ACDesignStudio

Hi All,
Well, it’s been a pretty crazy week since the launch of V2!
This has been a real labour of love for us over the last year or so, and I can’t even begin to describe how hard the development team have worked on it. Not only getting the V2 apps launched, but also of course finally bringing Publisher to iPad. 
With this being our first paid-for upgrade there has understandably been a lot of feedback / questions around future updates and our pricing policies. I thought it was worth addressing / clarifying our position on some of these personally...
Updates to V2 moving forward
Buying V2 not only gets you all the new features you have seen, but we have various updates planned – including many more new features and improvements – which you will get for free. This will continue until such a time that V3 is released. We’re not sure exactly when V3 will be, but I can confirm we are not going to move to anything as regular as an annual upgrade cycle as has been speculated.
It’s worth saying too that V2 does include many under-the-hood changes to our underlying technology, and we have also been investing in several new areas of research recently. Some of these haven’t manifested themselves into new features yet, but overall V2 does give us a better platform to develop on moving forward and I’m sure you will be pleased with the updates V2 will receive.
Updates to V1 moving forward
While we did say on the FAQ that V1 would no longer receive any updates, I want to clarify that was about new feature updates. We will be updating V1 to fix any critical problems caused by operating system updates in the future. So if the next version of macOS breaks V1 we will endeavour to fix it. There will be a point in time when continuing to maintain V1 in this way will not be tenable, but certainly for the foreseeable future we will continue to patch. In fact, we have an update to V1 queued up for release very shortly with some fixes for Ventura and issues caused by a recent Windows security / quality update. 
We will update our FAQ shortly to make that clearer for everyone.
Offer period
In case you didn’t see, I’m pleased to confirm we have decided to run this initial launch offer until 14th December to give everyone the best chance possible to get it if they wish / have a decent amount of time to trial it. 
Upgrade pricing
It’s been really hard to see some of the comments about us not looking after our existing customers – we’re pretty devasted that anyone feels like that to be honest. But the fact is we felt our hands were tied somewhat with being able to offer upgrade pricing in a fair way. The main reason for this was App Store customers (which make up around 35% of our userbase). The problems with that are two-fold: firstly, we didn’t have a way from within V1 to validate an App Store purchase receipt to reliably ensure customers who were entitled to an upgrade could get one; and secondly, we could not find a good way for people to get that discount via the App Store. Us pushing upgrade customers to go exclusively via our own site (including customers who were previously acquired via the app stores) may also have put us in violation of App Store Ts & Cs which we were obviously concerned about.
I’m not saying that these issues were completely insurmountable, but any solutions we came up with would be messy, and most importantly could have resulted in some bona fide V1 customers struggling to get validated and claim their discount. We certainly don’t have the support resource here if we ended up needing to manually validate tens of thousands of receipts for example.
The only option we felt was safe to move forward with was a general launch offer, which would guarantee that every V1 customer could get the discount, whether they purchased directly through us or the App Stores. We knew a side effect of that would mean some new customers would end up receiving that same discount – but we felt that was a better option than V1 customers missing out. It’s also worth saying that while there has been some good press about V2, all our main marketing has been via email and through social media to our followers. In other words, we felt ok about it because we knew the vast majority of people who would find out about it or take advantage of the offer would be existing customers. I would be surprised if over the offer period customers upgrading from V1 didn’t make up more than 90% of our sales.
Overall I do believe us giving a 40% discount, along with the addition of the new Universal Licence of course, is offering fantastic value for money for those who want to upgrade. 
However, taking on board some of the feedback there is something extra we can do – we will offer a new free bundle of content exclusively for V1 customers upgrading to V2 as an extra thank you for your support. I’ve seen this suggested by a number of customers and it’s a great idea as it does remove the App Store conflict entirely. 
We’ll need a little time to put something together, but all customers who previously registered or purchased V1 and have since upgraded to V2 will receive a voucher code for this via email as soon as we can.
A comment on no subscription
I do want to say that some of the points above are exactly the reason why software companies move to subscription. Whatever you do with upgrade pricing, you still have the issue of customers who bought the previous version 3 months ago vs. those who have had it 2+ years. Offering perpetual licences also gives the additional overhead of needing to maintain the previous version longer than you would if everyone was on subscription / generally always on the latest version.
We are a small team so some of these complications are not ideal — all we really want to do is focus on developing our latest codebase, push out regular updates and continue with our mission to make great creative software accessible to everyone. 
But it does need to be funded somehow. We know you love our no-subscription model, but there also needs to be a level of appreciation that the alternative is having paid-for upgrades from time to time. That unfortunately comes with its own problems.
All of that said, I have to say we have been blown away with the response to V2 - around 3 times as many people have upgraded in the last week than we expected - and we really can't thank you enough for the support you have shown. More than anything the success of this upgrade puts us in a great place to continue investing heavily in development which is ultimately what it's all about, and we’re super excited to crack on with some great updates coming next year!
All the best,
Ash

