New competitor for Photoline on Mac

[Herbert123]

A new competitor on the Mac side to take note of: Affinity Photo.
http://www.creativebloq.com/computer-ar ... e-21514137

It is really unfortunate that Serif gets all the attention, and Photoline attracts almost none even after all this time. Looking at their beta, I feel Photoline could benefit from an update in certain areas, especially in how effects are edited in place (check out how the Lights filter's GUI works in Affinity Photo, and compare to Photoline's archaic dialog approach - huge difference).

Their marketing and presentation is light years ahead of Photoline. That does, unfortunately and realistically, make a big difference.

Learn from your competition!

[Juan]

I have absolutely no plans to migrate from PL at all, this has been my main tool for the past years and will be in the future, but... the way that the present their product and the UI makes me want even to buy a mac just to use their software .
We could propose new UI for the tools one by one and very detailed, so we can relieve the brothers job of spend time on the UI if we help so they focus on the coding ( is this naive from my side?), like you said Herbert, the light filter for example.

Cheers,
Juan

[asharpe]

As I have said before, on numerous occasions, English tutorials online and English youtube videos will go a long way to increasing the user base. I also have no plans to change to another system; everyone here is very friendly and quite responsive. But alas, I cannot take advantage of an enormous amount of information on this site because of my inability to speak German. It's not that I'm particularly English-centric; the world is.

[MikeFromMesa]

A new competitor on the Mac side to take note of: Affinity Photo.
http://www.creativebloq.com/computer-ar ... e-21514137

You are right. That is a very slick presentation and the tool (I downloaded the beta when I saw your post) is also very well done. There is no product yet, only the beta, so there really is no set of tutorials available. Certainly not video tutorials although users seem to be trying to put some print stuff together.

It appears to be a direct challenger to Photoshop and if the price of their Designer is any indication (40 pounds at the App Store) the Photo product will be a big problem for Adobe. That is good for users but may also be a problem for PhotoLine.

[Falaffel]

Wow, the film in the Blog is impressive. Auch a short film with such easy but awesome changes to pictures would be a nice promotion for Photoline.

[Torsten]

The marketing of PhotoLine is user friendly and that price remains stable. And the program exists longer than many other.

Cheers Torsten

[greenmorpher]

Serif does a terrific job -- always has. In terms of marketing, through, they have been less good. Now it looks as though they are launching in a new direction -- moving strongly upmarket.

This breathless "the first professional PS competitor app" for Mac is also something that has been done to death.

BUT from where I sit, they might be going about it in the wrong way. The best marketing actually isn’t just the presentation of the product once you have produced it, it starts with the product itself. In this respect, I think Serif is 180 degrees from where it should be in that it is starting into the whole project mimicking the development of computer apps and their spread to and interface with mobile apps.

I would have counseled starting with the mobile apps then moving on to something really different with the computer apps.

They could have done the individual Affinity image, vector, and publishing apps for mobile with some sort of simple interface with laptops/desktops for output and storage.

Then I would have counseled they wrap the whole thing together with an integrated app that moves on from the Adobe Creative Suite notion and in the direction of PL or Canvas. Separate apps have been done.

cheers, geoff

[greenmorpher]

The marketing of PhotoLine is user friendly and that price remains stable. And the program exists longer than many other.

Cheers Torsten

Hey Torsten

In fact, it is not "user friendly" from an English language user's point of view. It simply does not go far enough. Manual in fluent English, a lot more tutorial materials, and most of all promotion so English language prospective users can become aware of it are absolutely essential.

Promotion can cost a lot of money, but it does not need to do so. There are clever ways to do it on a shoestring. PL needs that, I think, focusing on the number of people who use PL and the kinds of work they do

Absolutely agree about the price of PL -- it is amazingly low and has remained stable for years. Great. But price is not everything.

cheers, geoff

[Torsten]

Hi Geoff,

Basically, you're right.

It seems to me the computer island has no interest in it to expand its customer base. And this comes to our good by a stable price.

On the other hand, it's also that programs be developed only for one platform to represent barely a competition. Pixelmator for example had promised more than it has.

Cheers Torsten

[achillepr]

It seems a blend of Serif PagePlus, DrawPlus and Photo plus with less power.
I got first two of these programs and they are very good.
Byte

[MikeFromMesa]

It seems a blend of Serif PagePlus, DrawPlus and Photo plus with less power.
I got first two of these programs and they are very good.
Byte

I am a bit curious. Is the beta of Affinity Photo a subset of the Photo Plus functionality or a superset? Or neither?

