Affinity Photo 2 was just released, together with Affinity Designer 2 and Affinity Publisher 2 for Windows, Mac and iPad. Here are the best new functions and my first impression review of the new software. Should you buy it? Is it worth the Upgrade? Let me know in the comments what you think.
Affinity Photo 2 is a valid competition to Adobe Photoshop at a much lower price. Affinity Photo 2 is very intuitive to use and has some functions even Photoshop is missing. Check it out and maybe use the 40% discount launch offer that is on right now for a limited time.
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44 responses to “Affinity Photo 2 – WORTH the UPGRADE? Should you buy it?”
Are you ready to upgrade to Affinity Photo2? Let me know in the comments!
I read a few of the comments. If anything, many have paid roughly $110 to $165 for this suite for this subscription and there was extra for the Ipad versions. Now, it's $99 for both desktops and iOs with the new features. Many are asking for many other things like AI features and whatever. BULLCRAP. YES! It is worth it! Please don't be one of these clowns to buy only one program.
I bought Corel Draw because of the warping features the Designer did not have. Now, I am glad to see this. The upgrade to Publisher was nice also. The new features in Photo was beyond my use. The Layer tab enhancements and toolbars are appreciated.
This is far more affordable than Adobe and Corel.
so is there a special upgrade price for everyone who has already bought the 1st versions. Or do they pay the same with those that are buying for the 1st time and are not already paying customers??
one of the unmentioned points is that the package size has gone fromn 1GB to 100MB…. a 90% decrease in diskspace. so my affinity disk space went from just over 3 GB to 340Mb. Logic tells me that with that decrease in code some things are going to be a LOT faster. The other point is Affinity is comparable with Adobe Creative Suite. So the Affinity pricing is a fraction of Adobe.
It’s also worth keeping in mind that when paying for v2, you’ll also be paying for a few future major updates! For the universal V2, that’s like probably one or two months of Adobe CC.
It’s like they are charging you a $7 a month subscription retroactively if you bought 2 years ago and don’t get the 40% off promo. Discontinuing support for version 1 is kind of a dick move. There is no guarantee how many years before this version loses support, and the majority of features are only UI changes. I’m skipping mostly out of protest because this feels too much like the road to subscription pricing.
I'll stick with Lightroom
I see another improvement which is performance. On the previous version I had performance issues when working with rather big files, around 100mpix and couple of gigs in weight. Next day I see new version, installed it and to my surprise no glitches at all! Tested it multiple times and I am really happy with it! New features looks ok, but performance pushed me to purchase v2.
I'm probably gonna get to show my support for them adobe is shitty now and if we grow them then they maybe will get an animation program started.
I know many users of the leased PhotoShop versions who could just as well be using PS4 for all they use it for. this is a bargain for them but they won't because only PS allows you to alter colour… (yes I know.. it is depressing. 🙈🙈 However although I have versions 1 of Photo and Designer I bought the combination 3 pack for just £15 over the price of Vs 2 of them purely because Publisher now exports to PDF which Vs 1 didn't. I still used PagePlus for its PDF output and now I can use Publisher 2. bargain.
YES! Totally worth it!! I get enough new features to enhance my workflow as well as staying off any subscription lists. Rome wasn't built in a day. The other features will be coming. So happy to have such a wonderful upgrade. Looking forward to getting comfy with new tools.
For these features I'm really not sure if it's worth the upgrade. I have all V1 softwares, and was disappointed seeing there's no discount for V1 owners, even more so seeing there aren't really that many new features. I was hoping they'd at least fix the displacement map (I wrote feedback on their forums many years ago complaining about it) but it seems it still doesn't work correctly without a time consuming workaround :/ It looks like Designer has had more meaningful changes than Photo so maybe I'll end up upgrading that software in the future, as I don't have the money to do so now, sadly.
As a creative business owner, this is a no-brainer. I think its great. I do not replace Adobe with that bundle but its getting closer. The main reason right now is ecosystems in general. Adobe libraries shared with multiple teams, etc.
With the new features you pay back the upgrade of the entire suite in 1h of work
I didn’t hesitate to buy the universal. Im mostly excited for it being an official windows 11 release since V1 crashed all time on Win 11. Finally better PDF and font support, V1 was plagued with software incompatibilities. I like the old icons that were more distinctive… now they are so color muted and look too tiny. Nice that they added the last used swatches to the color wheel but I would prefer a brush pallet. You’re right about it needing AI selections but I use Luminar Neo for that.
I shared your disappointment at the lack of AI/Subject selection as that would have been a major benefit. It's hard to believe that they did not do it given that so many other programs are nowadays (C1 didnt either in their very recent upgrade so a double disappointment lol. That said I have still bought V2 of AP as it's such a good price and I remain optimistic they will add further features as time goes on.
