Let’s get technical

All Platforms

• Updated SerifLabs RAW engine, including support for:
  • FujiFilm X100VI
  • Leica SL3
  • Pentax KF (Ricoh)
  • Samsung Galaxy S23+
  • Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra
  • Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra
  • Sony ILCE-9M3 (A9 III) (improved)
• QR Code Tool
• Variable fonts
• Easier updating of modified text style
• Visual indication of rescaled text frame

Desktop only

• Native Windows ARM64 support
• Set grid preset as default
• Typography dialog becomes a dedicated Typography Panel
• Transform by absolute sizes using Transform Objects Separately

iPad only

• Mask to Below and Release now added to Layers Panel

• Layer states: make layer selections based on current query (formerly smart states) (for desktop only)
• Set selection box for rotated multiple selections
• Double-clicking (tapping) an object switches from the Node Tool to Move Tool
• Lock insertion targets
• Use Spacebar as keyboard modifier for Lock Children
• Space horizontally/vertically considers key object
• Size or rotate objects to same
• Import/export 32-bit HDR PNGs
• Use filename variable in path and output file naming in Export Persona (for desktop only)

• Updated SerifLabs RAW engine, including support for:
  • Apple iPhone 13, 14 (all types), 15 (all types)
  • Canon EOS R8
  • Nikon Z8 (standard compression formats only)
  • Panasonic DC-GH6
  • Leica Q3 and M11 Monochrom
  • Fujifilm GFX 100 II
  • Hasselblad CFV-100c
  • OM Digital Solutions OM-1 Mark II
  • DJI Mavic 3 Pro (drone)
  • and many more…

All Platforms

• Place and export password-protected PDFs, including the ability to individually allow:
  • Document printing
  • Content modification
  • Content copying
• Export PDF files to PDF 2.0 (ISO 32000-2) standard, with optional password-protected AES-256 encryption
• Pixel grid can be switched on/off and coloured
• Automatic grid returns to V2.3
• Change Assets Panel background colour
• Spiral Tool:
  • Choice of styles including Linear, Decaying, Fibonacci and Plotted
  • Optional straight-line edges

iPad only

• Optionally deselect shapes after creation
• Curves adjustment graph editor shows all coloured channel curves

Desktop only

• Move data entry enhancements:
  • Scale option to resize by a given percentage
  • Insertion Mode options to insert duplicates in front of or behind the original object
  • Edit object properties as you transform
  • Improved Number of copies slider behaviour
• Brush names show by default on the Brushes panel
• Create new documents from assets by dragging from panel to title bar
• Create shapes of same type and properties from an existing shape selection

All Platforms

• OCIO V2 support
• Updated Lens Correction database to support cameras up to 13/05/2023
• Holding a tool shortcut temporarily activates the tool^*
• Change guide colour
• In-dialog renaming of brushes
• Use numeric keyboard keys to set brush flow, hardness and strength^*
• Optionally prompt for group and layer names on creation

iPad only

• New Settings (Preferences): decimal place control for measurement unit types
• Shift-drag on RGB/CMYK sliders to change tint/intensity only^**
• Scrolling Studio panels and context toolbars (except 12.9" Pro)

• ^*For iPad, use hardware keyboard
• ^**For iPad, use Command Controller or hardware keyboard

Desktop only

• Object data entry for creating precise shapes
• Move data entry for moving/duplicating objects
• When editing curves, delete a node via right-click
• When deleting node(s), optionally retain curve smoothness

Crop Tool improvements

• Crop to any pixel selection
• Use Phi Grid as a crop overlay
• Adjust crop area by dragging from anywhere on the crop area’s edge
• Crop area reduces to fit on rotation/straightening
• Crop area’s aspect ratio is constrained on resize with Shift modifier^*
• Crop area is sized from centre with ⌘/Ctrl modifier^*
• Last used crop settings and zoom levels are remembered
• Esc key resets current crop area (for desktop only)

Enhanced Brushes panel

• Show brush names
• Show brushes as thumbnails
• Disable Associated Tools for all raster brushes
• Highlights the active brush
• Indicates modified brush settings
• Auto-scroll to last used brush when reusing brush tools (intra and inter-category)
• Alt-click on a new brush keeps your current brush width^*
• Update Brush and Reset Brush if modified

Assets panel

• Expand All/Collapse All subcategories (for desktop only)
• Sort assets by name
• Modifier-free reordering of asset subcategories (for desktop only)

Layers panel

• Alt-click to Expand/Collapse All (child layers)^*
• Step-through renaming of layers and export slices with Tab key (for desktop only)
• Rename layers via the Layers menu, with shortcuts (for desktop only)
• Hide layer type icons

Guides improvements

• Double-click any guide to open Guides Settings
• Drag distance (delta) shows in on-screen readout
• Drag a guide from rulers will switch on guide visibility (if set to off)
• Clone guides with ⌘-drag (Ctrl-drag)^*
• Delete guides with Alt-click^*
• Snap guides to ruler units based on the spread origin with Shift-drag^*
• Snap guides to drag distance (delta) based on ruler units with Shift-Alt-drag^*
• Snap to original guide position when moving guides
• Snap to original guide when cloning guides
• Nudge guide values with mouse wheel/arrow keys^*
• Link margin or X/Y spread origin values in Guides Settings

