Affinity Photo

Affinity Photo is a raster graphics editor developed by Serif for macOS,[3] iOS[4][5] and Windows.[6][7] It is part of the "Affinity trinity" alongside Affinity Designer and Affinity Publisher. Affinity Photo is available for purchase in the macOS App Store, iOS App Store, and the Microsoft Store.

Affinity Photo
Affinity Photo 1.8 on macOS Catalina
Developer(s)Serif
Initial release9 July 2015 (2015-07-09)
Stable release
1.9.0 / 4 February 2021 (2021-02-04)[1]
Operating systemmacOS, iOS, Microsoft Windows
Size2,81 GB (macOS), 994 MB (iOS),
866 MB (Windows)
Available in9 languages[2]
List of languages
English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Italian, Chinese, Russian
TypeRaster graphics editor
LicenseProprietary commercial software,
trialware
Websiteaffinity.serif.com/photo/

Functionality

Affinity Photo serves as a successor to PhotoPlus, which Serif discontinued in 2017 in order to focus on the Affinity product range.[8] It has been described as an Adobe Photoshop alternative, and is compatible with common file formats such as Adobe's PSD (including Photoshop Smart Objects).[9][10][11]

Functionality includes RAW processing, colour space options, live previews as effects are applied, as well as Image stitching, alpha compositing, black point compensation, and optical aberration corrections.[2] Working in Affinity Photo is always live, with pan and zoom at 60fps and non-destructive editing. It supports unlimited layers and a dedicated workspace for developing RAW photos; as well as RGB, CMYK, LAB, Greyscale colour spaces with ICC colour management and 16-bit per channel editing.[12][2]

Affinity Photo is not an image organiser like Apple Aperture or Adobe Lightroom, however Serif have confirmed they are developing one.[13]

Development

Affinity Photo began as a raster graphics editor solely for macOS. It was Serif's second macOS app, and (like Affinity Designer) was built from the ground up to leverage core native technologies, including Grand Central Dispatch, Core Graphics, OpenGL[14] and Metal 2[15] hardware acceleration.[16]

Serif established an R&D team for Affinity Photo in 2009, headed by lead designer Andy Somerfield. A free beta test version of the Affinity Photo app was released to the public on 9 February 2015.[17]

The initial stable release of Affinity Photo, version 1.3.1, launched on the Mac App Store 9 July 2015 for macOS 10.7 and later.[3] At that time, Serif's raster graphics application for Windows was PhotoPlus; however, following the release of Affinity Photo for Windows, this product has now been discontinued.[18] Version 1.3.5 of Affinity Photo, released in August, provided numerous bug fixes and improvements.[19]

Serif announced its first major update to Affinity Photo in December 2015. Version 1.4 added panorama photo stitching as well as support for macOS 10.11 El Capitan, including six Affinity extensions for Apple Photos.[20] Updates to both Affinity apps (Designer and Photo) provided language support for Italian, Portuguese (Brazilian), Japanese and Chinese (Simplified). These augumented the four languages in previous versions: English (US and UK), German, French and Spanish. Stability and bug fixes were released with Affinity Photo 1.4.1 and 1.4.2, in January and June 2016. Version 1.4.3 in September 2016 optimised Affinity Photo for macOS 10.12 Sierra.[19]

In December, 2016, Serif launched Affinity Photo for Windows, and released an update to the macOS version at the same time,[21] Affinity Photo 1.5.1 added a 32-bit RGB editing mode with support for 32-bit file formats and more than 70 new camera RAW file formats, as well as the ability to develop RAW files directly into a 32-bit document. Version 1.5.1 also added support for the new MacBook Pro with Touchbar.[22]

Serif launched Affinity Photo for iPad during the keynote at Apple's WWDC in San Jose on 5 June 2017.[4] In September 2017, the iPad version was updated for compatibility with Apple's new iOS 11.[5]

Serif released major updates to Affinity Photo, as well as Affinity Designer, in November 2017. Affinity Photo 1.6.6 was optimized for macOS 10.13 High Sierra (and Metal 2 acceleration), better integration with Apple Photos, improved Photoshop Plugins support and added an option to switch between a dark or light user interface.[23]

