The Affinity Photo FAQs

Affinity Photo is part of a suite of three apps: Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer, and Affinity Publisher. This versatile suite of apps is made by Serif Europe Ltd. Each app serves a different purpose, and combined, they offer a rather complete set of photo editing, graphic design, and desktop publishing tools. Their capabilities rival Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, and Adobe InDesign respectively.

I’ve been exploring Affinity Photo (AP) as a replacement for Adobe Photoshop (PS), and I’d like to answer some of the questions that I’ve seen being asked quite often on the internet. If you have questions that I have not addressed here, please ask me in the comments. Let’s get started.

Which Operating System Does Affinity Work On?

Affinity Suite (Photo, Designer, and Publisher) is available for Microsoft Windows, Apple macOS, and Apple iPadOS.

Affinity Suite is not available for Android, Chrome OS, and Linux. However, there have been reports of success in running it on Linux/Chrome OS using Wine. We suggest that you use the free trial period to experiment with WINE and Affinity Photo before you make the purchase.

Does Affinity Photo 2 Require High-end Hardware?

Affinity Photo’s hardware requirements begin at a low threshold but quickly scale up to be able to handle large and complex files. As a consequence, Affinity Photo is a great starting point for any person who is learning how to edit and retouch photographs.

Is Affinity Photo 2 Free?

No, Affinity Photo is not Free, but it does have a 30-day free trial. We strongly suggest trying it out before you buy it. Affinity Apps cost less than their Adobe equivalents, and the Universal License makes it even cheaper and more affordable. Unlike Apple, Serif does not have a subscription plan for the Affinity Suite. They are a one-time purchase. That said, the price is very low, given the power that Affinity Photo holds, and in our view, Affinity Photo 2 is definitely worth the price.

All Affinity apps have a 30-day trial period, so you can try them out extensively before deciding whether to buy them or not.

Is Affinity Photo Good For Beginners?

In my opinion, Affinity Photo is a great app for beginners to start learning the basics of photo editing. It is light, with little system overheads, so beginners with slower computers will also be able to use it quite well. It is full-featured, so beginners can use Photoshop tutorials to understand the basics even if the software looks and works slightly differently from Photoshop. There is a good support system and community around Affinity Photo, so people can learn and grow together. And probably most importantly, the price is low, so the barrier to entry without piracy is quite low too.

Can Affinity Photo Use Photoshop Brushes?

Yes, and no… While Affinity Photo can import and use Photoshop Brushes (.abr files), Affinity Photo has different attributes in its brush tool. This means that some brushes won’t work the same way that they do in Photoshop even if they import. This doesn’t mean that you can’t use Photoshop Brushes. It simply means that you may have to reconfigure them once they’re imported.

Can Affinity Photo Use Photoshop Plugins?

Yes, Affinity Photo can use Photoshop Plugins, but not all plugins work seamlessly. That said, many of the popular plugins like Topaz Labs Photo AI, DeNoise AI, Sharpen AI, ON1 Plugins, DxO PhotoLab, Nik Collection (DxO) and Skylum Luminar do work quite well with Affinity Photo as plugins. There are some exceptions though. We’ll dive into that in a detailed article soon.

Is Affinity Photo 2 Cheaper Than Photoshop?

Yes. Affinity Photo is cheaper than Photoshop. Affinity Photo 2 costs $69.99 if you buy it standalone, or $169.99 if you buy the Universal License for all the Affinity Apps. This pricing is without discounts. It can go as low as $40.99 and $99.99 respectively with discounts.

This means that Affinity Photo costs approximately as much as 7 months of the Adobe Photography Plan (Photoshop + Lightroom), as much as about 3 months of the Adobe Photoshop Single App Plan, or just over the cost of the Adobe Creative Cloud All Apps plan for just about 1.5 months.

While it’s not free, Affinity Photo is a very powerful tool, and in our opinion, worth the price.

Is Affinity Photo 2 a One-Time Purchase?

Affinity Photo 2 is only available as a one-time purchase. It is not available as a subscription.

It is only available for purchase at US$69.99 for the Desktop Apps and US$19.99 for the iPad Apps. The new Universal License gives you access to all their apps, including the iPad apps, for a very reasonable one-time purchase price of $169.99. At the time of updating this article, Serif is offering a 40% discount making all the apps even more affordable for graphic designers and photographers.

Is Affinity Photo Easier To Use Than Photoshop?

Affinity Photo is different from Photoshop. It is difficult to say whether it’s easier to harder to use than Photoshop because that depends upon your level of familiarity with Photoshop. For those who have used it for a long time, there can be a period of learning and adaptation that is necessary, but Affinity apps are not really any harder to use.

For most people, Photoshop has the advantage of familiarity and has been around for many years. This means that many photographers are already used to using it, and switching to a new app will take a while.

I would say that some Affinity features are actually more innovative, and easier to use than Photoshop. At the same time, others are not as full-featured as Adobe’s.

Is Affinity Photo Better Than Photoshop?

‘Better’ doesn’t mean the same thing to everyone. Affinity Photo is a very capable application and can do a lot of what Photoshop can, but not everything. It’s also a newer application, having launched in 2015. Photoshop, on the other hand, has been around since 1990, and is 25 years older than Affinity Photo.