^*For iPad, use Command Controller/hardware keyboard

• Paint mixer brush can autoclean
• Clone and Healing brush tools remember more last used settings
• Show special characters
• Affinity Designer’s Measure and Area tools come to Photo (for desktop only)
• Zoom Tool options in Develop Persona (for desktop only)
• The Spacebar repositions a rectangular or elliptical marquee selection as it is being drawn
• Mask to Below via Layer menu (for desktop only)
• Place Tool as an alternative to File>Place (for desktop only)
• Disable auto-selection with Move Tool, plus ⌘-click (Ctrl-click) override^*
• Keyboard shortcuts for layer and brush blend modes
• Adjust stroke width using Node Tool or shape tools using [ or ] keys
• Balanced dashed lines plus more dash pattern sequences
• Clear arrowhead settings
• Search Bar for searching add-on content in your Account
• V5 PANTONE^® Solid, Process Coated and Uncoated update
• One-click bitmap fill creation from assets or stock images
• Create bitmap fills by drag-and-drop from Finder/File Explorer to Colour or Swatches panel (for desktop only)
• Paint with bitmap textures drag-and-dropped to Colour or Swatches panel (for desktop only)
• Close All to close multiple open documents plus Apply to All option (for desktop only)
• WebP and JPEG-XL available in Batch Export

Photo iPad

• Style Picker Tool offers a dropper-based transfer of object styles
• Rulers
• Reset canvas rotation in Navigator Panel with double-tap
• Double-tap Zoom option to Zoom to 100% in Navigator Panel
• PDF passthrough
• PDF Options offered on opening PDF files
• Create compounds via long press on Geometry menu options
• More hardware keyboard shortcuts:
  • Select Next, Previous, Top and Bottom
  • Opacity
  • Zoom options and other design aids
• More select options added to Quick Menu
• Apple Pencil: double-tap to open Quick Menu
• Show in Files on the Home screen (Live Docs) locates your saved file
• Disable brush preview for Apple Pencil Hover and peripheral devices
• Workflow improvements:
  • Drop-down menus with checkable options no longer auto-close
  • Less tapping needed for menu navigation
• Use iPadOS default Photos browser when importing from Apple Photos (iPad)
• Lock or rename layers, plus swap compound type, via left-swipe
• Double-tap to reset Opacity and Blend Mode to 100% and Normal, respectively (Layers panel)

General UI

• Redeveloped UI, tool and button icons
• New monochromatic iconography via Preferences (User Interface)
• High-contrast UI settings
• Drag document tabs to new windows (Mac)
• Restyled Studio panels via the Window menu (for desktop only)
• Redesigned Export dialog offers “always on” export preview
• Command controller for improved modifier-driven workflow (iPad)
• Quick Menu for context-sensitive access to commands (iPad)
• Compact Mode for Layers and Brushes Studios (iPad)

New document dialog redesign

• Easier preset management plus preset previews and favourites
• In-dialog access to new document presets, templates, samples and your account details
• Recent documents (grid or list) are searchable and support pinning (for desktop only)
• “Always on” Document summary panel (for desktop only)

All new Layers panel

• Much clearer drop zones for masking, clipping and reordering
• Parent bar to easily collapse parent items and drop layers above/below current parent group
• Unlimited levels of cropping/masking layers
• Identify layer types by icon (curves, shapes, text, pixel, mask, adjustment)
• Hide/show all other layers
• Copy layer effects (FX) from one layer to another
• Hover-over lock icon toggle (for desktop only)
• Drag-down Visibility icon to turn on/off multiple selected layers (for desktop only)
• Rasterise selected layers simultaneously
• Merge selected layers via right-click (for desktop only)
• Empty group created from single object
• Collapse parent layer/group from its child

Content link

• All Affinity apps on a device can now share brushes, styles, assets, application palettes and more
• Avoids unnecessary exporting/importing of content between apps on the same device
• Migration of custom 1.x content on upgrade (for desktop only)
• Link custom content to share with other apps

Selections

• Select Next/Previous Layer (Alt+[, Alt+]), and Select Top/Bottom/Parent Layer via Select menu (for desktop only)
• Select by group or layer content
• Disable auto-selection with Move Tool
• Freehand Selection Tool (Polygonal and Magnetic) automatically pans if you drag beyond document bounds

Placing content

• Resource Manager for controlling placed image and document resources (iPad)
• Quick Grids (for desktop only)
• Autoflow of multiple images and multi-page PDFs
• Layer visibility override for placed files (PDF/DWG/DXF)—turn off layers you don’t need
• Place linked web images using their URLs via Ctrl+drag-and-drop (for desktop only)
• Dropbox API integration to retain placed resource linkage across multiple devices

Photo Editing essentials

• Non-destructive development of linked/embedded raw images
• Layer states to experiment with design options and versions (for desktop only)
• Non-destructive Live Mesh Warp filter
• Perspective transforms: tool and filter have rotate and flip options
• Normals adjustment for editing normal maps from material and texturing workflows
• Drag-and-drop bitmap fill creation with intelligent scaling
• Pixel grid displays when zoomed in beyond certain level

Non-destructive professional masking

• Non-destructive compound masks for combining multiple mask layers using Boolean operations (Add, Subtract, Intersect, Xor)
• Create non-destructive Live masks based on targeted hue ranges, luminosity ranges or frequency (band-pass)
• Group contents remain editable when part of a mask

