debraspicher

Just for testing: also works fine in PhotoLine when anti-aliasing is turned off.

Affinity doesn't do aliased very well in my experience. Perhaps it will be fixed in the future, but this issue has come up before, so...

Cheers, Bits.
I don't remember the context, tbh, but she essentially wanted a check scanner out of the blue. I'm like what's the point, it's all going to get overwritten by a random DOS game anyway. The machine was mostly used for Wordpad, Word 6, the random game we installed on it. We didn't have internet, but I do remember trying to get the modem to "talk" with the dial up servers at AOL by playing around in a telephony app. That was mostly out of curiosity though. I think I also tried to connect with a Tandy TRS-80. This is why you should let kids get bored; They try new things.

Possibly my comment apparently had a part to play in this discussion (?), so let me clarify.
I personally try to be a realist and I tend to not get excited in general, but I'm not chronically pessimistic. I've tended to, in output terms, "under-promise and over-deliver" (if possible) while in intake terms, "under-expect and over-receive". The latter is a conscious thing, intended as a buffer against disappointment from unrealistic expectations.
While I agree in general with @debraspicher about refraining from unwarranted classifications, so to speak (if I understand correctly) I also agree with @loukash in a general sense. However I didn't take his comments as specifically descriptive of me, but rather his view in general.

As a devoted user and enthusiast, I've always shown immense loyalty to the apps I use, sticking with them through thick and thin. It took a significant amount of frustration for me to even consider switching platforms. My journey with Adobe began in 1994, but the introduction of Creative Cloud (CC) marked the beginning of my dissatisfaction. After a year of using CC, I was troubled by the realization that discontinuing my payment would mean losing access to all my cloud-saved documents and apps. This felt like Adobe was coercing me into a perpetual subscription, prompting me to explore alternatives.
I experimented with several apps like Graphic for vector work, Pixelmator for raster graphics, Rapidweaver for web development, and iStudio Publisher, but initially, they didn't quite measure up. However, when Adobe bluntly announced a price increase, essentially forcing users to accept the hike or lose their data, it was the last straw for me. I canceled my subscription and began a frantic search for replacements. Options ranged from CorelDraw to running Adobe CS6 on older Macs—I was desperate. Serif, at the time, had a tarnished reputation, known for dated design apps that seemed more suited for crafting clipart or printing business cards on home printers. Everything changed with the debut of Affinity Designer.
Though I approached it with skepticism, it became clear that this was the lifeline my business needed. Affinity Designer, alongside Pixelmator, allowed me to continue servicing my clients, gradually integrating other Affinity tools until my business regained its footing. While many flock to Canva, viewing it as user-friendly, I find it lacks the professional robustness necessary for serious design work, often yielding amateurish, uniform results. The acquisition of Affinity by Canva was an astonishing development, raising concerns that the excellence I had come to rely on might be diluted by Canva's more populist, less professional approach. Yet, part of me hopes that perhaps Affinity's influence could steer Canva towards becoming a formidable contender to Adobe, reshaping the landscape of design tools.
Despite these uncertainties, my commitment to Affinity remains unwavering. These tools have been indispensable to my livelihood, and I'm prepared to stand by them until given a reason to do otherwise, much like my eventual departure from Adobe.

Not a single current Serif customer who invested actual money into the product is anywhere near that level of a pessimist. Goodwill had to also be exchanged to move one's business and craft to this platform and I have seen no evidence to the latter, that anyone came to Serif because they had the worst possible outlook as a client.
At best, this discussion only sways prospective customers. Serif already has our money and what happens with it has always been entirely up to them. If any user wants to take their V2 purchase and chuck it in the trash, start putting their eggs in another basket, they're not "grumpy"... they're speculating the best possible route to take their craft and have their own unique ideas as to what the future entails. This forum has always been preoccupied with airy speculation and this is nothing new. That is one major downside to being a Serif customer is the user is often left guessing as to the future and intended quality of their products.
This place is starting to sound like a cult. If a user questions at all the outcome of the acquisition, they are a dirty pessimist. NO person, Serif customer or not, current or near future, should ever be told they risk being an actual depressed individual for thinking differently. When we start getting into discussing people's mental health as if that was ever appropriate discussion for a debate regarding the future of a business, we have gone into something else entirely.