Affinity Photo isn’t the same as Photoshop, so it’s probably best that you accept Serif’s 30-day trial offer to evaluate whether it suits your needs.

Does Affinity Photo Support Vector Graphics?

Yes, Affinity Photo does support Vector elements and graphics. However, you’ll have to keep the vectors in a format that retains vector information. Of course, Affinity Designer and Affinity Designer also do support vector graphics.

Can Affinity Photo Open Photoshop PSD files?

Yes, Affinity Photo does open PSD files. It also supports the import and export of PSD files quite well. However, there may be some restrictions when exporting PSD from .afphoto files. Usually, it doesn’t export grouped layers all that well. We wrote a detailed article about Affinity Photo’s PSD support, so check that out.

Can Affinity Photo Open PSD files with Smart Objects and/or Smart Filters?

Affinity Photo’s default is to convert Smart Objects into pixel layers when PSD files are opened. You can change this behavior by turning on “Import PSD smart objects where possible” in Preferences > General. You can then open Smart Objects as embedded documents. However, this affects how Smart Filters are rendered.

Smart Filters are not available for access to Affinity Photo, and so they’re not compatible with Affinity Photo if “Import PSD smart objects where possible” is turned on. However, if it is turned off (AP’s default) Affinity Photo 2 does preserve the resulting edits, and the final result of the smart filters is usable as a pixel layer in Affinity Photo.

So, you’ll have to choose whether you value the editable Smart Objects without Smart Filters, or whether you value the Smart Filters processing, and use that result as a pixel layer.

Does Affinity Photo Support Layers, Groups, and Blend Modes?

Yes, Affinity Photo does have Layers, Liquify, Content-Aware fill, actions, batch processing, presets, layer groups, blending modes, brushes, and much more. These are relatively standard features now, and software that doesn’t support it would actually feel like it was very far behind. Affinity Photo, Designer, and Publisher all feel really full-featured, and on par with their Adobe counterparts, Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign.

Here is a full list of features that Affinity Photo has.

What Does Affinity Photo Do Better Than Photoshop?

In my experience, Affinity Photo handles focus stacking, live filters, live effects, frequency separation, and some types of retouching (this surprised me) better than Photoshop. I have been impressed by the focus stacking output, which is often almost as good as Helicon Focus. I also like their batch processing tool so much that I wrote an article about it.

Is Affinity Photo Faster Than Photoshop?

This is a tricky question to answer. Overall, Affinity Photo does not seem slower than Photoshop, and quite a few processes are actually GPU accelerated as of version 1.10, so those features ‘could’ be faster than Photoshop. However, it would depend on the exact system, its specs, the images being used, layers, etc., to determine whether it’s faster.

You should try it out to see if the features that you use often are faster for you. Is Affinity Photo slow? No, it is not.

Does Affinity Photo 2 Use The GPU As Much As Photoshop?

Affinity Photo does have many GPU-accelerated tasks. So, I think it does use the Graphics Card (GPU) as much as Photoshop… In fact, it feels like some tools that are not GPU accelerated in PS are in fact GPU accelerated in Affinity Photo 2.

Is Affinity Photo 2 Like Lightroom?

Affinity Photo has a RAW image converter built into it, called the develop persona. This is actually quite powerful and incorporates some exciting features like RAW embedding or linking in Affinity Photo .afphoto files (allowing you to change your RAW processing settings later on in the editing process).

However, Affinity Photo is not a Digital Asset Management (DAM) tool geared towards managing and processing a large number of RAW image files from ingest to output like Lightroom or Capture One. Affinity Photo is like Adobe Photoshop and is made for editing individual image files.

Is Affinity Photo 2 As Stable As Photoshop?

The Affinity apps are remarkably stable. Serif isn’t the multi-billion dollar company that Adobe is, but they’ve done well to make the Affinity Suite very stable to use. I have not encountered any issues with crashes in Affinity Photo 2.

When you find Affinity Photo crashing frequently, there’s usually a good reason why its crashing, and a fix.

How Many Computers Can I Install Affinity Photo On?

You can install Affinity Photo on as many computers as you have under your personal control. We’ve answered this question in detail here.

Serif sells Affinity apps based on the platform. So, if you buy Affinity Photo for Windows, then you can install it on all the Windows PCs that you personally own, but will not be able to install it on macOS.

Serif’s new Universal License allows you to install all their apps on either Windows or macOS computers with a single one-time purchase.

Is Affinity Photo A DAM Software?

Affinity Photo is not a Digital Asset Mangement (DAM) software and doesn’t have file management capabilities. A good DAM would be expected to have the ability to organize files, create folders, collections, read & write metadata, and more. This is more in line with the abilities of programs like Adobe Bridge, Adobe Lightroom, Capture One, Photo Mechanic, Luminar, etc.

Can Affinity Photo Edit RAW Files?

Yes, Affinity apps can edit RAW files. In Affinity Photo the Develop Persona allows you to make sophisticated edits to RAW files, and produce high-quality output from them. We wrote a detailed article about Affinity Photo’s support for RAW files.

Can Affinity Photo Edit Video?

No, Affinity Photo can not edit video.

Do You Have Any More Questions?

Please leave a comment, or send me an email and I will be happy to answer your questions as best I can.

If you have tried Affinity Photo and have some feedback, do let me know.

Featured Image: @crystalmariesing via Twenty20