Raster brush improvements

• Improved raster brush quality and accuracy
• Distance controller changes brush characteristics with stroke length
• Brush tip interpolation for improved tip quality
• Switch to a crosshair cursor on all brush tools using caps lock (for desktop only)
• Wet edges on more brush tools
• Recently used brushes can be seen and reselected for each raster layer (for desktop only)
• Paint Brush Tool now has its own B keyboard key shortcut
• Brushes panel can display brushes as either nozzle thumbnails or strokes

Import/export/packaging

• WebP file import and export
• JPEG XL file import and export
• HIF file import (HDR 10 bit PQ encoded) produced by newer Canon cameras
• Drag/drop stock photos for new document (for desktop only)
• PDF export will export hidden Affinity vector layers that have child layers as invisible layers

Some important extras…

• Import Affinity and Adobe® Swatch Exchange (.ase) palettes (iPad)
• Force scale of stroke width, layer effect radii, corner radii and text frame content on object resize
• Displace filter offers Sobel (Affinity) and Red/green offset (Photoshop) load methods
• Support for additional spare channels in TIFFs
• Fill Opacity for ‘special 8’ blend modes
• Redeveloped Boolean operations and compounds
• Change stroke width with [ and ] keys; Shift key increases/decreases by an absolute amount
• HSL Colour Wheel has box wheel type and offers recent colours and hex code readout/input
• Multiple shadow, outline and overlay layer effects per layer
• Create pattern layers from any raster layer content (including image layers)
• Easier Quick Masking of pixel selections in Channels panel
• Isolation (Solo) mode offers better group control
• Transform attribute for linked layers
• One-step undo/redo of complex assistant actions
• Updated lens correction database
• Style Picker Tool offers a dropper-based transfer of object styles (for desktop only)
• Paste Style support for copied text selections
• Editable EXIF data
• Preference to limit initial zoom to a maximum of 100%

Performance (for desktop only)

• GPU compute hardware acceleration gives super-fast compositing, editing and painting
• Massive improvement using integrated Intel GPUs
• External GPU support (hot-plug-and -unplug)
• Multi GPU utilisation
• Quicker rendering of Live Filters
• Benchmark performance testing

Display support

• Regular, Retina and expanded gamut DCI-P3 (Mac)
• Wide colour gamut (Display P3) (Windows)
• HiDPI
• EDR (Mac)
• HDR (Windows; >400 nits recommended)

Fast and Efficient Tool Set

• Pan and zoom at maximum refresh rate (with ProMotion support for latest Mac displays)
• Live tools, live previews, real-time editing
• RAW and regular processing united in one app

Professional

• Professional colour spaces and profiles
• Pro file formats like PSD supported
• Modern camera RAW formats supported
• Full set of 16-bit filters
• Sub-pixel precision and pixel-perfect snapping
• Customisable toolbars, keyboard shortcuts and panels (for desktop only)
• Document presets or save your own custom document setups
• Work in pixels, points, picas and physical document units

Beautiful by Design

• Built from the ground up for professional photographers
• Benefit from a stylish and uncluttered interface

Clean Workspaces

• Dedicated personas (modes) for specific tasks and toolsets
• Uncluttered UIs for RAW editing, photo editing, panoramas, liquify and tone mapping
• Export persona for fine control over export regions and settings

Solid Undo History

• Instantly undo/redo over 8,000 History steps
• Save History so you can undo steps later even on different computers
• A seamless AutoSave protects against unexpected shutdowns
• Cycle Futures feature prevents history loss after editing from undos
• Display history steps with thumbnails and date/time

Learning Made Easy

• Access our video tutorials on our YouTube channel - created by our dedicated Product Experts and inspirational pro users
• Comprehensive in-app product Help
• ‘At hand’ Hint Line for help with current actions (for desktop only)

No Subscription

• No subscription charge! Designed for pros, priced for everyone
• Buy through Affinity.store website, Mac App Store or Windows Store
• Updates available as we improve

Licence Activation, Registration and Account Access

• Single licence or multi-app cross-platform Universal Licence
• In-app activation of licensing using your Affinity Store’s Affinity ID^*
• Create Affinity ID and account during in-app purchase
• In-app purchase and registration (optional) via Mac App Store, iPad App Store and Microsoft store
• In-app access and viewing of your Affinity account
• Affinity Store content synchronisation
• Auto-install of free and purchased Affinity Store content (brushes, assets and more)

^*An internet connection is required for licence activation.

Languages

• English (US and UK)
• German
• French
• Spanish
• Portuguese (Brazilian)
• Japanese
• Italian
• Chinese (Simplified)

Dedicated RAW Editor with Split View

• GPU-accelerated RAW development
• Adjust RAW files and other RGB layers in the Develop persona
• See your adjustments alongside the original in real-time
• Automatic hot pixel removal (SerifLabs RAW Engine only)
• Manual lens correction override
• Updated SerifLabs RAW libraries

Adjustments and Lens Corrections

• Exposure
• Contrast
• Clarity
• Saturation (improved)
• Vibrance (improved)
• White Balance (improved)
• Shadows
• Highlights
• Camera and Output Profiles
• Spatial Lens Correction
• Chromatic Aberration Reduction
• Defringe
• Remove Lens Vignette
• Post Crop Vignette
• Detail Refinement
• Noise Reduction
• Noise Addition
• Curves
• Black & White
• Split Toning