We share a very similar background. PSP (Win 3.11 era) was my very first photo editor and was where I began tinkering with editing/creating whole new bitmaps of graphics and tweaking screenshots. When I was really young, I was learning to work our new scanner for my family who bought one for more utilitarian purposes. My grandmother gave me a check. I put it on the highest setting because "more numbers better obviously" and waited about 30 minutes before a Publisher's Clearing House sized check appeared on our monitor. It was huge, but it was still amazing to see something like that become feasible. Anyway, I didn't get a tablet until much later, but that did begin my creative journey digitally.

I'm also a CSP user and I'm happy with the middle ground they chose with their economic model. It's understandable that developing a product can take lots of money (who would've thought?). I'm frankly surprised Serif didn't adjust their model over time, raise prices, etc as the V1 cycle was quite long. I'd would've been happy to pay more for increased stability, more features as long as the quality was still progressing upwards. I'm actually fine even if this whole time an acquisition or at least the possibility of selling was in the back of their minds. Some companies can only get so far on their own and it's more admirable to admit they don't have the resources to do so alone and choosing a buyer who is more likely to take the product the intended direction is reasonable. Many companies change hands multiple times before finding the right team. So that part is not unusual.

The subscription part is more worrisome, for people who are sub-averse (I'm very much "it depends"). Whatever is written today, the future may very well prove difficult and plans may have to change. This was true pre-acquisition. However, looking around at other alternatives (some of which I'm trialing), there are still many options that offer perpetual license. Some are on the expensive side, but they do exist... they just may be a bit more niche? So I think that, despite whatever may come, Affinity won't be the only game in town to compete with that model. Anyway between their declared aspiration for becoming the "anti-Adobe" and the pressure from a rise in competition/technology advances from all corners, Canva has a major incentive to keep the perpetual, imo. Does that it mean it can't change in 5 years? Nobody can know. But it's an increasingly competitive market and with this acquisition, I think there were will be more incentives to make sure that there always remain options... so I think it can only mean a good thing, at the end of the day.

What does that have to do with the acquisition?

Not a single current Serif customer who invested actual money into the product is anywhere near that level of a pessimist. Goodwill had to also be exchanged to move one's business and craft to this platform and I have seen no evidence to the latter, that anyone came to Serif because they had the worst possible outlook as a client.
At best, this discussion only sways prospective customers. Serif already has our money and what happens with it has always been entirely up to them. If any user wants to take their V2 purchase and chuck it in the trash, start putting their eggs in another basket, they're not "grumpy"... they're speculating the best possible route to take their craft and have their own unique ideas as to what the future entails. This forum has always been preoccupied with airy speculation and this is nothing new. That is one major downside to being a Serif customer is the user is often left guessing as to the future and intended quality of their products.
This place is starting to sound like a cult. If a user questions at all the outcome of the acquisition, they are a dirty pessimist. NO person, Serif customer or not, current or near future, should ever be told they risk being an actual depressed individual for thinking differently. When we start getting into discussing people's mental health as if that was ever appropriate discussion for a debate regarding the future of a business, we have gone into something else entirely.

We share a very similar background. PSP (Win 3.11 era) was my very first photo editor and was where I began tinkering with editing/creating whole new bitmaps of graphics and tweaking screenshots. When I was really young, I was learning to work our new scanner for my family who bought one for more utilitarian purposes. My grandmother gave me a check. I put it on the highest setting because "more numbers better obviously" and waited about 30 minutes before a Publisher's Clearing House sized check appeared on our monitor. It was huge, but it was still amazing to see something like that become feasible. Anyway, I didn't get a tablet until much later, but that did begin my creative journey digitally.

