Can iMatch display Affinity Photo files (.afphoto)?

[RichPate]

I am switching from Photoshop to Affinity Photo. Some DAM's can only display Affinity's image files (.afphoto) as icons and not the image itself (see below). Can iMatch display previews and thumbnails of .afphoto files?
Thanks.

[Mario]

Affinity does deliberately not publish any information about their file formats.
There was a long discussion about this in their forums years ago, when their products were released. In short, they won't document the format or provide support in form of a SDK for other developers.

All of the big vendors use proprietary and undocumented file formats. Adobe "closed" the formerly open Photoshop format with version 6.
Proprietary file formats are a bit of a customer retention feature - often also called "lock-in" feature. If you can only switch to other products with losses, you are less likely to switch to another product.

Affinity products usually install a "shell thumbnail handler" which is automatically used by IMatch when indexing Designer or Photo Files.
This allows IMatch to extract a ~300 pixel thumbnail suitable for the File Window, sufficient to manage the files. I use Designer myself.

To view or edit proprietary Affinity files you need to open them in the corresponding Affinity product by pressing <Ctrl>+<Enter> in the File Window.

[RichPate]

Affinity products usually install a "shell thumbnail handler" which is automatically used by IMatch when indexing Designer or Photo Files.
This allows IMatch to extract a ~300 pixel thumbnail suitable for the File Window, sufficient to manage the files. I use Designer myself.

To view or edit proprietary Affinity files you need to open them in the corresponding Affinity product by pressing <Ctrl>+<Enter> in the File Window.

Thanks Mario. To clarify, you are saying that IMatch will index Affinity files, but only show a generic thumbnail icon, like Bridge does (see below)? And I must open the Affinity Photo app via <Ctrl>+<Enter> in order to see the image in Affinity Photo of the indexed thumbnail? 

[Mario]

No.
As I explained, when Affinity installed the thumbnail handler, IMatch will use it to extract a ~300 px thumbnail.
See also the image I have included in my post which shows one of my Designer files as a thumbnail in IMatch. Please look again at my reply above.

I suggest you just try it out yourself. That's what the free IMatch trial version is for.

[RichPate]

No.
As I explained, when Affinity installed the thumbnail handler, IMatch will use it to extract a ~300 px thumbnail.
See also the image I have included in my post which shows one of my Designer files as a thumbnail in IMatch. Please look again at my reply above.

Yes, now I understand. I was confused by the Affinity Designer image you used as an example, which looked to me like a generic icon thumbnail like I get in Bridge.
Thanks.

[RichPate]

Confirmation for anyone using or considering using Affinity Photo with iMatch -- Affinity Photo files (.afphoto) appear just fine in iMatch 2021. I installed the trial version of iMatch and was able to display a folder of the same image saved in Affinity Photo as JPEG, TIFF and AFPHOTO files, all appearing as normal image thumbnails.

Since Adopi Bridge can not display Affinity Photo images (just a generic icon), I will be switching to iMatch.

[Mario]

Very good.

Keep in mind that the Affinity shell handler only produces small thumbnails, usually in the range of 300 pixels.
This is sufficient for displaying usable thumbnails in the File Window, but in the Viewer the files will show only very small.

You need to use Affinity products to see the files in full-size.
See Opening Files in Other Applications for information about the many ways IMatch supports for opening files in other applications.

[Aubrey]

I have no issues with .afphoto. I get a great thumbnail for this file.
<CRTL> enter opens the file in Affinity photo.
See attached.

Aubrey.