 3060 12GB, Wacom Intuos XL, Wacom L. Eizo ColorEdge CS 2420 monitor. Windows 10 Pro.
(Laptop) HP Omen 16-b1010ns 12700H, 32GB DDR5, nVidia RTX 3060 6GB + Huion Kamvas 22 pen display, Windows 11 Pro.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 7/12/2019 at 12:08 AM, LucasKA said:

I'm not criticizing you or your budget. :) It's pretty awesome there's even a zero cost solution that can compete with enterprise lock in, and anything given back is very much appreciated I'm sure. There's a contingent of people who will never give any money for software because of digital entitlement. Often, they are very vocal.

Photopea might be a competitor to Affinity Photo, but not Affinity Design. It looks like a Raster editor. Could be fine for basic editing, but I don't find GIMP to be cumbersome as you do, in fact I find Photoshop to be cumbersome. Anyone used to 10+ years of one UI is going to find a different UI cumbersome as you learn the flow. That doesn't discount GIMP as a competitor, as much as your own preference. CMYK, that actually is a useful feature that GIMP lacks.

Photopea lacks artboards, symbols and vector layers which is a modern design workflow, and also it seems to be Nagware with a GIANT AD on the right that takes up like 25% of my real estate. :(

Steam runs great on Linux, but not all games support Linux so you are going to run into an issue where some of your games wont run.

Also, you are now locked into Serif's file format (.afdesign and whatever photo), which is arguably worse than being locked into PSD, since Affinity isn't industry standard (as bad as that standard is), so if you move to another photo editing software you wont have an affinity converter.

^^

I appreciate all the hard work that goes into these open source projects, so I want to give something back whenever I feel like I have something to give.

Photoshop doesn't do everything perfectly, but some of the tools I just can't live without. Non-destructive Adjustment layers are a big one, as well as its layers system, among other things, and Gimp just doesn't cover everything I want for my type of workflow. Also, sad to say, I found the UI to look like an eyesoar when I tried using Gimp years ago. Photoshop's UI is also quite old, but at least Adobe knows a thing or two about designing with user experience in mind (although I found some of the changes to Photoshop over the years to be quite baffling).

As for no good free Designer competitor outside of Inkscape, nothing much that can be done about that right now. Just hope some new program pops up that has Linux compatibility in that case, I guess. :)

Well, naturally it will lack things considering how young the program is compared to Photoshop and even Gimp. Still, its interface and shortcuts are nearly the same as Photoshop, which to me are a big plus (also the reason I like Affinity so much).

Valve has been pretty good at trying to push for Linux support, so hopefully that effort will pay off in the long run. It's a big shame that the Steam Machines never took off since they were running on Linux code from my understanding.

I don't think you understand what being locked into a software or a file format means. Even if Serif went under tomorrow I could just convert them back to PSDs since the Affinity Suite actually supports it as an export file format (among others), and Serif wouldn't be able lock me out from using the license I already bought unlike Adobe. However, even when it comes to Adobe they can't really lock you out of your own work to the extent they used to with Creative Cloud. Nowadays there are several ways of opening and editing PSDs unlike in the early 2010s, so I am be able to move all my old work to a new software if for some reason I would stop using Affinity or Photoshop for that matter, as long as they support PSDs.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Quote

PSDs unlike in the early 2010s, so I am be able to move all my old work to a new software 

Well... I have not seen a single instance of an app (there's issues even between different versions in PS) able to port everything from PS. Not now, not in decades of pro life. Currently, some fail in layer effects (indeed, most) others in smart objects,  others in text layers, which have you found supporting the shapes/paths, many simply can't have CMYK files as don't have a CMYK mode....others in everything which is not each layer rasterized to pixels... But if your file is so, you might as well just save flattened tiffs and 7zip 'em.

But yep, lol, is not like one couldn't pay a last month to just make some PS actions, and batch proccess with its internal function entire folders of PSDs through several hours to get all files converted in whatever the universal format. I've done so at some job, not difficult.

I agree with a lot of your post, though. But those online tools (raster and vector) have a very very long way to catch up with Affinity, Corel or Adobe, but is better than nothing. The thing is, everybody is running, it's a race. So once they get there (ie, Photopea seems is only one person, in Gimp they're like 3 or 5), where would Affinity be? Despite people's complaints, 1.7 versions are way better than initial Affinity releases years ago.  Again, for pro work, if really one is for the money, the efficient way is to have a partition with Windows, seriously. Shall one use Linux for absolutely everything else. Heck, anyway, even with Steam or Wine or whatever, there can always be that game or that particular 3D app that wont run on other thing than Windows native. If you'd like to have that app/game, anyways, you could asume to have win just for specific uses.  HD disks are huge and cheap these days. And making a partition is dumb easy.  Another thing is if graphics is just a mere hobby. Then one can get as passional as one might want with the OSes matter, the plate of food is not depending on it...

