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Potential Photoshop alternative 
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Have a look at https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/photo/ for a free public beta of some interesting new software from a UK firm.
Apparently it'll turn up on the app store, promising a $50 price point and 2 years of free updates.
I've downloaded the beta, will have a play shortly.

Further links: http://petapixel.com/2015/02/09/affinity-photo-new-pro-photoshop-alternative-mac-users-get-free/
http://www.creativebloq.com/computer-arts/first-real-alternative-photoshop-launched-and-its-free-21514137

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Mon Feb 09, 2015 6:49 pm
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Their 'line art' app is rather good, so this bodes well. Pixelmator has matured into quite a decent photoshop alternative though so they've not got the market to themselves.

And as a complete diversion - I love the music on their trailer video :D


Mon Feb 09, 2015 8:02 pm
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jonbwfc wrote:
Their 'line art' app is rather good, so this bodes well. Pixelmator has matured into quite a decent photoshop alternative though so they've not got the market to themselves.

And as a complete diversion - I love the music on their trailer video :D


There are a few things missing from Pixelmator which make it a no-go in my book. One is adjustment layers (that is layers like Levels and Curves that operate in a non-destructive way), and embedding other documents. Looks like Affinity Designer does this, and I expect that Photo will - just not had a chance to look at it fully. They even appear to be working on getting Photoshop plugins working.

Apparently there will be a DTP app on the way too.

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Thu Feb 12, 2015 2:53 pm
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Depending on what you want to do. Sketch 3 is very good.


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Fri Feb 13, 2015 6:49 pm
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paulzolo wrote:
Apparently there will be a DTP app on the way too.
Is DTP still an actual thing these days?

Mark

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Fri Feb 13, 2015 8:16 pm
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timark_uk wrote:
paulzolo wrote:
Apparently there will be a DTP app on the way too.
Is DTP still an actual thing these days?

Mark

Very much so. Where do you think all the advertising flyers, brochures etc. come from?

Well, I have seen people try and produce brochures in PowerPoint and print them on the department laser printer... But in reality, you still need a decent DTP program and then send the CMYK PDF to the printers to get it printed professionally.

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Sat Feb 14, 2015 8:48 am
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Yep, I use Adobe InDesign every day, along with Illustrator and Photoshop. It's not DTP as it used to be though- these days it's all about repurposing content. Design something once and then export in different formats - for traditional print, digital PDF, eBooks or web.

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Sat Feb 14, 2015 9:41 am
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There are lots of videos being put up on their youtube channel, very useful. for some reason they use vimeo links themselves but I prefer YT.

Affinity

I also found the piece of music from their trailer - "Magic Mustard Machine" by PNFA


Sat Feb 14, 2015 10:14 pm
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big_D wrote:
timark_uk wrote:
paulzolo wrote:
Apparently there will be a DTP app on the way too.
Is DTP still an actual thing these days?

Mark

Very much so. Where do you think all the advertising flyers, brochures etc. come from?

Well, I have seen people try and produce brochures in PowerPoint and print them on the department laser printer... But in reality, you still need a decent DTP program and then send the CMYK PDF to the printers to get it printed professionally.

Printers tell me that even CMYK is not as important as it used to be. Digital presses are quite happy with RGB.

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Sat Feb 14, 2015 11:05 pm
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The printers we use want either original InDesign or CMYK PDFs if possible, a normal PDF will do at a pinch, but they then can't guarantee that the printed colours will be a 100% match - something our marketing department found out when they ordered posters from one company and roll-ups from another, our "corporate" orange was about 10 shades lighter on the roll-ups, but they arrived the day before the show, so they couldn't do anything about it.

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Mon Feb 16, 2015 7:34 am
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Heather posted a link to a profile you can use to convert your RGB workflow to CMYK. If you want an exact match for corporate colours, use spot colours not a mix.

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Mon Feb 16, 2015 9:02 am
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paulzolo wrote:
Printers tell me that even CMYK is not as important as it used to be. Digital presses are quite happy with RGB.


Heather's RGB pre-press work flow works fine so long as your RGB elements are all photographic and your line work and text (especially anything black) is CMYK and you don't need to match colours between the RGB and CMYK elements and you don't need to match colours between items printed by different methods.

In the real world (certainly in the work that I do) this is rarely the case. You need to work throughout in a single colour model and for most print this needs to be CMYK. You can't work solely in RGB because even the most sophisticated colour conversion algorithm can't work out what to do with black RGB text or exactly which rich black mix is the most appropriate for a particular design based on what else is on the page.

Also as big_D's company discovered every printing process will use a slightly different conversion profile when converting from RGB to CMYK. If the RGB elements are strictly photographic, then most people probably won't notice, but when corporate colours are used in the line work you need to be as consistent as possible.

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Mon Feb 16, 2015 5:35 pm
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Looks interesting. I've downloaded the trial and will have a play some time soon.

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