Overview
Affinity Photo is a serious raster editor that made its reputation on being fast. Pan and zoom on a large layered document stay smooth, filters preview live rather than after a progress bar, and the program opens in a couple of seconds. On a mid range laptop the difference against the heavyweight alternative is the difference between working and waiting.
The feature set is deep enough that the speed is not a trade. Non destructive adjustment and live filter layers, full masking with refinement, blend modes and blend ranges, channels, a proper raw development persona, focus and exposure stacking, panorama stitching, a frequency separation workflow for retouching, HDR merge with tone mapping, and 32 bit float editing throughout. This build has the licensing handled with no trial window.
Personas instead of separate programs
The interface splits into personas, which are modes that change the whole toolset for a specific job. Photo is the general editing mode. Develop handles raw files with the usual exposure, tone, lens correction and noise controls, and hands the result into the layer stack rather than flattening it. Liquify is a dedicated mesh warping mode. Tone Mapping does HDR. Export is a persona of its own with slices and multiple output formats.
Switching between them keeps the same document, so a raw file can be developed, retouched, warped and exported without ever leaving the window or writing an intermediate file. For anyone used to bouncing between three applications this alone changes how a session feels.
Non destructive editing
Live filter layers apply blur, sharpen, distortion, lighting and the rest as a layer that can be reordered, masked, adjusted or removed at any point. Adjustment layers work the same way. The upshot is that a finished document remains completely editable, and a decision made at the start can be changed at the end without redoing the work in between.
The document also keeps its full history, and unusually that history can be saved with the file, so reopening a document a month later still lets you step back through the edits. Combined with 32 bit float working space, this makes it comfortable to push exposure and colour hard without falling apart.
Retouching, stacking and composites
The healing, patch, clone and blemish tools are all up to professional retouching, and the frequency separation command sets up the texture and tone split in one step rather than the manual layer construction it normally requires. Inpainting fills a selection from the surrounding content.
Stacking merges a set of images: focus stacking for depth of field beyond what the lens gives, exposure stacking for HDR, and median stacking for removing people from a scene or noise from an astro sequence. Panorama stitching handles the alignment and blending with editable seams afterwards. All of these arrive as live groups you can still adjust.
Output and compatibility
It opens and saves layered PSD files with reasonable fidelity, which is what makes it practical to use inside a workflow where other people use something else. Beyond that it handles the usual raster formats, PDF, and raw from a long list of camera bodies.
Colour management covers RGB, CMYK, greyscale and LAB with soft proofing, and export supports per slice settings, which matters for anyone producing assets at several sizes. There is no subscription, no account, and no cloud component in the way.
What you get
- Personas switching the toolset for develop, liquify, tone mapping and export
- Non destructive live filter and adjustment layers
- Raw development handing results into the layer stack
- 32 bit float working space throughout
- History saved with the document
- Frequency separation in one command
- Healing, patch, clone, blemish and inpainting tools
- Focus, exposure and median stacking
- Panorama stitching with editable seams
- HDR merge with tone mapping
- Layered PSD open and save
- RGB, CMYK, greyscale and LAB with soft proofing
- Export persona with slices and per slice settings
Inside the archive
- Affinity Photo, offline installer
- Default brush, texture and macro libraries
- Sample documents
- Interface language packs
- Readme with the licensing step for this repack
System requirements
| Operating system | Windows 10 version 21H2 or Windows 11, 64-bit |
|---|---|
| Processor | Any 64-bit processor with SSE 4.2 |
| Memory | 4 GB minimum, 16 GB for large documents |
| Graphics | DirectX 12 capable card recommended, works without |
| Storage | 3 GB free |
| Input | Pen tablet supported with pressure and tilt |
Installing it
- Unpack the archive to a local folder.
- Turn off real time protection before running setup.
- Install and do not launch at the end of setup.
- Apply the licensing step from the readme.
- Open the program and confirm there is no trial banner in the title area.
Mirrors
| Route | Region | Note | State |
|---|---|---|---|
| Direct, primary | Europe | No wait, resumable | Online |
| Direct, secondary | North America | No wait, resumable | Online |
| Torrent magnet | Global | Optional | Online |
Release history
- Raw development lens profile library extended
- Fixed a crash when stacking more than 60 images
- Faster live filter preview on large documents
- PSD compatibility improved for smart object heavy files
- Panorama seam editing reworked
- New inpainting model
- Export persona slice handling rebuilt
Questions about this release
Can it open my PSD files?
Yes, with layers, and it saves back to PSD too. Very exotic smart object and effect setups occasionally need tidying.
Is there a subscription?
No. It is a one time program and this build has the licensing handled, so there is no account and no cloud step.
Does it do raw as well as a dedicated developer?
It is very capable, with lens correction, noise reduction and full tone control. A dedicated cataloguing developer still wins on library management, which this does not do at all.
Will it run on a modest laptop?
Yes, better than most of its competition. 4 GB works, 16 GB is comfortable for large layered documents.
Comments
Stacked 80 macro frames, came out clean as a live group I could still adjust. No trial banner.
PSD round trip with the studio works fine. Frequency separation in one click is worth it alone.
Comments are read before they appear. If a build stops working, say so here and it gets rebuilt rather than quietly left up.
Opens in three seconds on a five year old machine and pans a 2 GB document without stuttering.