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Personally I greatly appreciate Ash's post and the pledges offered by both Affinity and Canva. Whilst there will always be doubters, and nothing is ever certain, to have such a statement issued as a show of mutual understanding and good faith is very encouraging, thank you Ash. One thing's for certain, you certainly wouldn't have seen such a gesture from Abode.

I feel more assured to continue my Affinity journey now.

My latest messages of yesterday had a drastic turn (not that I saw it so negatively as a few did, at least not so much, but I initially thought that it was not looking good), before these statements and important clarifications being published. This confirms that bit of light I saw yesterday, finally. That after a first negative impression, I started realizing that this is not what we have seen happening to other companies (as many as I have seen fall). Meaning, I quite started seeing that the communication was made in good faith (at least the part that comes from Affinity team), and that the good plans for the future are honest and real (call it intuition, but I think he was sincere). Yes, this needs a leap of faith, or call it "trust", if you prefer, but I am convinced that they have gained this trust, with all what they have accomplished to this point (with whatever the bumps in the road, as they were always a small company). One way or the other, they have provided us with a fabulous suite, and I have personally been able to do professional work with it for years, like many of you have, too. And others have been able to practice their loved hobby, with very powerful, easy to handle, flexible tools and an amazing UI.
BTW, Canva has mostly its market in very casual users, much more than Affinity's (professionals and advanced hobbyists), in the large numbers. We're talking about two quite differentiated user targets, different markets. One of the reasons (but not the main one) why I think it does not make sense for any company to stop the Affinity line. I bet the user base (future consumers of next perpetual license upgrades!) is pretty large at this moment. And its name is strong in many reviews, publications, tutorials, courses, etc. And knowing how this mass of people got here fleeing from the subscriptions, it only makes sense that also perpetual license (as an option) is here to stay. Corel and Celsys (Clip Studio developer) understood that, and they kept both the product line and the type of license (as an option). The "optional" thing is pretty smart. Why lose those sells? As the number of people disliking subscriptions is pretty large. Companies can have both.
I am convinced Affinity is not going anywhere, as in, not stopping being updated, neither becoming "subscription-only". As I mentioned yesterday, this is what Clipstudio made, and like a week ago or so I updated to 3.0. Despite everyone and their dog saying it'd become full subscription, back in the day, with CSP 2.0 release, when things changed there, too. And as I also mentioned, this also has kept happening with Substance 3D Painter (even now being Adobe's) on Steam.  Corel does this since a very long time, although their perpetual license of the Corel Draw suite is many times more expensive than Affinty's suite (and I would argue that Photo-Paint (or even PSP) is way below in the feature set (and UI) compared to Affinity Photo). But they have kept that for many years, now.  And this team (Affinity team) and company has proved to be ethical, in many of their actions (during the covid, with constant help for designers and artists, etc).
So, I believe all people liking the Affinity tools should stick around, this is here to stay, and improve (a lot).  I firmly believe it.
[  I for one keep having the huge issue with Canva having a generative AI tool (full illustration generation from scrapped artwork. I'd be totally fine with just AI features), among other more standard functionalities and the heaps of stock art (that's fine, IMO... artists were paid to provide with those! ), it has the equivalent to a "Midjourney" or "Dall-e" inside of it: The only ONE reason why I might leave here (yet to decide it, though). If so, was good to know all of you, people. My one remaining issue is that aspect of Canva (but "it is what it is", that can't change), due to principles, as an artist, not with the Affinity team. Neither with their plans about Affinity; I think they are being sincere ].

I hope people stay, or a big portion at least, and you all keep doing work with these great tools and helping (I promoted Affinity for years, everywhere  , and helped here all I could with the 2.0 bumps in the road) a true professionals and advanced hobbyists alternative to "the cloud". 
There are times when personal commitment is more important than a cold contract, in my opinion. That and all what they have provided with for many years.
My 2c. 

The reason is simple. The V1 was unlocked with a serial number, which was like an invitation to a free banquet for pirates.  
Online verification made it more difficult for pirates to use the software without a valid license. 

I agree. A pledge is a solemn promise, often made in a formal context. It implies more commitment, not less, than a mere promise.

I think they have made it more than clear enough that they will not be abandoning the perpetual licence model for the Affinity apps for the foreseeable future, so no, I do not see any problem with continuing to use & support the Affinity apps. Only if they ever renege on that pledge will I have any reason not to trust them.

The sky is falling!! The sky is falling!! The sky is falling!! 
Oh wait. No, it's not. There is as yet no good reason to believe we are being forced into a subscription model for the Affinity apps, certainly not one good enough for all the hysteria this topic & others have generated.

In what way is this different from the situation before? Serif as well could have encountered turbulence, letting them reshape their business model. It is perfectly legitimate for you to distrust company promises phrased this way. But I don't see what this has to do with the acquisition.

We are not, we are all very excited about what has been said and the future for Affinity. This thread is about your response not ours. As an employee of 24 years I am personally very pleased about what Ash has announced and the Affinity and Canva pledge.
https://affinity.serif.com/press/newsroom/affinity-and-canva-pledge/

The pledge to offer Affinity free to schools and non-profits is amazing. It will enable so many kids to learn with Affinity, and they will go on to use Affinity in their professional careers. This is something that would have been hard for a small company to offer but which the acquisition enabled. Bravo.