Development Tools

• Painted Overlays
• Gradient Overlays
• Tones Clipping overlay mode
• White Balance Tool
• Blemish Removal Tool
• Red Eye Removal Tool
• Crop and Straighten Tool
• Pan and Zoom Tools

Detailed Image Information

• Histogram displays levels and clipping (presented in output colour space)
• View clipped shadows and highlights in-image
• Use Scopes to assess intensity
• EXIF and other metadata supported
• Metadata editing with IPTC support
• Fine detail for Focus metadata

Slick Workflow

• Built-in History slider just for RAW edits
• Save Snapshots to branch your edits
• Save adjustment presets for use on other images
• Continue into the Photo persona for full editing
• Choose whether to automatically apply base corrections
• Remove automatic tone curve and apply your own
• Automatic lens correction and noise reduction
• Robust profiled lens correction can be switched on/off
• Raw image rotation
• Please visit our forum for the RAW support list

Live, Non-Destructive Editing

• Live adjustment layers
• Precise node control in Curves adjustment (for desktop only)
• Live filter layers
• Many filters work on masks, adjustments and spare channels
• Live blend modes
• Live gradients
• Non-destructive layer resizing
• Saveable selections
• Live adjustments to smart Shapes
• Blend modes work on masks, adjustments and live filters

Layers and Masks

• Advanced layer handling with unlimited layers
• Lossless layer resizing
• Nest layers into groups and groups within groups
• Drag and drop to organise layers and adjustments
• Clip layers by drag and drop
• Linked layers
• Fill layers
• Pattern layers
• See live previews under nozzle when painting masks
• Apply multiple masks and adjustments
• Group masks and adjustments to form composites
• Optionally move layers independently of their child layers or masks
• Lock, hide, duplicate and merge layers
• Unlock all locked layers simultaneously
• Show all hidden layers simultaneously
• Invert any layer type
• Drag and drop layers from one document to another (Windows only; floated and side by side)

Quick Masks

• Quickly and easily make masks from selections
• View as overlay, transparency, black or white

Channels

• View and edit image and layer channels
• Work with image alpha
• Make masks from channels
• Create spare channels and greyscale channels
• Isolate and edit spare channels as layers
• Duplicate spare channels (as backup)
• Create and add to selections based on channel data
• Invert any channel
• Per-channel blending options

Remove Unwanted Objects

• Content-aware Inpainting Brush intelligently removes objects like magic

Retouch Tools

• Dodge and Burn Brushes
• Sponge and Smudge Brushes
• Clone Tool (uses multiple global sources in desktop version)
• Healing Brush (uses multiple global sources in desktop version)
• Blemish Removal
• Patch Tool
• Red Eye Removal
• Blur and Sharpen Brushes
• Median Brush
• Colour Replacement Brush
• Paint Brush
• Auto-adjust contrast, levels, colour and white balance

Frequency Separation

• Frequency Separation built-in as a filter
• Edit tone/colour and texture independently, retaining detail where needed

Advanced Filters

• FFT Denoise is one of several noise removers (for desktop only)
• Effectively remove moiré patterns and other types of noise
• Live Lighting filter gives on-screen light editing
• Change lighting types, extents and add bump maps
• Haze Removal includes impressive Distance slider
• Apply Image using arbitrary channel equations
• Custom equations-based distortion filter
• Lens Correction filter with camera, lens profile and focal length selection

Plug-ins (for desktop only)

• Use 64-bit Adobe^® Photoshop^® compatible plug-ins
• Installed plug-ins are detected and checked for compatibility
• LAB plugin support
• Edit in 32-bit RGB documents
• Support is growing, more plug-ins to be supported over time

High Dynamic Range (HDR) Editing

• Merge bracketed exposures together to create 32-bit images
• Unique Persona for Advanced Tone Mapping
• Edit effortlessly in 32-bit unbounded colour format
• Full OpenColorIO support
• Maintain a true 32-bit lossless workflow and preview full tonal range
• OpenEXR multi-channel import and export
• Radiance import and export

HDR and EDR Display Support (for desktop only)

• Take advantage of displays that can reach high peak brightness values exceeding diffuse white
• See the extended brightness range of 32-bit unbounded HDR documents
• Get clipping warnings based on the display’s maximum brightness

Live Image Stacks

• Combine and auto-align multiple images
• Noise reduction and clear moving subjects from scenes
• Long exposure simulation and exposure blending
• Creative ‘time-lapse’ and motion effects
• Over 10 stack modes for very different results
• Change stack operator settings in real time

Astrophotography Persona (for desktop only)

• Dedicated Persona for stacking
• RAW and FITS image support
• Stack light and calibration frames (dark/dark flat/flat/bias)
• Stack, tone stretch and retouch entirely in 32-bit
• Stack files from different sessions using file groups
• Create full colour, composite (HaRGB, SHO), greyscale or false colour images

Panorama Image Stitching

• Automatically stitch RAW and other images into panoramas
• Create vertical, horizontal and mixed vistas
• Includes automatic colour and perspective correction
• Panorama persona includes Inpainting and Crop tools
• Stitching candidates found automatically in folders
• ICC profiles supported
• 32-bit HDR support for high dynamic range stitching

Focus Merging

• Blend images with multiple focus areas for greater depth of field
• Create merged images with front-to-back sharpness
• Easily retouch focus-merged results using clone sources

Live Projection

• Pan and preview 360^° images in real time
• Project and edit equirectangular 360^° images
• Draw, project and edit multiple perspective planes
• Project to 2D temporarily for edits, then reapply perspective