I'm also a CSP user and I'm happy with the middle ground they chose with their economic model. It's understandable that developing a product can take lots of money (who would've thought?). I'm frankly surprised Serif didn't adjust their model over time, raise prices, etc as the V1 cycle was quite long. I'd would've been happy to pay more for increased stability, more features as long as the quality was still progressing upwards. I'm actually fine even if this whole time an acquisition or at least the possibility of selling was in the back of their minds. Some companies can only get so far on their own and it's more admirable to admit they don't have the resources to do so alone and choosing a buyer who is more likely to take the product the intended direction is reasonable. Many companies change hands multiple times before finding the right team. So that part is not unusual.

The subscription part is more worrisome, for people who are sub-averse (I'm very much "it depends"). Whatever is written today, the future may very well prove difficult and plans may have to change. This was true pre-acquisition. However, looking around at other alternatives (some of which I'm trialing), there are still many options that offer perpetual license. Some are on the expensive side, but they do exist... they just may be a bit more niche? So I think that, despite whatever may come, Affinity won't be the only game in town to compete with that model. Anyway between their declared aspiration for becoming the "anti-Adobe" and the pressure from a rise in competition/technology advances from all corners, Canva has a major incentive to keep the perpetual, imo. Does that it mean it can't change in 5 years? Nobody can know. But it's an increasingly competitive market and with this acquisition, I think there were will be more incentives to make sure that there always remain options... so I think it can only mean a good thing, at the end of the day.

We share a very similar background. PSP (Win 3.11 era) was my very first photo editor and was where I began tinkering with editing/creating whole new bitmaps of graphics and tweaking screenshots. When I was really young, I was learning to work our new scanner for my family who bought one for more utilitarian purposes. My grandmother gave me a check. I put it on the highest setting because "more numbers better obviously" and waited about 30 minutes before a Publisher's Clearing House sized check appeared on our monitor. It was huge, but it was still amazing to see something like that become feasible. Anyway, I didn't get a tablet until much later, but that did begin my creative journey digitally.

I'm also a CSP user and I'm happy with the middle ground they chose with their economic model. It's understandable that developing a product can take lots of money (who would've thought?). I'm frankly surprised Serif didn't adjust their model over time, raise prices, etc as the V1 cycle was quite long. I'd would've been happy to pay more for increased stability, more features as long as the quality was still progressing upwards. I'm actually fine even if this whole time an acquisition or at least the possibility of selling was in the back of their minds. Some companies can only get so far on their own and it's more admirable to admit they don't have the resources to do so alone and choosing a buyer who is more likely to take the product the intended direction is reasonable. Many companies change hands multiple times before finding the right team. So that part is not unusual.

The subscription part is more worrisome, for people who are sub-averse (I'm very much "it depends"). Whatever is written today, the future may very well prove difficult and plans may have to change. This was true pre-acquisition. However, looking around at other alternatives (some of which I'm trialing), there are still many options that offer perpetual license. Some are on the expensive side, but they do exist... they just may be a bit more niche? So I think that, despite whatever may come, Affinity won't be the only game in town to compete with that model. Anyway between their declared aspiration for becoming the "anti-Adobe" and the pressure from a rise in competition/technology advances from all corners, Canva has a major incentive to keep the perpetual, imo. Does that it mean it can't change in 5 years? Nobody can know. But it's an increasingly competitive market and with this acquisition, I think there were will be more incentives to make sure that there always remain options... so I think it can only mean a good thing, at the end of the day.

