HOW TO...

Switch from GIMP to Affinity Photo

by Nik Rawlinson

What you need: Affinity Photo Time required: One hour

Something exciting happened at the end of October. Canva, best known for its online design and photo-editing tools, launched a single Affinity software suite, combining the image-editing, vector-graphics drawing and page-layout tools formerly found in Affinity’s Photo, Designer and Publisher programs. Not only do they now exist under the same umbrella but the software is entirely free.

We’ve had time to put the new suite through its paces and we’re impressed. The interface looks good, works fast and includes loads of exciting, innovative features. We’ve already used it to lay out a 16-page brochure from scratch; design a series of Christmas cards; create two posters for an art fair; and tweak dozens of photos.

Here, we’ll explain why you should ditch popular image editor GIMP and switch to Affinity by outlining how both tools differ. First though, download Affinity from www.snipca.com/57259 – you’ll need to create a free account.

1 Export your photos from GIMP

GIMP and Affinity have their own file formats. That means neither can open the other’s output unless it’s saved in an intermediary format that they can both access. If you’re working with standard photos, without layers, export them from GIMP as JPEGs by clicking File followed by ‘Export…’ and adding .jpg to the file name. GIMP will detect the extension and use the JPEG format. If your image has multiple layers and you want to preserve them for editing, use the Photoshop format by using the ‘.psd’ extension instead.