Automation with Macros and Batch Processing

• Record and save actions as macros (for desktop only)
• Edit individual recorded steps and their parameters (for desktop only)
• Customize macro settings post recording (for desktop only)
• Import, export, and maintain a macro library
• Run batch jobs for bulk processing & conversion of images
• Apply macros in batch jobs for a seamless custom workflow (for desktop only)
• Batch processing supports scaling expressions (w, h and dpi)

Selection Tools

• Smart Selection brush
• Flood Selection Tool (magic wand)
• Shape-based marquee selection tools
• Add/subtract/save/load selections
• Select based on colour and tonal ranges
• Alpha-based selections (Opaque/Transparent/Partial)

Refine Selections

• Select fine detail like hair and fur with advanced refining
• Set refinement border width, smoothness, mode, and feather size
• Output refinement as a selection, mask, new layer, or new layer with mask

Crop and Straighten

• Combined crop and straighten tool helps frame images
• Constrain to original or other aspect ratios
• Crop presets or save your own custom crops (for desktop only)
• Thirds grid, golden spiral and diagonals compositional overlays
• Uncrop with ease
• Darken areas outside crop area to aid composition
• Straighten simply by dragging across a horizon

Perspective

• Live perspective editing—real time
• Single- and dual-plane perspective editing
• Hide and show grids, autoclip layers
• See before and after views side-by-side

Mesh Warp Tool

• Real-time mesh warping of any layer
• Easily add nodes and reshape the mesh
• Fully edit nodes with familiar curve controls

Full Liquify Toolset

• Liquify Persona for image distortion
• Non-destructive Live Liquify filter (uses Liquify Persona)
• See deformations against a custom mesh
• Push Forward and Push Left brush tools
• Twirl and Turbulence brushes
• Save and Clone meshes for efficiency
• Alter warp intensity with a Reconstruct Mesh slider
• Mesh and Mask editing tools
• See a before and after live split-view
• Use advanced brush controls for fine tuning warps
• Built in History just for your Liquify steps

Advanced Histogram

• View for whole image or selected channels
• Limit histogram calculation to current layer or selection
• See coarse Histogram for speed, click to refine

Advanced Gamma Blending, Blend Ranges and Antialiasing

• Editable RGB blend space gamma per object or layer
• Apply multiple values in linear or non-linear blends
• Set preferences for default values
• Save custom coverage maps for reuse
• Per-layer hierarchical antialiasing

Detailed Image Information (for desktop only)

• See detailed image and luminosity information in real-time
• Monitor memory pressure and efficiency
• Information displayed for all colour spaces
• Switch between different scopes and histogram views

EXIF Metadata

• View summary, full, and raw metadata
• Get detailed Focus information in the Develop persona
• EXIF and other XML-based data types supported

Brush Tools

• Hard-edged Pixel Brush tool for retro art and fine UI painting
• Full range of textured brush nozzles that work across brush tools
• See below for full information about paint brushes and controls

Professional Colour

• CMYK professional workflows
• RGB, RGB Hex, LAB, CMYK and Greyscale colour models
• ICC colour management profiles and conversion
• Seamlessly switch between colour modes on-the-fly
• Copy Hex values to the clipboard
• Use Pantone^® colours
• Set rendering intent and black point compensation (globally and on document convert)
• Work across colour mode boundaries with selected adjustments
• End-to-end OpenColorIO (OCIO) workflows
• Lock to prevent colour mode switching (for desktop only)

16-bits per Channel Support

• 16-bits per channel modes for RGB/LAB/Greyscale spaces
• 16-bit versions of all filters included
• Works on all supported hardware, no limitations

Advanced Rendering

• Live split-screen before/after views for adjustments and Develop persona
• Live wireframe, pixel, and retina/high DPI pixel previews
• Custom per-object gamma blending

Smart Colour Picker

• Dedicated Tool for Photo Persona
• Accurately pick colour using a magnifier over any part of your display
• Point or colour averaged sampling
• Sample from current or all layers
• Grab in the source colour space including CMYK, RGB and LAB colour
• Simple panel-based Colour Picker as alternative

Palettes and Swatches

• Use colours and palettes based on all the available colour models
• Automatically create palettes based on document colours
• Import Adobe^® Swatch Exchange (.ase) files
• Display palettes created in other apps using Apple system Colour Palettes (for desktop only)
• Create complementary, analogous and other colour chords (for desktop only)
• Built in swatches for colours, greys and gradients
• Generate palette from any image (for desktop only)

Global Colours (for desktop only)

• Update objects in your document when their base colour changes
• Tint levels are retained when base colour updates
• Use as solid colours or in gradients

Advanced Scaling and Resampling

• Resize images or just the canvas
• Anchor the canvas, change units, and maintain aspect ratio
• Automatic scaling of mixed artwork for highest quality output
• Lanczos 3, Bicubic, Bilinear and Nearest Neighbour resampling available
• Pixel Art algorithms for pixel art upsampling

Pantone^® Colour Matching

• PANTONE^® Goe^™
• PANTONE^® GoeBridge™
• PANTONE^®+ Formula Guide Solid (V2)
• PANTONE^®+ CMYK
• PANTONE^®+ Color Bridge (V2)
• PANTONE^®+ Metallic, Neon, and Pastels
• Coated and uncoated variants

