For everyone who wants to complement PhotoLab with a Pixel Editor …
Don’t miss it. 
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How does Affinity compare with e.g. Photoshop? I’ve never used it before.
I logged in today to ask if anyone has moved away from Adobe completely and ‘regrets’ it. I seldom use PS but it’s handy to have around, just not something I want to pay every year for.
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Affinity’s suite is quite comprehensive although they sometimes do things differently than Adobe and others.
It’s not a direct replacement but an alternative which for most are good enough and sometimes better than Adobe. In some areas in their Designer application I’m extremely frustrated when it comes to the bezier editing etc.
But than I grew up with PS and Illustrator in the early nineties but stoped using them 3-4 years ago as I left their ecosystem.
For very small and speedy pixel editing on macOS I tend to use Acorn.
For more complex work I do Affinity.
Same with quick page layouts, I use apples Pages before I turn to Affinity’s Publisher.
But value for money - Affinity delivers way above the cost! There’s no excuse not to get the suite in my opinion.
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Thank you. I’m not looking for anything ridiculously specific or powerful - it’s an occasionally useful tool to me, not a necessity - so I can afford some quirks and learning curves for an easier (and cheaper) life!
I use Affinity for assembling panoramics and focus stacks. Worth every cent, if only for that.
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Affinity photo offers a pretty nice iPad experience as well, for anyone who likes editing on an iPad. That’s another way it complements Photolab nicely, so at least you have some option for mobile editing if you like.
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Affinity is a steal. With V1 I received free updates for 5 years so jumped on V2.
Affinity is worth it just for panos, focus stacking, and HDR.
The next point release will include AI masking and will be free as usual.
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@IanS is that all in Affinity Photo? I’ve just picked that up but decided against Designer and Publisher as I don’t work in those worlds so much.
Yes. Designer and Publisher are more for vector graphics and document layout
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Affinity Photo also had a fantastic Grid Warp feature.
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Here’s another 
for Affinity Photo, it’s a bargain, even when it’s at full price.
It is a viable alternative to Photoshop but it is not Photoshop, it is different, e.g. it doesn’t support anywhere close to the same number and type of plugins available for Photoshop.
Check out the Affinity forum, there are plenty of people there who have moved away from Adobe to Affinity. Most have no regrets but, as you’d expect there are people who do, and still use PS:
https://forum.affinity.serif.com/
Also, take advantage of their free trial before you buy:
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I’ve completely moved away from Adobe. For my needs, PL8 and Affinity work very well indeed. Both have generous free trials so you can kick the tires and see how they fit your needs.
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Funny that. I do the same thing. Acorn is so fast and easy, I do quite a bit of design work in Acorn. I’m more a UX designer so the main tools are enough for me most of the time and it’s nice to have an interface which doesn’t get in its own way. Oh, and good high contrast controls to avoid squinting at the interface (PhotoLab, Pixelmator Pro and to some extend Affinity apps).
Joanne writes:
I use Affinity for assembling panoramics and focus stacks. Worth every cent, if only for that.
Absolutely, Joanna. I do all my panoramas in Affinity Photo 2 and it’s very, very good.
Full 13450x3416px image, albeit compressed.
I own the full suite, my partner likes Affinity Designer. I thought I’d use Affinity Publisher but just don’t do enough print. So really I could have bought just Affinity Photo.
When Affinity was Serif Publishing I bought the suite to encourage them with their bundle pricing and to help keep them in business. Now that Affinity is part of Canva, I feel less compelled to help them keep the lights on. I’m worried that Canva will move Affinity Photo, Designer and Publisher to subscription pricing. Maybe not, as Affinity’s main pull from Adobe was no subscription and a lot less telemetry/spyware (Serif won’t steal our images to train someone else’s AI for free without asking us).
The workflow is a bit different than Photoshop. Sometimes better. It’s worth watching the official videos on how to do something sophisticated as they’ll explain the how and why. Helps avoid a lot of frustration.
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Amen!
It easily replaces Photoshop for a fraction of the money.
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Same feel about Canva buy and next subscription turnaround…the evil of our century…
About Panorama, how does it compare with ptgui or LR/Photoshop ?
Does it take and treat directly RAW or only processed jpeg ? Panini’s projection available ?
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Affinity Photo will stitch a panorama from RAW files, but it gives you no control over how it converts the RAW data.
I may be wrong but I don’t think it gives you any options to change the projection. I’ve not noticed any at least.
For both of these reasons I tend to use PL to convert RAW to TIFF and then stitch those TIFFs using Microsoft Image Composite Editor (ICE) ICE does give you a variety of projections but Panini’s is not one of them.
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For panorama, I convert the RAW first in PhotoLab and then build the panorama in Affinity Photo. Works a treat for me. Why do you prefer ICE over Affinity Photo panorama?
What I like about Affinity Photo panorama is after the panorama is built one has access to all the advanced bitmap tool in Affinity Photo. The most amazing one is the InPainting brush. Some programs call it Content Aware fill. PhotoLab doesn’t have it, especially beyond the edges of the initial frame (I somewhat often like to add a bit more grass one one corner after levelling a sports shot and cropping to taste). InPainting can work well on troubled panorama or panorama edge areas (black sky, forest on the top where a tiny bit has gone missing).
Longtime Affinity user here, some quick notes on the apps:
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Photo is a fully capable Photoshop replacement, in some respects it’s actually more powerful than PS.
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Publisher is NOT ready to replace InDesign. Certainly more pleasant and intuitive to use, it’s ideal for magazines, brochures and photo portfolios. Wouldn’t recommend it for books, though. Still some ways to go.
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Designer is… weird. Not a dedicated vector program like the marketing would have you believe. It combines vector and raster in a very nice workflow - shape with vectors, add texture with pixels. I know illustrators who swear by that app, and I can see why. It rasterises a lot of stuff, though, and also lacks some higher-end features. If you expect 100% vector output, it’s not for you. (Ironically, Affinity Designer is better suited for illustrators, while Adobe Illustrator is better for designers
)
(For people who do heavy-duty vector work but don’t want the Adobe ransom, I’d recommend Vectorstyler. Slightly more expensive, but reasonably so, and it’s a perpetual license).
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Thank you! 
Never seen it before but it do look like a pretty solid option!
Will try that out!
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I don’t have any doubt about its performance but ICE is no longer supported for years with the risk of a shutdown at each windows update…
Thanx @LStoev for the Vectorstyler’s tip, even if i’m not a daily vectorial user and Inskscape answers my basic needs, it always good to know and
worth taking a look at it.
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