Affinity Photo

[hoodsmom]

I had a laptop hard drive failure and had to upgrade to a Mac that does not support legacy Photoshop, so I thought I'd try out Affinity Photo - and I've been using it for several weeks, mostly to make very simple photo montages for origami diagrams which I export to pdf and edit in Mac Preview.

I sadly have to conclude that AP is a long way from being a Photoshop replacement. Photoshop has many ways to simply accomplish what takes multiple un-intuitive steps in AP. I cannot possibly imagine how I would do the complex masking that's part of my artsy style in AP. My assessment is quite different from the glowing reviews I've seen on the internet, b/c none of the internet reviewers other than Krissz in Hungary are digi-scrappers. Krissz says there are some cool thing that AP can do that PS cannot, so at some point, I will have to check those out. And you cannot beat the $25-on-sale price.

But the deal breaker is turning out to be that neither the app or the documentation is friendly if you have mild visual impairment. So for example, there's a very un-intuitive way of toggling the equivalent of autoselect layer on/off, but neither the documentation nor the GUI make the button easy to find and the contrast between the on/off state is so poor I can't tell whether I've toggled it on or off.

Fortunately, my laptop is not my main design computer, so I'm able to put off buying Photoshop CC for awhile longer. But when I do finally upgrade my desktop computer, I will be biting the bullet and paying for a Photoshop subscription.

 

[Cherylndesigns]

I've never tried Affinity, I've always used PSE and PSCC. The $9+ monthly charge for PSCC is doable for me, thankfully. Honestly, I'm still a PSE lover, although I use both. I've never completely cut that cord. It's just quick and easier for me. I know there are things that you can do on PS, but PSE is my comfort zone. I just upgrade mine every few years. I'm still using PSE 2018.

Hope you get your sorted out soon.

 

[VickiStegall]

I just recently had to change to photoshop CC too and it's got enough new features, I'm not grumping too much about that subscription. It's easier than the $1500 I've paid more than once in the past, but I'd still rather not have to pay monthly lol I have considered getting affinity for my ipad to experiment with but haven't found the time yet. Thanks for your review!

 

[marijke]

I only know photoshop ... I started buying photoshop 3 and always upgraded to the newer versions .. I have not regretted my switch to PSCC ... especially because the subscription also includes LR is...
If I'm not mistaken, the subscription can be installed on two computers ...

 

[Vicki Robinson]

I had a laptop hard drive failure and had to upgrade to a Mac that does not support legacy Photoshop, so I thought I'd try out Affinity Photo - and I've been using it for several weeks, mostly to make very simple photo montages for origami diagrams which I export to pdf and edit in Mac Preview.

I sadly have to conclude that AP is a long way from being a Photoshop replacement. Photoshop has many ways to simply accomplish what takes multiple un-intuitive steps in AP. I cannot possibly imagine how I would do the complex masking that's part of my artsy style in AP. My assessment is quite different from the glowing reviews I've seen on the internet, b/c none of the internet reviewers other than Krissz in Hungary are digi-scrappers. Krissz says there are some cool thing that AP can do that PS cannot, so at some point, I will have to check those out. And you cannot beat the $25-on-sale price.

But the deal breaker is turning out to be that neither the app or the documentation is friendly if you have mild visual impairment. So for example, there's a very un-intuitive way of toggling the equivalent of autoselect layer on/off, but neither the documentation nor the GUI make the button easy to find and the contrast between the on/off state is so poor I can't tell whether I've toggled it on or off.

Fortunately, my laptop is not my main design computer, so I'm able to put off buying Photoshop CC for awhile longer. But when I do finally upgrade my desktop computer, I will be biting the bullet and paying for a Photoshop subscription.

Have you considered downloading a trial version of Photoshop Elements to see how much you can accomplish with it? They’ve made a ton of improvements over the past several years and while it’s still not as versatile or as feature-rich as CC, the tools are all the same and adjustment layers and masking works almost identically. It’s under $100 US and is not a subscription.

 

[VickiStegall]

Have you considered downloading a trial version of Photoshop Elements to see how much you can accomplish with it? They’ve made a ton of improvements over the past several years and while it’s still not as versatile or as feature-rich as CC, the tool are all the same and adjustment layers and masking works almost identically. It’s under $100 US and is not a subscription.

Definitely something to look at!

 

[janedee]

You might want to try a trial of the Procreate app too. I haven't tried Affinity but I've been playing with Procreate a bit lately since I got my new iPad Pro. It has a lot of depth to it - brushes, layers, blending, etc. Check out YouTube for tutorials. It works best with an Apple Pencil but I have made layouts just using touch pressure.

 

[felis]

I was start to skrap on MM's software, so when I quit the site I had to skip on something new. Back then I get try on Photoshop and immediately start hate it. I guess they are improved much from then, but my first experience is always prevents me to pay for that. I'm not much patient person.
Now I'm using GIMP, and it's good for scrap and basic photo editing (not so much for big size photo files, but for free program that's ok). You may want to check this to see do you'll like it's design.

 

[hoodsmom]

I just got an email from Affinity saying they're ending their half price sales and extended free trials on June 30 after having had them in place since the pandemic started. So if you do want to check any Affinity program out, now's the time. I'll probably spring for Designer - I could never get the hang of Illustrator or Inkscape - even for simple stuff - and again, you cannot beat the sale price of AD.

 

[Vicki Robinson]

I just got an email from Affinity saying they're ending their half price sales and extended free trials on June 30 after having had them in place since the pandemic started. So if you do want to check any Affinity program out, now's the time. I'll probably spring for Designer - I could never get the hang of Illustrator or Inkscape - even for simple stuff - and again, you cannot beat the sale price of AD.

I got both the Designer and Publisher. I was just learning Illustrator when Adobe moved to the subscription model. No way was I going to pay monthly for an app I wasn't even sure I could figure out (and I'm VERY techie). So hard to pass up Designer for such a pittance.

 

[scribler]

I was start to skrap on MM's software, so when I quit the site I had to skip on something new. Back then I get try on Photoshop and immediately start hate it. I guess they are improved much from then, but my first experience is always prevents me to pay for that. I'm not much patient person.
Now I'm using GIMP, and it's good for scrap and basic photo editing (not so much for big size photo files, but for free program that's ok). You may want to check this to see do you'll like it's design.

GIMP is what I used when I first started digiscrapping in 2006. It really is a good program. I switched to CS5 because back in 2012, when I was moving to a Mac, GIMP did not do well with MacOS. That has changed, and I am now on Windows, but I am too addicted to Photoshop to go back.