Canva

[debraspicher]

6 minutes ago, jacekl said:

 

* created with love in Canva

 

🏆

[Medical Officer Bones]

5 minutes ago, esto said:

 

Fun game: pretend you don’t know what this announcement is, then mute the audio and watch this guy closely. What would you guess he’s telling you?
 

He’s lost his job? The family dog’s died? Bad news about grandma, but we’ll remember the good times? The project is going to be past deadline, in fact he’s not even started it, but you can’t have a refund because he’s spent the money already?

The body language is fascinating to watch (is that guilt, sorrow? Why are his eyes red - has he been crying? Why is he so evasive?), and it’s all the antithesis of ‘quite an exciting day’.

You are absolutely right. A more-or-less deflated demeanour. He's not feeling it.

This is not a happy guy. Of course, the exact reason for his mood can't be exacted from the video alone. There is probably stuff going on in the background.

He probably does feel guilty about going back on early made promises that they'd never sell out or go subscription. But hey: money talks. It takes a special type of person or company to resist money. Almost no-one will or can.

So great news for the Affinity owners. Much less so for its customers. We all know where this is heading for. Ample prior examples in the industry.

As for myself, I'm glad I only use Affinity as a secondary piece of design software. My workflow isn't affected much, luckily enough. V3 will be sub: that much is clear. Canva will have a detrimental impact. That much is clear too.

I already experienced so many of these acquisitions and I used to feel sad and betrayed. No longer the case, because I expected this to happen at some point to Affinity. I hoped it would not. Yet expected it.

Still, I wanted and hoped to be wrong.

[DesignSurge]

I can only see this as bad news in the long term, the way I see it there will eventually be only two options, each with their own mass customer base - Adobe for the pros and Canva for the amateurs.

Unfortunately, after reading this news I have already started to lose interest in Affinity. There doesn't feel much point in dwelling on it, I will continue to use Affinity until the time comes when I have no real option but to head back to Adobe.

[Pšenda]

14 minutes ago, esto said:

The body language is fascinating to watch (is that guilt, sorrow? Why are his eyes red - has he been crying? Why is he so evasive?), and it’s all the antithesis of ‘quite an exciting day’.

You know, not everyone is such a fighter as you, to calmly decide the fate of the company and its employees, and then go to sleep well.

[designerjosh]

Sad news. I purchased and upgraded beyond my needs to support I product I believed in. I want to complain about Affinity going subscription-based, but with how Canva will probably butcher the software, the billing model won't be the real problem. 

[GenewalDesign]

Any person stumbling upon this topic would get the impression that Affinity has just switched to a premium subscription starting today with no turning back, otherwise the staff will come to your place, uninstall everything, and raid your fridge while they're at it.

[Pšenda]

7 hours ago, Ash said:

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. 

Thanks for the message - hopefully a step in the right direction :-).
Personally, I have been waiting for a similar step for a long time. It must be clear to everyone that such a small company with such few resources has a very difficult time in the current competition, and that new AI-type technologies are realistically unattainable for such a small team without the support of a stronger partner.
p.s. it was to be expected that such a load of mud would appear here in response to your statement, so don't let it put you off - thanks for your work.

[esto]

3 minutes ago, Pšenda said:

You know, not everyone is such a fighter as you, to calmly decide the fate of the company and its employees, and then go to sleep well.

Oh I’m not pretending to have any particular bravery myself. I’m sure this is a difficult and stressful time for the management. As you say, they’re deciding the fate of the company and its employees.

But that’s the point - this is a significant and risky shift for Serif, with a lot of uncertainty, and the related difficulty and stress involved.

So, why pretend it’s ‘exciting’? Why say he’s ‘thrilled’?

His body language suggests he doesn’t believe this is exciting, and he certainly doesn’t sound thrilled!

[Skeletor]

Did it ever end well for a small company that was swallowed up by a big company, I don't think so. Oh, boy. Things will probably go downhill from v3 onwards.

[Ralf Stockmann]

This reminds me on Flickr - bought by Yahoo and all went down the drain. Like really fast.

There was a campaign (I had some part in it) "Think, Flickr, think!" reminding MGMT what the core values and assets of the platform where.

So Affinity, make no mistake: the number 1 reason why MOST of us are here: no subscription model. It you turn to subscriptions, we turn to Adobe. It's as simple as that. Don't be so confident about UX, performance and all the bells & whistles. You made an extraordinary software, but the unique selling point is - no subscriptions.

You want to increase shareholder value? Fine, rise the one-time prices. They are ridiculous low anyway.

Think, Affinity, think!

[pruus]

I wish the team an new and good travel, journey. See new things, have more brains. But please keep the current “pay once” strategy. I prefer to pay more but nog for subscriptions. Best wishes!

[Boldlinedesign]

2 minutes ago, Ralf Stockmann said:

It you turn to subscriptions, we turn to Adobe. It's as simple as that.

