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Let’s get technical

Mac display showing photo of ultra-modern, triangular cabins in a green forest with grey clouds overhead

Mac

Hardware

  • Mac Pro, iMac, iMac Pro, MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, Mac mini
  • Mac with Apple silicon (M1/M2/M3) chip or Intel processor
  • 8GB RAM recommended
  • Up to 2.8GB of available hard drive space; more during installation
  • 1280x768 display size or larger

Operating System

  • macOS Sonoma 14
  • macOS Ventura 13
  • macOS Monterey 12
  • macOS Big Sur 11
  • macOS Catalina 10.15
Windows display showing photo composition of white bird with red flowers printed on its wings against dark leaves

Windows

Hardware

  • Windows-based PC (64-bit) with mouse or equivalent input device
  • Hardware GPU acceleration*
  • DirectX 10-compatible graphics cards and above
  • 8GB RAM recommended
  • 1GB of available hard drive space; more during installation
  • 1280x768 display size or larger

Operating System

  • Windows® 11
  • Windows® 10 May 2020 Update (2004, 20H1, build 19041) or later

iPad

Hardware

  • Compatible with…
    • iPad Pro (all models)*
    • iPad Air (2, 3, 4 & 5)*
    • iPad (2017 onwards)
    • iPad mini (5 & 6)

* M1-equipped iPad models are recommended for more memory-intensive design

Operating System

  • iPadOS 15 or later

Full feature list

2.4 New Features

  • 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
    • 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…

2.3 New Features

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

2.2 New Features

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

2.1 New Features

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
  • 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)

2.0 New Features

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%

Overview

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)

Languages

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

RAW Image Processing

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

Image Editing and Retouch Tools

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

Colour

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

Professional Colour, Compatibility, and Output

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

Workspaces and Workflows

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 Filters, Adjustments, and Effects

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 Paint, Sketch, and Texture Tools

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

Vectors and Mixed Discipline Design

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

Accurate Typography

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

Input Devices

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
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