Somebody using Affinity Photo? Need samples

[Mario]

Hi,

it seems Affinity offers no trial version...? You have to buy and if you don't like it you get your money back within 30 days...
Too much hassle for now.

I want to add the Affinity file formats to IMatch.
I have a bought version of Designer, but I would need some sample files from Affinity Photo.
They also have no direct email contact to reach them privately, they only do Facebook, Twitter and their forums. Sigh.

1. A fresh created JPEG and a TIFF file if possible. If Affinity Photo allows you to put in Metadata, please do so and save it in the file.

2. Also, a .afphoto file created from a RAW file. Also with metadata. And with embedded thumbnail/preview if this is supported.

The files can be small (a few hundred pixels), so you should be able to attach them to your replies.

Also: If there is some info about file extensions they use (different from .afdesign and .affphoto) this info would be useful.

Thanks in Advance.

[pajaro]

Hi,

it seems Affinity offers no trial version...? You have to buy and if you don't like it you get your money back within 30 days...
Too much hassle for now.

I want to add the Affinity file formats to IMatch.
I have a bought version of Designer, but I would need some sample files from Affinity Photo.
They also have no direct email contact to reach them privately, they only do Facebook, Twitter and their forums. Sigh.

1. A fresh created JPEG and a TIFF file if possible. If Affinity Photo allows you to put in Metadata, please do so and save it in the file.

2. Also, a .afphoto file created from a RAW file. Also with metadata. And with embedded thumbnail/preview if this is supported.

The files can be small (a few hundred pixels), so you should be able to attach them to your replies.

Also: If there is some info about file extensions they use (different from .afdesign and .affphoto) this info would be useful.

Thanks in Advance.

I have a beta version that still works. If you think these files would be any good I can upload them.

[Mario]

I doubt there will be much of a relevant difference between the Beta and the final version. Thanks.

[pajaro]

I doubt there will be much of a relevant difference between the Beta and the final version. Thanks.

All right, I will upload the files in the evening when I get back to my computer.

[ovrevid]

Hi, Mario

You can download some samples here, including the original RAW and XMP https://www.dropbox.com/sh/179stklnojxu5ob/AABqgHL0yW_FSYtDkHYOAwQLa?dl=0

Not sure about extensions other that .afphoto as I'm a fresh Affinit Photo user, but it doesn't seem to be able to save any additional formats. I have included a screenshot of the export-dialog, which show the export-formats available.

[Mario]

Hi, Mario

You can download some samples here, including the original RAW and XMP https://www.dropbox.com/sh/179stklnojxu5ob/AABqgHL0yW_FSYtDkHYOAwQLa?dl=0

Downloaded, thanks.

IMatch 5.7.6 can index and manage Affinity Designer and Photo files by default now.

No previews or cache images so far.
I have posted a question about the file format specification in the Affinity forum, maybe there is something I can use.
I have found a PNG tag inside the .afdesign file so maybe they store a preview or thumbnail in it...

ExifTool also does not know how to handle these files. Maybe we can figure something out and add support for these files.

[Mario]

I got a reply from the developers of Affinity to my question about file format specification and metadata specification:

https://affinity.serif.com/forum/index.php?/topic/31716-file-format-specification/

I'm afraid our developers have no plans to make our apps file formats public, so that third party apps cans handle them. As we are planning on developing our own DAM application to manage them.

Apparently Affinity will develop their own DAM (yet another one) and for that reason and other reasons will not publish their file format specification. Well, another company who tries to lock us in with proprietary file formats. Not liked.

[pajaro]

Hi, Mario

You can download some samples here, including the original RAW and XMP https://www.dropbox.com/sh/179stklnojxu5ob/AABqgHL0yW_FSYtDkHYOAwQLa?dl=0

Downloaded, thanks.

IMatch 5.7.6 can index and manage Affinity Designer and Photo files by default now.

No previews or cache images so far.
I have posted a question about the file format specification in the Affinity forum, maybe there is something I can use.
I have found a PNG tag inside the .afdesign file so maybe they store a preview or thumbnail in it...

ExifTool also does not know how to handle these files. Maybe we can figure something out and add support for these files.

Mario,

Did you get all the files you needed, or should I upload more using Affinity Photo Beta? To be honest, so far I was not able to figure out how to embed metadata into the files 

[Mario]

I have two sample files and I now know that IMatch 5 can index and display the files.

ExifTool does not support them (yet) and looking at the files in a hex editor did not reveal any metadata.

Does anybody know if Affinity Photo can add metadata? Titles? Descriptions? Keywords?
I searched the user forums for XMP but found nothing.


I don't want to buy a product I don't need just to figure it out.

[jch2103]

I also acquired Affinity, but haven't really used it yet. If you still need files, I'll set some up.

[Mario]

I have some files already.

What I would need is some info about how they deal with metadata. Can you edit titles, descriptions, keywords? What about XMP support?