Hi All,

I am thrilled to announce that Affinity is joining the Canva family.
This is a moment of great excitement, anticipation, and profound gratitude for all of you who have been part of our story so far. 
We know that those of you who’ve put your faith in Affinity, some since we launched our very first Mac app, will have questions about what this means for the future of our products. Since the inception of Affinity, our mission has been to empower creatives with tools that unleash their full potential, fostering a community where innovation and artistry flourish. We've worked tirelessly to challenge the status quo, delivering professional-grade creative software that is both accessible and affordable. 
None of that changes today.
In Canva, we’ve found a kindred spirit who can help us take Affinity to new levels. Their extra resources will mean we can deliver much more, much faster. Beyond that, we can forge new horizons for Affinity products, opening up a world of possibilities which previously would never have been achievable. 
Canva’s revolutionary approach to design democratisation and commitment to empowering everyone to create aligns perfectly with our core values and vision. This union is a testament to what can be achieved when two companies that share a common goal of making design accessible and enjoyable for everyone come together. 
I want to express my deepest gratitude to our incredible Affinity team. Your passion, dedication, and relentless pursuit of excellence have been the driving force behind our success so far, and I can’t wait to continue this journey with you all. 
To our loyal users and the creative community, your support and feedback have been invaluable. You’ve inspired us to push boundaries and continuously improve, and we’re excited to embark on this new chapter together. 
The future is bright, and I am incredibly excited to continue our story together and create a world where design is within everyone's reach.
With heartfelt thanks,
Ash
For more information...
We have included some FAQs at the bottom of the announcement article here. A video message from me with some more background is on YouTube here.  

Additionally we will be setting up a Q&A session about this acquisition in a few weeks time. More info on how to take part in this will be sent on email and posted on this forum in the coming days.

Hi All,

I am thrilled to announce that Affinity is joining the Canva family.
This is a moment of great excitement, anticipation, and profound gratitude for all of you who have been part of our story so far. 
We know that those of you who’ve put your faith in Affinity, some since we launched our very first Mac app, will have questions about what this means for the future of our products. Since the inception of Affinity, our mission has been to empower creatives with tools that unleash their full potential, fostering a community where innovation and artistry flourish. We've worked tirelessly to challenge the status quo, delivering professional-grade creative software that is both accessible and affordable. 
None of that changes today.
In Canva, we’ve found a kindred spirit who can help us take Affinity to new levels. Their extra resources will mean we can deliver much more, much faster. Beyond that, we can forge new horizons for Affinity products, opening up a world of possibilities which previously would never have been achievable. 
Canva’s revolutionary approach to design democratisation and commitment to empowering everyone to create aligns perfectly with our core values and vision. This union is a testament to what can be achieved when two companies that share a common goal of making design accessible and enjoyable for everyone come together. 
I want to express my deepest gratitude to our incredible Affinity team. Your passion, dedication, and relentless pursuit of excellence have been the driving force behind our success so far, and I can’t wait to continue this journey with you all. 
To our loyal users and the creative community, your support and feedback have been invaluable. You’ve inspired us to push boundaries and continuously improve, and we’re excited to embark on this new chapter together. 
The future is bright, and I am incredibly excited to continue our story together and create a world where design is within everyone's reach.
With heartfelt thanks,
Ash
For more information...
We have made four pledges to the Affinity community which you can read here. We have included some FAQs at the bottom of the announcement article here. A video message from me with some more background is on YouTube here. This announcement post is locked, but I have included a duplicate of it in the questions forum here which you can respond to.

Gahhhh
I have upgraded to Affinity Publisher 2 for Mac.
In the original Affinity Publisher, the Pages panel was turned on and I could easily add pages to a document.
Affinity Publisher 2 opens without the Pages panel displayed and I cannot find a way to turn it on.
The Affinity Help page says "This panel is hidden by default. It can be switched on via View>Studio"
The View menu does not have a Studio submenu. The Windows menu has a Studio submenu, but I do not see an open Pages panel option.
I know there must be a simple solution but I can't find it.
 

