Serif Updates Affinity Photo, Designer, and Publisher With New Tools and Functions

Serif today announced across-the-board updates for its popular suite of Affinity creative apps, including Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer, and the Apple award-winning Affinity Publisher for Mac, all of which were among the first professional creative suites to be optimized for Apple's new M1 chip.

affinity designer contour tool

"After another year which saw record numbers of people switching to Affinity, it's exciting to start 2021 with yet another major free update," said Ashley Hewson, Managing Director of Affinity developer Serif. "We're introducing more tools and functions which will enable artists, designers, photographers and editors with even the most complex workflows to take advantage of the speed and power of Affinity."

Affinity Designer, the graphic design app, has gained a new contour tool to add contours and line offsets to any shape or path. Also added is the ability to place linked images and resources, which works to reduce file size and simplify collaborative working.

publisher 1
In Affinity Publisher, IDML import is said to be noticeably faster, while a new Package feature allows users to bundle all the image and font resources from a project into a folder, which can then be transferred easily to another system to aid collaboration or for print production.

In addition, placed PDFs can now be set to "passthrough," which ensures 100% fidelity on export, and users can easily integrate text and image links into a document from an external data source with the new data merge feature.

Over in Affinity Photo, users can now add liquify adjustments as live, maskable layers as part of their non-destructive workflow. There are also "substantial" improvements to its RAW engine, new linked layer functionality, path text, and a new mode to control the stacking of astrography images.

photo 1
The 1.9 update is available across all Affinity apps on macOS, Windows and iPad from today and is free to existing users. All Affinity apps are currently available on the Affinity website with a 50% discount as an initiative to support the creative community during the global health crisis.

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Slim Feature Single Camera 1 Redux

'iPhone 17 Air' Launching Later This Year With These 10 New Features

Wednesday January 15, 2025 7:16 am PST by
While the so-called "iPhone 17 Air" is not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the "ultra-thin" device. Overall, the "iPhone 17 Air" is shaping up to be a mixed bag. Due to its thinness, the device is expected to have some limited specifications compared to the iPhone 17 Pro models, including only a single rear camera, only a single speaker, no SIM...
new magsafe charger

Apple Releases Updated MagSafe Charger Firmware

Tuesday January 14, 2025 11:30 am PST by
Apple today released new firmware designed for the 25W MagSafe Charger that is compatible with the iPhone 12 and later and the latest AirPods and Apple Watch models. The updated firmware is version 2A143, up from the 2A138 firmware that the accessory shipped with. In the Settings app, you'll see a different version number than the internal firmware number. The 2024 MagSafe charger was...
2024 iPhone Boxes Feature

Apple Changes Trade-In Values for iPhones, iPads, Macs, and More

Thursday January 16, 2025 6:45 am PST by
Apple today adjusted estimated trade-in values for select iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch models in the U.S., according to its website. Some values increased, while others decreased. The changes were not too significant, with most values rising or dropping by $5 to $50. We have outlined some examples below: Device New Value Old Value iPhone 15 Pro Max Up to $630 U ...
Generic iOS 18

iOS 18.3 Coming Soon: Here's What's New

Monday January 13, 2025 5:33 am PST by
iOS 18.3 is currently in beta for developers and public beta testers. So far, the upcoming iPhone software update is very minor in scope. Below, we outline what is new in iOS 18.3 so far. The only potential new feature coming to iPhones with iOS 18.3 so far is robot vacuum support in the Home app, but this functionality is not yet live. Apple is laying the groundwork for the feature,...
iPhone 17 Pro Dual Tone Feature 1

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 8 New Features

Thursday January 9, 2025 5:45 am PST by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. iPhone 17 Pro concept based on rumors Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of January 2025: More aluminum: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models ...
severance new york promo 1

Apple Promotes Severance Season 2 Premiere With Lumon Industries Pop-Up and Visits From Actors

Tuesday January 14, 2025 3:47 pm PST by
Ahead of the season two premiere of hit TV show Severance, Apple is marketing the show with a fun Severance pop-up at the Grand Central Terminal in New York City. Apple has assembled a glass cube with workstations that are identical to the setups that Lumon employees use on the show, complete with employees "working," doing yoga, playing catch, throwing paper airplanes, sipping coffee, and...
Generic iOS 18

Everything New in iOS 18.3 Beta 3

Thursday January 16, 2025 12:39 pm PST by
Apple provided the third beta of iOS 18.3 to developers today, and while the betas have so far been light on new features, the third beta makes some major changes to Notification Summaries and also tweaks a few other features. Notification Summary Changes Apple made multiple changes to Notification Summaries in response to complaints about inaccurate summaries of news headlines. For...
airpods pro 2 gradient

AirPods Pro 3 Expected This Year: Here's What We Know

Wednesday January 8, 2025 7:05 am PST by
Despite being released over two years ago, Apple's AirPods Pro 2 continue to dominate the wireless earbud market. However, with the AirPods Pro 3 expected to launch sometime in 2025, anyone thinking of buying Apple's premium earbuds may be wondering if the next generation is worth holding out for. Apart from their audio and noise-canceling performance, which are generally regarded as...
Apple Card iPhone 16 Pro Feature

Three Companies Are Now in the Running to Take Over the Apple Card

Thursday January 16, 2025 8:18 am PST by
Apple is in talks with Barclays and Synchrony about becoming its new financial partner for the Apple Card, according to Reuters sources. The report today added that Apple has also been holding discussions with Chase Bank owner JPMorgan since last year, so there are at least three potential companies in the running to take over the Apple Card from current partner Goldman Sachs. Goldman...

Top Rated Comments

Eddy Munn Avatar
52 months ago
The Affinity suite is incredible! Keep up the great work. ?
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
SigEp265 Avatar
52 months ago
All I need is a vector tracing tool and I can dump Adobe for good!
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Marbles1 Avatar
52 months ago
These are incredibly great value applications, especially affinity designer.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Unggoy Murderer Avatar
52 months ago
I really hope they come out with a proper Lightroom competitor - I'd move over to their software in a heartbeat if that became a reality. That, or if Affinity Photo's updated to support batch editing (similar to Photoshop Camera RAW), that would do it too.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
sw1tcher Avatar
52 months ago
I love that Affinity are still keeping it old school

- no subscription
- low and fair price (especially now that they have a 50% off sale)
- 90 day free trial

Suppose these people. To hell with Adobe.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Kierkegaarden Avatar
52 months ago
Serif is a class act.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)