Canva

[RichiePhoto]

My last bit on this subject, I'm prepared to give Affinity and Canva the benefit of the doubt on this matter.  In reality, if this takeover or merger benefits their suite, then so be it, I will be glad

 

[Archangel]

1 hour ago, jackamus said:

For years I have asked Serif why DrawPlus was better, for me that is, than AD? DP had more drawing features then than AD has now! All I got in response was DP was old and not a platform that was compatible with modern OS. Basically what they were saying was that the new way of doing things was not going to be as good as the old way! Isn't this called 'dumbing down'?

It's called progress. Affinity Designer was a new way to do things with he focus on speed and efficiency, taking advantage of new processor and computing technology. The Plus range also relied on certain third-party code such as LEAD tools which would not be used in their new software. This may have accelerated app development (in not re-inventing the wheel) but meant that the software needed the third-party stuff to work.

Affinity is meant to be Serif's code through and through.

[VectorVonDoom]

5 hours ago, Komatös said:

The reason is simple. The V1 was unlocked with a serial number, which was like an invitation to a free banquet for pirates.  

Online verification made it more difficult for pirates to use the software without a valid license. 

v2 may have made it more difficult for pirates to crack it (or not, I've no idea) but didn't do anything to stop them. The only thing it did stop was casual password sharing.

[Alfred]

1 hour ago, Archangel said:

True but registration is not the same as activation in the Plus software. You have to have an activation key to use the software. The registration was something else and could be ignored, although the software kept nagging you to register it.

Registration was essentially a means of harvesting contact details so that they could put you on their mailing list and their sales staff could call you for ‘upselling’ purposes.

[R C-R]

Just food for thought:

1. Assume for a minute that Canva has no intention of honoring its 4 pledges. Why then would they even bother to post them? Surely they know that if they do not it will have an extremely damaging impact on the company's reputation, making it hard for them to convince customers looking for alternatives to Adobe to buy their products.

2. Consider that it has become painfully obvious that Serif does not have the resources to keep adding much requested features & fixing bugs fast enough to keep many of its users from jumping ship & supporting other software. So what else could they reasonably be expected to do besides find a company like Canva to shoulder the load?

[SallijaneG]

I am really nervous about this, as I expressed in my answers to your (ugh, Google) form.  What I did not mention there, but should have, is the one thing that I really need from Affinity Publisher, and that it the ability to make either (or both!) ACCESSIBLE PDF files or E-BOOKS.  I don’t care about variable fonts, I now have footnotes (thank you), but not yet accessibility.  I don’t see how Canva will help with that.

[SallijaneG]

2 hours ago, Bwood said:

Crisis management teams are busy. I was burned once with Macromedia to Adobe. Burned again AF to Canva. Shame on,e. 

I fear that you are right.  I survived with InDesign CS4 for 5 years, I can survive with Affinity Publisher/Designer/Photo for another 5 if need be when this turns out to be way worse than they are promising.  I HOPE that I am wrong, that they really do have the values that they state and that the 4 pledges last longer than Google’s “Don’t be evil.”  Time will tell, but for now, I am very worried.

[ham_candy]

3 hours ago, Chills said:

Not always.  When BMD brought Da Vinci Resolve they kept the same team and it is still, largley, in place. They brought the price right down and added Fusion and Fairlight Audio and really improved the features and dropped the price again (perpetual license with free updates for life) and did a free version.

That’s because BMD is in the manufacturing business, not the software business. They can afford to give away their software for free because they make their money from selling high end cinema cameras and post-pro workstations to feature film, post-production and broadcast industries.
Canva is in the SaaS industry so they rely on regular subscription income. Sad to say, perpetual licensing of software is not a sustainable business model anymore, not with ever increasing wages and such. 

[SallijaneG]

1 hour ago, RichiePhoto said:

My last bit on this subject, I'm prepared to give Affinity and Canva the benefit of the doubt on this matter.  In reality, if this takeover or merger benefits their suite, then so be it, I will be glad

 

Fair enough.  I am not bailing, of course, but I am wary.

[Jon_TA]

When Affinity Software starts dropping in quality and development begins to stop...I will immediately drop your apps and move to alternatives. I already have three dedicated apps in mind and bookmarked for me to access when your apps go to crap. I despise cheap and greedy money mongering short term gains that go completely against individual software sovereignty. Accepting that buyout offer, when just last year your entire company was making $22 million cash rich profits that went beyond paying all your staff (which I have no anger toward the non-founder staff)) and your fat executive checks just Screams Greed. I well understand gaslighting when it is being used. 