Not a single current Serif customer who invested actual money into the product is anywhere near that level of a pessimist. Goodwill had to also be exchanged to move one's business and craft to this platform and I have seen no evidence to the latter, that anyone came to Serif because they had the worst possible outlook as a client.
At best, this discussion only sways prospective customers. Serif already has our money and what happens with it has always been entirely up to them. If any user wants to take their V2 purchase and chuck it in the trash, start putting their eggs in another basket, they're not "grumpy"... they're speculating the best possible route to take their craft and have their own unique ideas as to what the future entails. This forum has always been preoccupied with airy speculation and this is nothing new. That is one major downside to being a Serif customer is the user is often left guessing as to the future and intended quality of their products.
This place is starting to sound like a cult. If a user questions at all the outcome of the acquisition, they are a dirty pessimist. NO person, Serif customer or not, current or near future, should ever be told they risk being an actual depressed individual for thinking differently. When we start getting into discussing people's mental health as if that was ever appropriate discussion for a debate regarding the future of a business, we have gone into something else entirely.

We share a very similar background. PSP (Win 3.11 era) was my very first photo editor and was where I began tinkering with editing/creating whole new bitmaps of graphics and tweaking screenshots. When I was really young, I was learning to work our new scanner for my family who bought one for more utilitarian purposes. My grandmother gave me a check. I put it on the highest setting because "more numbers better obviously" and waited about 30 minutes before a Publisher's Clearing House sized check appeared on our monitor. It was huge, but it was still amazing to see something like that become feasible. Anyway, I didn't get a tablet until much later, but that did begin my creative journey digitally.

I'm also a CSP user and I'm happy with the middle ground they chose with their economic model. It's understandable that developing a product can take lots of money (who would've thought?). I'm frankly surprised Serif didn't adjust their model over time, raise prices, etc as the V1 cycle was quite long. I'd would've been happy to pay more for increased stability, more features as long as the quality was still progressing upwards. I'm actually fine even if this whole time an acquisition or at least the possibility of selling was in the back of their minds. Some companies can only get so far on their own and it's more admirable to admit they don't have the resources to do so alone and choosing a buyer who is more likely to take the product the intended direction is reasonable. Many companies change hands multiple times before finding the right team. So that part is not unusual.

The subscription part is more worrisome, for people who are sub-averse (I'm very much "it depends"). Whatever is written today, the future may very well prove difficult and plans may have to change. This was true pre-acquisition. However, looking around at other alternatives (some of which I'm trialing), there are still many options that offer perpetual license. Some are on the expensive side, but they do exist... they just may be a bit more niche? So I think that, despite whatever may come, Affinity won't be the only game in town to compete with that model. Anyway between their declared aspiration for becoming the "anti-Adobe" and the pressure from a rise in competition/technology advances from all corners, Canva has a major incentive to keep the perpetual, imo. Does that it mean it can't change in 5 years? Nobody can know. But it's an increasingly competitive market and with this acquisition, I think there were will be more incentives to make sure that there always remain options... so I think it can only mean a good thing, at the end of the day.

We share a very similar background. PSP (Win 3.11 era) was my very first photo editor and was where I began tinkering with editing/creating whole new bitmaps of graphics and tweaking screenshots. When I was really young, I was learning to work our new scanner for my family who bought one for more utilitarian purposes. My grandmother gave me a check. I put it on the highest setting because "more numbers better obviously" and waited about 30 minutes before a Publisher's Clearing House sized check appeared on our monitor. It was huge, but it was still amazing to see something like that become feasible. Anyway, I didn't get a tablet until much later, but that did begin my creative journey digitally.

I'm also a CSP user and I'm happy with the middle ground they chose with their economic model. It's understandable that developing a product can take lots of money (who would've thought?). I'm frankly surprised Serif didn't adjust their model over time, raise prices, etc as the V1 cycle was quite long. I'd would've been happy to pay more for increased stability, more features as long as the quality was still progressing upwards. I'm actually fine even if this whole time an acquisition or at least the possibility of selling was in the back of their minds. Some companies can only get so far on their own and it's more admirable to admit they don't have the resources to do so alone and choosing a buyer who is more likely to take the product the intended direction is reasonable. Many companies change hands multiple times before finding the right team. So that part is not unusual.