Adobe has subscriptions as well - I guess it would depend on what Adobe offers that you need versus the subscription cost for Canva-Affinity. But there are also alternatives to both Adobe and Affinity so there's that option as well

[lphilpot]

At an absolute minimum I'm putting an immediate halt on any efforts to further learn Affinity -- At least until it's clear it's worth the continued effort. I'm no Adobe fan but I'll go to Photoshop's superior toolset in a moment if Affinity goes subscription (because at that point it's no contest).

[Duskstalker]

7 minutes ago, debraspicher said:

I've been done with using broken software that constantly fudges output and can't even be bothered to give me proper viewport of what I'm working on, so I've already been transitioning away back to Adobe.

my struggle with affinity aswell. working with affinity for print is infuriating sometimes. paths and strokes glitch out on export quite often and need to be handled in a very specific way that doesnt offend the affinity pdf export and CMYK is still rendered to display via srgb, displaying wrong colors for CMYK. ive reported on this several times and nothing ever changed.

on the other hand i think affinity is more comfortable to work with, even tho that means my work is very hard to share with other graphic artists. i tolerated the shortcomings because affinity was not a subscription. im sticking to affinity as long as its viable, but i already feel the noose of the adobe subscription at my neck. when i have to pay a subscription, i might as well go back to adobe.

[M-rivers]

6 hours ago, Ash said:

I honestly think you'll all be pleased with the outcome of this.

Really? We've all heard this sooooo many times from other companies before. Do you really, I mean really, believe this yourself? But I get it, you have to say it.

[Optische Ausrichtung]

4 hours ago, Boldlinedesign said:

Vectorstyler is a terrific vector editing application and is not SaaS

Vectorstyler is a terrific vector editing application and is not yet SaaS

[Mithferion]

1 minute ago, Optische Ausrichtung said:

Vectorstyler is a terrific vector editing application and is not yet SaaS

Tried it once. Didn't like it.

Best regards!

[thegary]

If this goes subscription based i am out. Please keep the existing licensing.

Gary

 

[M-rivers]

6 hours ago, Ash said:

With the additional financial backing we have no pressure at all to release a V3 anytime soon

In other words, we're going to coast until it's time to announce V3 of the suite with the added feature of being a subscription. And... you're going to like it.

[Boldlinedesign]

Just now, Mithferion said:

Tried it once. Didn't like it.

Best regards!

It takes some time to learn and use any professional program. 

[Ash]

2 minutes ago, M-rivers said:

Really? We've all heard this sooooo many times from other companies before. Do you really, I mean really, believe this yourself? But I get it, you have to say it.

Yes I do! Realise there seems to be a distinct lack of faith flying around here, but we'll be revealing more about our plans in the coming days and yes I'm sure you will all be pleased with what we have to say.

[Boldlinedesign]

3 minutes ago, Optische Ausrichtung said:

Vectorstyler is a terrific vector editing application and is not yet SaaS

maybe so - that seems to be the way the world is going right now unfortunately. The beauty of Vectorstyler is that it offers far more tools than Designer has and for now, it's thankfully still SaaS

[Bryan Rieger]

6 minutes ago, Ash said:

Yes I do! Realise there seems to be a distinct lack of faith flying around here, but we'll be revealing more about our plans in the coming days and yes I'm sure you will all be pleased with what we have to say.

In hindsight, you probably should have led with that. That lack of faith has been there a while, this announcement just made it worse.

[ronnyb]

6 hours ago, Ash said:

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).

Congrats on the acquisition @Ash! Hopefully the hardworking devs who built this amazing platform will also benefit from the financial gains surely gained by the shareholders.

Taking on Adobe certainly requires enormous resources, and I’m happy Serif found a synergistic partner and it wasn’t a competitor seeking to eliminate the competition as was Adobe’s modus operandi on its ruthless hijacking of the creative space with the purchase and elimination of so many superior competing products across many creative sectors in the 90s and since…

I think a dual model makes sense on many levels. Maintain the current perpetual license for independents, small shops, and the introduction of a subscription license for larger corporate environments where it makes more sense and is necessary for collaborative/cloud services. The subscription model will generate the funds for continued development of cutting edge features which can be integrated into the perpetual license version… lots of positive possibilities…

[dvst]

Very sad news to read this morning. I understand the motivation to sell out for a big payday. However, the letter from Ash is insultingly disingenuous.

Serif owners should have acted with integrity in this deal and at least provided offline activation for V2 owners so that their promise to us of perpetual license could be protected.

There's something satisfying about seeing everyone here not fooled by the nonsense. We will be fortunate to see a future where FOSS thrives and provides powerful creative tools for everyone. It may just be the only safe haven from greed.

Goodbye to Affinity as we've known it. I'm thankful for the good times.

So it goes...