CRT
Turns any layer into a tube screen: curvature, RGB phosphors, scanlines and bloom.
Thermal for Affinity
Shows the image as a thermal camera would see it: the heat comes from the brightness and color of each area, with skin, reds and oranges reading hot and blues cold. A low-resolution sensor, soft optics and noise give it the look of these cameras, and a heat palette paints it from the coldest to the hottest part of the image. It imitates the look; it does not measure temperature.
Filter Gallery
Get this one and 29 more effects in Filter Gallery
Thermal is part of Filter Gallery, a plugin with 30 effects in one window inside Affinity. It’s a free download with CRT, ASCII, Dithering, Beads, Knit and Bricks, and a USD $12 license unlocks Thermal and the rest.
Also for Windows · 2.4 MBAlso for Mac · 2.6 MB
See all 30 effects
BeforeAfter
6 presets to start with
Pick one in the Filter Gallery window and adjust it from there. Every control can still be changed.
Default
The classic Ironbow palette, from black and violet to orange, yellow and white, with the crosshair in the center.
White hot
Black and white with the hottest areas in white, more contrast and more noise, like a surveillance camera.
Rainbow
A high-contrast rainbow from dark blue through cyan, green and yellow to red, pink and white, with a slightly softer sensor.
Arctic
Deep blues for the cold areas and gold for the hot ones, with a pale cyan band between them.
Black hot
The reverse of White hot: the hot areas in black and the cold ones in white, without the crosshair.
Lava
Soft blobs of heat with strong bloom and no edges or crosshair: the cold in dark blues and teal, the heat melting from magenta and red into orange and cream.
What each control does
They have the same names as in the Filter Gallery window.
- Palette
- The colors that paint the heat, from cold to hot.
- Contrast
- Stretches the range around the middle: more contrast sends more of the image to the coldest and hottest colors of the palette.
- Level
- Shifts the whole image along the palette: higher makes everything look hotter, lower makes it colder.
- Invert
- Swaps cold and hot: the hottest areas take the coldest color.
- Color warmth
- How much color counts next to brightness. At 0 the heat is only the brightness; higher values make skin, reds and oranges read hot and blues cold, and white areas such as sky and clouds a little cooler.
- Bloom
- Spills the heat of the hottest areas onto what surrounds them.
- Edges
- Draws the edges of the image over the heat, as dual-sensor cameras do, so small details stay readable. At 0 only the soft heat image remains.
- Resolution
- The sensor pixels along the longer side. Low values turn the heat into soft blobs; high values follow the shapes more closely.
- Softness
- Blurs the heat image, like the simple optics of these cameras.
- Noise
- The sensor noise: a fine grain and a faint pattern of rows and columns, as in a real sensor.
- Crosshair
- A white crosshair in the center of the image, like in the camera’s viewfinder.
Tips
- PortraitsThanks to “Color warmth”, skin reads hot, so faces and hands stand out against a cooler background. If the clothes or the background are red or orange too, lower it so brightness counts more.
- Coarser sensorLower “Resolution” and raise “Noise” for a rougher, grainier sensor. With “Edges” at 0 only the blobs of heat remain, as in the Lava preset.
Filter Gallery
Take Thermal and 29 more effects to your Affinity
Filter Gallery is a plugin with the 30 Visual.af effects in a single window. You choose by looking at thumbnails of your layer, adjust with a live preview and compare before and after, then apply.
- 30 effects with their presets
- Zoomable preview and comparison slider
- 6 free effects to start with
- One payment of USD $12, up to 3 computers
Installation
It installs in a minute
The installer copies the plugin into the Affinity plugins folder and turns on the setting Affinity needs to load it.
Download the installer
Download FilterGallery-Setup.exe. It doesn’t need administrator permissions.
Open it
Click “OK”: it copies Filter Gallery into Affinity and turns on “Allow "Unknown" plugins to be used”, which Affinity needs. If Windows shows “Windows protected your PC”, click “More info” and then “Run anyway”.
Restart Affinity
Choose Filters › Plugins › Visual.af › Filter Gallery with a pixel layer selected. The effect is applied to that layer, so duplicate it first with Ctrl+J if you want to keep it.
Download the installer
Download FilterGallery-Setup.pkg. It doesn’t need administrator permissions.
