Bryan Rieger

Canva has their big Canva Create 2025 event in a few weeks (April 10th). This is the same event where last year Ash joined the High School Musical cast to announce their very buggy Affinity 2.5 release, so it's quite likely we'll have some new features (and more bugs) dropped on us during the upcoming event.
The past year since the acquisition has been a big disappointment. We've only seen two relatively minor releases (2.5.x and 2.6.x) and both have been riddled with issues (hence the multiple x point releases).  While I'm hopeful we'll see some big improvements and announcements this year, I'm also realistic enough to know that after 10+ years of working with the Affinity Suite it'll likely be more of the "same old, same old".
Big announcement, lots of promises, half-baked features, and an ever-growing list of unresolved issues.

Canva has their big Canva Create 2025 event in a few weeks (April 10th). This is the same event where last year Ash joined the High School Musical cast to announce their very buggy Affinity 2.5 release, so it's quite likely we'll have some new features (and more bugs) dropped on us during the upcoming event.
The past year since the acquisition has been a big disappointment. We've only seen two relatively minor releases (2.5.x and 2.6.x) and both have been riddled with issues (hence the multiple x point releases).  While I'm hopeful we'll see some big improvements and announcements this year, I'm also realistic enough to know that after 10+ years of working with the Affinity Suite it'll likely be more of the "same old, same old".
Big announcement, lots of promises, half-baked features, and an ever-growing list of unresolved issues.

The first step to recovery is admitting that there is a problem. So far, I haven’t seen Serif even do this. Dreaming of a magical fix in progress is at this point pure fantasy.
There is nothing to indicate that it’s not simply business as usual in Serifland.

The first step to recovery is admitting that there is a problem. So far, I haven’t seen Serif even do this. Dreaming of a magical fix in progress is at this point pure fantasy.
There is nothing to indicate that it’s not simply business as usual in Serifland.

I haven't used these machine learning models yet, but I just wanted to say how nice a surprise it was to see that these were optional downloads, and not simply bundled into the existing applications. I really appreciate Serif giving creatives the respect to choose whether or not they want to integrate any machine learning into their workflows. 
Also, kudos for side-stepping the blanket AI hype train and calling these 'Machine Learning Models', which is not only more accurate, but also helps to frame the discussion in a much more informed manner.

It’ll probably be fine. You end up burning your time reading posts from 500 users answered by 5–10 forum members, while Serif and Canva delight us with promises that we’re part of a revolution—only to go completely silent for a year. That wouldn’t fly in a real revolution.
The momentum is gone. It’s really hard to think of Affinity as a medium- or long-term investment now, and even harder to feel passionate about it.
It feels like...

In a few hours Canva (the company that owns Serif and the Affinity Suite) kicks off their annual Canva Create event in Los Angeles, which will also be available online. Last year Ash got up on stage in a blindingly colourful jacket to announce the half-baked 2.5 release which included 'support' for variable fonts, a QR code tool, and a stroke width tool, along with other 'features' and improvements.
Personally, other than the long anticipated ePub, and scripting/plug-in support, I'm hoping that we see Canva/Serif commit to fixing many of the outstanding issues (bugs, UI/UX, half-baked features, etc) that have plagued the Affinity suite for years. I don't want to see more tacked-on AI nonsense, more half-baked features, or hollow marketing blather about 'professionals'. I just want to see both Canva and Serif begin to take ownership of the suite, and provide the stewardship (and resources) it needs to be what they (and many of their users) envision it could be.
What are you hoping to see?

Maybe expecting Affinity to be mentioned in the Canva Create 2025 event reveals some lack of attention to how revolutionary was what was introduced?
The new Visual Suite is a giant step up, and a totally new idea of software. That's Creative Cloud Lite blended with an Office suite and a task manager like Monday. All packaged into a tightly integrated set.
What could have they been able to say about Affinity, at the event? Explain the new exciting reading order panel? To that audience and from teletubbied presenters?
Affinity is something different, and for a different type of user/context. Let them live their separate lives.
Paolo
 

In a few hours Canva (the company that owns Serif and the Affinity Suite) kicks off their annual Canva Create event in Los Angeles, which will also be available online. Last year Ash got up on stage in a blindingly colourful jacket to announce the half-baked 2.5 release which included 'support' for variable fonts, a QR code tool, and a stroke width tool, along with other 'features' and improvements.
Personally, other than the long anticipated ePub, and scripting/plug-in support, I'm hoping that we see Canva/Serif commit to fixing many of the outstanding issues (bugs, UI/UX, half-baked features, etc) that have plagued the Affinity suite for years. I don't want to see more tacked-on AI nonsense, more half-baked features, or hollow marketing blather about 'professionals'. I just want to see both Canva and Serif begin to take ownership of the suite, and provide the stewardship (and resources) it needs to be what they (and many of their users) envision it could be.
What are you hoping to see?

The lack of any meaningful communication at the company's biggest party says all it needs to say. Doesn't need paragraphs of analysis.

