In other words, everything will run in parallel. All operations are asynchronously designed to take full advantage of multicore processors. While rendering enormous files might take a bit of time, it shouldn’t interfere with your work. However, when Affinity saves the edit information and applies (or renders) it to the full file, you might experience some delay, depending on the number of edits and the image size. One of the major benefits of this feature is that it enables efficient memory management, so that Affinity apps don’t run out of RAM. In essence, it delivers only the amount of data (or image pixels) needed to view and edit at the current zoom level. To a certain extent, this is similar to Photoshop’s Smart Objects, except it doesn’t require conversion, and unlike Smart Objects that function with only some features, this resolution-independent editing is consistent throughout the program.įor those who know photo editing history, this concept will be familiar: It’s what the old program Live Picture offered. That’s because Affinity uses a tiled file format for resolution independent editing.

No matter how large your image files are, tools and commands work in real time. MORE: Best DSLR Cameras Resolution Independent Editing

If any particular plugin is important to your workflow, it would be best to check whether it’s supported before making the move to Affinity. So far, it has tested the most popular ones, such as Nik and Topaz, which Serif says function fully within Affinity. For instance, Serif is currently going through the extensive list of third-party Photoshop-compatible plugins to ensure they work properly in Affinity Photo.

Affinity Photo is a young program, which means that some key portions are still in development or have been overlooked but will probably be added in future incarnations.

Serif labs affinity photo