When you’ve used PaintShop Pro for years, certain habits become second nature. You don’t even think about how you duplicate an image or repeat a command. Your fingers just do it. That’s why, when exploring Affinity Photo, the first days (or weeks) can be disconcerting. Here are a few things that made me pause, hunt through menus, or mutter, “Wait, that’s not how PSP does it!”
1. No quick “Duplicate” command
In PaintShop Pro, Shift+D instantly duplicates your whole project (layers, masks, and all). It is very convenient when you might want to protect your original file and work on a copy. It could be used with quick pages or templates or when you want to duplicate a work in progress when you choose to experiment differently. It’s one of those tiny shortcuts you don’t realize you rely on until it’s gone.
In Affinity, you can save a new copy of the file or manually duplicate all layers, which breaks the creative flow when you just want to experiment without altering your original. Another option is to select all the layers in the Layers panel, copy them, and go to File > New from clipboard. It works fine except if any element is extending over the edge; in those situations, everything will appear in the new image, and that could end up being a different size. In that case, you also have to manually readjust the canvas dimensions.
2. No “Repeat last command”
PaintShop Pro’s Ctrl+Y is a lifesaver for repetitive adjustments. Since you cannot apply the same effect to multiple layers at once, the Repeat command is very convenient. However, you can also use this to apply the same command on different images (like resizing 10 images on your workspace) or repetitively on the same layer (applying a Brightness command two, three, or four times).
Affinity doesn’t have a direct “repeat” function, so you have to go through the same process every time. Luckily, you can apply a single command on multiple layers (like a drop shadow or a resize), but if you need to repeat the same command on multiple images, you have to go the long route. It’s not a deal-breaker, but it definitely slows things down, especially when you’re used to quick repetition.
3. Tool settings don’t “stick”
If you work on different layers (at different times) and use the same settings you like, it is nice to open the dialogue window or the tool toolbar and have all the settings already the same. Of course, you can change them as you might not always need the same settings, but it is common that you use and reuse similar settings, especially in a single project.
In Affinity, most tools don’t have that option. In fact, the settings often reset to default every time you reopen the tool. It feels a bit like starting from scratch instead of picking up where you left off.
4. Missing presets
One of PSP’s greatest time-savers is saving presets for almost any tool. In fact, most tools have the ability to save your own preset like the different shadows, bevels,
In Affinity, you can save layer effects as Layer Styles. You can save Brushes with some settings, but that is about it. If you want to save a Kaleidoscope setting, you will have to note it somewhere. If you want to reuse a particular adjustment, you cannot save those settings. Even worse, the previous settings are not sticky so you have to start from scratch every time. That is quite inconvenient and time consuming.
5. No “Randomize” options
For effects and filters that could benefit from variation (like noise, textures, or pattern distortions), PaintShop Pro often has a "randomize" button in the dialogue window. This button gives you endless creative variations with one click instead of having to change the settings manually, one by one. This can be particularly interesting with the Kaleidoscope, Pattern, and various artistic effects.
Affinity keeps things static. You have to manually tweak sliders or enter values to get something new, which can be tedious when you’re experimenting.
6. Organizing resources feels awkward
In PaintShop Pro, all the supplies can be organized in their own folders (brushes, picture tubes, preset shapes, masks, gradients, etc.). Not only that, you can have subfolders in multiple levels. And then, when you need to load them, you can select which folder (or subfolder) to load. This makes it easy to browse through specific categories of supplies.
In Affinity, although you can create categories and subcategories for assets, brushes, and styles, the process feels clunkier than PSP’s system. Moving or reassigning items isn’t intuitive, and assets aren’t “linked” to their tool type (except for brushes and styles). This means that you can end up with a mix of supplies in each category and subcategory.
7. Limited distortion tools
PSP has a long list of distortion effects like Wave, Ripple, Pinch, Displacement map and many more. That make it easy to create textures, photo effects, or artistic transformations.
Affinity’s distortion tools are far fewer and more rigid. Since the overall philosophy in Affinity is to offer non-destructive effects, it probably makes it harder to create those distorsions in their tools. You might get similar results using other filters or warps, but it takes more time and experimentation and some of them are totally unavailable.