That’s miniature thinking. The problem here is that faith is lost—not due to a lack of bug reports, but due to a lack of bug fixes. You're doing Serif a disservice, regardless of the validity of your point.
This isn’t a volunteer club for retired hobbyists with endless free time. It’s a customer–supplier relationship, and it’s oddly hard to get the forum’s strangely permanent residents to grasp that the customer does NOT work for Serif or Canva—it’s Serif and Canva who work for the customer.
You really ought to take a step back and consider the wider context and perspective. This isn’t a case of lending a hand to a mate building a chicken coop in Nottingham—it’s a commercial product claiming to serve millions. The responsibility – and the ball – is firmly in the company’s court.

In a few hours Canva (the company that owns Serif and the Affinity Suite) kicks off their annual Canva Create event in Los Angeles, which will also be available online. Last year Ash got up on stage in a blindingly colourful jacket to announce the half-baked 2.5 release which included 'support' for variable fonts, a QR code tool, and a stroke width tool, along with other 'features' and improvements.
Personally, other than the long anticipated ePub, and scripting/plug-in support, I'm hoping that we see Canva/Serif commit to fixing many of the outstanding issues (bugs, UI/UX, half-baked features, etc) that have plagued the Affinity suite for years. I don't want to see more tacked-on AI nonsense, more half-baked features, or hollow marketing blather about 'professionals'. I just want to see both Canva and Serif begin to take ownership of the suite, and provide the stewardship (and resources) it needs to be what they (and many of their users) envision it could be.
What are you hoping to see?

In a few hours Canva (the company that owns Serif and the Affinity Suite) kicks off their annual Canva Create event in Los Angeles, which will also be available online. Last year Ash got up on stage in a blindingly colourful jacket to announce the half-baked 2.5 release which included 'support' for variable fonts, a QR code tool, and a stroke width tool, along with other 'features' and improvements.
Personally, other than the long anticipated ePub, and scripting/plug-in support, I'm hoping that we see Canva/Serif commit to fixing many of the outstanding issues (bugs, UI/UX, half-baked features, etc) that have plagued the Affinity suite for years. I don't want to see more tacked-on AI nonsense, more half-baked features, or hollow marketing blather about 'professionals'. I just want to see both Canva and Serif begin to take ownership of the suite, and provide the stewardship (and resources) it needs to be what they (and many of their users) envision it could be.
What are you hoping to see?

In a few hours Canva (the company that owns Serif and the Affinity Suite) kicks off their annual Canva Create event in Los Angeles, which will also be available online. Last year Ash got up on stage in a blindingly colourful jacket to announce the half-baked 2.5 release which included 'support' for variable fonts, a QR code tool, and a stroke width tool, along with other 'features' and improvements.
Personally, other than the long anticipated ePub, and scripting/plug-in support, I'm hoping that we see Canva/Serif commit to fixing many of the outstanding issues (bugs, UI/UX, half-baked features, etc) that have plagued the Affinity suite for years. I don't want to see more tacked-on AI nonsense, more half-baked features, or hollow marketing blather about 'professionals'. I just want to see both Canva and Serif begin to take ownership of the suite, and provide the stewardship (and resources) it needs to be what they (and many of their users) envision it could be.
What are you hoping to see?

In a few hours Canva (the company that owns Serif and the Affinity Suite) kicks off their annual Canva Create event in Los Angeles, which will also be available online. Last year Ash got up on stage in a blindingly colourful jacket to announce the half-baked 2.5 release which included 'support' for variable fonts, a QR code tool, and a stroke width tool, along with other 'features' and improvements.
Personally, other than the long anticipated ePub, and scripting/plug-in support, I'm hoping that we see Canva/Serif commit to fixing many of the outstanding issues (bugs, UI/UX, half-baked features, etc) that have plagued the Affinity suite for years. I don't want to see more tacked-on AI nonsense, more half-baked features, or hollow marketing blather about 'professionals'. I just want to see both Canva and Serif begin to take ownership of the suite, and provide the stewardship (and resources) it needs to be what they (and many of their users) envision it could be.
What are you hoping to see?

As someone that went full speed ahead with Affinity and overall is happy with how I can use it in my agency I can understand people’s frustration. For the most part I can do in Designer (the main one we use with AP close) that I did in Adobe Illustrator. The thing that kinda befuddles me a bit is when we got rid of Adobe (it was not so much the AI stuff. It was more just tired of adobe and the overload.) what was surprising to me was in the few times I needed to do something that was not in Affinty I started using Inkscape for mostly blend tool and it was weird to me that for a free software why were not some of these things in Affinity.
 
I will reiterate I think there’s a decent amount of people on here that just kind of moan about it and you know rip affinity to shreds where I think there’s a lot of good in affinity but there’s just like some weird. I don’t think it’s a disconnect but there just seems to be some things that should be in the software that are not andI am not a coder by any stretch but it just seems like it should just be there. that’s really it.
 I’m not getting rid of affinity. I enjoy it and for what I do which is mostly branding, logo design, collateral I really like it. That said it seems interesting.  I was contacted directly by Affinity recently directly about getting involved which is nice so we will see but again I saw things in Adobe where a feature was asked for 10 yr ago and nothing and then all of a sudden one day it just shows up? 

