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Affinity (Serif) goes head to head with Photoshop & (maybe) Illustrator

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tomos:
I'm just after signing up for the Affinity Window's beta programme.
https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/windows/

Affinity Photo (image editor)
Affinity Designer (Vector software)

I'll focus on Affinity Photo, as that's what I have the most info about (and it sounds the more promising of the two).
Affinity Photo:
from Serif, has been available on mac for over a year now. It aims to compete directly with Photoshop. They emphasise that their software is 50US$ which includes two years updates, in contrast to Photoshop which requires a subscription -- with Lightroom, 8 to 10US$/month (+taxes), depending on location.

All that's no good if it dont work. Here's what they promise:
https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/photo/
These days it's often difficult to get a simple list of features on websites... so, a video:
https://vimeo.com/132757806

Quotes from reviews of the mac version:
[..] running a Macbook Pro 15" with 16GB of RAM and a 1TB Hybrid Drive.
As a rough comparison, my Photoshop install typically takes between 45 seconds to 2 minutes to boot up and start running. Affinity Photo takes between 10-20 seconds.
//
Where Affinity really shines is its speed and price. It is definitely affordable, and its performance is spectacular. It is fast, well organized and has almost everything that most image editors might require on a daily basis. It has all of the brushes you need to get the job done, with a lot of customization features.
--- End quote ---
http://www.sitepoint.com/review-affinity-photo-image-editor/
(March 10, 2015)

Overall, Affinity Photo is a fabulous program that really does rival the best professional and enthusiast-level image-editing packages on the market. It easily takes the lead over previous Serif programs that we've seen for PC, and is a worthy winner of Apple's 'Mac App of the Year' award, 2015.
--- End quote ---
http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/software/graphics-and-media-software/image-editing-software/serif-affinity-photo-1295010/review

Sounds interesting.

Jibz:
Looks interesting, going to have to keep an eye on that.

I think it is hard to compete with Photoshop because it is such a kitchen sink.

wraith808:
Looks interesting, going to have to keep an eye on that.

I think it is hard to compete with Photoshop because it is such a kitchen sink.
-Jibz (March 19, 2016, 08:58 AM)
--- End quote ---

There is that, but I think it's simpler in scope, and harder to beat: They are the known name in the field.  Just like "you can't go wrong with Microsoft" was the mantra for a while, "you're not a real artist if you're not using Photoshop" is a real thing.

tomos:
Looks interesting, going to have to keep an eye on that.

I think it is hard to compete with Photoshop because it is such a kitchen sink.
-Jibz (March 19, 2016, 08:58 AM)
--- End quote ---

There is that, but I think it's simpler in scope, and harder to beat: They are the known name in the field.  Just like "you can't go wrong with Microsoft" was the mantra for a while, "you're not a real artist if you're not using Photoshop" is a real thing.
-wraith808 (March 19, 2016, 12:55 PM)
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yeah, the Creative Suite is a bit like Office too. Plus Photoshop has all the fancy plugins etc etc. But who really needs all that, especially now: I suspect people that might have bought before think would twice about a subscription. Or they subscribe and realise they're not using it enough to justify the cost and cancel.

I guess it's partly because it's got the kitchen sink that's it's such a snail. But then I think that speed was never particularly important for Adobe. When I first started using vector programmes, Illustrator 8 was a snail in comparison to Freehand 9. I eventually bought ai CS4 and it was slower again.
Earlier versions of Photoshop were quite fast though. (I dont have experience with anything more recent than Photoshop CS2. For fine-tuning photographs I was happily using Photoshop 5.5 for over ten years -- combined with a select edges plugin, it was all I needed.)

I think there could be a very big market for almost-as-good-as-Photoshop software.
(I see Sagelight appears to be dead.)

Deozaan:
But who really needs all that, especially now: I suspect people that might have bought before think would twice about a subscription. Or they subscribe and realise they're not using it enough to justify the cost and cancel.-tomos (March 19, 2016, 04:37 PM)
--- End quote ---

Actually, I think it's the opposite. Before, Photoshop or the Creative Suite was something like $600. Now it's "only" $10 a month. That seems much more affordable to me, and I think many people agree with that and are actually paying for Photoshop now instead of just downloading a pirated version of it.

But that's just a hunch. I have no evidence to back that thought up with.

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