craftycurate

Hi Debra ... yes that's pretty much it. If purchasing a new version puts us back on new customer footing, then I find I can happily wait for a future version. Had there been a returning customer benefit with v2, it might have tipped me into upgrading. The promised bonus pack for v1 customers might still nudge me that way - will wait and see what it contains!) I understand there are complications with offering different discounts to new and returning customers - Serif will have to figure that out, and I hope their chosen path brings in a healthy revenue. When v3 comes round, I'll see what the deal is, weigh a possible purchase in context of my business needs and funds at that time, and decide. The features I used in a previous client job are in v1, and the new features aren't "must have" for me. Also, Serif apps don't bring in any revenue for me at the moment, as I have an all-Adobe workflow, and that's an operational necessity given the projects I'm working on and my client base. So I have to be very strategic with my limited funds right now. I hope to be able to continue supporting Serif by purchasing future versions, but the current pricing model offers no incentive tbh. Not that we're entitled to some discount or other (we're not), or that its a bad deal (it is a great deal!) but I have other financial priorities for the foreseeable future. But I still hope I'll be able to pick up a future version (or maybe v2 in a future sale) and will certainly keep an eye on developments in coming months and years. Hope that makes a bit more sense 😃

This is rather sanctimonious and is not the kind of tone of voice that will do Serif any favours with its userbase, at a time when you are seeking to win people over. Alienating existing customers is the last thing the company needs right now I'm sure. For a textboox example of how to talk to unhappy customers, to show empathy, build rapport and try to win them over, please see Ash's post here.

Hi @Ash ... it's good to read your response so thanks for taking the time to write so comprehensively, and for taking time to listen to the views of your userbase, esp v1 users like myself who are trying to understand the pricing model. Like many others I bought all the v1 apps (desktop + iOS) as I wanted to support ongoing development of the best Adobe alternative out there bar none. I am a long time Adobe user and will be for the foreseeable, but I may jump ship at some point, and hope there will continue to be a decent alternative for professional publishing and graphic design work, which I do, and you need funding to continue developing and pay all your staff a decent wage. However I find myself hesitating to move to v2, certainly at this moment, as the flat introductory pricing model doesn't provide an incentive for me as a returning customer, especially one who uses Serif apps occasionally. If there had been a larger discount for v1 customers, even for 2 weeks or so, I might have decided to go for it, but as it is, I find myself with no sense of urgency to and am content to remain with v1, and will see how things look with v3, and this means less cash for you. So in these difficult financial times, I'm not able to continue supporting Serif financially for the timebeing, but I do wish you every success in the meantime, and look forward to seeing what develops. Who knows, when the v1 users bonus package is announced I may yet decide to jump on board v2 (if it's available during the promo period! 😄) Best wishes Richard PS. One of your staff in the forum rather sanctimoniously advised v1 users to be happy for new customers getting the full discount, same as returning customers, which was a bit alienating, but your post here has certainly given a truer sense of what Serif really thinks its customer base. PPS. There is a sense in the forum that v1 would receive no updates as of now (thanks to the wording of the v2 announcement) so it's good to hear that critical updates will still happen, but it might be worth making an announcement.

I'm amazed at how many posts in this thread don't answer the original poster's question, but start banging the drum about how we should be grateful for cheap software, or stop whining, or that devs have to eat, or don't be so entitled yada yada. The original post was about why existing customers get the same deal as new ones. not about devs needing to eat (they/we do), or about what a bargain it is (and it is). It makes good business sense to incentivise existing customers, even for a couple of weeks to bring in more sales. As it is, Serif doesn't seem to have found a way, or sought a way to make upgrading from v1 attractive to many of us (I have all the v1 apps on desktop and iPad, because I wanted to support ongoing development of an Adobe alternative). It seems odd from a purely business perspective to take the "don't upgrade if you don't want to" line. If I was Serif I would have dangled a carrot in front of my loyal v1 customers to push them towards a sale, to bring in more sales to help ongoing development, which is why many of us, even Adobe users like myself, supported v1. This isn't about entitlement, just simple marketing psychology. As it is, I'll definitely be waiting for a sale, or v3, but Serif I genuinely do hope this strategy works for you, and that you are able to fund your ongoing work from v2 sales, because it's still in everyone's interests that you succeed, but I'll have to sit this one out unfortunately. PS. I am happy to engage with any replies to this which don't fall into the categories outlined in the first paragraph above 😉

Thanks - as you can probably tell I'm coming from Illustrator where "Ctrl+Enter" = "commit changes"!

That might be it. I'll give it a go. Thanks!

I've noticed this happening frequently in Designer 1.71. Create some text Click off it Text has been converted to outline shapes and is no longer editable? Is this is a known bug or is it a "feature"? if the latter it is very poorly designed and extremely irritating as I often need to go back and edit text but I have to delete and recreate it every time.

Hi Wondering if anyone knows of a comparison of the above? As a long time Photoshop\Illustrator user, I'm keen to see some kind of side by side comparison of what Affinity has got that Adobe hasn't & vice versa. I'm one of those who is feeling the financial strain of renting Adobe software and starting to scope out the gains\losses implications of making the switch. Cheers Richard

OK thanks. I blindly assumed it worked like Illustrator

Hi The Affinity Designer manual states that: To select artboards: Do one of the following: With the Artboard Tool selected, click an artboard. On the Layers panel, select an artboard entry. With the Move Tool selected, do one of the following: Click on an artboard's label. Click on any empty artboard. However, when I select the Artboard tool then click the artboard, it jumps to the selection tool and selects the object at the cursor position. I can't find a way to make it select the Artboard, which I want to resize. Also, I see no Artboards lister in the Layers panel - what is an "artboard entry" here? My document only has one artboard (I assume an artboard is created automatically on New Document?) - does any of the above still apply, or must I have multiple artboards to use these methods? I hope not because artboard resizing in a single artboard document is a frequent operation for me. What am I missing here? I'm using the latest release of Affinity Designer 1.7 on Windows 7. I'm used to the Adobe Illustrator implementation of artboards, and wondering if Affinity does it differently. Thanks! Richard

Takes about 5 seconds to switch to Layers panel, for example, though other panels come up more quickly. In Dark mode, Layers panel comes up in about half a second.

Hi I can't find a changelog for 1.6 anywhere. Usually there is a link with the announcement\download post, but this is for 1.6.0.71 which is for the .71 bugfix, not the 1.6 features. Where can I find this? UPDATE: Got it now - for some reason it's been merged into the 1.6.0.71 announcement. Thank Richard

Little tweak for the Font dropdown - could the font name field be editable, to allow fonts to be searched for by typing their name? I use this a LOT in PS & AI.

Hi Adam The dropdown on the Character panel. I haven't tried the context panel dropdown yet. I'll need to try it again to see if a particular font is causing the crash. Cheers Richard

Confirm this crash, but font dropdown preview generation is VASTLY improved, as is the speed of moving through the dropdown, and that's with 4000+ font files, many of which are complex, so thanks for addressing this. Could this code be ported over to Designer, which suffers from the same Character Name dropdown sluggishness?