Another question about Serif - do they not offer trials? I could see no way to download Photo Plus as a trial without actually buying it. This beta of AP seems at first glance to be a very nice editor and I wanted to see what their Photo Plus product was like, but I was not ready to buy it just to get a question answered. The AP beta UI is very slick but I am not sure I get the same control of my raw images with it as I get with PL.

[mwenz]

I am a bit curious. Is the beta of Affinity Photo a subset of the Photo Plus functionality or a superset? Or neither?

Serif's Affinity applications are a total, from the ground up, new application line. These are not ported from their existing applications.

Another question about Serif - do they not offer trials? I could see no way to download Photo Plus as a trial without actually buying it. This beta of AP seems at first glance to be a very nice editor and I wanted to see what their Photo Plus product was like, but I was not ready to buy it just to get a question answered. The AP beta UI is very slick but I am not sure I get the same control of my raw images with it as I get with PL.

No, Serif does not have trials.

Instead, the marketing "geniuses" at Serif provide crippled free versions. And one better do a custom install of the free versions else one cannot opt out of the crap that will get installed. Don't waste your time with PhotoPlus. While it certainly took a step forward with the latest release, it isn't a very good application.

The Affinity product line will eventually be compiled for Windows as well. Not until the Mac versions are solid and likely have been out for a few years.

Mike

[MikeFromMesa]

Not until the Mac versions are solid and likely have been out for a few years.

The current Affinity Photo beta is still pretty rough. It shows an enormous amount of promise and has one of the slickest UIs that I have seen in a long time, but it may take a relatively long time for it to get to product release on the Mac. But some its functionality, even if rough at this point, is very nice indeed.

PL is a very good solid editor and it has become my "go to" tool when I need editing, but some stuff on Affinity Photo is just amazing. It has one of the nicest content-sensitive replaces I have ever seen, much better than that in my copy of Photoshop CS5.1 and I found myself removing isolated lens flare with it easily and nicely. It has a wonderful liquify tool (if you like Salvador Dali prints you know what I mean) and a good selection tool, I think better than in PL and as good as in PS.

On the downside I have not been able to get any of my plugins to work properly. My Topaz plugins sometimes work, sometimes crash and sometimes will not launch. I have begun to suspect that it is all tied to the time of the day and the phases of the moon ...

On the upside editors have generally gotten so good that there is increasingly less need for plugins. At least that has been my experience.

Considering that the target price is $50 and that the release is supposed to include 2 years of updates, that seems pretty amazing. I always thought that when Adobe moved to a subscription service there would be a number of companies that moved into the perpetual license area to pick up the pieces.

[mwenz]

Well, a beta is just that. I suspect the release won't be as long as you may imagine. I forget the beta-to-release period for AD, but it wasn't a long time as goes software development. Serif also had working prototypes for some time before the world at large knew about them. They'll get kinks worked out during the beta cycle.

While there are certainly wonderful features in the line-up, there really isn't anything in them I am unable to accomplish with other software presently. I don't paint, I don't create art. Heck, I don't use 80% or more of PL or AI or XDP, etc. As for bitmaps, I make images sent to me by clients print well, throw them in a layout application and call it a day. So for me the "sexy" trappings of AP are just that. Nice to look at but I wouldn't marry her.

Mike

[MikeFromMesa]

Well, a beta is just that. I suspect the release won't be as long as you may imagine. I forget the beta-to-release period for AD, but it wasn't a long time as goes software development. Serif also had working prototypes for some time before the world at large knew about them. They'll get kinks worked out during the beta cycle.

You may well be right. I was estimating based on the number of reported bugs + the number of reported basic functionality feature requests. And, of course, it depends to some extent on the number of engineers assigned to the project as well as their dedication.

While there are certainly wonderful features in the line-up, there really isn't anything in them I am unable to accomplish with other software presently. I don't paint, I don't create art. Heck, I don't use 80% or more of PL or AI or XDP, etc. As for bitmaps, I make images sent to me by clients print well, throw them in a layout application and call it a day. So for me the "sexy" trappings of AP are just that. Nice to look at but I wouldn't marry her.

PL, as one example, does everything I would do in Photoshop although I think that some of the functionality is easier in PS. One example is the selection tools which I think are better in PS. Another is the content-sensitive fill which I also think is better in PS. The functionality is in PL and, of course, it could be my lack of skill in using what is here.

And, with a price of only $50 with 2 years of updates I think they will do very well, provided their software is stable and relatively complete. What PL really lacks is good marketing. Given what it does, how well it does it and what it costs it should be one of the hottest sellers on the market, but most people either don't know about it or are daunted by its interface. I personally think the UI is no more complex than that of PS and, on a value for price comparison, runs rings around PS. It should be flying off the shelves and this forum should be full of people asking questions and giving answers.