Odds are that it will remain on Steam, but they will simply no longer provide updates to the software. So it will likely become legacy software like CS6 was before the Adobe Suite went full subscription.
Serifâs Affinity Suite is a pretty good replacement for Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. They are not as well developed as Adobeâs software, granted, but they have some advantages and are not as bloated with stuff making them run pretty well. I especially love their StudioLinked feature that allows you to use the vast majority of features from Photo and Designer inside Publisher. Super convenient.
I tried the trial version of Affinity Photo, but something about it didnât feel right to me. I guess it was a similar feeling to when users of Modo and C4D tried Blender before 2.8. Overall it didnât feel as well designed as Photoshop. For now, my old CS5 disc serves me fine.
Look at Affinity again. Iâve completely replaced Photoshop with it, and wonât go back. I donât even have Photoshop installed on my current machine. Affinity Photo, when you consider the price, is far and away the best choice.
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I purchased substance designer and substance painter indie.
will they try to take my license?
or if i have to reinstall then what?there is no key really they activate online.
i do however have local copies of the licenses.
ffs what next?
Although Affinity Photo is quite okay, it suffers from a slew of smaller and bigger frustrating workflow issues and missing basic take-for-granted features. The workflow is somewhat stunted in my opinion. It always feels very clunky to me.
Although I use Affinity Photo for its HDR and focus stacking, I do my main image editing for 98% in PhotoLine. Its layer stack runs rings around Affinity Photo. It is also far more non-destructive while editing - even more so than Photoshop. And it does things no other image editor on the market is capable of.
PhotoLine is the most underrated advanced image editor on the market today. Try it, you might like its workflow. I was an avid Photoshop user since version 3.5, and switched to PhotoLine + Krita/ClipStudio Paint + OpenToonz. Interestingly enough when I have to work in Photoshop at my workplace it feels very slow and inefficient to work in compared to PhotoLine.
(And the developers actively support WINE on Linux - even with colour management: switch to LittleCMS)
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I agree. PhotoLine is great. I switched to PhotoLine several years ago and never looked back.
I like the Affinity products, but I agree that theyâre lacking some features. A lack of extensibility is another gripe of mine. The community would quickly fill in the feature gaps if theyâd wisen up here.
Never heard of PhotoLine. Howâs the vector toolset?
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I recently got Corel Painter and Paintshop Pro at Humble Bundle for $25. It also came with a bunch of brushes and addons. Not saying either of those can replace Photoshop, but it will do for me since Iâm not going to subscribe to Adobe for personal stuff. I still use PS3 at home and it does just fine for what I need.
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I hope people wake up someday soon and realize adobe can never be trusted. I used CS6 for years and one day it said my license was no longer valid. Oh well, see ya adobe.
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I do not feel bad at all about buying a product and using a crack to authenticate it. It is mine at that point and I should not need permission to use it.
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That stuff Adobe pulled with CS6 should frankly be illegal. Invalidating perpetual licenses when you bought it fair and square is so unjust and unfair to legitimate customers.
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Wuh? Affinity Photo has plugin support. It even has compatibility with a handful of Photoshop plugins.
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Why do I still get notices for Flash updates? I installed one the other day and my virus software flagged it after it crashed my browser.
What a joke Adobe is. How long before they integrate Substance into Photoshop and burn the remnants to the ground?
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PhotoLine has a scripting interface:
Standard Photoshop plugins are supported. NIK and FIlterForge work. GâMIC is also supported as an external round-trip app.
And PhotoLine is one of the few image editors out there which support live Photoshop plugins: convert a layer(group) to a Placeholder layer (Smart Object equivalent in PL) and if the PS plugin supports it (same as in Photoshop) the plugin effect remains live and non-destructive. NIK works like this for example.
Actions are available, and generally work better in my experience than the ones in Photoshop.
Standard vector tool set. Also Wacom-pressure sensitive inking is possible with the vector brush, and the latest betas include a vector points group transformation tool which was really the main thing missing for precise work.
Curves can be dragged with the vector tool (btw, in the latest 21.906 beta this will crash the app: the devs added new handle mirroring functionality, which allows for parallel dragging of selected pointsâ handles!)
Vector objects remain live (although no on-screen widgets), and the gradient and pattern tools are excellent (far better than most). Vector patterns are supported (Affinity still doesnât support these), and can be combined with bitmaps as well. The on-screen widgets to control gradient and patterns are the most usable I have seen so far.
Each vector object may have stackable strokes and fills assigned to it. Itâs a bit hidden, but double-clicking the âVectorâ entry in the layer properties panel adds as many as you want.
Very important: the user has full control over whether or not anti-aliasing is used on a per-document and/or vector object basis, and whether pixel snapping is applied (again, per-vector layer control). The view can be switched between pixel and vector rendering.
Booleans are non-destructive as well and implemented in a rather smart way: a boolean group is used in the layer stack, and these boolean groups may be used within additional higher-level boolean groups as well. The blend mode then is used to indicate the boolean operation. Itâs a unique approach, and works almost like Cinema4D in this respect.
PhotoLine doesnât really differentiate that much between vector or bitmap layers. Adjustment layers, effects, layer effects: all are applicable to both. Layer masks (which behave like regular layers and can consist of as many grouped layers as required) support both vectors, bitmaps, and a combination of both, as do clipping masks.
Bitmap objects can be converted to vector by simply changing the layer type in the layer properties panel. And vice versa.
Various vector effects are available (roughen, twisting, zigzag, etc.) and vector object layers can be transformed any way you like (unlike Affinity).
A simple 3d extrusion and lathe live effect is possible (but somewhat limited).
A live non-destructive morph feature for vector layers is also an option. And vector layers/groups may be non-destructively distorted and even non-destructively liquified (obviously in this last case it is automatically converted to raster).
Excellent SVG support. Great PDF support. EPS support if the Ghostscript library is installed, and with that PDF files can be placed âas-isâ - something not even possible in Affinity Publisher. DXF and various other vector file formats are supported.
Also unique: when InkScape is defined as an external application to send vector layers to, PhotoLine will keep the link âliveâ - which means that when the user updates and saves the edits, PhotoLine will keep updating the vector layer. (Though this is not as nice as Affinityâs room app switcher, of course).
The only major things missing for me are custom vector/bitmap brushes like the ones in Illustrator and a gradient mesh type option. That, and on-screen widget controls which are missing here and there.
The main attraction is really the seamless transition between vector and bitmap editing in PhotoLine. There are almost no limitations. Even Smart Objects are supported, as are instanced real-time updated clones of layers - which means one vector group/object can re-used.
Try it out for yourself.
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I might have to now. Thanks!
Yes, some Photoshop plugins work, beyond that, thereâs no âaffinityâ plugins or plugin framework. If Iâm wrong there, you should tell Affinity that, because when I asked, they themselves stated they have no current plans for this. 
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When you do, please donât be put off by the default GUI setup 
: PL is very configurable, but the default setup is less than ideal. And check the preferences, because many settings can be changed to control the appâs overall usability.
Also visit the beta forum to download the latest beta versions. They tend to be very stable overall.
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If settings can be extracted and distributed, you should do so. No one really wants to learn/use software with bad default settings just to figure out what the right settings are.
Careful with that, especially since such an effort would inevitably expand to try to obtain the source of XSI, Maya, and other apps. People would eventually perceive FOSS as a failed movement because it tried to beat the commercial solutions with cyber-crime rather than with better solutions.
Besides that, people are responding by working on their own solutions, by any means possible (this one uses Godot as the base).