[jch2103]

What I would need is some info about how they deal with metadata. Can you edit titles, descriptions, keywords? What about XMP support?

Apparently no editing of metadata, except GPS coordinates. See https://affinity.serif.com/forum/index.php?/topic/19320-file-infokeywordsmetadatacopyright-in-affinity-photo/ although I think this pertains to the Mac version (because Window version wasn't out when this was posted). Also see screenshot from Affinity Preferences about DAM applications (not sure I understand what they're doing).

I ran a sample NEF through Affinity and created an Affinity .aphoto file and an Affinity jpg export. The Affinity jpg export doesn't include information from the NEF XMP file, from what I can see, but does include some other metadata.

Here's a link to those files along with DxO sidecar and DxO jpg export and the original NEF and XMP file: https://www.sugarsync.com/pf/D6380252_62506476_9414413

Given their apparent current lack of metadata support, it seems strange (or maybe not) that they're planning a separate DAM package...

[Mario]

Thanks for the files. I'm downloading right now.

I could also not find out more about metadata. They don't seem to support. Which probably loses them a lot of users who need metadata.

Or, they save it all up for when they release a "DAM edition" or something and you need that to view / edit metadata...strange.

[Jingo]

Personally - I think these software developers are missing the boat when they create their own closed formats for purposes of "non-destructive" editing... not sure why anyone would want to stay locked into a product that doesn't provide the ability to take their metadata with them in their images?  Its the reason why I stick with Photoshop and Capture One... happy to have all my RAW edits done in C1, export to JPG and then import JPG's to IMatch for metadata.... JPG's are just great for me, I get to see all my RAW edits and they load up lightening fast in IMatch. 

[Mario]

A proprietary file format is not per-se´ bad. The ability to store both vector and photo data in the same file format allows them to do some cool things.

As I outlined in my post on their forum, I would just wish for a WIC codec (preferable) or at least that they support the standard Windows "thumbnail" interfaces. We could then also see thumbnails in Windows Explorer, IMatch and other software. A WIC codec would be better of course.

And of course they should support EXIF, GPS and XMP data. Especially XMP. This is the standard format since 10 years. I doubt you can use Affinity Photo in any kind of professional workflow - at least the current version. No way to input any metadata, not even keywords or a title as it seems.

Neither in Designer. And I really like Designer. I re-did all my logos, brands and stuff in vectors already :-)

[jch2103]

And of course they should support EXIF, GPS and XMP data. Especially XMP. This is the standard format since 10 years. I doubt you can use Affinity Photo in any kind of professional workflow - at least the current version. No way to input any metadata, not even keywords or a title as it seems.

From what I could see, if you export a JPG from Affinity Photo, it will contain much of the metadata assigned to the original raw file, although it apparently doesn't pick up metadata from the xmp file. The Help does contain a reference to a GPS Panel, but it's apparently only available in the Mac version(!).

My guess is that Affinity views Affinity Photo as a kind of Photoshop designed only as a image processing tool; however, you can get to metadata panels in Photoshop when you dig deep enough. Adobe seems to see Lightroom as their primary metadata tool(?).

For comparison, DxO Pro 11 has virtually no metadata tools, but it does transparently output metadata from raw files into output files. Consequently, it works very well in an IMatch workflow.

[suttonbg]

Mario,

I puchased a copy of Affinity Photo to have a somewhat protracted play with it over Christmas. Regarding metadata, in the Help file, under Export Options, it states " Embed metadata—when selected, any raster image's original metadata is preserved in the exported file. If this option is off, all original metadata is removed."

With respect to GPS data, the Help file shows: "The Location panel allows you to review and set the GPS metadata of your raw image.

Raw images from cameras with built-in GPS capability will show the image location in the Location panel. For all other cameras, the image location can be set manually from the panel instead."

And that, basically, is all it says about metadata.

Do you have enough sample files? Happy to generate some for you.

Regards,

Bruce

[Mario]

It would be useful to know how they deal with maker notes. Many camera vendors store lots of useful data in the maker notes (e.g. lens type, white balance, bracketing) and if they only copy the core EXIF record, this data will be gone. So far it seems that metadata is not very high on their prio list.

ExifTool does not support their native file formats yet. But considering their .af* formats as RAW formats, IMatch will work happily with XMP data in sidecar files. This means you can manage their files and proper XMP metadata in IMatch.

If you export a file from Affinity to a standard JPEG/PSD/... format and they export the Exif data of the original file into that export file, IMatch will see the EXIF data if course and integrate it in the standard way (copying it into the corresponding EXIF tags in XMP etc.).

I've improved the capabilities of IMatch regarding thumbnail/preview extraction using Windows functions by adding support for a secondary method introduced in Windows 8. This allows me to pull at least a thumbnail / small preview from the .af* files. And I can add and edit XMP metadata just like for any other RAW file.

Here's how IMatch now handles .af* files: