By Graham K. Rogers

One of my favourite new arrivals for the Mac in the last year was Affinity Photo. I ran the beta for a while before it was finally released and it was clear from the moment I opened the first version, this was a sophisticated piece of software. And it wasn't just me: Apple chose Affinity Photo as its best app of 2015. Affinity Designer also won a prestigious Apple Design Award last year.

Some suggested Affinity Photo could be a good replacement for Adobe Photoshop. I never use that as most of the editing I want can be done without the need for such ultra-sophisticated applications. I am not criticising Photoshop, but not everyone needs this, although many believe they do. I get by on much less, but Affinity Photo is a major weapon in the arsenal.

It became even better a short while after its release with the addition of extensions for Apple's Photos app on the Mac, meaning some quite clever changes could be made without the need to exit Photos and start another app.

This week, we are told that versions of both Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo are being readied for the Windows platform. Following the success of Affinity software on Macs, the developers, Serif, have begun work on versions for the Windows platform and hope to have a public beta within 2-3 months.

For those who want to sign up for a chance at this there is an online registration

Graham K. Rogers teaches at the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University in Thailand. He wrote in the Bangkok Post, Database supplement on IT subjects. For the last seven years of Database he wrote a column on Apple and Macs. He is now continuing that in the Bangkok Post supplement, Life.