Affinity Photo is a new Photoshop competitor for Apple users. While there a many features that mirror the functionality inside Photoshop, a notable one is that you can open, edit and save Photoshop PSD files inside Affinity Photo.
It provides a layer-based workflow with a variety of image processing capabilities in RGB, CMYK, Greyscale and LAB color spaces with full 16-bit per channel editing.
Affinity Photo touts its speed for Mac users as it takes advantage of Apple tech like OpenGL, Grand Central Dispatch and Core Graphics. “The whole ethos around the Affinity range is producing incredibly fast, sophisticated tools that are focused to provide a productive workflow for creative and photography professionals” said Ashley Hewson, Managing Director of Serif. “We want to create game changing products, and we believe that Affinity Photo truly is a revolutionary photo editor.”
One of the other key attractions of Affinity Photo is the price. Launching at $39.99, it marks a significant discount over Photoshop. While the price goes up to $49.99 after July 23, it is a one-time price for a perpetual license of the product – something that is highlighted in marketing content in emails and its website.
Many users have been waiting for someone come along at some point and offer a competitor to Adobe after its move to subscription licensing its software, and this looks like a solid first step in that direction. The initial reviews on the Mac App Store are a solid five star average rating and at a $39.99 launch price, it’s hard to resist taking it for a spin if you are a Mac user.
You can find Affinity Photo here on the Mac App Store.
Any plans for a Windows version?