Affinity Photo for MacOS - 1.7.1

[Patrick Connor]

We are pleased to announce a major update for the MacOS release of Affinity Photo, version 1.7.1

Changes in this build

The changes in Affinity Photo 1.7.1 for macOS over the recent release Affinity Photo 1.7.0 are as follows:

• General performance improvements.
• Fixed Nik V1 plugins. 
• Fixed hiding / showing multiple layers in layers tab.
• Shadows and highlights improvements.
• Fix for old Sony RAW files.
• Another attempt to fix sporadic HSL UI crash
• Fixed brush performance issues on big documents.
• Fix crashes on Intel GPUs in macOS < 10.14.
• Fixed crash when adding a mask when editing selection as layer.
• Fixed noise filter crash when changing layer.
• Fixed Levels Metal implementation in CMYK.
• Reduce bloat when resaving 1.6 files where possible.
• Improve Live filters appearance...Made inpainting fast again.
• Gamut check works again in soft proof.
• Fixed selection refinement working only once per document.
• Fixed posterise adjustment.
• Fixed legacy selective colour adjustments rendering wrong when they have children.
• Fixed potential crash in HSL adjustment.
• Fixed mixer brush crash.
• Fixed TIFF loading with Edit In extension.
• Fixed crash when adding a live filter when in “Edit selection as layer” mode.
• Fixed rogue toolbars on update.
• Fixed startup crash for some Intel GPU users.
• Fixed live denoise filters when repositioned in layer stack.
• Fixed export bugs / crashes / weird questions.
• Fixed marching ants in Metal view.
• Fixed shadows & highlights filter.
• Startup fixes for 10.7, 10.8 (on MAS)
• Help improvements.
• Localisation improvements.

Changes in 1.7.0 since 1.6.7 (1.6.11PK)

The changes in Affinity Photo for MacOS 1.7.0 over the last Affinity Photo patch 1.6.7 (1.6.11 PK) are as follows:

EDR

• Added support for EDR displays to Photo. When editing a 32bit document, enabling EDR will switch macOS into a mode whereby it will increase the backlight intensity and darken screen content - increasing the dynamic range available when rendering content.

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.
• Allow Ctrl key to be held when typing numbers in a brush tool (will change flow instead of opacity).
• Fixed ABR brush import (would ignore "random" controllers).
• Brush Tools now allow you to constrain strokes with the Shift key.
• Brush Tools now allow you to constrain the X-axis or Y-axis with the Shift key.

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.
• Develop now respects the output profile when previewing.
• Added support for CR3 RAW when using the Core Image engine.
• Show which autofocus rectangles were in focus and which were selected by the camera (yellow, green respectively).
• 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!).
• Automatically fall back to Core Image for cameras which are not supported by Serif Labs.

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.
• Added round dot type to the halftone filter.
• New “Lens Correction” filter - apply lens correction from the built-in lens database.
• Bilateral blur accuracy improvements.

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.

Layers

• Layers Panel- added option for transparent background for thumbnails.
• Layers Panel- added multiple thumbnail size options.
• Layers Panel- added ability to tag layers with a colour - including PSD round-trip.
• Allow Panel an empty group from the Layer menu.
• New “Duplicate Selection” item in Layer menu (old behaviour). Duplicate now duplicate the whole layer ignoring pixel selection.
• Alt / Option is now used to make a pixel selection from layer luminance. You can now also hold shift to add the result to the current selection.
• Hide / Show / Show All Layers options in layers menu.
• Ability to either rasterise or rasterise and trim a layer. Previously recorded macros will trim.

Selections

• Significant improvements to selection refinement.
• When using selection tools with no pixel selection, default to New / Add as appropriate.
• Added “Alpha Similarity” to Select Sampled Colour tool.

Tools

• Grouped tool shortcuts now default to needing the shift key held to cycle (option in preferences).
• 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.
• Allow brush rotate / size key changes while dragging.
• Added a “Reveal Canvas” checkbox to the crop tool - defaults to off.
• Added new “Transform object separately” mode into Move tool.
• A general tools overhaul has been performed - providing editing of grids, guides, page origin, across multiple tools (not just in the Move tool)
• Patch tool now supports arrow keys for rotate / scale.
• All brush tools can now be axis constrained once brush has started - not just the pixel tool.

History

• “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.
• The History page now has an “advanced” mode - which shows thumbnails and time info.

I/O

• 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.
• TIFF export now has user selectable compression method.
• Added support for 12bit TIFF files.
• Introduced new metadata mining - completely rewritten to improve performance, flexibility and correctness.
• Metadata is now dynamically synchronised with your document - so if you resize then export, the values will be correct.
• Added Focal Length to metadata summary view.
• Added a button in general preferences to open a folder from which Photo will read LensFun-style XML files - if users wish to add / experiment with their own lens profiles.
• Support 16bit CMYK TIFF import.

General

• New ability to control how macros are scaled / aligned when playing back.
• Added an “Assets” panel to Photo.
• New cube setup mode for grids.
• Add “Fill with Primary / Secondary” to the Edit menu for fast access.
• The batch process dialog now fully supports expressions for height and width - available constants are “w”, “h” and “dpi”.
• “Lock guides” added to menus.
• Support for drag dropping .afstyles into Photo.
• Support for drag dropping .afpalette into Photo.
• 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, Pexels and Pixabay. All of these providers offer full-resolution stock imagery which is free to use.
• Numerous text improvements have been made - including new features.
• Significant stability improvements when working on non-local files (network shares, USB drives, etc.).
• Significant PDF import / export improvements and fixes.
• Huge macro and batch processing improvements
• New welcome screen layout and all new samples.
•  Numerous other bug fixes - too many to list!

 

This thread is for commenting on this announcement. Please do not post bugs or problems that you find when using this version of the software in this thread, instead make a new thread in the Photo Bugs on MacOS section and questions about usage go in the Desktop Questions forum.

UPDATING TO THIS VERSION (Free for existing customers)

For purchases from the Mac App Store: These are done automatically (next time you run after it is available in the store). In the Mac app store, go to the updates panel and press CMD+R they should appear if rolled out to your region. Apple sometimes phase roll outs around the world sometimes taking up to 72 hours.

For purchases from the Affinity Store: Each time you start the software it will check for updates and offer any available update, or in the application main menu there is an option "Check for Updates", or it can be downloaded from here (that link is NOT for Mac app store purchases). Alternatively you can log into the affinity store here and find the order in your account and use the download button in there.

[Patrick Connor]

Please do not report bugs in this announcement thread. 

All bugs in Affinity Photo for macOS need to go here https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/forum/77-photo-bugs-found-on-macos/

 

[Denis-Vincent]

OK, but I do want to report a gratefull acknowledgment of fixing the one about the general performance. Most appreciated. 

[iMacKalle]

Hello.

I have already pay for Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer one year ago.

Today when I start up my Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer  they has different  locking. Is this because you upgrade to 1.7.1 and I hope its for free.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

[Old Bruce]

56 minutes ago, iMacKalle said:

I have already pay for Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer one year ago.

Today when I start up my Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer  they has different  locking. Is this because you upgrade to 1.7.1 and I hope its for free.

Yes it is free.

[iMacKalle]

Thank You.