In February 2020, version 1.8 of Photo added support for Photoshop smart objects in PSD files, and expanded plug-in compatibility, with focus on DxO's Nik Collection of plug-ins.[11]

Reception

The macOS version of Affinity Photo was received favourably by professional photographers, and Apple named it as the best Mac app of 2015.[24][25]

In 2016, Affinity Photo was awarded the prize for Best Imaging Software by the Technical Image Press Association (TIPA) at Photokina.[26][27][25]

In November 2017, the iOS app was named by Apple as its best iPad app of the year,[28][29] and Tom's Guide selected Affinity Photo for their first list of Best Tech Values.[30][31]

In February 2019, Affinity Photo received Amateur Photographer's Software of the Year award,[32] followed by Photography News' Best Software award in March 2019.[33]

See also

References
  1. "Affinity Photo for Windows - 1.9.0". Affinity Forum. Retrieved 2021-02-04.
  2. "Affinity Photo Full Feature List". Affinity.serif.com. Retrieved 2015-08-28.
  3. Lane, Terry (19 August 2015). "Affinity emerges as Photoshop alternative but only for Macs". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 4 December 2017. What makes Affinity Photo unique among low-priced Photoshop alternatives is that it is not a dumbed down application with automated functions and restricted editing abilities.
  4. Benjamin, Jeff (23 June 2017). "Friday 5: Affinity Photo – a must-have photo editing app for iPad Pro owners". 9to5Mac. Retrieved 5 December 2017. This truly is a desktop-class photo editing app that also happens to run on iOS with full Apple Pencil support.
  5. Carlson, Jeff (13 November 2017). "Affinity Photo for iPad Review". Digital Photography Review. Retrieved 8 December 2017.
  6. Hillen, Brittany (9 December 2016). "Affinity Photo for Windows now available, Mac version updated to 1.5". Digital Photography Review. Retrieved 5 December 2017.
  7. Ellis, Cat (14 December 2016). "Serif Affinity Photo comes to Windows". TechRadar. Future Publishing. Retrieved 5 December 2017. Serif is gradually expanding its reach beyond macOS, making its whole Affinity creative suite available to Windows users.
  8. Ogunjobi, Anino (2017-08-10). "Digital Craft: Serif discontinues its Pageplus, Drawplus and Photoplus designing software to focus on its(Serif) new Affinity range of Professional graphic design software". ANINO. Retrieved 2019-08-17.
  9. Zhang, Michael (9 February 2015). "Affinity Photo is a New Pro Photoshop Alternative for Mac Users: Get It for Free". PetaPixel. Retrieved 2016-06-16.
  10. Hillen, Brittany (10 February 2015). "Serif launches Affinity Photo, a Photoshop alternative for Mac". Digital Photography Review. Retrieved 4 December 2017.
  11. Benjamin, Jeff (2020-02-26). "Affinity Photo, Publisher, and Designer updated to version 1.8". 9to5Mac. Retrieved 2020-03-07.
  12. Banks, Adam (5 September 2015). "Photoshop for 40 quid: Affinity Photo pushes pixels further than most". The Register. Retrieved 5 December 2017. …I’ve been tweaking pics and reviewing image editing apps for two decades, and this is the first one I can remember that I might actually want to use.
  13. Dyer, Alan (15 December 2017). "I Tested 10+ Photoshop Alternatives to See How They Stack Up". PetaPixel. Retrieved 20 December 2017. Affinity Photo… …lacks any library or cataloguing function, so this is not a Lightroom replacement, but it could replace Photoshop.
  14. Clover, Juli (9 July 2015). "Serif's Image Editing App 'Affinity Photo' Launches for Mac". MacRumors. Retrieved 5 December 2017.
  15. Demolder, Damien (3 November 2017). "Affinity Photo 1.6 released: faster processing, new features, and free stuff". Digital Photography Review. Retrieved 8 December 2017.
  16. Burgett, Gannon (2 November 2017). "Serif boosts its Photoshop competitor, Affinity Photo, with new update". Digital Trends. Designtechnica. Retrieved 8 December 2017. …Serif has integrated new support for Apple’s Metal 2 technology, meaning Affinity Photo can use hardware acceleration to process images and edits faster and smoother.
  17. Schneider, Jaron (2 July 2015). "The Finished Version of Affinity Photo is Coming & Yes, You Should Be Excited for this Photoshop Competitor". Resource. Retrieved 11 December 2017.
  18. "Digital Craft: Serif discontinues its Pageplus, Drawplus and Photoplus designing software to focus on its(Serif) new Affinity range of Professional graphic design software - ANINO". ANINO. 2017-08-10. Retrieved 2018-09-04.
  19. "Affinity Photo". macbed.com. AppKed. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
  20. Lawton, Rod (9 December 2015). "Serif's Adobe Photoshop rival Affinity Photo gets a major update". TechRadar. Future Publishing. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
  21. Rogers, Graham K. (10 August 2016). "A visit to Affinity apps developers". Bangkok Post. Retrieved 11 December 2017.
  22. Schneider, Jaron (8 December 2016). "Affinity Photo 1.5 Launches with Overhauled RAW Processor, Touch Bar Support, 32-Bit Editing & More". Resource. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
  23. Benjamin, Jeff (2 November 2017). "Affinity Designer and Photo for Mac receive big 1.6 update including free limited-time content bundles". 9to5Mac. Retrieved 14 December 2017.
  24. "Affinity Photo is App of the Year!". Affinity Blog. Serif (Europe) Ltd. 9 December 2015. Retrieved 8 December 2017.
  25. Warren, Tom (10 November 2016). "Apple's 'best Mac App' of 2015 is now available on Windows". The Verge. Vox Media. Retrieved 8 December 2017.
  26. "XXVI TIPA AWARDS (2016)". TIPA.com. Technical Image Press Association. 20 September 2016. Retrieved 9 December 2017.
  27. Zipper, Bernd (9 November 2016). "Serif: are Affinity products set to challenge the dominance of top dog Adobe in the print industry?". beyond-print.de. Retrieved 11 December 2017.
  28. Cade, D.L. (8 December 2017). "Affinity Photo named Best iPad App of 2017, celebrates with 50% off sale". Digital Photography Review. Retrieved 8 December 2017.
  29. Watson, Fay (8 December 2017). "Affinity Photo: 'Apple's best iPad app of 2017' is half price". Amateur Photographer. Time Inc. (UK) Ltd. Retrieved 8 December 2017.
  30. "Best Tech Value Awards: Top Bargains of 2017". Tom's Guide. Purch. 1 November 2017. Retrieved 10 December 2017.
  31. Grotta, Sally Wiener (16 March 2017). "Affinity Photo 1.5 Review: Best Budget Editor for Pros". Tom's Guide. Purch. Retrieved 10 December 2017. …Serif has purposely avoided including any Photoshop-like tools that aren’t directly related to photography.
  32. "AP Awards 2019: Accessories of the Year". Amateur Photographer. 2019-02-24. Retrieved 2019-02-26.
  33. Cheung, Will (2019-03-12). "Photography News Awards 2018 winners announced". Photography News. Retrieved 2019-03-13.

