Cassel

The 90-day trial I can offer applies to the whole suite "at once" so yes, you could then download all the app for that trial.

That is a great way to work around the limitation, but I thought you had to have purchased it to be allowed as a beta-tester???

It is a new month and new projects. Show off what you are working on in May be it a scrapbook page, a collage, a tutorial, or anything else you want. We are curious and want to see, learn, and get inspired. These threads are quickly becoming a fantastic source of inspiration, support, and friendship. Keep them coming! Remember to size down your image to about 600x600 pixels and save it in .jpg format before posting it (if you are creating a double page, you can resize it to 1000 pixels in width if you don't want to post the pages separately). Here are a few guidelines for everyone: when you post a project, give as much information on your sources or techniques used. It will help others who are curious and would like to do the same. if someone uses something that you like on their page, ask where they got it. Sometimes, you can go get it too and it will be better quality than trying to extract it (as it would have been resized to post in the forum anyway). if it is something that they did from scratch, ask how they did it. It would be so helpful to everyone! if you like a photo and would like to “play with it”, ALWAYS ask permission. Sometimes, there are some limitations and the person is not allowed to let others use it. Don’t get them in trouble. Usually, people are happy to say yes (if they can) when you ask politely. And if you get permission, you might get a better-quality image than the resized image anyway.

Have you ever created an album that tells the story of your life, one chapter at a time? For 2025, I’m inviting you to embark on a year-long creative challenge to document your personal timeline in a unique and meaningful way. We’re calling it the Timeline Album Challenge! The idea is simple: divide your life into 12 periods (the length of each depends on your age) and create one scrapbook page for each. Whether you include photos, memories, or simply words that describe those times, it’s up to you! By the end of the year, you’ll have a complete album that reflects your journey. For example, let's assume you are 72 years old (it just makes it easier to calculate): 0-6 years old: you can talk about your birth place, your first tooth, your first day of school 7-12 years old: you can remember some birthday parties, friends, places you visited 13-18 years old: those teen years! what were you doing, your first crush, your high school years 19-24 years old: maybe your dates, or wedding (if it happened in that time) 25-30 years old: maybe when you moved town, when your kids were born, when you purchased your first house And so on. You get the picture. Here’s how it works: One page every month: Start with your earliest memories or your childhood, and work your way to the present. You can also document specific milestones, achievements, challenges, etc. You can pick and choose any element to document. No pressure: Share your pages with us as you create them. There’s no strict commitment, and you can always catch up later if life gets busy. Make it yours: Add photos if you have them, or create pages without photos by focusing on stories, quotes, or embellishments that symbolize those moments in time. Include what was around you: seeing how some world events (or local ones) can relate to us can be interesting. What there a new fashion trend? What were the newest inventions? Any famous people that you might have heard of (or met) during that time period? This is your story to tell. Whether you want to focus on key milestones, favorite memories, or even everyday moments, it’s all about capturing what makes your timeline unique. Time for the fifth period (likely your early 20's-30's!).

In May, our monthly theme is NAILS. Nails may be small, but there’s a lot to say about them! Let’s think about everything related to fingernails—nail polish colors, tools used in manicures, nail art styles, hand care routines, and even actions we do with our hands. Try to find a word for each letter of the alphabet that connects in some way to nails, nail care, or manicures. Think colors, textures, tools, or techniques—we’re bound to find something for most letters! If we get stuck on one letter, we can skip it after 24 hours, sound good? Let's get started!

The theme for May is NAILS. Fingernails might be small, but they can say a lot! From everyday nail care to bold nail art, this theme can be playful, elegant, or even symbolic. Do you have photos of a manicure, a salon visit, or fancy nails for a special occasion? Maybe your layout can focus on hands—holding something, doing a task, or showing affection. And if you don’t have personal photos, you can always use stock images, clipart, or themed elements like nail polish bottles, hands, or glittery patterns. Remember, you can also share older layouts you’ve already created—you don’t need to start from scratch! Let’s get creative from tip to fingertip! Let's go! Post your project in the gallery.

Not having updates does not mean that it will stop working. I am still using PSP9, which was released over 20 years ago. Although Affinity can be a great addition to anyone's graphic toolbox, it is not like it can replace everything in PSP! And if you use any of my scripts, they will NOT work in Affinity.

Did you get the 90-day trial? Then, you might wait for a special. I don't know if they will have one but last summer, they had a 50% off.