Open it
Click “Continue” and then “Install”. It copies Filter Gallery into Affinity and turns on “Allow "Unknown" plugins to be used”, which Affinity on Mac needs.
Restart Affinity
Select a pixel layer and choose Pixel › Filters › Plugins › Visual.af › Filter Gallery. The effect is applied to that layer, so duplicate it first with ⌘J if you want to keep it.
Frequently asked questions
Does it work on a Mac?
Yes. Download the Mac installer (FilterGallery-Setup.pkg): it works with Affinity 3 on Macs with Apple Silicon or Intel. The installer is signed and notarized by Apple, so it opens without warnings.
Does Windows warn that it isn’t safe?
It can happen. Because Filter Gallery is new, Windows SmartScreen doesn’t know the installer yet and may show “Windows protected your PC”. It is 100% safe: click “More info” and then “Run anyway”.
What if Filter Gallery doesn’t show up in Affinity?
Go to Settings › Photoshop Plugins, turn on “Allow "Unknown" plugins to be used” and restart Affinity. Also select a pixel layer before you open the Plugins menu: the filter only works on a selected pixel layer.
Which version of Affinity do I need?
Affinity 3, on Windows 10 or 11 or on a Mac.
Does it work with text, vectors or groups?
Like every filter in Affinity, it works on pixel layers. To apply an effect to text, vectors or a group, duplicate it and turn the copy into pixels first (rasterize it).
Does it create a new layer?
No. Like every filter in Affinity, the effect is applied to the selected layer. Duplicate it first with Ctrl+J (⌘J on a Mac) if you want to keep the original, or undo with Ctrl+Z (⌘Z).
On how many computers can I use the license?
On three. If you change computers, you can free one up from the window itself with your purchase email.
Does it need the internet?
Only to activate the license and check for updates. The effects are calculated on your computer and your images never leave it. Offline, the license keeps working for 14 days.
How do updates work?
When there’s a new version, the window shows a notice with an “Update” button. Affinity uses the new version the next time it starts.
More effects in Filter Gallery
ASCII
Turns your images into art made of characters, in their original colors or a single ink, with a transparent background.
Dithering
Dithers your images with Bayer matrices or random noise, in the original colors or your own palette.
Beads
Build hama bead designs from your images: beads with volume, an adjustable hole and a colored pegboard.
Knit
Turns your images into knitted fabric, with V-shaped stitches, relief and a palette of a few colors.
Bricks
Turns your images into a mosaic of building bricks, with flat or studded pieces.
Shape Grid
Your image as a grid of dots, crosses, rings and squares picked by its tone.
Pixel Melt
The colors of your image run in streaks like melted paint.
Liquid Dots
Dots that grow in the tones you choose and merge like drops.
Overprint
Your image printed in up to three overprinted inks, with grain and misregistration, like a riso print.
Gold Foil
Your image embossed in gold, silver or copper, or stamped in foil on paper.
Sunprint
Your image as a cyanotype: Prussian blue on watercolor paper, with a brushed border.
Blob Tracking
Boxes, numbers, coordinates and lines over the spots in your image, like a tracking system.
Aberration
Your image stretched out from a sharp center, with rainbow fringes toward the edges.
Bloom
A deep glow around the highlights of your image, intense up close and soft in the distance.
Ink
Lines of ink that bleed into the paper, with 1 to 3 inks, overprint and misregistration.
Hologram
Turns your images into a hologram of lines that rise with brightness, with glow and interference.
Topographic
Contour lines over your image, like a topographic map of its brightness.
Flare
Glow, a streak that drags the lights and fine stars on the brightest parts of your image.
Digitalism
A phosphor screen of vertical lines that thicken with brightness, with glow.
Stipple
Your image drawn with loose ink dots, closer together in the shadows.
Woodcut
Your image carved in wood: solid ink, parallel strokes and cross-hatching.
Wireframe
A glowing wire mesh that bends with the brightness of your image.
Paper Texture
Fibers, crumples and folds of paper over your image.
Fluted Glass
Your image seen through ribbed glass.
Halftone Dots
A grid of dots that grow with the shadows, like a printed photo.
Halftone CMYK
Your image printed in four inks, with dots of cyan, magenta, yellow and black.
Lens Distortion
Your image through a lens that bends it, with the colors split at the edges.
Water
Your image under water, with waves and caustic light.