Further reading

Affinity Photo Workbook. Nottingham: Serif Europe Ltd. 2017. ISBN 9781909581050.

Affinity Photo Workbook (in German). Nottingham: Serif Europe Ltd. 2017. ISBN 9781909581067.

Gradias, Michael (2017). Affinity Photo : Einstieg und Praxis für Windows Version (in German). Burgthann: Markt+Technik Verlag. ISBN 9783959820592.

Schestag, Rüdiger (2017). Das Affinity Photo-Praxisbuch Von den Grundlagen bis zur professionellen Bildbearbeitung (in German). Heidelberg: dpunkt.verlag. ISBN 9783864904592.

Schuler, Günter (2017). Das Praxisbuch zu Affinity Photo 1.5 für Windows und Mac : Bilder professionell bearbeiten - die hilfreiche Anleitung (in German). Husum: Mandl & Schwarz. ISBN 9783960050094.

Szierbeck, Johann (2017). Affinity Photo für Mac & Windows : Brillante Fotos genial einfach (in German) (2nd ed.). Obergriesbach: amac-buch Verlag. ISBN 9783954310401.

Wäger, Markus (2017). Affinity Photo : Aktuell zur Version 1.5 für Windows und Mac (in German). Bonn: Rheinwerk Design. ISBN 9783836245906.

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