The subscription part is more worrisome, for people who are sub-averse (I'm very much "it depends"). Whatever is written today, the future may very well prove difficult and plans may have to change. This was true pre-acquisition. However, looking around at other alternatives (some of which I'm trialing), there are still many options that offer perpetual license. Some are on the expensive side, but they do exist... they just may be a bit more niche? So I think that, despite whatever may come, Affinity won't be the only game in town to compete with that model. Anyway between their declared aspiration for becoming the "anti-Adobe" and the pressure from a rise in competition/technology advances from all corners, Canva has a major incentive to keep the perpetual, imo. Does that it mean it can't change in 5 years? Nobody can know. But it's an increasingly competitive market and with this acquisition, I think there were will be more incentives to make sure that there always remain options... so I think it can only mean a good thing, at the end of the day.

I'm not surprised that there are over 31 pages of comments on this topic. The bottom line is that many users are used to their software suppliers manipulating/misleading them. This is NOT to say that Affinity is, but clearly previous uncertainty from other software sources breeds uncertainty.  The most I can do is recount my own experiences and what lead me to adopt Affinity Apps a few years back.
Originally I used PaintShop Pro as my main graphics editor, but that was back in the 2000s and most of what i did was altering photographs and making maps. PSP had a number of interesting features, such as using Python as a scripting languages; being able to rearrange your entire UI, and a vector drawing system that coexisted with the bitmap stuff. I used PSP for a long time (and recently came back to it as a "backup" app to be able to access over a 1000 images in PSP format). But when I started making webcomics I discovered Macromedia Fireworks. It was really good for making webcomics. I started with drawing on paper and scanning those in via PSP, but I'd use FW to do the layouts and place images into a page, adding text boxes, speech balloons and other special effects in FW. And then Fireworks was acquired by Adobe. 😔
I started making webcomics via screenshots from virtual worlds (most Second life) and I bought a copy of CS6 with Fireworks in it. that was handy as well because I started doing a Masters in Fine Arts and my university had Adobe apps on every terminal! It was their preferred software. As part of that I created a graphic novel of 126 pages. Honestly though, I hated drawing in Photoshop, and Illustrator's UI aggravated me endlessly. After reviewing the software available and discarding GIMP (with an UI almost as bad as Ai), and even simple programs like Paint Tool Sai (great fun to use but it was extremely hard to scale the images created) I chose Clip Studio Paint to draw  those pages, and formatted them in InDesign. Not exactly perfect but it worked. Couldn't use FW to do this as it was too vast a project for it, and after Adobe started the subscription model they killed Fireworks (re-imagined no doubt in a subscription app).
But I'm on a fixed income, on disability for years, and a subscriptions are problematic. I might be able to afford just one, but like streaming services, the more software firms that use that model, the harder it is to to afford them. I can save up and make single purchases, but subscriptions not so much (the only subscription I have is Disney+ basic, and that's for Doctor Who)The deal breaker came when I found that to use (and update) my CS6 apps I had to join "the cloud". I started looking for proper replacements for the Adobe stuff, and for Fireworks as well. I rejected half a dozen apps before settling on Affinity. I had replacements for Photoshop in Photo, Illustrator (and Fireworks) in Designer, and InDesign with Publisher.  I like these apps. Not because they're "better", but because they're fair easier for someone with visual impairments to use, and not only that, but (like Paint Tool Sai) they're FUN to use, especially the v2 apps. Designer is like Fireworks on steroids!
So I'm not keen on on any requirement to subscribe to other services (even a free subscription like the Canva Basic) to use. I still use CSP from time to time (using 3D figures to create poses, importing photos to line drawing, et cetera) but they have a Clip Studio service which you need to use for registration of the apps but that's bearable because you DON'T have to use it to to run CSP if you don't want to. The sort of options I'd like to see after the acquisition would be perhaps, something similar to that used by CSP (which evolved over time). That is, you can buy outright current version of apps; you can update the license (for a smaller fee) of older versions of the apps you have a license to, and you can just use them on a subscription basis if you want. But force me to have a subscription (even a free one) in order to use my apps, then I walk and look for alternatives. I did it before with Adobe, and used old versions of the their apps until I found alternatives, and I can do it again.


