transitdiagrams

That is exactly what I was instantaneously thinking about when reading Serif has joined a family.
Gravit was a good software with potential but after they had became a family member it got quickly quiet around it... and eventually will disappear. The difference to Affinity is that it was really basic and not a suite and Corel had already its very good counterpart. Taking over Gravit was merely to stop it becoming a dangerous competitor. 

Welcoming Gravit to the Corel "family"
https://medium.com/gravitdesigner/welcoming-gravit-to-the-corel-family-9cd0c7f3a32c
Does this press release and the promises sound familiar? What happened to Gravit? It was barely a year before Corel had new plans, their new "family members" were obviously dismissed, the support quietened, then the support forum disappeared, and Gravit Designer (now Corel Vector) has not been developed on since either.
You have to be more than youthfully naive to take a business risk and base your work on software from companies that let themselves be adopted with crossed fingers and business promises of a bright future.
Did Corel then lie at the acquisition? No, not at all. Reality just looked different inside the big cog at Corel just a year later, and there was nothing the formerly happy employees at Gravit could do about it. It was no longer their company, and thus they were powerless. And then they were no longer welcome in the family either.
I was reminded of Gravit today, when I read a sad news about a company with quite a success here in the country. Last year, they made the same maneuver with big words and promises, they had built a quite solid, technologically strong, and popular online product over 15 years and now joined a FAMILY (again as the little brother), and yesterday all 95 employees suddenly were told that they no longer have a job. The plans in the family had changed. And how many times have I seen this happen now? I've lost count.
I do not allow the subconscious to drive me towards optimistic bias - a well-known psychological phenomenon that I see plenty of around here.

From a very quick perusal of the Canva site, it would seem they support many different RTL languages, so it is possible this will help with adding RTL support to Affinity.
I guess time will tell ....

From my point of view, now the dust has settled, is that V2 will do what we need.  Primarily Publisher, then some designer and very occasionally Photo.
Assuming that Affinity do what they have said, in a few years we will move to V3 perpetual licences.
For me, that is enough.  I will not have to worry (if I am still breathing).
The team I work with producing a magazine can do all we need (at the moment) in V2.4 so if they get as far as V3 perpetual that will be all they need.
At this point, we are talking 10 years on from here before they have to change if Affinity goes to hell in a hand basket and or only subscription etc.
As I point out to some of my lot, I am still using Lightroom 6.14 (dated 2007)  that is 7 years old and does what I need. It runs on Win11
As we are using Windows which, at the moment, does not work like OSX, and we can use old SW on the latest PC's if we need to.
Apple has a far more aggressive approach to stopping old SW working on new versions of the OS which is a pity. 
My old Intel MAC HW will take one newer version of OSX, but AFAICS CS6 is not stable on that. So unlike our PC's we have our MACs frozen in time.
Though, as Apple has only just gone to their ARM based CPUs (their 4th CPU in the life of the MACs) they would be on this  for a decade or so. 
Therefore, for me there is no panic.  The perpetual licences have, as many have said here, removed much of the short-medium term risk. 
Time to get back to work until we see what the next updates bring.

You can also find details of the four pledges we are making to our community here

Hey :-)
I do transit maps (diagrams) for fun in my spare time to relax.
Here is one of my recent works: the Nottingham Tram Network in my own interpretation (unofficial of course).
The whole map is entirely done with Affinity Designer. 
If you have any thoughts on it or feedack this is much appreciated.
Have a great day!
Chris

Hey @GarryP!
Have exchanged the train icon and enlarged the icons overall a bit:
 

Thank you for sharing

They still have to clear the regulators especially the UK one that torpedoed the Adobe / Figma deal, I wouldn't be putting down a Tesla deposit just yet. 

I've read all the pages, and I'm going to add my voice in the mayhem. If you want an early quick TL;DR, it's pretty much the same opinion as the crushing majority of what has been expressed.
I've been faithfully using Affinity Designer/Photo for 4 years, almost daily to draw on it. The brush engine was solid enough and the versatility of being able to switch seamlessly between Photo/Designer made me stay, even if I knew there could have been better options. The lack of subscription meant that I could store the installer on my backup HDD and be able to open my project files anytime I want. I bought the V2 instantly when it came out. Despite the little quirks like the smudge tool issue - which I reported a few months ago, the unwieldy liquify tool and some lacking features, I was still very happy using your software for its great UI, the incredible versatility, the non-destructive features and the good brushes made by Frankentoon. I even spread the word to artist friends to give it a try. I've never considered it to be the "cheaper Adobe alternative" but a real, solid suite of software to rely on.
The acquisition by Canva is a sign of doom for me. I've been skeptical at first but reading more and more into that organization just killed any hope I could have.
Canva already acquired good stuff before and closed them. They made an 1 billion $ offer (!) for your society that "only" made 31 millions $ in 2022. Aka major expectation to get that money back by all possible (and shitty) means. Canva is a venture capitalist-funded company and is preparing itself to go public. Aka incentive to put profits above all else. The deal was offered and acted within a single digit amount of weeks. Which is understandable given the big bag of money put on the table, but is a red flag for the users. I don't mind AI as much as the others, it's a controversial tool but a tool regardless. But I fear the massive enshittification that will ensue, the data steal collection, as well as the legitimate dread of the inevitable subscription-based service that will come. I do understand that profit is the incentive for Serif, but our incentive is a quality software we can rely on. If this is not met, then why stay ? Our loyalty is only bound by the reliability of your reputation, and it's now at stake.
Like others, I understand why you shook hand with Canva. But I hope you'll understand why, us users, will go elsewhere. I feel sadness over it, as if everything amounted to a waste. It's the end of an era for me. I've grown as an artist with Affinity, and I will keep preciously the V2 to continue drawing on it. I'll even buy the V3 if it's still a "Pay once, keep forever" that isn't too intrusive, even if a sub is offered on the side like CSP. Simply to encourage you to stay true to yourself and show your new owners that it's the way to go. But otherwise, I'm ready to say goodbye to you, with heavy heart. And thank for the awesome experience of discovering the marvelous possibilities of Affinity.