You can also find details of the four pledges we are making to our community here

Yes I do! Realise there seems to be a distinct lack of faith flying around here, but we'll be revealing more about our plans in the coming days and yes I'm sure you will all be pleased with what we have to say.

Thanks for the message - hopefully a step in the right direction :-).
Personally, I have been waiting for a similar step for a long time. It must be clear to everyone that such a small company with such few resources has a very difficult time in the current competition, and that new AI-type technologies are realistically unattainable for such a small team without the support of a stronger partner.
p.s. it was to be expected that such a load of mud would appear here in response to your statement, so don't let it put you off - thanks for your work.

There are genuinely no plans for us to remove the availability of our apps to purchase as a perpetual licence. I will say it is possible in the future there may be an optional way to have them via a Canva subscription plan (which could also include other integrations with Canva / cloud services which you would not get with the perpetual version). But it’s very early days and there isn't a firm plan on that.
I honestly think you'll all be pleased with the outcome of this. With the additional financial backing we have no pressure at all to release a V3 anytime soon, so can be 100% focused on ploughing all our efforts into free V2 updates for the foreseeable future - and we've got some great updates in the works. 
Realise this announcement has come as a surprise and I understand the feeling of uncertainty which is brings, but I do think it's all very positive for the company and our customers. 

I'd love to move away from Adobe Photoshop and use Affinity Photo for all my painting, but I just need one feature to make the switch, Affinity needs to let users Clip a layer to a group. I've made a video showing off the feature, examples of using it, and why it's a must have, please check out the video and consider supporting this feature!
 
- Neil

Sorry, but I really don't understand arguments of this type - why Serif should be broken control logic for all existing users (and indeed there are quite a few) to ease the transition of several users from Photoshop! How about changing the name of APhoto to Photostore so that these users don't have to get used to a brand new app name?

@Old Bruce: not sure this is the same as what is requested by @Max N. I support his request. Would be very useful to have this type of groupings.

It also seems that other people are switching to Affinity products from other software.

Apps: All
Platforms: Windows, macOS and iPad
Using even space distribution on a multiple selection will now behave differently if you have a key object nominated. This relates to either the space horizontally or space vertically options available in the alignment drop down (or Alignment Options available from the Transform panel on iPad):


 
The previous behaviour was always to space the objects in your selection with (in the case of horizontal spacing) the furthest left item and furthest right item remaining in the same position, and all other items in your selection spaced evenly between them. This is still the default behaviour.
However, the new functionality is that if you additionally specify a key object in your selection (alt-click an object) the behaviour changes to mean the furthest left object and the key object will not change position, and the other items are spaced evenly between them. This is particularly useful as you may quite often have the first two objects in your selection at the correct spacing and you want to space all other objects the same distance. Now you can nominate the second object as the key object and achieve this.
Additionally if you Alt-click the spacing button the distribution will be calculated between the furthest right object and the key object.
Below shows the different results:

 
All the above showing results for horizontal spacing, but the same applies to vertical spacing when working top to bottom.

So happy that my 12" record now has a real spiralling groove rather than a set of concentric circles. 😃

So happy that my 12" record now has a real spiralling groove rather than a set of concentric circles. 😃

So happy that my 12" record now has a real spiralling groove rather than a set of concentric circles. 😃

Hi All,
I’m pleased to say that we will be pushing 2.3 live to retail this morning. The beta versions were updated yesterday to the same build (2.3.0.2165) as detailed in Patrick’s post here. This means the beta versions are in effect exactly the same as the retail versions we will push so you can keep them installed if you wish. 
As always it’s been a pleasure working with you all on this release and cannot thank you enough for all the bug reports and other feedback you have given. I mentioned at the start of this beta we are working towards a shorter cadence between updates to help us release improvements and bug fixes sooner - and I hope you agree this has worked very well.
With that in mind we will be starting 2.4 beta very shortly (hopefully in just a couple of weeks). Looking forward to seeing you all on here for that!
Thanks again,
Ash

In this video we’ll check out how to create a “distressed texture” effect for print-on-demand designs. We’ll explore how to work with vectors, transparent PNGs, and solid JPGs.
 

Apps: All
Platforms: macOS, Windows and iPad
 
We have now added a spiral tool which is available from the shape tools flyout. This is something we have had many requests for, but also varying requests as to the type of result wanted. For that reason we have tried to make this as flexible as possible, both offering different types of spiral and variables to adjust.
When you create a spiral you will see from the context toolbar the different options available. Here are some examples of what you can create with the tool:
Spiral Type: Linear

Spiral Type: Decaying

Spiral Type: Semi-Circular
This type replicates the way many people have been creating a spiral in Affinity - effectively by joining decreasing semi circular arcs together.  With this type we also offer a counter Semi-circular option which returns the spiral back on itself:

Spiral Type: Fibonacci

Spiral Type: Plotted

 
 

The Layer menu (in AD) has become quite long, in the meantime. On my 14" MacBook Pro I have to scroll up and down to access all the menu items. I believe there's some room for consolidation. For instance how about a 'Convert …' menu item with below it 'to Curves', 'to Text Frame', 'to Text Path' 'Object to Artboard', 'Artboard to Object'? Would save 4 rows. Other people may have smarter ideas. Anyway, nice to see these improvements in the product.