Affinity Photo, a brand new image editor for the Mac, splashes onto the beta scene

Serif, a UK-based graphic art and design software company, has just dropped a new photo editing app for the Mac to compete with Adobe Photoshop.

Affinity Photo, released today as a public beta, joins sister app Affinity Designer, a vector art and design tool. The new photo app touts pro-level raster tools like  CMYK (four-color separation), LAB color, Raw processing, 16-bits-per-channel editing, ICC color profiling, Adobe Photoshop (PSD) format and 64-bit plug-ins. It provides Frequency Separation editing, live blend modes, and inpainting (like Photoshop’s content aware fill feature) wrapped in an elegant, uncluttered interface.

The software is months away from a formal launch, but the company has released this beta hoping for feedback from the community about what it wants to see in the final release. You can sign up for the beta on the Affinity site. Affinity Photo does not do Windows yet, but the company has indicated that it may be on the radar for the future — after the Mac version is ready to go.

When the final software launches, it will be available exclusively through the Mac App Store for $49.99 (£39.99/ €49.99). Unlike Adobe products, it will have no subscriptions and all updates will free for two years thereafter.

In addition to the photo app, designers can also look forward to Affinity Publisher, a desktop publishing package due out at the end of the year.

We’ll be back with a hands on once we get the beta.

➤ Affinity Photo