 

AD, AP and APub. V1.10.6 and V2.4 Windows 10 and Windows 11. 
Ryzen 9 3900X, 32 GB RAM,  RTX 3060 12GB, Wacom Intuos XL, Wacom L. Eizo ColorEdge CS 2420 monitor. Windows 10 Pro.
(Laptop) HP Omen 16-b1010ns 12700H, 32GB DDR5, nVidia RTX 3060 6GB + Huion Kamvas 22 pen display, Windows 11 Pro.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

https://youtu.be/6F9pukHTAoA
A photopea exercise/review, more photography based than my areas of focus (image edit in a more general way, illustration, and graphic design), so, maybe of some use for photographers. I thought it's relevant to this web app comments  (and despite being cool, how imo AP is in another league...).

AD, AP and APub. V1.10.6 and V2.4 Windows 10 and Windows 11. 
Ryzen 9 3900X, 32 GB RAM,  RTX 3060 12GB, Wacom Intuos XL, Wacom L. Eizo ColorEdge CS 2420 monitor. Windows 10 Pro.
(Laptop) HP Omen 16-b1010ns 12700H, 32GB DDR5, nVidia RTX 3060 6GB + Huion Kamvas 22 pen display, Windows 11 Pro.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, LucasKA said:

Also, you are now locked into Serif's file format (.afdesign and whatever photo), which is arguably worse than being locked into PSD, since Affinity isn't industry standard (as bad as that standard is), so if you move to another photo editing software you wont have an affinity converter.

Regarding the industry standard, I think EPS is that one, and I have performed my own study on how to cut the cord from AI, just in case I need it. EPS is related to printing limitation on a wide range of printers and other typographic hardware. What is wrong, IMHO, is that Illustrator embeds the AI file in the EPS for future editing purposes and relied on that, although Inkscape is capable to produce vector EPS fully reversible to the original vector, basically, but Illustrator ignores that (for EPS without transparency there is a plugin that would do the Ai compatible file here: https://github.com/tzunghaor/inkscape-eps-export).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@SrPx, usually, GIMP is much faster under Linux. Even startup is slower under Windows. It takes minutes ... I see my life passing... But under Linux is much better.

Yesterday, Hugin took endlessly to make a stitch of 12 images under Windows. A few minutes under Linux. It's obvious, those apps are Linux-based.

Lately, I've found that GIMP and Hugin are collaborating fine with Darktable and RawTherapee, or DCRaw, so one could chose what to use for RAW development. This is a dream come true!

6 hours ago, SrPx said:

Really... Much less trouble to buy a win10, it's dirty cheap, and double boot. I was so for years, and I really didn't need Linux for anything, was just for fun, no biggie.... Then get the entire Affinity suite (super cheap). I can see more issues to buy a Mac, due to pricing and stuff,  but linux people already have a pc (which anyway, is having now the greatest moment in hardware innovation and prices going down).

I live this way now, I am so tormented by the fact that I use VT-D under Linux and Windows can't boot with that enabled...

 

6 hours ago, SrPx said:

Again, for pro work, if really one is for the money, the efficient way is to have a partition with Windows, seriously. Shall one use Linux for absolutely everything else.

That's because there is no pro software support (in graphics and design field).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I actually don't mind much the start up time of the app, as typically I'll use whatever the tool for very long sessions, rarely closing them (only when I need all the memory and resources for sth) . 2D vectors, raster or 3D, whatever I do, my sessions tend to be long, is not as if I were a coder that from time to time has to launch Gimp to create a placeholder icon for my code. The app (Gimp) in Windows runs very fast in my old rig (many times faster than Photopea). In every typical operation. Just like Blender, is very fast, high performance. And yep, I am aware about exact differences, with same hardware, in Win/Linux benchmarks in for example, Blender Cycles renders. But for usual workflows (I'm not rendering 24/7) is not that big that compensates for the lack of MANY graphic apps and utilities. Also, most apps of the kind use very alien libraries to the Windows OS, is  quite common the startup time (Blender and Wings3D load instantly , though). So, nope... the speed advantage might be real a synthetic one, in a normal day it doesn't matter, at least for an advanced freelancer. For a render farm or any kind of server, that's another story, obviously.  I can't trade pro software (not just of the types we're speaking about) for some wait time which is definitely insignificant in my everyday work.

AD, AP and APub. V1.10.6 and V2.4 Windows 10 and Windows 11. 
Ryzen 9 3900X, 32 GB RAM,  RTX 3060 12GB, Wacom Intuos XL, Wacom L. Eizo ColorEdge CS 2420 monitor. Windows 10 Pro.
(Laptop) HP Omen 16-b1010ns 12700H, 32GB DDR5, nVidia RTX 3060 6GB + Huion Kamvas 22 pen display, Windows 11 Pro.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Guidelines | We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.