Photoshop^® PSD Support

• Accurate opening/saving of Adobe^® Photoshop^® PSD files (includes 32 bit)
• Open very large PSB files
• Maintain layers, groups, gradients, blend modes, paths, masks and more
• Supports professional colour modes
• Take PSDs into other supported software
• Editable Embedded Photoshop PSD Smart Objects
• PSD flattened image representation

PDF Open and Place

• Edit and save PDFs for round-trip app compatibility
• PDF passthrough for absolute output fidelity (for desktop only)

Pro Print and PDF/X Support

• Create and edit CMYK PDF/X files for pro printing
• Compatible with PDF/X-1a, PDF/X-3, and PDF/X-4
• Use spot colours
• Apply Overprint controls
• Add trim, bleed and crop marks
• Apply ICC colour profiles internally and at export time

Streamlined Printing

• Print directly from Affinity Photo
• Switch between standard and advanced dialogs
• Control layout, scaling, colour matching, and paper handling
• Access printer driver features
• Save as PDF from the print dialog

Full Open or Import List

• Adobe^® Photoshop^® PSD
• Adobe^® Photoshop^® PSB
• Extensive RAW import library (including CR3)
• DNG
• PNG
• TIFF
• JPG
• GIF
• TGA
• SVG
• EPS
• PDF
• PDF/X
• EXR (Open EXR)
• HDR (Radiance)
• Adobe^® Illustrator^® AI (containing PDF stream)
• Legacy Adobe^® Illustrator^® AI files
• Adobe^® FreeHand^® (versions 9 to 11)
• Affinity Designer native file (for desktop only)
• Affinity Publisher native file (includes page navigation)
• HEIF with depth map (as separate layer)

Full Save or Export List

• Publisher template (.aftemplate)
• Adobe^® Photoshop^® PSD
• TIFF (layers preserved)
• PNG
• JPG
• Progressive JPG
• GIF
• SVG
• EPS
• EXR (Open EXR)
• HDR (Radiance)
• PDF (can also be opened in Adobe^® Illustrator^®)
• PDF/X-1a, PDF/X-3, PDF/X-4
• Affinity common file format

Export document

• Export as entire document or current selection
• Exclude background from selection
• Resampling
• File size calculator

Export Presets

• Create your own export presets
• Use popular presets that are supplied with Affinity Photo
• Use presets to save whole images or specific regions
• Set your default export format

Slices and Retina/high DPI Graphics

• Output individual layers, groups, or image as slices
• Draw custom-sized slices at export time
• Automatically create slices at layer sizes
• Auto-name export files using layer/slice names
• Use slice presets for popular image formats
• Apply slice presets to selected slices (for desktop only)
• Multiple export setups, formats and resolutions per slice (for desktop only)
• Output all slices at once, just one slice, or selected slices
• Hide layer contents during export process
• Exclude layer content from export
• Output standard and retina/high DPI resolution graphics in one go
• Retina/high DPI versions are auto-named with @2x and @3x suffixes
• Export to absolute sizes (for desktop only)
• Deliver UI design assets (iOS)

Advanced Export Controls

• Continuous Export updates files any time your image or design changes
• Maintain EXIF or other metadata on output
• Embed an ICC profile with an exported image
• Apply a Matte colour

Efficient Affinity File Format

• Compact and fast native file format
• Also fully editable in Affinity Designer and Affinity Publisher

Easy setup with New Document dialog

• Presets for different types of output, e.g. Print, Press Ready
• Create your own custom page presets
• Access Photo templates (.aftemplate)

Custom Studio Panel Layouts (for desktop only)

• Dock or float panels
• Group and order panels as you prefer
• Hide and expand panels as you need them
• Dynamic panel names give focus to what you are using
• Create and save panel (and toolbar) presets

Rotate Canvas

• Rotate your workspace for more natural retouching and painting
• Use keys, menus, touch gestures and graphics tablet controls (for desktop only)
• Disable canvas rotation to prevent accidental use

Screen Modes (for desktop only)

• Work with single screens or multi-monitor setups
• Optimised for regular and retina/high DPI screens

Customisable Keyboard Shortcuts (for desktop only)

• Apply your own favourite presets for the fastest workflows
• Save and load shortcut sets
• Popular shortcut conventions are supported

Customisable Toolbars (for desktop only)

• Create your own toolbars or customise existing panels
• Reposition and reorganise tool groups
• Set the primary toolbar to be single or multi-column
• Add toolbar buttons for specific features you like using

Powerful History and Snapshots

• Instantly slide through over 8,000 History steps
• Save History to revisit steps from previous sessions
• Roll through processes in files from other photographers
• Undo actions performed in other Affinity suite apps
• A seamless AutoSave protects against unexpected shutdowns
• Store editing states as Snapshots to revisit later

Transform Panel

• Move and scale accurately using the Transform Panel
• Enter values in mixed units
• Perform calculations using standard expressions
• Include mathematical expressions like Pi and Phi (for desktop only)

Preview Stock Imagery

• Search for Stock images within Affinity Photo
• Add previews to your layer stack as guidelines
• Search Commercial and Model Released images
• Stock Panel to access free and royalty-free image resources

Adjust Tool and UI Settings

• Light or dark user interface (for desktop only)
• Adjust background and UI grey levels
• Set tool behaviour and appearance in Preferences
• Manage how input devices help your workflow
• Increase/decrease tool control size and UI text size

