Finally A Serious Adobe Photoshop Alternative?

I must admit, when I heard of another new image editor coming to Windows a few weeks ago I didn't really pay much attention because in the past they usually always seem to be too consumer orientated or crippled in some way. I.E. No 64-bit version, unable to work with 16-bit TIFF's, no CMYK mode, clunky selection tools/masks, no Curves, no Channels, etc. or just too different to Photoshop to make learning a new piece of software worthwhile. However, I stumbled across some Serif 'Affinity Photo' tutorials on their Vimeo Channel and I honestly think that it could be a serious Photoshop alternative (but for £40 and with none of the subscription nonsense). If you use Photoshop, have a look through some the videos yourself and you'll see what I mean. Even the keyboard shortcut keys are the same as Photoshop.

It seems that 'Affinity Photo' started as a Mac Beta about a year ago, however a few weeks ago they announced that they're going to be bringing it to Windows too. It's not available yet, although you can sign up to show interest in the free public beta on their website, but personally I think I'll just wait for them to announce it on Twitter. According to their twitter account releasing it through the Windows Store seems to be something they're considering doing eventually, so hopefully that will happen when it comes out of beta.

Obviously, I haven't had a chance for hands-on testing yet, but from what I've seen in the videos I think it looks promising and finally a realistic alternative to Photoshop. There does seem to be some features missing though, for example there doesn't seem to be an equivalent of Bridge, which I use a lot for organising batch processing and the batch rename tool in Bridge is brilliant. Also there doesn't seem to be any type of Actions, which again are handy for automating repetitive tasks. Also it doesn't support layered TIFF's, which is a pretty big show stopper. However they have said "TIFF layer support will be in version 1.5", so touch wood.

So, just a heads up really as it's the first 'Photoshop alternative' I've seen that I think has the potential to actually be a Photoshop alternative for the masses and at a reasonable price. So I guess, 'watch this space'.