You are in the Designer Persona of Publisher. The Pages panel is part of the Publisher Persona.

I’ve attached a short video showing one way to do it with a brush in Designer (it might also work in Photo but I haven't tried).
2024-03-14 09-39-15.mp4

I started the order for my V2 Upgrade using my email link but couldn't see how to add a desired add-on to my basket. Then, I went to the add-on product page, Abstract ABC by Chroma Supply, added it to my basket/cart but couldn't see how to add the V2 Upgrade. No matter what link I use, there is not an option to add the V2 Upgrade to my cart. Is there a way for me to order these together, in one check-out? Thank you.

😊 Not a problem. I can do 2 purchases. I'll be using Paypal to pay. They have the Pay-In-Six-Months w/o interest feature that I like to use. Cart has to be $99+. I am blessed to have the funds, though, and don't need to do that. Thanks for asking.

Have you tried adding the add-on to your cart, then going back to the main store page (as described above) and clicking the Buy-Now for the upgrade? I would expect that to notice there's already something in the cart.
But if it doesn't, I'm curious: why not just make two purchases?

We've had an update on this from our Web Team who have advised that "The upgrade offer is a pre-built basket this is separate from the usual Store checkout. It's not possible to mix the two, the customer would have to place two separate orders."
We hope this helps  

I don't know when the Sale ends, and generally Serif doesn't announce the end dates until shortly before they end. If you've signed up for notifications from Serif they should email you before it ends, when they announce the end date.
There's a link at https://store.serif.com/en-us/account/details/ to "Manage your email marketing preferences" where you can sign up for marketing info.
 

I'd absolutely been using the trial installers/versions when I was having all this trouble. I too was a little gunshy (and broke) and wanted to make sure it worked first. I just purchased the suite a couple of days ago 👍

The trial code and the retail code is functionally identical, except for how the licensing works, so that should let you see how well it would work for you.

This morning when I opened APub and then the document, I tried to export the palette and it worked. For some reason yesterday, when I was still in the session where I had imported the palette, it would not export. Seems that now that APub has been closed and re-opened, it works. I thought maybe it didn't work yesterday because I had altered the imported palette.
Thanks for answering so swiftly.

Worked for me, too.

Hi ACDesignStudio,
This seems to be working fine for me here and allows me to export the palette the same way I did the first time in Publisher. What happens when you try this if possible could you provide a screen recording demonstrating the issue?
Thanks
C

That site is just the online version of the Help within the app.

Assuming they are both Windows or both Mac, you can probably make a backup of the "user" folder on the laptop (for safety), then copy the "user" folder from the desktop to the laptop. The FAQ below tells where to find the folder. That will cover all the Affinity files such as brushes and assets. 
There may be some other useful folders in the same location as "user", but I have never tried copying them. (If you do try it, remember to back up the laptop versions first.)
Note that this will not handle fonts, as fonts are managed by the system (or your Fonts Manager, if any), not by the Affinity applications,
 

I had a similar situation a few months back (except going the other way; laptop to desktop). I just copied the user folders from appdata and it worked perfectly.

All fonts are installed to your operating system not the Affinity apps so you would need to copy and install them that way to your laptop
Unless you have Publisher, which will allow you to copy/install them another way
 
For brushes and assets, you could consider copying the propcol files which would be quick and easy if it works and relatively harmless if it does not
Which apps and OS are you using on your Desktop and Laptop?

Requires a little bit of work, but not really all that much. Backup Resources, tutorial, also demonstrates what you are asking about. Just export the brushes, assets, macros, ect. then import them into your apps on your laptop.
 

This would be great! For Windows Users this should be also available for color pallettes. It's really time consuming keeping Assets etc. up to date and synchronised across the apps.

+1
I often switch between laptops and tablets and would love to be able to install once and it replicate across all apps (Photo, Publisher & Designer) and all devices automatically. For me, the wishlist would be:
Folders and projects (sub-folders would be great too) Brushes Palettes Symbols Assets Fonts

A few comments:
The second page of the index table-of-contents was obviously ripped at production. The colophon mentions “Affinity Designer 1.5 and higher” It follows that the “contour tool” of the Draw Persona is not mentioned Otherwise I'm really looking forward to work through some of the examples.

I found this to be true thus why I thought the books would be supplemental.