Pixelmator ML tools seem impressive indeed… nice tip - thanks
I was hopeful that they would replace the AUTO button that I had in Lightroom but found Pixelmator Pro ML buttons not to give the same quality results.
FWIW I bought all versions of Affinity this weekend, and I have started to do a folder with Publisher that I recently have done in ID.
So far, I like it! 
If it works for me 100% I don’t know yet, but I’ll know in a month.
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I just bought Pixelmator Pro. It was on sale. I also have Affinity.
I opened up Pixelmator Pro a couple of days ago and was off and running. It is intuitive. My only concern is you cannot save it and then open it with any other app.
Affinity I bought months ago. Periodically I open it and cannot figure out how to use it.
To me, there is no comparison.
I understand there are videos and such but I am not really interested when I can easily use Pixelmator Pro or Adobe Photoshop Elements. I am ready to trash Affinity because it reminds me of the money I wasted. The learning curve is rather ludicrous.
As you discovered, the Save command only allows saving your work in Pixelmator Pro’s own native “.pxd” file format, which is not useful with other apps. But you can Export from the File menu to any number of other formats including Photoshop’s “.psd” file format and the rather universal “.tiff” file format.
P.S. Don’t trash Affinity. When you outgrow Pixelmator Pro you’ll be glad it is waiting there for you. 
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How do I export the file? From within Pixelmator Pro? I cannot even figure out how to get another file in there aside from copy and paste.
Yeah, I won’t trash it. Lol. I just wish it was even a little bit intuitive. I don’t mind reading about apps but for some reason I don’t like watching them on YouTube or elsewhere.
Just choose Export from the File menu in Pixelmator Pro, select your desired file format from the dropdown, and specify a name and a location for the photo.
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It really worked! Thank you!
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Im an Adobe person but I did pick up Pixelmator Pro for the Mac on sale for $20. I look forward to testing it out. I would grab the Affinity stuff if it gets down to the $25 range again…
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Affinity is on sale for the iPad or at least it was. It often goes on sale. (I wasn’t too thrilled with Things 3. I broke down and bought it for my Mac a couple of months ago and what do they do? Offer a discount for Black Friday. I don’t think I have ever seen them discount Things. But I do use it. I put all sorts of links I barely pursue but intrigue me in the moment.)
Affinity’s website says it is on sale for $10 for the iPad.
It is also on sale for the Mac. $37.99
Is it that Mac Affinity is easier to use on the Mac than on the iPad? Maybe?
I consider myself a pretty good amateur photographer and I have been into photography for decades. But I suppose these apps are not about taking quality photos but rather processing them later.
I often find the Mac apps can do so much more than the iPad ones and in that they are a significantly less frustrating.
Just noticed your post.
Web, I bought it maybe 6 months ago. They didn’t have a free trial. But the price had been reduced. I appealed to Apple right away and they typically rule in my favor but I suppose saying that it had an extreme learning curve wasn’t the best argument. LOL!.
Bottomline it: it makes me feel like some sort of dope and there are loads of people dopier than me out there. I mean, in all seriousness, didn’t they test it on a range of people? To me it is poorly designed. As a teacher, I don’t understand how they could just leave it like that! You just don’t make things more difficult than necessary. It doesn’t show how clever they are at all.
It takes preparation to organize material so that people can readily understand. I am sure it is capable of a lot from what I gathered from the people here. But there has to be tens of thousands of people who will never find out and if it is that capable, well, it’s a shame.
Maybe they wrote it first for Windows.
They made Photo like Photoshop in most aspects, so professional designers would feel instantly at home. I was a Photoshop user prior to Affinity Photo, and was able to use most of the features without any problem. So, it’s not badly designed, it’s just a profesional grade tool that is similar to other tools in the industry.
When I first learned Photoshop I had to buy a book and invest some time. No powerful professional grade tool is zero effort because what it can do is complex and it is capable of much more advanced editing than consumer-focussed tools like Pixelmator (which I also like but find limiting in terms of features).
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Rob, it is interesting that you mention Photoshop. I just downloaded it tonight and was pretty much right at home with it. I don’t think there is a big learning curve at all. In fact, I also found it easier to use than Pixelmator Pro- considerably easier.