Yes, that is on purpose because the level of grey that is commonly used in templates have no actual meaning. Some designers might set that placeholder to be black, others will set it to white, or grey. Some templates even have colors and it is just for "the look" of the template without any real meaning as far as transparency. @Marie-Claire and @Bonnie Ballentine Glad to see your layouts, even if you started late. You really caught up! @Julian Adams Most of the tutorials will be using Affinity Photo, but, in a future workshop, we will HAVE to use Affinity Designer to complete some tasks. The current version is 2.6.2 for the suite. @Connie Collier I wonder if you might have either forgotten or hidden the shadows on the Floribunda layout. They are there in the Before the rain one. @Hank Sobah That is correct. Corel has decided to no longer develop PaintShop Pro (and VideoStudio too). All the programmers who used to work on PSP were let go. And even the one, in Ottawa, who was in charge of the PSP page on their site (with the freebies) and their newsletter, was let go. There was no OFFICIAL announcement, but with all those layoffs and the fact that the beta-testing team was dismantled completely last year all leads to that "unofficial" state. Will they change their mind in 5-10 years? Would another company buy PSP to develop it? Nobody has a crystal ball. @Linda RexfordCats love paper bags (and boxes). One of my cat discovered that potatoes make for a good toy: they roll, they make some noise, and move irregularly, and they can be clawed. When I accidentally dropped a potato, he played with it for such a long time, it became a habit of dropping a small potato whenever I would need to peel them, just for him! @Jenny MacKayThose are wonderful sculptures. I had never heard of them! I won't do any daily feedback but if you have more layouts to post, go ahead. We have a large audience to show to! But if you have questions, don't hesitate to ask as I get a notification of every single post.

Do you have a sweet tooth? I do and I love chocolate. What about you? What do you like the most (or are there some that you don't like)? Share your opinion (and photos too, if you have some). There is a chocolatier in Halifax that I would love to try: https://peacebychocolate.ca/ I just found out they sell at a local business (not the confectionary) so I might try it!

@Deana Davis That is interesting to have a photo as a background paper. You have a great photo to use for that purpose. @Jean Naumann Isn't it interesting to see those "new" Blend modes that are available in Affinity and not in PSP? You might want to add your program version in your profile. For your last page, don't worry about using flowers. Sometimes we have some, sometimes we don't. You might find some that you will like, or find something else, or just love it the way it is without any additional embellishment. @Euka to help in reading the text that is on top of a photo (on the Pinnacles page), you could add a faint layer of contrasting color under the text. There are other tricks in this article about text on photos. @Carolyn Rye Did you resize separately or did you export directly at 600 pixels? That might help pinpoint the issue with the blurriness. @Sue Thomas Those brushes instead of tags could definitely use a little bit of misses on the edge. I'll look how to create that effect in Affinity. @SharlaThat is a very appropriate font for that Japanese theme. @bina greene Here is one difference between PSP and Affinity: in Affinity, you have to have a vector shape to put your text inside while in PSP you can either use a vector shape OR a selection. I find that a selection is much more flexible and straightforward to create an area than a vector. @CristinaThe Selection to Path script was featured in this article from last year. @Leslie Pugs Thank you for the link to FontExpert. I'll have a look at it. For me TheFontThing still works but since it is quite old, who know what Windows update might break it! @JacquesDid you use ready-made papers or did you create them yourself for the Day 6? I love those colors. By the way, do you have only grandsons? @Lynda DiGregor Very interesting to see a monochromatic layout and it is not boring at all! @MoniqueN.In Affinity, you can apply two separate shadows at once, by clicking the + sign on the first one you create. So you don't have to do one or the other, you can do the "regular" shadow and add a "reverse" shadow at the same time. @fiona cookThe Merge Group would appear only if you have a group to merge. Were you trying to merge an actual group of layers, or just several selected layers? @Harmony Birch Your layout made me smile because I remember seeing those skeleton images around Halloween time. I even showed them to a yoga teacher I know. Congratulations for that achievement! @Julian Adams Yes, that perspective correction tool can save quite a few headaches because in some cases, even if you were able to take a picture perfectly straight, you could have issues with reflection on a glass or lighting bouncing the wrong way. @Donna SilliaYes, the Glitches script, when you choose the color shift will use a Blend mode and the result will differ depending on the colors used. The effect will also depend on the size of the element to be "glitched". @Jeni Simpson That FB header looks like you have a panoramic photo. Great effect. And these pages are great to showcase your artwork!! @Linda Rexford Yes, Affinity Designer is better at vector and can do some things that are harder in PSP however, I do find it annoying to have to alternate from AP to AD if I want to complete one project because one command is missing in one app, but available only in the other. But that is just me. Today, the last lesson link was sent. Those who registered late might still get the last lessons in the next few days. All the lessons are still going to stay available for another 7 days for all the non-members. If you want to keep access longer, or if you want the extra templates and the written handouts, you can always join our membership! DIAMOND members have some interesting perks when we host workshops! Remember to fill out the survey when you get the link!