I upgraded as soon as I got home from work last night. I think they did indeed improve the Highlights/Shadows function in Develop mode. And from my little bit of exploring, also the Exposure slider. I used to just develop with nothing but lens correction because it was so bad but this looked a lot more pleasing. To me, that alone was worth the price of upgrade, especially when you add in the non-destructive editing in Develop now. Add in a vastly improved Liquify persona, and I'm actually quite happy. Affinity isn't perfect, but considering this is only ver. 2 I'm very excited to see what they come up with next. Adobe has a lot more money to throw at problems, but they don't offer enough moreof what I need to make PS even vaguely worth it for me.
Hello there, do you if batch RAW processing is now available?
New UI looks relatively the same as V1, don’t know why Affinity is marketing it as such a massive overhaul. And I prefer the V1 icons, they are definitely more recognizable as was mentioned in the video.
I don't think Photo will ever catch Photoshop. But Designer is now like a few features away from making the unintuitive, yet still comprehensive Illustrator, almost redundant.
I've already purchased Affinity Photo 2. The best thing is that it's still a one-time purchase 🙂
waiting for your vid on Designer 2, so happy about the new DEFORM GROUPS feature
I don't know about Photo as I don't tend to use it, but for Publisher it's a game changer. There are some great changes to Designer as well.
At 40% off .. I currently have Designer and Photo … I think I'll give those to my 11 year old (so she can use something better than gimp) and get the full suite of V2.
100 bucks? No.
Actually got it for free since I bought Affinity Photo 1 in the past few months 🥳
Is the update free from version 1.10?
I just bought it without any further discussion or research. You gotta love them for giving us such value in such a low price compared to the competition !
So no Subscription BUT also no upgrades to Affinity Photo 1 which is kinda against what I got Affinity 1 for. Affinity's solution to this is just release a "new" version every couple of years and charge again for it. Don't worry folks, this will be a subscription service before you know it.
Bought the whole package imidiately. This is bargain and no brainer for me since I'm completely on Affinity for few years. Despite the lack of some "Adobe features", the package offers full professional support. If you want AI, 3D and other "toys"… Well, you know the price of it 🙂
3:11 – There is the way to scale UI text (Preferences > User Interface > Font UI size > Default / Large) but this is it. Not really "fully scalable UI".
I've still got 99% of version 1 to get my head around 😉
Meh. Luminosity masks and other masks great. No Ai geez?
I already own Affinity Photo, but now I need to buy it again to use v2??? That's terrible customer experience, regardless of the discounted offer
Every new/upgrade has some pro and con. Overall i like the new Affinity photo2 and it saves me from the +150euro/year from LR/PS, so for me it's a yes!
I mostly use Photo for drawing and designs, but now that Designer has the perspective tool I wonder if Photo will worth the upgrade for my part, is there anything new around the brushes? Can you add more FX like in designer? Is the Stabilisator brush has involve? (I wish it'd be more like procreate)
Not really, in my opinion. It's a great offer for newcomers but I wouldn't consider it "worth" $100 at all.
To be honest, Affinity Designer is the one of the 3 products that came out swinging the hardest. Also, the fact that we have drag & drop FXs now is something worth the upgrade for me. I was tired of group nesting just for a stupid outline. The biggest thign here is the bundled discount. All 3 apps for all platforms for 100? I'm broke atm, and I couldn't let that pass.
Your criticism is as valid as it can get. There should've been far more for photo, something similar to subject removal like photoshop has. Let's hope we get more substantial updates regarding AI, but more importantly, tooling. We need an API to make tools for our own use. I hope Serif reads this and have some plans because that'd be one of the best things to happen to the suit or at least to Photo.
Bad advertising, all platform is a lie until they dont add linux version. 👎👎👎👎
on iMac ok but on ipad I can't automatically import everything I had in the v1 version as assets, brushes and lut created by me. do you have any idea how to do it? a thousand thanks
I upgraded yesterday. You are not just paying for this release only but for all upgrades to come. Affinity now has a financial impulse again to invest in better features so at v3 years down the road i can decide if its worth it again to upgrade or keep v2. Also i found all the apps supe responsive at v2. Great deal, I am brand loyal obv but lets check V3 yearrssss later 🙂 Glad this is behind us all now.
Great that you point out the things that are missing from Affinity Photo that are available in the Adobe suite. I have the same problem I compare my Vauxhall Corsa with a Rolls-Royce Boat Tail
With my pure hate to Adobe I`ll support Affinity for no reason
I’m planning to buy it to support the people at Affinity. I want to support them and their business model. Many other SW developers have gone to a subscription model for their products, but Affinity has not. It is a top notch product and they’ve been making free updates to their software for years and deserve to get paid for their efforts.
Seems more stable to me ,you can now mask layers inside groups and things don't collapse for once (could have been a bug but sure is one that stuck on my pc for years ). For 50 bux it's an insta buy for a hobbyist. I reeeeeeally don't like GIMP.