tonyrambler

A couple of observations on the recent news, as a very special tester and the guy who suggested Serif bet the farm on Affinity at a time they were seemingly already doing it in secret (yes, remember that e-mail you got back in 2014, where I even quoted Churchill? That was me):
 
• The video that was posted on the news page was not very reassuring, and any PR specialist will tell you that.
 
• The pledge is all well and good, but it is not legally binding and, I take it, was not posted right away upon the announcement of the acquisition; and while the negotiations were done in two months and that does seem to be a very short time when it comes to these things, was it that difficult to have said pledge ready to go on day one? Another PR disaster, IMHO.
 
• Canva doesn’t have the best reputation overall, as a tool, among professional designers; however, they do seem to be loaded with cash, and their explanation that there is not much of an overlap in functionality, but perhaps in target market (i.e., some Canva users may want and actually be able to graduate from it to Affinity, or use it as a more advanced editing tool for objects even if they stay largely within the confines of Canva, kind of like you can already do across Affinity apps, and Affinity users may benefit from collaborative tools, for sure), does make sense, and sure, there may be some synergies, and Canva might be able to undercut Adobe both in subscription price – because we all know a subscription is coming, let’s not fool ourselves – and flexibility – if it makes financial sense and they don’t get too greedy, yes, them offering perpetual or semi-perpetual (à la Typeface.app) licenses, for which Affinity is famous for, may remain a thing.
And yes, we can’t be hypocrites and complain about Canva not valuing design as a professional pathway if they do indeed make good on their promises and start promoting their newly acquired serious tools and tutorials, which may lead people into making decent amateur design or even studying it at some level, and to Canva not just being part of the problem but also providing the solution. Heck, the files produced in Canva may even become better on a technical level if they move towards Serif tech at some point.
 
• Canva also has bad reputation when it comes to AI, and while we don’t expect them to drop it, we may give it the benefit of the doubt out of necessity. Expect, however, thorough sifting of EULAs, and maybe even lawsuits if user creations are ever mined for content.
 
• We’ve been burned in the past, and none of this is very surprising, only sad. In hindsight, it’s patently obvious that Serif was lacking the resources to keep up with Adobe after their seemingly vertiginous pace during the early years.
 
• The promises of missing features being added to V2 are all well and good, but in a sense, they are a bit too good; some of us suspect the team is just trying to wrap it up, and that indeed V3 is shaping up to be a very boring cash-grab, or mostly Canva-focused (because that integration will surely take time and can only really start now, if it does become a thing), and us losing access one day to V2 activations is also a concerning prospect (the indefinite maintenance of activation servers for as long as Canva exists as a corporate entity, and maybe even some properly laid out exit strategy in case it goes belly up, should be part of the pledge itself, spelled out in writing or even added to the very EULAs, and become legally binding, between Canva and us, the customers).
 
• Until all these fears are well and properly assuaged, I – and, I suspect, many others – won’t even bother with giving suggestions for my pet features on the betas, the topmost – variable font support – having been the first one mentioned in said video and on the pledge. Why should I, if Adobe already offers it in such stable form, and me having to switch back to CC may become a reality? Not until V3 rolls around as a truly groundbreaking, perpetually-licensed set of apps, and especially not now when Affinity devs are loaded with cash and could and should hire proper testers and pay for proper focus groups, instead of relying on community efforts.
You see, you had a tacit, unwritten agreement with your testers, in that we knew you were, staying with the Churchillian metaphor, the strapped-for-cash underdogs that were fighting the good fight, and with this acquisition you obviously lost a lot of that goodwill and the tiny bit that remains is now on probation, if not on thin ice. With Canva being just the lesser and more affordable and flexible of two evils – at least for the time being –, we’re now just your customers, not your fighting buddies, sorry.
That is not to say that you won’t keep fighting, but you’ll also have to do so to get at least our basic confidence back (not just to get new switchers from Adobe, which I still hope you do as long as you’re not trapping them into a technological dead end), and you won’t get unbridled word-of-mouth from us anymore because obviously we will warn our colleagues, students, etc. of all the corporate shenanigan and technical caveats (i.e. Affinity, in its free educational/non-profit version, is nice to learn just in case it turns into an alternative standard, but not safe enough to bet an entire portfolio on it lest it’s canned or something, and definitely even less of a safe option in its commercial incarnation for the same reason, and I hope Canva realizes this and doesn’t nix perpetual licenses based on understandably skewed sales numbers). V2.x, and especially V3 and beyond will be crucial in that regard.
 
TL;DR: nice as all of you at Serif may be as people, unless Canva allows you to interact with the community as you always did, and treats the community according to its very special ethos and idiosyncrasies, you likely lost us all for good, and will see at best a cooling down period until we see you all make good on your pledges.
It’s not vindictiveness, it’s just basic human behaviour; why would we, as old Macromedia users, old Creative Suite users, old Plus users, etc., keep blindly investing our time and mental energy in the development and improvement of this piece of software after having been so thoroughly burned, time and time again, by greedy corporate entities and technology transitions? My €0,02.