I have no problem buying a manual/ guide. I use to read them cover to cover when they were printed and not online. In fact, I would welcome that. And in order to use an app extensively one has to invest some time. I’d be among one of the last individuals to quibble about that.
Quite frankly I can never recall encountering an app that is quite like Affinity Photo- so user unfriendly and difficult. I could not figure out the most basic aspects at all. I’d open it up periodically. I have visited their website. I couldn’t get it from the get-go. And if I recall right, the workbooks are expensive.
Do not assume I do not know what I am doing just because I find an app you appreciate to be so user unfriendly. I also checked the feedback and there were plenty of people with the same complaint.
In order to make an app, they should try to make it at least decipherable. Instead the staff answers comments about the learning curve telling the consumer to go study. I mean, duh. If they are getting that many complaints about the same thing it would be advisable that they give due consideration to making it more user friendly. Rather than we threw this app together, assuming people will head for all our videos in order to educate themselves.
It would take considerable planning for an app of the caliber that is being suggested to make it useful for the average person to whom they are marketing it. It would also take considerable planning to make it useful to people who are experienced with photo apps like Photoshop NOT to have to head to their website to watch a string of videos as soon as they open it.
This all could have been avoided had someone insisted that the app be useful from the get-go. This is not rocket science. Careful planning would have made the app viable to a heckuva lot more people.
What they appear to essentially be doing is marketing the app very cheaply and getting a staggering number of people to buy it. But they don’t appear to care that many people are having difficulty with it. I am relatively certain that there are simple things they could do, eg, make it easy to IMPORT YOUR PHOTO. C’mon!
It likely bothers me more than people from other professions. Idk.
I am happy the consensus here is that it is a fine app. I don’t doubt that it is. But someone should have spoken up and said that there will be a considerable amount of people being unable to use it because it is so darn confusing. All I am saying is that it shouldn’t be convoluted. You buy an app and you want to use it.
A good example of an app with a learning curve is Keyboard Maestro or rather it is rather heady. I use to love macros but I haven’t had a computer for almost a decade, just iPads. I tried it out and I was like “Omg”! But I played with it until I got a few macros going. The developers thought it out ahead of time, knowing that the processes are difficult. Then I went out and bought MacSparky’s Guide and soon I’ll be able to get at least as far as I was before.
I trashed Affinity Photo. So is it crap or is it awesome? Depends on who you talk to, right?
In all your posts I don’t see a mention of you reading Affinity Photo’s excellent resource under its Help menu. I have returned time and again to it. I have learned so much from reading and re-reading it.
Thanks! If you are talking within the app, I am sure I accessed their Help. I honestly just get headaches from trying to use that app and maybe it just is a bad fit for me. Idk. I could not get the simplest things done. I do appreciate your trying to help, I truly do. I’ve just given up for now. I’ll be able to download it at a later date. I’ll make a note on my calendar to be sure and use their Help feature. 
It is in my calendar. TY.
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Giving up on an app for now is always an appropriate response especially when you have another app in Pixelmator Pro (and now Photoshop) that you like. As a teacher you know that new concepts and skills often don’t immediately click with a student but then unexpectedly, one day, they do. 
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Boy, do you have that right! That was music to my ears “OH! Now I get it!”
Genuinely curious - isn’t this just File → Open (opening a new document) or File → Place (embedding a new file into an existing document)? I’m about 99% sure those menu commands are identical to Photoshop.
I think that may be the core of the issue. They’re not trying to market to the average person. Their target market is professional graphic designers.
FWIW, I came from Photoshop as a pretty advanced user and had the exact reverse experience from you - Pixelmator made zero sense, and Affinity “just clicked”. 
But another thing to consider, at a deeper level, is underlying design philosophy. Affinity Photo is committed to a non-destructive workflow, whereas Photoshop’s workflow is destructive. And for a sizable class of professional designer, the non-destructive workflow - while it carries a significant learning curve - is a huge benefit.
This can be a huge frustration for people (including a sizable number of people that inhabit Affinity forums) that want an app that works just like Photoshop, but cheaper - but it’s not going to get fixed, because it’s not actually broken. It’s just different.
As a web designer, I’m reminded of the conversation I have with many of my clients.
