Just downloaded Topaz Studio 2 again (v 2.012) and installed, to try and get Affinity Photo 1.72 to work as a plugin. I know that you can go to the preferences option in Affinity Photo and try to add the plugin folder (Photoshop CC plugin folder as I understand?) manually, by using CMD + SHIFT + G. I did not get any further than adding Topaz Studio 2, but without the presets and such. So, no textures and such to choose from.
Do you think there will be support from Topaz Labs for Affinity Photo in the coming months?
Reason for asking is, that I would very much like to stop using the subscription model from Adobe and ditch Photoshop and Lightroom altogether, in favour of Affinity Photo and Capture One Pro. But I’m totally hooked on Topaz Studio 2 for textures and such.
Ed, I’m not sure what you are getting at. Topaz Studio 2, like other Topaz products, works as a plugin for Affinity Photo, Affinity Photo being the host editor, not the other way round . The two screen shots show the Topaz products I have as plugins in Affinity.
What were called presets in Studio 1, are called Looks in Studio 2, and Studio 2 has textures. These are available both when it is run free standing, and when it is run as a plug in from Affinity.
Topaz Studio 2 is a little different to Studio (1) as it doesn’t have a grouping of “presets” but now uses “Looks”, if you want just the Texture Looks click on Add Look, then select All for the Look Category and Sort By Texture.
There no longer separate entry points for Clarity, Detail, Glow, Simplify, Impression and Texture Effects just the Topaz Studio 2 filter.
If you want to apply a certain filter in Studio 2, just use the Add a Filter button at the top and pick it from the list. Here I selected Textures. No need to use a look.
What I notice from your screenshots is, that you have the Plugins>submenu showing. There you can choose different options. Like selecting the different Topaz plugins. In my case, there’s only Plugins> [nothing] showing. So I don’t get to choose Studio 2 from the drop down menu at all.
That’s why I was trying to add the path to the Topaz plugin folder manually, from within Affinity Photo (Preferences).
From your response, I understand that it should show up right away, without adding any folders in Affinity Photo?
Sorry for any confusion I might have caused. I know Affinity Photo is the host and Topaz the plugin But somehow AP does not detect the Topaz Studio plugin?
Thanks for chiming in on the subject
I think I was a bit unclear in what I was after The problem was (and still is) to use Topaz as a plugin, from within Affinity Photo. Somehow, it doesn’t show up in the drop down menu
I think I need to polish my questions a little bit better
Reading it back I think I wasn’t too clear about my problem. What I meant was, that somehow I can not seem to choose Topaz Studio 2 as a plugin, from within the Affinity Photo drop down menu. So when I try to select Plugins> from the drop down menu, all I see is Plugins>[nothing]
There seems to be a solution to add the path to the plugin folder manually, but I couldn’t get it to work properly. Sorry for any confusion there
I have the same problem on my imac. I was able to install the plugins for most of the other Topaz products in Affinity Photo but I could not find a plugin for Topaz Studio 2 on my system. It appears – for mac at least – Topaz does not install a TS2 plugin if one does not have Photoshop. There should be a way to force that installation IMHO.
All your topaz products should be in the same directory. Then you just use Preferences > Photoshop Plugins in Affinity Photo to add that directory.
If that is already done then make sure Topaz Studio 2 was installed there. If not, then uninstall and install it to the correct drive.
Edited, just noticed that Max was in the title.
Some of Topaz Labs plugins install into C:\Windows\Program Files\Topaz, and some install into C:\Windows\Program Files (x86).
In Affinity Photo, go to Edit->Preferences->Photoshop Plugins, click on the Add button and add both C::\Windows\Program Files\Topaz, and C:\Windows\Program Files (x86) to the top panel.
Make sure to tick the box “Allow Unknown plugins to be used” as shown in the left hand side screen shot. Click on close and restart Affinity Photo. If you once again go to Edit->Preferences->Photoshot Plugins you will see the plugin list Affinity has been able to find at the two locations now in the bottom panel.
Hi Ed, it seems it would be best if you raise a support request at the Topaz Labs main website because you are using Mac and Bob mentioned above that it seems the plugins are not installed on your system if PS is not installed.
Glad to know that it seems to be a known problem for Mac users And I forgot to mention that I do own a Mac But in my case, I do have Photoshop CC 2019 installed on my system. Think I’ll need to experiment a little more, cause I got Topaz to run from within Affinity Photo. It just doesn’t show the Filters and Looks and without them, it’s pretty useless to have Topaz installed as a plugin. I thought because a lot of Photoshop users are switching sides these days, Affinity Photo would be in the list of compatible programs. But that might still happen Thanks for chiming in!
Yes, I think you’re right about that. I should go and raise a support question there. Although I do have Photoshop installed on my system. (CC 2019). I know that that’s where the plugins should reside, or otherwise it won’t work. Hopefully there will be a solution for this any time soon, because a lot of Photoshop users are switching to Affinity Photo these days. (Me too btw) And that’s why I would be most happy if Affinity Photo could be included.
You mentioned Windows, where I use a Mac. But that’s okay Yes, the way this all works is by adding the plugin folder path in Affinity Photo. I got as far as to the point where Topaz did open from within AP. Unfortunately, without Filters, Looks and Textures. That’s where I got stuck.
Besides switching to Affinity Photo, I guess I should switch to a Windows machine as well Seems to work on your side? I think I’ll experiment a little more with adding the folders, to see if I can get it to work
Or I could go and raise the question with the Topaz support team, as AiDon suggested.
Yes, I noticed these and tried the very same settings in the preferences menu. But somehow -although Topaz Studio 2 does start- the path to the subfolders containing the Looks and Filters is not being found by Topaz. Everything works just fine from within Photoshop though. So I tried mimicking the folder structure from Photoshop too, but that didn’t work either.
I can use a workaround and that is to open Topaz Studio 2 as a standalone application and export the image. Then in Affinity Photo I can open the original file as well as the edited version. But it’s pretty tedious this way, to say the least.
Submitted a ticket, so hopefully they can work this out.
The problem was (and still is) to use Topaz as a plugin, from within Affinity Photo. Somehow, it doesn’t show up in the drop down menu 
But in my case, I do have Photoshop CC 2019 installed on my system. Think I’ll need to experiment a little more, cause I got Topaz to run from within Affinity Photo. It just doesn’t show the Filters and Looks and without them, it’s pretty useless to have Topaz installed as a plugin. I thought because a lot of Photoshop users are switching sides these days, Affinity Photo would be in the list of compatible programs. But that might still happen 