Navigator

• See in thumbnail where your zoomed-in viewport is
• Save views, and quickly switch between views (for desktop only)

Efficient Copy/Paste

• Highly compatible copy/paste of image and vectors for other apps
• Copy/paste within Affinity apps with or without formatting
• Paste formatting or effects from one item to another
• Copy/Paste Merged for flattening
• Paste Inside and Insert Above/Below/Inside current layer

Optional Live Assistants

• All assistance is non-intrusive and can be hidden/disabled/tweaked
• Hint Line at bottom of the UI gives useful tool tips (for desktop only)
• Context Toolbar provides live controls and options per tool
• Assistant Manager tunes layer, mask, brush and adjustment behaviour
• Choose how Affinity Photo manages mixed-media design tasks

Assets for easy access to stored content

• Dedicated panel for asset storage
• Great for storing cutouts, shapes, brush strokes and watermarks
• Import/export assets

Compositing

• Images placed as Image layers to retain DPI and colour space
• Multi-image placement click-by-click for compositing (for desktop only)
• DPI/scaling control for all placed images and documents (for desktop only)

Resource Management

• Missing resource alert on document load
• Linked/embedded placed image policy at document setup
• Dedicated Resource Manager for image/document management
• Display placed image (or document) status
• Convert resources from embedded to linked (and vice versa)
• Recursive resource links are honoured
• Collect linked resource into a ‘sidecar’ folder for project portability
• Relink multiple missing ‘same folder’ images in one operation

Live Adjustment Layers

• Levels
• White Balance
• HSL (with hue colour ranges and colour picker)
• Recolour
• Black and White
• Brightness and Contrast
• Posterise
• Vibrance
• Exposure
• Shadows/Highlights (improved)
• Threshold
• Curves
• Channel Mixer
• Gradient Map (with global colour support)
• Selective Colour
• Colour Balance
• Invert
• Soft Proof
• 3D LUT (3D Look Up Table for adjustments)
• Lens Filter
• Split Toning
• Shareable LUTs

Live Filter Layers

• Gaussian Blur
• Box Blur
• Median Blur
• Bilateral Blur
• Motion Blur
• Radial Blur
• Lens Blur
• Elliptical Depth of Field
• Tilt Shift Depth of Field
• Field Blur
• Diffuse Glow
• Maximum/Minimum Blur
• Clarity
• Unsharp Mask
• High Pass
• Ripple
• Twirl
• Spherical
• Displace
• Pinch/Punch
• Lens Distortion
• Perspective
• Liquify (using Liquify Persona)
• Denoise
• Add Noise
• Diffuse
• Dust & Scratches
• Vignette
• Defringe
• Lighting
• Shadows/Highlights
• Halftone
• Procedural Texture (with advanced presets)
• Voronoi

Non-Destructive Editing

• Live, editable filters, adjustments, layer fx, and blend modes
• See effects, blend modes and adjustments instantly, no lag
• Apply to any image layer, group—even to vector art
• Edit any time, make changes without using Undo
• Edit blend modes per layer, per adjustment, per filter, object etc.
• Act on client requests without costly reworking

Live Layer Effects

• Gaussian Blur
• Outer Shadow
• Inner Shadow
• Outer Glow
• Inner Glow
• Outline
• 3D
• Bevel/Emboss
• Colour Overlay
• Gradient Overlay
• Layer Effects (with global colour support)

Live Blend Modes

• Normal
• Darken
• Darker Colour
• Multiply
• Colour Burn
• Linear Burn
• Lighten
• Lighter Colour
• Screen
• Colour Dodge
• Add
• Overlay
• Soft Light
• Hard Light
• Vivid Light
• Pin Light
• Linear Light
• Hard Mix
• Difference
• Exclusion
• Subtract
• Divide
• Hue
• Saturation
• Luminosity
• Colour
• Average
• Negation
• Reflect
• Glow
• Contrast Negate
• Erase

Professional Brushes

• Add depth with rounded and textured retouch tools
• Paint using high-quality, professional brush nozzles
• Create paintings of any size, paint over images of any size without lag
• On-page brush preview sets width, hardness, nozzle spacing and rotation
• Mimic natural media including watercolours
• Customise opacity (accumulation), hardness, spacing, flow, shape, rotation, and luminosity
• Pressure responsive (Jitter) to above brush properties
• Wet edge support with customizable ramp profiles
• Multi-brushes (combining brushes for a more interesting, less uniform brush stroke)
• Brush symmetry (up to 32-way) and optional brush mirroring (up to five-way reflections)
• Brushes with multiple nozzle textures can set their own nozzle controller/ramp
• Wet edges and accumulation now on colour brushes/brushes with HSL variance
• Nozzle rotation using left and right arrow keys (before and during stroke application)
• Paint straight strokes constrained to X or Y axis
• Create image brushes from any pixel selection
• Create intensity brushes from any mask’s pixel selection

Stroke stabilisation

• Enable Stabiliser for super smooth brush strokes
• Rope or Windows mode for different smoothing behaviour

Import/Export Brushes

• Add Affinity brush packs from external sources and giveaways
• Import Adobe^® brushes (.abr files)
• Export brush packs to share with others or to back them up
• Easy double-click brush pack installation
• Share brushes for use in Affinity Designer