Vector portrait of movie director, actor, visual artist and musician David Lynch. All 12 stages of progress in my portfolio blog: https://communicats.blogspot.com/2024/01/david-lynch-vector-portrait.html
In aforementioned blog I briefly explained how the effects used have been created, but I will repeat them here for clarity:
In Affinity Designer there are what Serif calls 'Vector Brushes' that actually are based on bitmap images. So, this in fact is not a 100% vector portrait. Users can draw these brushes themselves in vector format, that are exported as png-files. For almost every 'vector' portrait, drawing specific brushes have to be created, since no hair strand or pore texture in a person's face are the same. To such brushes Gradient Fills and Gradient Transparency effects are applied and sometimes they are Duplicated using Filters (below the Layers panel) that in some cases are offset, re-sized, skewed or mesh warped a little. In a number of cases it helps to apply the 3D lighting effect - highlights and outer shadows - to these brushes too. In the Gradient Tool there is an option to use bitmaps as the fill, which also is useful to achieve the desired effect. To these type of fills the same effects can be applied as used to manipulate the Vector Brush strokes.
 

 
 
 
 

 
 

 

Agreed, this should be a high priority!  And reminding them is a good idea.  I had a thread like this over at roonlabs, which lasted for something like four years.  In the end we got what we asked for, even though it took a long time.  And I think a key part of that success was that everyone kept chiming in and keeping the thread alive, it was even split and rejoined a few times due to the conversation.  So it definitely doesn't hurt to speak up and should not be discouraged, it takes only a little time after all and shouldn't offend anyone if you're polite.

Bumped anyway.
It might be a waste of time but it isn't a waste of very much time, after all. 
Serif—love your apps, use them most days, please add ColourChecker support as it is absolutely essential for a serious photo app.
There, my work here is done and it only took a moment.

You're talking about Designer's Warp Groups, right?
You're not. Apparently such details haven't been implemented yet. But it's quite likely to assume that they will be added in a future update. In any case it's been requested quite a few times already, so Serif have surely taken note.

Hi jweitzel,
Thanks for your response. I think the Affinity suite is remarkable and I agree that it is unfairly criticised by some on here. It wouldn't surprise me if there was some incentive for certain other corporations to muddy the waters a bit on the forum. It happens everywhere else where market share is involved, after all. Ah well.
This macro complaint isn't such a big deal but the code needs fixing and also it's a bit clunky in its design even when it works. 
Personally, I love the Affinity Suite. I used the StudioLink integration exhaustively on one very large project (a 300 page illustrated book) for several weeks with totally consistent smoothness and speed and almost zero glitches, all in one chameleon-like book/photo/vector window the whole time. It was a total pleasure to use. The Famous Industry Standard apps never gave this kind of ability.
I think the whole suite is great. It doesn't have to be perfect, as long as they continue to listen.
 

Thanks, it was there all along. 

Hi again David,
that's a great way to add a precise colour.
If I change the blend mode to Colour it gives a good shade to the existing colours. Depending on the image I can set the in-point on the blend to 25% or less and then use the number keys to easily tweak the opacity of the layer to fine-tune the effects.
I'd still like to see the conventional adjustment layers having more precise access to the colour palettes in the future, as it seems a bit odd not to be able to work with the same precision as the main colour studio. Hey ho.
Anyway, thanks David—that's really helpful!
EDIT: if anyone does know some way to use precise colours with the Selective Colour, Colour Balance and Split Toning adjustment layer sliders, I'd still love to find out!
 
 

Really nice work. Love the texture and palette, and the styling of all the shapes you've used.

Feline egg — cartoony 3D artwork (concept: Marija Tiurina) 
Post-processed / fine-adjusted using Affinity Photo.
 

I avoided upgrading my Mac OS beyond Snow Leopard for a long time, to keep Corel Draw 11 running. I used Corel Draw for nearly 20 years. Now that I had to change to a newer MacBook I can't run Draw at all, so I have ZERO access to much of my work and can't do the SVG export either. I'm considering paying a local print bureau to convert a load of stuff on their Windows/Corel setup for me.
 
I'd love AD to support .cdr files. It would be like a tiny little Christmas
 
Please?

Hi All, 
 
I used Affinity Designer, from start to finish to make this huge illustration for the upcoming event of a Belgian union (ACV), the text reads "equality makes the difference". Designer worked great on this one (Isometric grids! Infinite zoom! Global Colors!) and I plan on using it way more often for client work. Keep up the good work!
 

Yes, really annoying. Just came on the forum for exactly that reason. Thought it was because of my Wacom but it's with trackpad as well. Otherwise loving Designer.
 
Almost spooky timing there Mak…!