RichardMH

I think a good answer would depend on which six levels of grey and which colours/tints relate to which of those levels.
In the meantime, you could add a Posterise Adjustment (with 6 levels) and a Black & White Adjustment to the image/layer – see attached image.

After installation of Beta version AND reinstallation v 2.4.2 I have proper Renderer and everything is ok. Thanks all of You 🙂

I think the concern at the moment is more for documentary photography that claims to be a true representation of the world. e.g. in news media.  If a print is sold as a piece of art does it matter if some or all of it is AI generated? I believe there is already a lucrative market for AI art that is expected to grow.

There's several ways AI is used in images. The focus here seems to be on generative AI. But there is also the image quality AI for noise and sharpness that Topaz and DxO use (and Adobe) and AI masking. Personally, I can't see any image editing software surviving long without AI masks. I suspect those of us that want the image quality AI are happy to use plug ins. Topaz are also developing AI lighting and white balance so there's a lot happening in the non-generative AI space.

If Photo goes the generative AI route, then we need them to join the content authenticity initiative and editing adjustments be in the meta data. I've been led to believe Photoshop has it already.

The main web site seems to be this
https://contentauthenticity.org/
I'm a club photographer and I think the provenance thing will happen for competitions there sooner rather than later. My club is discussing it and as most people use Photoshop there may not be much resistance.
Its in beta for Photoshop
https://helpx.adobe.com/au/creative-cloud/help/content-credentials.html
and available  in one of the recent Leica's for the documentary photographers
https://leica-camera.com/en-AU/photography/content-credentials
 

If Photo goes the generative AI route, then we need them to join the content authenticity initiative and editing adjustments be in the meta data. I've been led to believe Photoshop has it already.

Any product using generative AI in any capacity makes it a business risk for me, because the creative field I work in strictly prohibits its use in any capacity for any content, writes those prohibitions into contracts and publisher agreements, and enforces them aggressively.
I'm not morally opposed to the features and personally find them fascinating, but strictly pragmatically there should be options to completely disable them in creative software, and if its usage is automatic and either opt-out or unavoidable then I will always prefer a less-capable tool that lacks any such features, not out of a knee-jerk reaction but to protect my relationship with such clients.

Hi @Lamont1,
Firstly, any bespoke profile created with profiling software should only be used at the OS level. Using this bespoke profile as your document profile will effectively negate any colour management, and could cause inaccuracies for non-colour-managed software. For your document profile, stay in sRGB or whichever profile you are using.
Presumably you will be editing your images into a video format using editing software, in which case this should be doing the colour management between your image's colour space (e.g. sRGB, Adobe RGB) and your video colour space (Rec.709, Rec.2020 etc). Any differences converting from sRGB to Rec.709 should be negligible.
In summary, if you are working in a colour space wider than sRGB, you may want to try converting to sRGB during export (or use Document>Flatten and convert manually). It will somewhat depend on the editor you're using, and how they have implemented colour management.

I thought April Fools' Day is on Monday… 

I am really really happy to be using V2. 

Hello, Serif team
I am a recent member of the Affinity family, but I feel like it's just that. There's a lot of negativity surrounding this new deal, and I wanted to make sure you also get encouragement. I think the pledges are great. If you stay true to them, keep Affinity standalone and professional, and integrate it with Canva in the future in order to allow professional designers create templates in Affinity for marketers to use in Canva, this will be a groundbreaking workflow for the world of design.
There isn't a single piece of software out there that solves the problem of professionals who enjoy non-destructive, complex softwares such as Affinity collaborating with marketers who enjoy the simplicity of something like Canva templates.
I hope the entire team is as excited as I am for the future of Affinity. Keep Affinity professional, Canva for the beginners or non-designers, and you'll have yourselves the best design suite on the market.
This is a web agency owner's (extremely passionate about Studio Link and your design suite) wishlist of features to come from the new Canva resources:
Blend tool functionality Real vector brushes, not rasters on vector paths Real vector patterns, not rasters repeating on vector shapes Variable font support Smart object import functionality in Affinity Publisher Canva, please pay for additional developers to handle bug fixing, there are some persistent bug threads here that haven't been solved in 3-4 years Better transfer of Adobe format documents (I know, I know, it's closed-source format and the idea is to bring people over FROM Adobe, but sadly we still live in a world dominated by .ai .psd and .indd) for example the constant non 0 font tracking makes importing large document a real pain Export persona for all Affinity apps (I shouldn't have to open designer to export a batch of 10-20 logos I've been working on in Publisher) Generally way more Studio Link integration. Having a suite is great, but what you've developed in Studio Link is something special. Maybe Develop, Liquify, Export should become Modules rather than standalone personas in other apps. So that people would be able to add modules to their unified app (currently Publisher) just as we would add panels right now. Even if it requires a restart of the app, people would be able to make their one design app as slim or all-encompassing as they want. Some sort of image tracing capability Point-based gradients/Gradient meshes Some sort of vector filters suite (roughen, smoothen curve, distort, background distort, etc.) This is a list I'd been keeping for the past months, working on small business and big corporate website and design projects alike, using exclusively your suite for professional designs.
Let's make this thread a place for positivity and genuine recommendations for the future of our favourite design suite. The serif team seem to be very excited and eager to bring the best design tools out there into existence for us.
So let's make it happen together.
Tudor.