It is barely another "software". It is way more advanced, and it is something that already exists (open-source, so it is free). I don't know how it could be integrated directly into a script (not even sure if they speak the same language), but I have used this "workaround" in the script for Embroidered Patch. That is the first time I used that process (given to me by LeviFiction). Potrace is very stable and might have other uses. The only use I know (and use) is to convert a selection to a vector path. That is something we had asked Corel multiple times, without success.

Great participation again today. You are all giving me a lot of "work" to do! 😉 @Jean Naumann That fishing layout is stunning: simple yet so meaningful! It might actually be worth printing and framing. I love the little stars that you put in a circle. I would just move the stitching UNDER those stars as it is not a realistic layering with the stitching on top. @Carolyn Rye It is fun to see art on water towers. It gives it a much more interesting appearance! Did you enlarge a paper for the Anzac layout? It looks like the poppies are very blurred. Or did it happen in the resizing? @Sharla All the colors match beautifully in your Tea layout. @CristinaCreating the effect for multiple surfaces in Affinity MIGHT involve masking. I'll search for it and when I have something reasonable, I will turn it into a tutorial to match the PSP one. Using Blend modes can often give such interesting results. It ends up like having completely different images/papers. @Euka I thought the paper you used under the photo seemed similar to the one used on the flower. I thing you might have stretched it. Is that right? It really looks great for pebbles! @Bee Kelly The shadows really look large on your layout. What settings did you use? @Leslie Pugs That Rhino font that you use is quite interesting! I had never seen that one before. @Sue Thomas I am not at all surprised to see such a colorful title on your layout. That is so you! @Susan Ewart Maybe I can share SOME comparisons in the Q&A as I find differences. It will take a while to get an exhaustive and fair comparison, but I can start somewhere. I am also watching a LOT of videos on YouTube, but strangely, a lot of what we do in the Campus (as far as creating from scratch) is not covered in those multiple videos, just like for PSP. I guess, what we do is typically NOT covered, even for Photoshop! @bina greeneRotating the template gives you such great space for your text! Did you use PSP or AP? I find that wrapped text is more flexible in PSP than AP. @gwen jewitt Good start with Affinity. I think you might have forgotten to add the shadow effect to the yellow scalloped paper. It is interesting how that black title "Feed me" is so appropriate with the black birds. @Harmony Birch I have to agree that using templates seems faster in Affinity, especially with the "clipping" ability. @Ann SeeberOn your Royal Burgundy layout, is it a coincidence that there is an "apparent" dark line across the two white flowers, almost perfectly aligned? @Donna Sillia I don't often hear of using the Selection to Path script. That is LeviFiction's script, right? It can be used in so many creative ways when you need a path. @Jeni Simpson You are doing really well with shadows: you know when you add a much larger shadow for much thicker elements. @Linda Rexford 10 and 11 year old for feral cats? I didn't think they lived that long "in the wild". But I guess if they get good care, that helps. @Deana Davis As Rene has mentioned, you can save Styles for Drop Shadows. There is an article HERE. For your first project, if you want the bottom element to be very thick (as it is with the bevel and the shadow), you might want to slip the photo underneath it. Keep them coming. This thread is a real gallery of masterpieces!

As a comparison, Canva is an online graphic program (as opposed to being installed on your device), and it is good for layering components. It is not something that can apply effects or create elements and designs from scratch (as far as I know).

At this point, I can't give a reasonable comparison as I am still learning about Affinity, trying to replicate effects/functions from PSP, and discovering new ones. As I dig further, I do find many things are similar, some things are easier, and other things are almost impossible, or even missing in Affinity (like the simple Repeat command in PSP is missing in Affinity). I surely will have a blog post on this at some point, but right now, I would not have enough information and experience to have a fair comparison.