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Affinity Photo Customer Beta (1.7.0.99)


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  • Staff

Status: Beta

Purpose: Features, Improvements, Fixes

Requirements: Purchased Affinity Photo

Mac App Store: Not submitted

Download: Download

Hello,

We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of the second beta of Affinity Photo 1.7 for macOS.

Photo 1.7 is a (very) significant change to the currently shipping 1.6 version, so, as ever, I would strongly urge users to avoid the 1.7 beta for critical work. This is especially true as this is only the second of many beta builds we will release before 1.7 ships. Things will be broken in this build - please use it to explore the new features and not for real work.

If this is your first time using a customer beta of an Affinity app, it’s worth noting that the beta will install as a separate app - alongside your store version. They will not interfere with each other at all and you can continue to use the store version for critical work without worry.

It’s also worth noting that we aren’t done yet - we are still working through reported bugs from previous releases and hope to fix as many as possible before the final release of 1.7.

With all that said, we hope that you will enjoy the new capabilities introduced in this release and we look forward to any and all feedback you give to us.

Many thanks (as always),

Affinity Photo Team  :ph34r:

 

Changes This Build


- Fixed hardware acceleration issues on certain iMac devices.
- Fixed a number of brush bugs.
- Fixed hang in HDR merge with GPU enabled.
- Fixed HSL adjustment UI crash,
- Fixed Procedural Texture UI issues when switching from dark to light UI.
- Fixed Curves adjustment clamping issue when GPU is enabled.
- Fixed 3DLUT adjustments when GPU is enabled.
- Fixed issues with sub-brush UI.
- Numerous other small fixes.

- Added pixabay.com to Stock panel.

- New welcome screen graphics.
- New persona icon graphics.
- New splash screen.


Changes Since 1.6 Release


Performance

- The core processing engine in Affinity Photo has been rewritten to take advantage of the powerful discrete AMD GPUs in modern Mac hardware. It will now automatically use any compatible discrete GPU, alongside the Intel GPU support present in 1.6. Typically this improves compositing / editing performance by at least 1000%. Performance when using integrated Intel GPUs has also been massively improved.

- External GPUs (eGPU) are also supported - including hot-plug-and-unplug support.

- Multiple GPUs are supported - if you have more than 1 GPU (ie. Intel + AMD in MacBook Pro, or Intel + eGPU in other Macs) Photo will use them all, at the same time, to improve performance. There is no limit to the number of GPUs which can be used.


Brushes

- Photo 1.7 introduces a new “sub-brush” mechanism, developed in conjunction with Paolo Limoncelli (DAUB® Brushes). This exciting feature allows any brush to have a list of other brushes attached which will draw at the same time. Each sub-brush has a fully separate and customisable set of dynamics. You can control when the sub-brushes are drawn and how they blend with the main brush.

- The brush engine in Photo has been rewritten to use the new GPU architecture described above. With GPU support, even huge brushes with 1% spacing will perform well. All brushes / brush tools are accelerated.

- Symmetry (up to 32-way) is now supported - including on-canvas controls and optional mirroring. We have more symmetry features on the way - so stay tuned during the beta process.

- Wet edges and accumulation are now available on colour brushes and brushes with HSL variance.

- Brushes with multiple nozzle textures have always chosen the nozzle at random. In 1.7, the nozzle choice has a dynamic controller and ramp for greater control.

- All brush tools now support left and right arrow keys for rotation - a common feature request ;)


RAW

- The RAW processing engine in Photo has been rewritten - producing better results and improved performance. It also takes advantage of the GPU architecture changes described above.

- RAW files now load much more quickly - especially if you have a compatible GPU.

- Reimplemented support for XTrans sensors.

- The denoise algorithm has been rewritten. It produces better results and takes advantage of the new GPU architecture.

- Hot pixel removal is now automatically performed by the Serif Labs engine.

- Profiled lens correction are more stable, apply more quickly, and can be toggled in the Develop UI.

- The histogram in the Develop persona is now presented in the output colour space - as opposed to always being linear.


Filters

- New “Procedural Texture” filter with advanced presets support.

- New “Voronoi” filter.

- Denoise, Clarity and Shadows / Highlights filters have been rewritten (using technology from the Develop Persona).

- More filters are now available as Live Filters - including the new Procedural Texture filter.

- Live filters have been rewritten to improve performance - especially when multiple filters are used in a document.

- Improved Polar to Rectangular and Rectangular to Polar filters.


Adjustments

- The HSL adjustment layer has been rewritten. It now supports custom hue ranges, a new algorithm, new UI and picker controls.

- The Levels adjustment layer now supports output levels - a common feature request.

- The White Balance adjustment layer has been rewritten.

- The Selective Colour adjustment layer has been rewritten.

- PSD import / export of adjustments has been improved.

- The Vibrance adjustment layer has been rewritten.

- The Recolour adjustment layer has gained a lightness slider.


Tools

- The Crop tool has been rewritten - it now supports resolution changes, absolute pixel size and has a much improved preset mechanism.

- The Sponge Brush tool now gives more correct / pleasant results.