Custom Brushes

• Create completely custom raster brushes using your own textures
• Customise brush behaviour and settings like wet edges and blend mode
• Organise brushes using your own categories
• Install brushes made by other users

Tablet and Touch Controls (for desktop only)

• Paint with pressure using graphics tablets
• Advanced controls like tilt, angle, velocity and other inputs
• Map graphics tablet buttons and stylus wheel commands
• Rotate canvas, pan, and zoom using track pad gestures

Create Native Vectors

• Draw paths and shapes with a best-in-class Pen Tool
• Convert shapes to selections
• Use a library of Shapes that include smart customisation nodes
• Fully edit paths and shapes with a familiar Node Tool
• Multi-node selection, alignment and transforms
• Curve and construction snapping
• Presets for shapes or save your own shapes

Import/Export Vector Artwork

• Open and edit SVG, EPS, PDF, FH and AI files
• Output SVG for efficient Web graphics
• Save as PDF or EPS for compatibility

Beautiful Gradients

• Super-smooth gradients for overlays, shapes, and masks
• Live tools for dragging gradients on-screen
• Drag and drop colours onto gradient paths and nodes
• Linear and radial gradients respond to object scaling/shearing with skewed fill handle editing

Noise and Opacity in Gradients

• Add texture to gradients with noise
• Blend colour washes and overlays with opacity
• Gradually blend noise and opacity as easily as colour

Image/Document Design Aids

• Add margins and guides
• Multi-column guides
• Hide/show rulers (for desktop only)
• Spread origin repositioning (for desktop only)
• Reposition guides from ruler area when using multiple tools (for desktop only)
• Add custom guidelines from rulers or by typing in values (for desktop only)
• As-you-drag measurement guides
• Candidate-based snapping system including Force Pixel Alignment
• Coloured square, triangular and axonometric grids

Pixel-Aligned Graphics

• Create accurate artwork for the Web and UI design
• Preview with pixel accuracy at regular and retina/high DPI levels
• Snap to grids
• Dynamic snapping aligns elements on-the-fly
• Advanced snapping controls include saveable presets
• Exclude objects from snapping
• Snap to pixel selection bounds

Aligning and Distributing

• Align to left, centre, right, top, middle, bottom
• Alignment handles for precise alignment of a selection to a position on page
• Works to selection bounds, spread (artboard), margins, first/last selected
• Distribute elements automatically for even spacing
• Easily manage Z-order using layers, toolbars, or keyboard shortcuts

Seamless App Switching

• Move work between Affinity products
• (Affinity Designer and Affinity Publisher can be purchased separately)

Shared Affinity Format and History

• Design across disciplines as easily as switching tools or personas
• Save your file in Affinity Photo or Affinity Designer, they are 100% compatible
• Undo tasks performed in other Affinity apps

Pro Font Support

• Add elegant text with OpenType, Type 1, and True Type fonts
• Use advanced OpenType features including Ligatures
• Insert placeholder text while constructing designs
• Insert special characters and symbols
• Copy and paste style between objects
• Font fallbacks

Live Font Previews

• Fonts are previewed instantly while creating or customising text
• Access fonts by collection for efficiency
• See recently used fonts first (for desktop only)
• Browse recent, used or your favourite fonts (for desktop only)

Live OpenType Feature Previews

• Typography Panel shows live feature previews
• Easily select the right Stylistic Set every time
• Preview Ligatures, Contextual Alternates, Swashes and more

Glyph Browser

• Quickly insert special characters into your text
• Display in glyph or Unicode order
• Filter by font subset, e.g. eCyrillic
• Search for phrase, glyph value or Unicode value

Character and Paragraph Panels

• Style text with on-screen panels you can dock, move, and resize
• Adjust kerning, tracking, shear, baseline and other character attributes
• Easily set leading, indents, tab stops and justification

Art and Frame Text

• Adding scalable art text is perfect for quick headlines and callouts
• Add body text paragraphs using frames as containers
• Control alignment, justification, character and paragraph settings
• Optionally scale text content when scaling the parent text frame
• Vertically align frame text
• Fit text frame to contained text
• Live spell checking as you type

Text-on-a-Path

• Type text along a custom curve or shape
• Control start and end points
• Set text on both or either side of lines
• Convert shapes to text paths
• Control all the normal text attributes including baseline

Text Styles

• Ensure text appears consistent
• Apply character and paragraph styles
• Easily update styles cross-document
• Design from scratch or from text selection
• Style hierarchies
• Style groups

OS X/macOS

• Pressure-sensitive graphics tablet and pen
• Force Touch and regular Trackpad
• Mac keyboards
• Touch Bar
• Magic Trackpad and Magic Trackpad 2
• Magic Mouse and Magic Mouse 2
• Generic multi-button and wheel mouse
• Dictation offered by macOS

Optional Hardware

• DSLR or other camera

Windows

• DirectX 11 and Direct 2D rendering with Windows Advanced Rasterization Platform (WARP) fallback
• Hardware accelerated for smooth panning/zooming and rendering
• Optimised for Surface Pro 3, Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book (including support for detachable screen)
• Surface Studio with Surface Pen/Surface Dial
• Gesture, Pen, and Touch Screen input support
• Generic multi-button and wheel mouse
• Wacom (and other WinTab devices) support
• Uses Microsoft Concurrency Runtime to fully utilise/scale across modern CPUs
• High DPI support across multiple monitors

Optional Hardware

• DSLR or other camera
• Scanner supported by Windows