In a few hours Canva (the company that owns Serif and the Affinity Suite) kicks off their annual Canva Create event in Los Angeles, which will also be available online. Last year Ash got up on stage in a blindingly colourful jacket to announce the half-baked 2.5 release which included 'support' for variable fonts, a QR code tool, and a stroke width tool, along with other 'features' and improvements.
Personally, other than the long anticipated ePub, and scripting/plug-in support, I'm hoping that we see Canva/Serif commit to fixing many of the outstanding issues (bugs, UI/UX, half-baked features, etc) that have plagued the Affinity suite for years. I don't want to see more tacked-on AI nonsense, more half-baked features, or hollow marketing blather about 'professionals'. I just want to see both Canva and Serif begin to take ownership of the suite, and provide the stewardship (and resources) it needs to be what they (and many of their users) envision it could be.
What are you hoping to see?

In a few hours Canva (the company that owns Serif and the Affinity Suite) kicks off their annual Canva Create event in Los Angeles, which will also be available online. Last year Ash got up on stage in a blindingly colourful jacket to announce the half-baked 2.5 release which included 'support' for variable fonts, a QR code tool, and a stroke width tool, along with other 'features' and improvements.
Personally, other than the long anticipated ePub, and scripting/plug-in support, I'm hoping that we see Canva/Serif commit to fixing many of the outstanding issues (bugs, UI/UX, half-baked features, etc) that have plagued the Affinity suite for years. I don't want to see more tacked-on AI nonsense, more half-baked features, or hollow marketing blather about 'professionals'. I just want to see both Canva and Serif begin to take ownership of the suite, and provide the stewardship (and resources) it needs to be what they (and many of their users) envision it could be.
What are you hoping to see?

"One should not give up hope", as they say, right?
On the other hand, having no expectations whatsoever usually results in not being disappointed at all. 
So count me to the camp who says "Meh." now, and who will quite likely say another "Meh." afterwards. 
(As in: I have far more "interesting things" going on today, like an afrojazz band rehearsal tonight, with me on upright bass… 𝄢)

In a few hours Canva (the company that owns Serif and the Affinity Suite) kicks off their annual Canva Create event in Los Angeles, which will also be available online. Last year Ash got up on stage in a blindingly colourful jacket to announce the half-baked 2.5 release which included 'support' for variable fonts, a QR code tool, and a stroke width tool, along with other 'features' and improvements.
Personally, other than the long anticipated ePub, and scripting/plug-in support, I'm hoping that we see Canva/Serif commit to fixing many of the outstanding issues (bugs, UI/UX, half-baked features, etc) that have plagued the Affinity suite for years. I don't want to see more tacked-on AI nonsense, more half-baked features, or hollow marketing blather about 'professionals'. I just want to see both Canva and Serif begin to take ownership of the suite, and provide the stewardship (and resources) it needs to be what they (and many of their users) envision it could be.
What are you hoping to see?

I do believe that Serif acts with the best of intentions towards its software and users, and I’ve seen many examples over the past 10+ years of Serif employees listening to and helping their users with the software to the best of their ability (management could have a big impact here with regards to following through, not just reporting issues).
What does need be addressed is better communication between Serif/Canva and their user base, as well as solid commitments and follow through to address the ever growing list of issues users are having with the software that are simply not being addressed.

Product Manager: “Yeah, those are all great suggestions, but how annoying would it be if we required users to go into a View > Guides panel just to manage them? Am I right?”
I'm waiting to see what's announced this Thursday @ Canva Create before I decided to finally cut my losses and abandon the entire Affinity suite (after 10+ years). The past year since the acquisition hasn't been terribly positive (both 2.5 and 2.6 were very buggy releases), the pace of development has turned glacial, and there seems to be almost complete radio silence from Serif (beyond bug reporting) lately.
I truly enjoy using the Affinity apps (when they work), and admire the original intention of the Affinity suite. The problem is that execution matters, and for whatever reason, Serif appears to have significant problems executing.
 

Cringe.

Sounds to me like a fishing expedition sponsored by Canva to feel out the market for subscriptions.
Reasoning: Forum account opened yesterday, then expresses desire for a subscription model in first post. Uh-huh.

Canva has their big Canva Create 2025 event in a few weeks (April 10th). This is the same event where last year Ash joined the High School Musical cast to announce their very buggy Affinity 2.5 release, so it's quite likely we'll have some new features (and more bugs) dropped on us during the upcoming event.
The past year since the acquisition has been a big disappointment. We've only seen two relatively minor releases (2.5.x and 2.6.x) and both have been riddled with issues (hence the multiple x point releases).  While I'm hopeful we'll see some big improvements and announcements this year, I'm also realistic enough to know that after 10+ years of working with the Affinity Suite it'll likely be more of the "same old, same old".
Big announcement, lots of promises, half-baked features, and an ever-growing list of unresolved issues.