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My First Impressions and Suggestions


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Hello, with the advent of macOS Catalina in a few months, and the fact that Adobe Photoshop CS6 Extended will more than likely break, due to it having some components which are still 32-bit, I have been taking a serious look at Affinity Photo as a possible -- and more affordable -- replacement, instead of biting the bullet, and paying Adobe $20/month for Photoshop CC 2019.

Having said that, I would like to share a few of my first impressions for the developer's consideration.

1. To begin with, I have to strongly agree with previous posters who mention the fact that the size of the selected area is not retained in the "Info" panel, once the mouse button is released. Having to perform another step -- by switching to the "Transform" panel -- in order to see the size of the selected area is simply not acceptable. Not only that, but I also discovered that if you change the size of the selected area on the "Transform" panel, and then switch back to the "Info" panel, the "Info" panel is NOT showing the new size. It is still showing the originally selected size, even though the selection is now larger in the actual image. On a related note, similar to Photoshop, when one selects an area in an image, the dimensions of the selected area should show right there in the image. We shouldn't have to divert our eyes to the bottom right "Info" panel to see the size of the selected area. For the record, I use the selection tool a lot in PS so that I can determine the correct size for an image I want to paste into a new layer. I also use the selection tool to make sure that new elements are centered properly in the image.

2. Unless I am missing something, what I also find unacceptable is the fact that while the "Flood Fill" tool is located on the left side of the window, in order to actually change the color of the fill, one has to go to the other side of the window, switch to the "Colour" pane, and then select a color for the fill. While this may seem like a minor point for some people, the fact of the matter is that on a 27" iMac, having to cross the screen with one's mouse in order to change the fill color is quite an annoyance. In my view, when one selects the "Flood Fill" tool, a small window should pop up right there where one can choose which fill color he wishes to use, without having to go to the other side of the screen.

3. As a longtime Adobe Photoshop user, one of my biggest concerns is the fact that over the years, I have paid A LOT of money for plugins, such as Alien Skin plugins, Flaming Pear plugins, Filter Forge and Topaz Labs Glow plugin. What I have discovered thus far is that most of them do not work properly, or do not work at all. Very disappointing. I was reading about the "Nik Plugins Collection". I am going to see if I can get that one to work. Can anyone suggest any plugin collections -- similar to the aforementioned ones -- which work 100% with Affinity Photo? Thank you.

4. All in all, Affinity Photo is a very nice program. I can tell that a lot of hard work has gone into its creation. I am also impressed by the developer's dedication to making tutorial videos for it. Even without watching the tutorials, and just by conducting a little bit of online research, in a matter of a few hours, I have already figured out how to perform some of the basic tasks that I do in Photoshop.

5. Price-wise, you won't get any complaints from me. I have used Photoshop since version 5.5. Not CS 5.5, but 5.5, that used to be distributed on CDs. So you can imagine how much money I have dished out over the years for each PS upgrade, plus PS plugins. It is in the thousands of dollars, no doubt. So, if I can master Affinity Photo, and learn how to do the same things that I can do in Photoshop, paying $40 per version -- as opposed to $240/year for Photoshop -- is not a problem. I will pay it gladly.  :)

That's it for now. I hope the above is helpful.

Edited by LongtimePhotoshopUser
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35 minutes ago, LongtimePhotoshopUser said:

Can anyone suggest any plugin collections -- similar to the aforementioned ones -- which work 100% with Affinity Photo? Thank you.

I find that the Nik Collection works for me under Win10 and Photo 1.7. I am not using the very latest version, but the first DxO release. The HDR plugin only works with single images.

My Topaz plugins work as well, under Topaz Studio, as do the Topaz AI plugins.

Filter Forge works, but not the very latest version. I understand that Affinity7 and Filter Forge are trying to resolve this.

I have no plugins from Alien Skin or Flaming Pear, but I do have several other  plugins that work OK.

John

Windows 10, Affinity Photo 1.10.5 Designer 1.10.5 and Publisher 1.10.5 (mainly Photo), now ex-Adobe CC

CPU: AMD A6-3670. RAM: 16 GB DDR3 @ 666MHz, Graphics: 2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GT 630

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Thanks for the reply, John. I appreciate it . . . although you appear to be working on a Windows machine, while I am obviously on a Mac. So, I am wondering how much your comments apply to my situation.

I have already written to Alien Skin because Eye Candy 7 has major problems with Affinity Photo. It properly applies effects, but everything is black in the plugin's editor window, so I can't even tell what it is going to look like.

I also intend to write to Filter Forge as well, because there is an issue with it whereby if I select a layer element in Affinity Photo, the chosen Filter Forge effect is applied to the entire layer, and not just to the element that I have selected in the layer. Is this what you are seeing in the Windows version of Filter Forge as well?

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Ad 2) If you want to work efficiently and hinder your mouse movement on a large monitor, it is advisable to use keyboard shortcuts (G for Flood Fill Tool).

 

2 hours ago, LongtimePhotoshopUser said:

In my view, when one selects the "Flood Fill" tool, a small window should pop up right there where one can choose which fill color he wishes to use, without having to go to the other side of the screen.

This would not be a consistent UI, where color is entered in Toolbar for many other tools. Then it would not be necessary to overtake to the Color Panel on the other side of the monitor.
image.png.ef47b77ec736222a1136c83c675a162b.png

Edited by Pšenda

Affinity Store (MSI/EXE): Affinity Suite (ADe, APh, APu) 2.4.0.2301
Dell OptiPlex 7060, i5-8500 3.00 GHz, 16 GB, Intel UHD Graphics 630, Dell P2417H 1920 x 1080, Windows 11 Pro, Version 23H2, Build 22631.3155.
Dell Latitude E5570, i5-6440HQ 2.60 GHz, 8 GB, Intel HD Graphics 530, 1920 x 1080, Windows 11 Pro, Version 23H2, Build 22631.3155.
Intel NUC5PGYH, Pentium N3700 2.40 GHz, 8 GB, Intel HD Graphics, EIZO EV2456 1920 x 1200, Windows 10 Pro, Version 21H1, Build 19043.2130.

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On 7/29/2019 at 6:27 PM, Pšenda said:

Ad 2) If you want to work efficiently and hinder your mouse movement on a large monitor, it is advisable to use keyboard shortcuts (G for Flood Fill Tool).

This.

You could also consider moving the studio panels to the left side of the screen instead of the right, or making the toolbar two or more icons wide (you can do this with Customize Tools), which also causes color selectors to appear on the toolbar on the left, further reducing the need for a trip to the right side of the screen.

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On 7/29/2019 at 11:09 PM, LongtimePhotoshopUser said:

with the advent of macOS Catalina in a few months, and the fact that Adobe Photoshop CS6 Extended will more than likely break, due to it having some components which are still 32-bit, I have been taking a serious look at Affinity Photo as a possible -- and more affordable -- replacement, instead of biting the bullet, and paying Adobe $20/month for Photoshop CC 2019

There is third option that many of us are taking – not upgrading to Catalina, keep using CS6 and hope for the best; that non-adobe apps will come mature enough soon enough before something breaks for good..

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