This announcement was a shock. While Version 2 was oversold, and the recent slow pace of bug fixes and limited feature updates is concerning, I understand there was a lot of V2 under-the-hood work. Regardless, we were more than happy to pay for the Version 2 ‘all options’ package, even though we don’t (at the moment) run Windows machines and the iPad apps remain something to be explored. The value from V1 was so great that buying version two was both a V1 'thank you’ and a V2 encouragement.
The new ownership compels us to examine of our continued use of Affinity software.
Background
We are a small publishing operation creating image-rich print and multi-media ebooks, based in regional Victoria.
We used PageMaker and then the Adobe Creative Suite from its inception until it went subscription. It was not cheap software – $AU600 to $AU800 a seat with half-price updates that, particularly toward the end, were of diminishing worth. We always had the option to skip an update, over the nine years we probably skipped half – skipping more often towards the end. The Australian pricing was at times up to twice that Adobe charged in the US after allowing for the $AUD/$USD exchange rate. It was very expensive software, but as we purchased outright we could partially control the cost. When the subscription ‘model’ was introduced it effectively doubled our already high costs (again charged at much higher prices than to US users), and the moment we stopped paying we would have lost access to our files.
We limped on with CS6 for publishing and drawing while we pivoted photo processing to Apple’s Aperture – based on this being flagship software from a major corporation. This prove to be a major mistake. We also started producing multi-media ePub projects in Apple’s iBooks Author. Another mistake.
Affinity journey
As CS6 faltered, we waited impatiently for Affinity Publisher for our print-based work, taking part in the beta testing. The moment it launched we moved some projects across, even though key features were missing (compared to In-Design) and there were strange bugs. The killer aspect for us was/is the seamless integration of the three apps. This more than compensated for missing functions and ‘managing’ bugs.
When Apple abandoned Aperture we moved to Photo. The first in our string of abandoned software experiences.
For ePub we are still, just, managing to use iBooks Author but expect that ability to ‘break’ any day. We were hoping Publisher would have a robust ePub capability before that final break.
Continue or abandon
The sale is forcing us to review the place for Affinity in our workflows.
We need software longevity. It is not uncommon for us to revisit projects across a decade. We have just spent weeks updating a project from 2014 where the hundreds of photos processed in Apple’s Aperture have to be redone. So my overriding concern is: what are the odds that the Affinity apps will still be viable in 2034?
Our other requirement is perpetual licence software we can to continue to use.
Unfortunately, ‘wait and see’ isn’t a option as we are due to begin several major projects. Do we continue to pour time, effort and capital into projects based on Affinity software or do we look for alternatives now?
This is a summary of our thinking.
Adobe takeover
One of the concerns raised in this thread is the potential for Adobe to buy Canva – given the mood and direction of Australian competition regulators I think this is so unlikely that it does not figure in my calculations.
VC cash grab leading to enshitification
Two of the three Canva founders are on record as holding 18 per cent of the company each, I guess the third also holds 18 per cent – that would give the three a controlling holding. For short-term VCs an IPO allows them to cash out, so there is a path for control to remain with the founders – parties to the assurances we are receiving today – while VCs can grab their cash.
Institutional shareholders
Two of Canva’s institutional shareholders are Australian ‘industry’ superannuation funds that together manage $250 billion of investments. We have two types of super funds – the commercial ‘for profits’ run by financial institutions etc. who make profits for their owners (and generally lower returns for their member) and ‘non-profit’ – the much larger group – of ‘Industry’ funds run only to benefit their members, often union-controlled, and generally long-term ‘ethical’ investors. That Canva’s institutional shareholders are in the second group provides some comfort.
Entrepreneurs with social conscious
Australia has a small group of billionaire entrepreneurial software developers with strong public conscious. Reports suggesting the Canva founders fall into this group – the pack leader is Atlassian co-founder Mike  Cannon-Brooks, a major driver of large renewable energy projects.
Serif’s fate
A few posts have pointed out that Canva acquired Pixabay and Pexels five years ago to support their offering. Both continue to operate as they had pre-acquisition – as stand-alone organisations with previous management – while providing that support to the main Canva product. It is not a leap to see Serif treated this way as the professional offerings would not make sense being folded into the current Canva 'anyone can design' offering.
The driver for Canva is adding ‘professional’ capabilities. In buying Serif, Canva has paid a lot for that capability. Canva senior management are very astute – they have built a $26 billion business from scratch. Dismantling or compromising Affinity software is not an ‘astute’ path, while strengthening it is. And knowing that a very large part of the attraction to Affinity users is perpetual licences, why would you change this major selling point over Adobe?
However, offering AI or cloud-based services requires a subscription to cover the ongoing costs – the template for that is Luminar Neo – you can by perpetual licences with optional AI-based ‘add ons’ with a subscription.
Much of the angst in this thread is around assurances being given by people who are/will not be in a position to deliver/honour those assurances. On reflection, I think there is a reasonable chance those people will remain in positions where they can honour those assurances for several years beyond an IPO.
Our decision
Making the wrong choice – stay or go – will have a substantial financial and resource impact on our business/operation. It is not a decision to make lightly.
For the moment that decision is to delay the major projects until 2.5 is released, see if there is an improvement in bug fixes and ePub features. If so, we will tentatively begin one of our major projects on Affinity software and remain watchful until Version 3.
If not, the search for alternatives will begin.
There are paths for this to be a net positive for Affinity, and we who use the software. I really hope this is the outcome.

