XPro+ - editing Bitmaps with Affinity Photo2

[Acorn]

There is quite a hoo-hah on the Affinity Forums around its chose of installing version 2.0 Affinity products as .msix files.
Basically, linking Photo Editing > Editing Bitmaps now requires a default path:

C:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps\AffinityPhoto2.exe

with no spaces!

The trick in XPro+ (probably other XDAs too) is to copy or key in the above including your username instead without pressing the Enter key and then click Apply.

Took ages to work out.

Acorn

[handrawn]

in a nutshell it is because affinity 2 is installed as a 'windows app' and not as a 'program' - this is not a distinction clear to all ....

[Acorn]

in a nutshell it is because affinity 2 is installed as a 'windows app' and not as a 'program' - this is not a distinction clear to all ....

Thanks handrawn, an msix file is a Windows App construct that places the code in a protected area that allows an exe of zero size to be invoked directly to run it but it fails in allowing an another program to instead launch it.

In Xara's case, pressing Return on a zero-size exe does not compute so you need to avoid that check by pressing Apply instead.

Acorn

[Boy]

I'm on XDP 19 and it works like a charm, Acorn. Thanks for that tip.

By the way, Affinity has announced that traditional .exe installers are on the way.

[handrawn]

yes and that will make it easier for the traditionalsists Boy, thanks

In Xara's case, pressing Return on a zero-size exe does not compute so you need to avoid that check by pressing Apply instead

indeed; and good of you to point in the right direction for those who are unaware of the significance

[Boy]

I hadn't used this feature for a while and found there is the problem that XDP transfers an image w/o transparency into Affinity as a .bmp while in the latter you can't export as .bmp to transfer it back into XDP.

So, you have to force Xara to transfer (Utilities/Bitmap Editor...) as a .png (next to .bmp, the only transfer format) by going to Options/Photo Editing and select under 'Bitmap transfer' 'Always use PNG' (.bmp export in Affinity has been on the user wish list for years).

By the way, I find this feature very helpful when I want to use a Photoshop filter because only few of them still work in XDP. Now I can transfer the image into Affinity and apply one of the Photoshop filters there.

[handrawn]

both good points - I've always used PNG because xara does not export BMP with transparency at all afaik, the option is not in the export dialog box if you export that way

photoshop filters in affinity are one of it's plus features