Us common folk are not stupid and most certainly not ignorant about such corporate jackwagon behavior. The Canva founders have vulture capital wealth well beyond what is necessary to live a comfortable sane life. I am not anti-wealth, I am just fully against Obscene levels of wealth; particularly when such "money" is made without any regard for the financial wellbeing of the local artists I talked to where I currently live. I tried to get individual attention from Canva Staff and they deliberately blocked me and shoved me off into being on my own by denying me access to any staff members to talk to.

That piss poor treatment, because I wasn't even a "major account", doesn't even qualify as "customer service". Congratulations, you just fed monster billionaires of a company with no decency for solo business owners/independents like me. At least my language is clean and not vulgar.

[SallijaneG]

13 minutes ago, R C-R said:

Just food for thought:

1. Assume for a minute that Canva has no intention of honoring its 4 pledges. Why then would they even bother to post them? Surely they know that if they do not it will have an extremely damaging impact on the company's reputation, making it hard for them to convince customers looking for alternatives to Adobe to buy their products.

2. Consider that it has become painfully obvious that Serif does not have the resources to keep adding much requested features & fixing bugs fast enough to keep many of its users from jumping ship & supporting other software. So what else could they reasonably be expected to do besides find a company like Canva to shoulder the load?

Given the vast disparity of price between Affinity and Adobe, there was room to increase the price to develop faster.  IDK, not an expert, nor with access to the inside info, but time will tell.  Hoping for the best, concerned about the worst.

[mehdy]

I just downloaded all my assets and add-ons buyed from affinity website to have a backup on my hard drive, also downloaded V1 with serial keys, so what's remains is V2 as I need online activating, so idk what Affinity will do the servers I wish they keep them online forever, or give us serial keys with offline activate update, at least we keep what we own, otherwise it will be like one payment subscription or rent.

Hopping for the best.

[SallijaneG]

On 3/26/2024 at 4:31 AM, Daniel Gibert said:

I love you guys, and I have a big load of respect about you, being a big evangelist of Affinity, but I'm not having a good felling on this. Canva is not what I could name a "professional software" partner. They want to be Adobe, not an adobe alternative.

The first insinuation of subscription model will break any trust on Affinity, and for the love of the goddess, I hope Affinity apps don't become a dumpster of stupid and crappy AI and cheap design tools that Canva really is.

I've read the FAQs you published… they don't give me enough reassessment that nothing is gonna change. Your company and your project is not yours anymore.

I wish to be wrong.

I am with you 100%.  nervous, hanging in and watching. . . .

[SallijaneG]

1 minute ago, mehdy said:

I just downloaded all my assets and add-ons buyed from affinity website to have a backup on my hard drive, also downloaded V1 with serial keys, so what's remains is V2 as I need online activating, so idk what Affinity will do the servers I wish they keep them online forever, or give us serial keys with offline activate update, at least we keep what we own, otherwise it will be like one payment subscription or rent.

Hopping for the best.

I have always downloaded everything onto my own machine and will continue to do so, with a back-up on my external drive.  No subscriptions, even if I wind up using an old program for years, as I did with InDesign CS4 when Adobe went all-subscription.

[mehdy]

Just now, SallijaneG said:

I have always downloaded everything onto my own machine and will continue to do so, with a back-up on my external drive.  No subscriptions, even if I wind up using an old program for years, as I did with InDesign CS4 when Adobe went all-subscription.

Yes as I mentioned in my previous reply V2 have almost every things needed to work its need some work arounds with image tracer and rtl support which I'm fine with at least we got what we bought 🐱, my expectations is low very low but let's see what time will brings us.

[Ciaran77]

Everybody, let’s just face reality, Affinity (as we had known it) is finished long-term, they sold-out. Meanwhile, the short-term fix, using an affordable perpetual license (to keep everybody happy and on board) will be the introduction of quite a few major upgrades to 'Photo', 'Designer' and 'Publisher' as a show-piece to try and present a positive image presentation for the future of where Affinity/Canva want to take their software.

Meantime you can bet your mortgage, that the hierarchy within Canva will be plotting moves to take Affinity onto an Adobe styled subscription plan, this cost-of-living crisis won't end anytime soon, and if Canva thinks that us plebs can afford their subscription plans to help Affinity pay for the extra water cooler fans to stabilise their every growing sever warehouse, with all that new A.I Data flowing back and forth, it will be adios amigos, bye bye to Affinity, they'll be shocked when everyone bails on them heading straight for GIMP.

[DarkClown]

I've been following this topic now from the beginning on ... feeling seriously unhappy about the mutitude of personal vendettas going on here that distract from the core issues  (doing no good for this discussion).

Why do we all (or at least most of us) post here? I presume to express our insecurity with regards to the future of Affinity products. Many people involved here driven by a long term involvement in the product development process. Many users being scared of significant price changes or pricing models (subscription). Many people aware of the experience from former take-overs of sw companies - and the results. And - having general moral company integrity in mind - not trusting pledges and promises, since most companies did not keep those and betrayed their customers.