There is a whole thread on this. In the real world, it is a non-starter.  A hell of a lot of work on multiple constantly moving targets for a VERY small market.
You would never get an RoI ever.    Also, the professionals don't usually use Linux.

@kaffeeundsalz,
I agree with you that you made a very bold statement there. I see many users here for the first time so that I can think the same about them not? However, if you see how high emotions are running, do you think it is not possible for people to feel the need to raise their concerns and opinions?
I find it a very risky assumption you made. Let's be fair and respect each other's opinion even when we completely disagree.
Canva is not so bad as many people think, in fact it is quiet good in what it is doing. The only thing is that many times, its results has to be edited. That is it! Canva is excellent but it is the one who is using the tools, which determine the final result. Because Canva is targetting the non-designers, it is  in that segment you see the crappy results.
However, we work with people using Canva for their products and I can tell you, they are very high quality otherwise we do not work with them.
What the future will bring, I do not know, Serif do not know and Canva does not know. But when this union succeed, we will all benefit from it. More powerful Affinity applications integrated with the cloud. Canva is a paradise for ready made graphics, slideshows, documents, which will come to Affinity too.
The only risk is Adobe, taking over Canva. If that happens, I agree, Canva/Affinity is dead! I was once a very satisfied user of Aldus Freehand but Adobe killed in favour of its lesser Illustrator. Let us hope that Adobe never get its hand on Canva/Affinity, that is the real danger for us.
I wish you all a long a pleasurable future with Canva/Affinity!

Nice one @Ash. Exciting times. I love the idea that Affinity is probably going to be used in schools now.
Onwards and upwards.

Just food for thought:
1. Assume for a minute that Canva has no intention of honoring its 4 pledges. Why then would they even bother to post them? Surely they know that if they do not it will have an extremely damaging impact on the company's reputation, making it hard for them to convince customers looking for alternatives to Adobe to buy their products.
2. Consider that it has become painfully obvious that Serif does not have the resources to keep adding much requested features & fixing bugs fast enough to keep many of its users from jumping ship & supporting other software. So what else could they reasonably be expected to do besides find a company like Canva to shoulder the load?

Over the past year or so I've moved from Affinity Photo being my main photo editor to something I use occasionally for specialised tasks. The RAW editors are just so good these days. With the talent at Affinity and better funding from Canva  I hope Photo can catch up. AI masks and scripting asap would help. Did I mention Capture One Live?  Modern noise reduction and sharpening? Keystoning? 

And that's exactly why Canva made a deal with Serif. With Serif's expertise, Canva also wants to win over professional designers.
If you have little experience in an area, it's easiest to buy this experience rather than spend a lot of time developing it yourself.

Thank you to the Affinity team for the clarification! I am a committed user and Affinity "evangelist" so the new 4-point announcement makes me very happy. I am also excited by the possibility of the Affinity Suite getting online collaboration features. I work with a team that uses a mix of Canva and Affinity apps so the merger would make our lives easier. 

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/

Someone forge to take their meds?
Seriously?
I woke up this morning and found that my Affinity software worked the same as it did Monday morning. What the heck? With the bridge collapsing, the dollar dropping and Serif's announcement yesterday I thought that the world came to an end. Yet, the garden is still growing and Affinity will still make me money as it did every other day (If I can stay off the stupid thread).

To followup on some of my comments yesterday, we are today enshrining our commitment to the Affinity community in 4 pledges made by the Affinity and Canva teams.
You can read about them here.

We do truly believe the coming together of Affinity and Canva is only going to be a good thing for our customers, staff and the development of our apps. We very much hope you will all continue to be with us on this journey.
All the best,
Ash

If you have to pay for a subscription, why not just stick with Adobe, right?

Well, this could be good news.
Congratulations on obtaining the investment in Serif that Canva will provide. I hope Serif will continue to provide affordable professional quality software that is accessible to all. May Serif go from strength to strength and Affinity blossom into the fully amazing software that it will no doubt be.
I hope the pricing model will stay the same i.e. purchase and own your copy of the software and not rent it.
Good luck for the future.