None of these quirks make Affinity unusable; they just remind me how much our workflow depends on habits. Once you get used to Affinity’s way of doing things, some of these “inconveniences” fade away, and you start to appreciate its strengths. Still, for anyone coming from PaintShop Pro, expect quite a few moments of confusion… and maybe a little nostalgia for Shift+D!
11 thoughts on “7 Things I Miss from PaintShop Pro in Affinity Photo”
Maybe an idea to email or post in on their forums as a request to the developers so they can built it in?
We can always use the Help >Send Feedback to send those suggestions.
Coming from Ulead/Corel’s Photo Impact X3, I had a hard time getting used to PSP. I now hope to warm up to Affinity V3, which will remain free “forever” and hopefully receive regular updates. Fortunately, my Photo Impact X3 also runs on my new PC with Windows 11, where I can still create scraps or edit Affinity work saved as PNGs.
Just to play devil’s advocate, I don’t find “Save As” much more inconvenient than Shift+D. Since you can apply the same effect to multiple layers and run batch jobs with multiple images I don’t find that too difficult.
I like when applying effects like shadows you don’t have to create on a new layer in order to preserve the original. Even after you apply a color, outline, shadow and effect to text you still go back to the original and change color, outline, drop shadow etc., at any time without having to save to original so you can change things later if you don’t like the way it came out.
I know Affinity has a lot of preset abilities but I haven’t figured them out yet.
To me, Affinity still feels very awkward compared to PSP and accomplishes things in a round about manner that are more direct in PSP. I have taken a dozen or so of the free online Affinity Revolution tutorials so I’m getting more familiar with the program but still and not sure how much I like it.
I do very much like the non-destructive work flow. I used to work as an audio engineer and I know in audio editing software when non-destructive editing was made available it was a major game changer in the music industry. I haven’t used Photoshop for decades, but I understand it also uses non-destructive editing but Affinity utilizes it to an even greater extent. I feel Affinity is the way of the future especially since there are no plans to update PSP 2023, so I am very interested in developing my Affinity skills, but it will be w long time before I stop using many tools in PSP that I can use to accomplish my goals faster.
In Affinity Ctrl +J is the duplicate shortcut, first select what you want to duplicate. Also, you can add any shortcuts you want in the settings>shortcuts menu.
This goes for a single layer but not for an entire image including several layers.
I like being able to add shortcuts. In watching Affinity tutorials the way they apply effects to targeted areas in an image is to apply an effect to the entire image, then invert it which masks the effect and then paint using white paint to reveal the effect on the areas of the image you want to put the effect. The video said to use control+i to invert but that did nothing using Affinity v3. I commented on the video and they answered explaining the the developers didn’t code in control+i to invert and showed me how to create control+i as a shortcut to invert (mask) an effect. In the tutorials they are constantly using the invert command so it is very important.
Actually, the shortcut is Ctrl-Shift-i. At least, that works for me but not just Ctrl-i.
Ctrl-Shift-i does exactly the same thing in Affinity as it does in PSP – it inverts a selection. I’m talking about inverting an entire adjustment layer. What that does is it masks the adjustment layer allowing you to paint with white paint to reveal the adjustment in only select parts of a layer it is applied to instead of applying the adjustment to the entire layer(s). In Affinity Photo v2 the shortcut was Ctrl-i but in Affinity v3 that shortcut was not included. I was able to manually add it in under Edit>Settings>Shortcuts.
I was following along in the Affinity Revolution Tutorials which were all based on Affinity Photo v2 and Ally keeps using this technique of inverting adjustment layers but Ctrl-i as she told us to do didn’t work with Affinity v3 until I manually added the shortcut.
After experimenting and sharing with other users, it seems like Ally’s command of Ctrl – i DOES work but she uses a Mac and in that case, the “mask” shows up immediately. With a PC, you have to start brushing the area and then the “mask” will appear. So that is the explanation for that issue. I reached out to Ally to let her know so she could add that detail when she uses that function.
I also miss SHIFT+D and CTRL+Y, and it’s a pity that the other programs don’t have those.