I have been testing Topaz Studio 2 and several of the AI apps as plugins for non-Adobe editors. Here are my findings on macOS Catalina (version 10.15.3):
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Affinity Photo 1.8.3 Beta — TS2, Adjust AI, DeNoise AI, Mask AI and Sharpen AI all run very smoothly. Plugin setup in Affinity Photo can be a PITA, so be sure to follow the directions on the Topaz Labs website. For workflow, you have a choice of running the AI plugins in AP or starting TS2 then running the AIs and finally returning to AP.
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PhotoLine 22 — TS2, Adjust AI, DeNoise AI, Mask AI and Sharpen AI all run correctly. Same workflow option as above.
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Luminar 4 — TS2, Adjust AI, DeNoise AI and Sharpen AI run normally. Mask AI, however, asks for a duplicate layer and closes. Making a duplicate layer and again opening the plugin produces the same result. A workaround is to open TS2 in Luminar, and use Mask AI from there.
After opening and closing the four AI apps numerous times, I noticed a couple of minor inconsistencies:
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Running as plugins, Adjust AI and Mask AI have “Cancel” buttons in the lower right of the window. Neither DeNoise AI nor Sharpen AI has this cancel option.
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Running as plugins, Sharpen AI and DeNoise AI can be closed with CMD+Q. Adjust AI and Mask AI cannot be terminated this way.
Should all four apps be consistent in this operational behavior?