On the other hand, what do we try to achieve? Financiel decisions have been made. Affinity is no longer in the drivers seat. Marketing bullshit has been send out. Canva is aware of the lack of trust in them. Whinging around does not improve the situation! Lets ask Canva for commitment on their pledges. We will not change Canvas possible decision in the future to come up with a subscription model (what they announced already). We will not even be able to commit them on sticking to the promise to keep the perpetual license alive on a long term. Promises that have been broken in many other companies.

But for now, we can still try to get a better V2.5 and V3.0. (I hope the promise will last at least that long). Seriously - I don't trust, I don't believe. But since this decision is not in our hands (money is sadly not based on moral integrity). We still have things to gain! - The "No" is for sure ... the "yes" is an option.

And to make this clear: Serif: I'm very angry about you! You are jeopardizing the future of many creative people, since noone easily changes the design software like underware in the morning. To make it clear: giving up control just for the money! Just the opposite of the ideals you promoted for the last 10 years!

I just seriously ask Canva to keep the pledges! Don't try to copy Adobe, the original is always the better choice.

Cheers, Timo

[Rodi]

I think Affinity Suite was too good, too small and too poor to stay the way it was.

I get the business reality.

I also understand what happens with mega buying meager, mega is always hungry.

So that being said, until they prove us right, lets just dig in and do good stuff.

BTW, lol, I use Affinity to fix a good number of Canva created PDFs  I get in... lets hope it stays that way!

So, I wanna dream big.

Affinity show us pros that Canva can do it better. Get the right tyopgraphic engines that can run the big fonts with all the styles.

Make a fourth killer program that introduces pro stuff to edit PDFs and open them in less destructive ways.

I am preparing for the worst and hoping for the best.

Congrats on making some moolah!



 

[klap57]

Thanks Ash for this update.  Because Canva believes in your products and team as I do.  I will do the trial of Canva to see what it is all about.  If I like it I will keep subscribing so I can support the company that supports the products I love - Affinity.  If Affinity apps get left behind in the future, I  would have to rethink keeping the subscription.  Loyalty is worth something is it not?

Have a great day and congrats on this big news for Affinity and Canva.

Ken

[Ruffian]

Here's another article and it looks like the remaining folks are joining Canva.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/23012ff5-97a9-4260-990c-7f5277a962e0?shareToken=a6aaceec7ddeccbeb881808ebbb73cdb

Hewson said the deal with Canva, which was said in January to be valued at $26 billion, had come “out of the blue”. Bates and Bryce are leaving the business completely, while he and Serif’s 93-strong team are joining Canva.

[MmmMaarten]

On 3/26/2024 at 10:11 AM, Ash said:

There are genuinely no plans.... [blablabla]

You can talk whatever you want, but you as a company PROMISED us without any fussy wording that you would NEVER going to let another company aquire you. You stated that LITERALLY. And yet here we are, not even that much later.

Your words mean NOTHING. Spineless. 

Companies that treat clients like this and fail to even respect their own principles, that were the company and product value to begin with, are not worth any more trust. I left instantly because we just cannot trust you. You sold out.

[jonnyblasticles]

I'm not so much worried about the subscription especially because I don't think it'll effect any point number of V2 as I am concerned with how much Canva cheapens the software and your credibility.

It really doesn't matter what you say or promise now or how hopeful and excited you are because at the end of the day you're no longer in charge. You have about as much influence on the final product as a cashier at the point of sale. I doubt you'll even be around for V3 whether that's because you've sold out to get out or because they'll simply let you face the transitional outrage of the users and then have no need for a middle man once Affinity has been entirely consumed.

Canva makes the policy now and everybody knows how they operate. 

[R C-R]

2 minutes ago, jonnyblasticles said:

It really doesn't matter what you say or promise now or how hopeful and excited you are because at the end of the day you're no longer in charge.

If you mean Ash Hewson, as mentioned above, it appears that while he founded Serif & has served as the company's CEO, he never was a principal owner & thus could not control what the two principals decided to do when they decided to sell it.

[loukash]

27 minutes ago, R C-R said:

Ash Hewson, as mentioned above, it appears that while he founded Serif

You mean Ash founded Serif when he was 9 years old? That would be… impressive! 

[jonnyblasticles]

33 minutes ago, R C-R said:

If you mean Ash Hewson, as mentioned above, it appears that while he founded Serif & has served as the company's CEO, he never was a principal owner & thus could not control what the two principals decided to do when they decided to sell it.

I think I was talking mostly about the royal 'you' as in Mr/Mrs Affinity, not specifically Hewson but whoever was tasked with being the spokesperson 

Edited March 28 by jonnyblasticles
Clarity