Client: “My mom doesn’t like my website.”
Me: “Is your mom in your target market?”
Client: “No.”
Me: “Is your mom an expert in marketing or visual design?”
Client: “No.”
Me: “Then your mom’s opinion doesn’t matter. Go talk to your customers.”
From what you’ve indicated in this and other posts, I suspect you may not be in Affinity’s target market.
Which doesn’t mean it doesn’t completely suck when you buy an app and discover that it’s hard to figure out. But one of the great things about the modern app economy is that there are so many options available, from so many design perspectives, that you’re almost guaranteed to be able to find something that “just clicks” for you.
Glad you seem to have landed on that with Photoshop.
And just as a note, the “does it click” test is one of the many reasons I pretty much never buy an app without looking at the trial version if there’s one available. That’s what I did with Affinity back a ways - downloaded the trial, tried working on one of my projects, and then went right back and bought it.
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Whoa! Back up a minute. I am sorry I posted anything about it. Truly. However, it is safe to say that Affinity is not realigning their app to help along the consumer who is perplexed. Read their feedback.
I have found out that if I am confused about something inevitably there are plenty of people right behind me. And I am not ashamed to admit it.
I have never indicated that I am in expert in visual design or marketing but I am an expert in teaching and education. (And I raised an expert in visual design, for what it is worth, if anything.) There is nothing to be lost by making the app easy to understand or at very least decipherable. It should not take a designer to be able to figure out how to get to Square One in this app.
Again, it is not rocket science.
I thought Photoshop would have a similar learning curve based on what has been written here. It doesn’t and that is an app for the professional. Someone thought it important enough to give it some thought. Obviously.
Btw, I have the iPad app.
What harm is there in trying to make an app user friendly even though so-called experts might be very comfortable with it as-is? Would they have to overhaul the entire app? I doubt it. You would know that far better than I would.
There is a trick in Affinity to even importing a photo so you can begin unlike every other photo app I have had and I’ve had loads of them.
What is the purpose of reinventing the wheel?
But I have not run across another app like this of any type. Thankfully. And I just trashed it as there ARE plenty of alternatives and I’ll try again at a later date. Maybe it will finally click and maybe it won’t. But there was absolutely nothing I found intriguing enough to spend a lot of time learning something I certainly know how to do already. At the very least, I already readily understand how to get started, how to get “into” it although I am not an expert. Only it was needlessly complex. Why? I strongly suspect someone was not paying attention. Whatever. Fix it. Improve it.
If the material is not presented clearly you cut off a lot about the app that the consensus indicates is a fine app. It may have the potential to be one. I don’t doubt it for a minute. I am sorry I cannot use it. I’d dedicate that time that people spend on Photoshop instead as I am already enthused about it.
Affinity needs to sit down and make things clearer. That is all I am saying. EVERYONE starts out as a beginner. So what is the big deal then?
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I think there’s a miscommunication here. I’m not attacking you with my example. Just noting that a company needs to know who its user base / target market is, and then cater to them specifically - frequently to the exclusion of others.
I’m assuming that a company like Serif (who makes Affinity), that’s been around for over 30 years, probably has a pretty good idea who its user base / target market is.
Design is a very, very fickle thing.
I had a website project once where we put together a site. After half a dozen years it was getting dated, the business fundamentals were evolving, and the site just didn’t suit the business properly anymore. We sat down and brainstormed how to make the common tasks more accessible, how to make information easier to find, and a number of other things. We got customer feedback to make sure we were on the right page. Then we redesigned the least amount we had to to get us to those goals, so as to not disturb the user experience unnecessarily. This was not an ill-conceived launch.
Then we launched.
The phone rang off the hook complaining that things were worse, that the site was “completely unusable”, and that we needed to bring the old site back. Long-term, loyal customers. Lots of them. And they were pretty ticked off.
We immediately nuked the redesign and reverted.
Change of any sort always has a risk, and the bigger the change the bigger the risk.
Case in point - it used to be that every new release of Photoshop was met with both a number of people who were happy about new features and ease-of-use, and a firestorm of complaints about how they “moved everything around”.
It’s impossible to make everybody happy, and in that kind of environment, you have to know who your core group is - and give them as close to what they want as possible. 