Hopefully it won't come from that. I'm optimistic in that I think Affinity and Canva will keep their word on this, but I understand the skepticism that users have on this, when other software developers have "changed the deal" (like Darth Vader in Empire Strikes Back) on them .
Please, please, be the exception, and we'll keep using the apps, and supporting them as well. 

Not a single current Serif customer who invested actual money into the product is anywhere near that level of a pessimist. Goodwill had to also be exchanged to move one's business and craft to this platform and I have seen no evidence to the latter, that anyone came to Serif because they had the worst possible outlook as a client.
At best, this discussion only sways prospective customers. Serif already has our money and what happens with it has always been entirely up to them. If any user wants to take their V2 purchase and chuck it in the trash, start putting their eggs in another basket, they're not "grumpy"... they're speculating the best possible route to take their craft and have their own unique ideas as to what the future entails. This forum has always been preoccupied with airy speculation and this is nothing new. That is one major downside to being a Serif customer is the user is often left guessing as to the future and intended quality of their products.
This place is starting to sound like a cult. If a user questions at all the outcome of the acquisition, they are a dirty pessimist. NO person, Serif customer or not, current or near future, should ever be told they risk being an actual depressed individual for thinking differently. When we start getting into discussing people's mental health as if that was ever appropriate discussion for a debate regarding the future of a business, we have gone into something else entirely.

I have a portion of the thread on ignore and have always tidied up forums this way. I recommend it for readability (for your own relevant situation). You're not missing anything, just social media behavior and can unclick and respond when it does become relevant to you. There are a number of us who will gladly not pull you into arguments and waste your time who don't necessarily agree on everything.

I do appreciate that you took the time to respond and it means more than you can know. I don't have much else to say, unfortunately. It would be beating the same old drum and I think the drum has even grown tired of it. At this point I just want to quit the band because dreams don't pay the bills.

I think even that's reading too much into it. I understood what they were saying the first time and it's not "defeatist" to be realistic. Defeatist would be sticking with a broken solution that isn't really working out for them because we think "Oh, we won't get treated better elsewhere...". I can look backwards and see the lapses in judgement in both developmental decisions, communication, etc and come to a factually balanced conclusion that production will not lead to higher quality until they've shown even a desire to commit to a better record. (Speedier addition of features... yay, even more bugs). If what is available is sufficient for that person's use-case, then by all means, continue forward unencumbered... Edit: Like most people, I hate transitioning, so its out of necessity atp.

It's literally a Windows 95 wallpaper with some text slapped around and Fx applied. I almost said something about it last night, but I didn't want both of us having nightmares.

It's literally a Windows 95 wallpaper with some text slapped around and Fx applied. I almost said something about it last night, but I didn't want both of us having nightmares.

I do appreciate that you took the time to respond and it means more than you can know. I don't have much else to say, unfortunately. It would be beating the same old drum and I think the drum has even grown tired of it. At this point I just want to quit the band because dreams don't pay the bills.

I do appreciate that you took the time to respond and it means more than you can know. I don't have much else to say, unfortunately. It would be beating the same old drum and I think the drum has even grown tired of it. At this point I just want to quit the band because dreams don't pay the bills.

It's like they're asking for an extended credit line on my faith. Except, they still haven't even paid off all of the other debt they'd accrued.

You sold the company for millions? No extended credit line for you. Your balance is now due. 
Sincerely, Valued Customer.

I have a portion of the thread on ignore and have always tidied up forums this way. I recommend it for readability (for your own relevant situation). You're not missing anything, just social media behavior and can unclick and respond when it does become relevant to you. There are a number of us who will gladly not pull you into arguments and waste your time who don't necessarily agree on everything.

@SrPx Words are merely words. Actions will prove their value in the upcoming 1 or 2 years.
Then we shall see what worth these words have.
As always: hope for the best, expect the worst.
Cheers!