- A general tools overhaul has been performed - providing editing of grids, guides, page origin, across multiple tools (not just in the Move tool)


General

- “Alternate futures” for document history have been added. Traditionally, if you roll back the undo history then do something else all your changes after that point are lost. Photo will now display a small branch icon in the history tab when you do this. Pressing that button will cycle between all the different “futures” after that history entry - meaning you will never lose work you have done.

- HEIF images can now be loaded directly into Photo. If they contain a depth map, this will also be loaded as a second layer. Because depth maps are typically lower resolution than the main image, optional “smart” upsampling will be performed.

- A large number of new cameras are supported for RAW development (we will provide a list of the new supported cameras as soon as possible!).

- The batch process dialog now fully supports expressions for height and width - available constants are “w”, “h” and “dpi”.

- Photo now supports custom document presets - a popular feature request.

- A new blend mode - Linear Burn - has been added.

- New “Move inside / outside” commands have been added - useful for quick operations on clipping masks etc.

- The Hard Mix blend mode has been improved.

- New provider options have been added to the stock panel - support for Unsplash and Pexels. Both of these providers offer full-resolution stock imagery which is free to use.

- Metadata is now dynamically synchronised with your document - so if you resize then export, the values will be correct.

- Numerous text improvements have been made - including new features.

- Significant PDF import / export improvements and fixes.

- Numerous other bug fixes - too many to list!

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@Andy Somerfield your team and yourself made my weekend.

With the add of pixabay.com design works on APhoto will go really fast, just imagine you are the first one to add a Royalty free website on their software.

#1 ... You rocks !

Plus a new everything you said you've added ... Oh my hands are shacking. I will download as soon as power outage is fixed on my suburb and revert here.

Triple Blessing !

Never be the Same Again !
---
Dell Optiplex 5090 SFF
Intel Core i5-10500T @2.30GHz with 12GiB 2666MHz DDR4
Intel UHD Graphics 630 for 10th Generation
M.2 2280, 512 GB, PCIe NVMe Gen3 x4, Class 40 SSD

Windows 11 Pro x64 22H2 + LibreOffice 7.5.3

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4 hours ago, Andy Somerfield said:

- Added pixabay.com to Stock panel.

Thank you for this addition! It is a nice touch that double-clicking on a found image in the Stock panel opens the pixabay.com web page for it in my browser, so I don't have to add it to a document & use the "Open Stock URL" context toolbar button to do that unless I want to.

I have only tried using this feature to download a few Pixabay images so far, but it seems to automatically choose the highest resolution JPEG (?) version available from the site for the download.

Is that right?

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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Quote

@LenC

I was able to get the beta to run on my MacBook Air and to discover what I was most curious about: the various deficiencies in Curves LAB mode are not being addressed in this release. (RGB histograms displayed when LAB or CMYK channels are requested; numerical range of A and B is 0-1 rather than -1 to 1 or a scaled version.) I have started to collect my suggestions on LAB in AP in the feature request forum and will add to that.  These issues have been known for a while and are said to have been passed on to developers, so I conclude, based on earlier posts, that Serif is not ready to devote resources to them. I had hoped to adapt the methods of Dan Margulis to Affinity and that AP's capabilities might grow as I learned more about his methods, but it may be easier to do that in PS. Would appreciate comments on Serif's plans if senior people can comment.

+1

  • "The user interface is supposed to work for me - I am not supposed to work for the user interface."
  • Computer-, operating system- and software agnostic; I am a result oriented professional. Look for a fanboy somewhere else.
  • “When a wise man points at the moon the imbecile examines the finger.” ― Confucius
  • Not an Affinity user og forum user anymore. The software continued to disappoint and not deliver.
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Metal now works on my imac with OSX 10.13.5  and AMD Radeon R9 M380.

Significant faster response with very small brush-repeapt, or big macros... :-) Thank you!

 

Bug: Smudge-Tool will macro-redorded but not "read" by recall!

 

 

OSX 12.5  / iMac Retina 27" / Radeon Pro 580X / Metall: on! --- WWG1WGA WW!

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29 minutes ago, Polygonius said:

Bug: Smudge-Tool will macro-redorded but not "read" by recall!

 

Please can you make a new thread for each bug so they make support tickets and don't get lost in the announcement/update threads. Thank you 

Patrick Connor
Serif Europe Ltd

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility lies in being superior to your previous self."  W. L. Sheldon

 

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sorry, Andy es hilft nix, übrigens das betrifft auch die anderen Dinge die über die Makros zu laden sind ( Dirk Wüstenhagen, umlift-epic-skies...). Jetzt erschein aber statt Library, Markro. Das ist so korrekt? Die eigentlich im Ordner enthaltenen Daten sind ausgegraut! Ich benutze OSX 1013.6 auf einem Uraltrechner (MacPro 3.1)

 

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1 hour ago, >|< said:

The accelerated opening and developing of raw files is great!

In your Preferences > Performance, is "Enable Metal compute acceleration" available & enabled? I ask because (apparently) the GPU in my 2012 iMac is  not compatible with this option & the Hardware Acceleration option is greyed out. I do not see much if any accelerated opening of RAW files vs. the retail version, & I am guessing that is because my iMac does not have a compatible GPU.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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45 minutes ago, >|< said:

Yes, it is available and enabled now that I'm using High Sierra on a 2017 iMac.