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.

Everything said here today means nothing; it's what happens in the future that matters. I'm taking it easy but starting to move my eggs to another basket.
There aren't many eggs - as far as the program trio is concerned, it has never looked like a good long-term investment due to the company's operations and the products' algorithms.
But today, the seeds have been sown for quite significant uncertainty for the customers, regardless of what is said and how it is wrapped in business nonsense, so please take your precautions out there as adults, and let any fanboys sit and recite their self-comforting monologues - in shock. They were wrong.

I have been trained when ever I read "An exciting announcement" that bad news is coming as someone that depends on that thing. The truth is, we have seen this story time and time again and know it very rarely winds up being a good thing.

Honestly Ash this is not first time I am seeing this, and none of what you say now, really kept. All of the software that I use, and that were purchased like this, end up as only subscription model, and their development pace was cut half. Same talk. Same promises and wishes, and outcome is always the same. It would be huge surprise for me that different happens to Affinity.

There are genuinely no plans for us to remove the availability of our apps to purchase as a perpetual licence. I will say it is possible in the future there may be an optional way to have them via a Canva subscription plan (which could also include other integrations with Canva / cloud services which you would not get with the perpetual version). But it’s very early days and there isn't a firm plan on that.
I honestly think you'll all be pleased with the outcome of this. With the additional financial backing we have no pressure at all to release a V3 anytime soon, so can be 100% focused on ploughing all our efforts into free V2 updates for the foreseeable future - and we've got some great updates in the works. 
Realise this announcement has come as a surprise and I understand the feeling of uncertainty which is brings, but I do think it's all very positive for the company and our customers. 

Yeah, I’ve not a good feeling about it. 
 
That reads to me as, from v3 it’ll be different. 
 
I really really hope we don’t get any Canva crap to deal with and subscription stays away. I’m not that loyal. 
 
 

Oh well. It was fun whilst it lasted. As soon as you become a £100 a year subscription service (which you will), I'll just go back to Adobe.
 

May I offer some feedback @Tatom, although I recognize you haven't explicitly invited any!
Anyone who interacts with a system of any kind has a right to reflect on how it could be better by any definition of the word. Such freedom of thought is closely followed by freedom of speech ... share the idea / the observation / the question!
Depending on the context, the communication may warrant excitement, or perhaps disappointment, but regardless, we all communicate ultimately with the hope that we might make some small difference in the world.
You have expertise and experience that any system designer will hope to cherish, but the potential influence of your feedback here is, I think, tarnished by its inference that you want perfection and you want it now. That is an unrealistic expectation of any system design team, as much as I'm certain the Affinity product team would love to achieve as much. They, like you and me in our day jobs, always have a long to-do list. We all have to make decisions about priorities. We all have resource constraints. That's just life.
Yet give them some love in the process and perhaps your ideas / observations / questions will get lifted, and so too your agency in the world.
Best wishes.

would be really nice to have this fixed

Thanks - works fine but still it's a work around which should not be necessary.
Chris

Latest update (Build: 1730) available now! Release notes here

Apps: All
Platforms: Windows, macOS and iPad
A few new features have been added to the stroke panel...
1. As has been commonly requested we have now added the ability to 'balance' dashed lines using a new toggle button on stroke panel. This means that the dash pattern is automatically rescaled between any cusps in a curve - making things such as corners of a rectangle or the start and end of a stroke look correct.

2. An additional dash and gap have now been added to build up more complex dashed line patterns (now giving you 3 dash and 3 gaps) making, among other things, two dot chain patterns possible. On desktop you can also click-drag the dash and gap indicator as shown to adjust the value. 

3. A new button has been added to clear any arrowheads on a stroke - just making it more convenient than having to open the drop downs to set both ends to "None".
 

 
 

Apps: All
Platforms: iPad
When opening a PDF using the iPad versions of the apps you will now be able to control the same options as you get on desktop (e.g. Text Grouping, DPI, etc.)

Hey again!
I do transit maps and diagrams for fun in my spare time. 
This time I'd like to show you my interpretation of a possible future commuter rail network in the Perth area, Western Australia.
Based it on the current project information and facts that I could find on the internet. So it is certainly not definite nor official.
I have done different versions which are attached.


Enjoy it! And as usual feedback is highly appreciated!
All the best,
Chris

Hey again!
I do transit maps and diagrams for fun in my spare time. 
This time I'd like to show you my interpretation of a possible future commuter rail network in the Perth area, Western Australia.
Based it on the current project information and facts that I could find on the internet. So it is certainly not definite nor official.
I have done different versions which are attached.


Enjoy it! And as usual feedback is highly appreciated!
All the best,
Chris