So I guess that means I will have to replace my 2012 iMac with a newer one to see that improvement. :(

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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23 minutes ago, >|< said:

You'll see improvement with all software if you replace a 6 year old iMac with a new one.

I do understand that but since I am retired, do not need to use my Macs to earn a living, & even though it is a 6 year old low end model it still runs most apps (including most tasks in Affinity) acceptably fast for my needs, I am in no hurry to replace it. If nothing else, I am content to wait & see if Apple updates the iMacs in the first half of next year before deciding if it is worth it to me to replace it. It is one of the few benefits of being old & retired. :)

 

29 minutes ago, Andy Somerfield said:

If your 2012 Mac has an Nvidia GPU, we do not currently support those - but we hope to before the release of 1.7.

It has the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M GPU shown in my sig -- much like me, old & slow compared to younger & newer GPU's. I don't expect it to provide blazingly fast RAW acceleration even if you do eventually support it, but even a modest improvement would be nice.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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getting closer for Fuji .... 

I just downloaded the 1.7 beta posted above to see if the new Fui xt3 raw files are fixed...   the problem files (those shot in "sports mode" and with electronic shutter on high speed) are still not working, but on a random "regular" image, the raw sharpening is noticeably better.  I've attached a screen shot of the same image being processed by the current AP version (left) and the beta (right) with the same settings.

Its a bit soft for my taste on the right (I will play around a bit more to try to improve it), but look at how much less noise there is.   This shot is zoomed in quite a bit.   This shot was in dim blue light at ISO 8000 1/40, f2.8 on Fuji xt3, 16-55 at 26.6mm.

Screen Shot 2018-11-18 at 1.27.23 PM.pdf

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On 11/17/2018 at 11:51 AM, Andy Somerfield said:

- Added pixabay.com to Stock panel.

- New welcome screen graphics.
- New persona icon graphics.
- New splash screen.

i confirm this is implemented and makes me feel better with this beta.
i will open a new thread/where i will share my experience with both 3 Beta versions, it can be useful.
I will simply focus on Photo and Designer but i believe a bit of that can be applied to Publisher.

Hope to have your reads and reactions.
Blessings !

Never be the Same Again !
---
Dell Optiplex 5090 SFF
Intel Core i5-10500T @2.30GHz with 12GiB 2666MHz DDR4
Intel UHD Graphics 630 for 10th Generation
M.2 2280, 512 GB, PCIe NVMe Gen3 x4, Class 40 SSD

Windows 11 Pro x64 22H2 + LibreOffice 7.5.3

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12 hours ago, Andy Somerfield said:

R-CR,

 

If your 2012 Mac has an Nvidia GPU, we do not currently support those - but we hope to before the release of 1.7.

 

Thanks,

Andy.

My Mac is of 2010 and has an Nvidia card but runs quite well, i just hope nothing will be broken by the end of this cycle.
For now, all betas runs very smoothly i can even open APhoto and Designer at the same time without freezing the thing so to me it's close to Okay !

Blessings and keep doing great !

Never be the Same Again !
---
Dell Optiplex 5090 SFF
Intel Core i5-10500T @2.30GHz with 12GiB 2666MHz DDR4
Intel UHD Graphics 630 for 10th Generation
M.2 2280, 512 GB, PCIe NVMe Gen3 x4, Class 40 SSD

Windows 11 Pro x64 22H2 + LibreOffice 7.5.3

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Great features, developing, and wow! I can't wait new windows version! :)


But I don't understand your logic with stock photos: in Photo support for Unsplash and Pexels, while in Designer support for Pixabay. These great stock places, I love them, but why not support all of them in AP and AD too?

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43 minutes ago, mykee said:

But I don't understand your logic with stock photos: in Photo support for Unsplash and Pexels, while in Designer support for Pixabay. These great stock places, I love them, but why not support all of them in AP and AD too?

Although I agree with the general point about supporting the same set of providers in both apps, I haven’t used Pexels ever since I found out that they don’t follow the rules.

Alfred spacer.png
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen)

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I use pixabay, and if I need switch from AP to Designer for pixabay, and back to AP... Joke. I use often Unsplash too, these websites are greats. But I hope these will support in AD and AP (and Publisher) too...

Ok, I see Pixabay added to this build. I1m happy! :D 
 

On 11/17/2018 at 11:51 AM, Andy Somerfield said:

- Added pixabay.com to Stock panel.

 

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Hi A-Team,

I can't find anything about "Looks Persona" on this forum you mentioned in a Photo Radmap. Would you be so kind and say something informative about it and when you are going to introduce it.

Thanks.

All the latest releases of Designer, Photo and Publisher (retail and beta) on MacOS and Windows.
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  • Staff

There is a new build available, currently build 1.7.0.100 but later builds will be pinned to the top of this forum.

This thread is now locked.

Patrick Connor
Serif Europe Ltd

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility lies in being superior to your previous self."  W. L. Sheldon

 

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