Canva

[Bad_Wolf]

Thank you Ash and Patrick O'Connor for taking the time to explain. This is much appreciated. I am a satisfied Serif user since around 2009 because Serif apps let me do what I like to do. They never failed me, and will not fail me in the future.

From the very first moment I saw this announcement, I was positive about the new union. I use both Affinity and Canva Pro and both complement each other. Canva has a huge library of images and drawings, the Affinity suite has the professional tools to modify them. Canva lacks the tools Affinity has. So the combination can only be positive.

In many circumstances, subscriptions are needed to cover the costs. I use Softmaker Office, WPS Office, Cyberlink and others. If chosing a perpetual licence, there is no AI feature. AI features come with all three programs with a subscription. So a user has to decide if the AI feature is worth the subscription. I can testify that none of the companies with which I have a subscription, are abusing their power. They are all an important part of our daily operations.

To be honest, something I criticise is the update model of Serif. I paid in 2016 for my Designer and Photo licences and it was up until november 2022 that I had to pay again for V2. I asked myself several times during those 6 years free updates, how can they survive? In my opinion, they should make at least the .5 and .0 updates paid. In that way, they should have a more stable cash flow. I am surely willing to pay for a 1.1, 1.2,1.3,... update if that secure the future of the Affinity apps.

For our company, it is not the cost of the application which is important but also how secure its future is. We put a lot of our eggs in the Affinity basket, so it is important that the basket keeps full. The communication of Serif, assures my partner and myself that the future of Serif/Affinity is secure and stable. We never lost trust in Serif/Affinity and will will remain loyal Serif users. I can understand that many users are pessimistic and that your opinion will be different than ours. We have to respect that. However, also respect the fact that as professional users, we make our own decisions, which are in favour of Serif/Canva. Thank you for your understanding. Chris

[R C-R]

8 minutes ago, debraspicher said:

@Ash Please please please tell us something regarding addressing the bugs and please let it be an aggressive move... ask Canva if they know anyone in pest control.

What could Ash say at this point other than that they are working on eliminating as many bugs as possible as quickly as they can? 

[Intuos5]

2 minutes ago, R C-R said:

What could Ash say at this point other than that they are working on eliminating as many bugs as possible as quickly as they can? 

Indeed, that was the whole purpose of the shorter release cycles, it is already a focus point.

[Frances Proctor]

I will wait and see what happens  but I  won't  hold out much hope  they will add features and content that will be subscription only that is what a subscription is all about

Canva will make changes  its their company now and they  call the shots  

I  truly hope I am wrong but  I  saw as a member of the forum team at Xara  and had access to info that wasn't  public  that what went down with Xara and Magix  was not good   I  can easily  see the same thing happening  here 

So to Ash,  Patrick and the rest of the Affinity team  I  truly would love for Canva to prove me wrong   let's hope they do

 

[debraspicher]

16 minutes ago, R C-R said:

What could Ash say at this point other than that they are working on eliminating as many bugs as possible as quickly as they can? 

There needs to be a much longer bug fixing cycle. It will take that much to chip away the backlog.

The impression currently being left is this is not a priority at all. It leaves the sense the programs will not be polished up and are aiming for "good enough". The Layer States feature looks unprofessional and unfinished. Coverage Map is not even functioning as it should. I cannot use Pixel Mode on my displays if my screen scaling is at or above 150% scale (recommended for my display).

That's to say nothing about unfinished UI (light ui issues) and the constant hitching when making Layer selections on my end.

I could keep going on, but they are aware of the record and there needs to be a commitment to polish and professionalism, ie NOT leaving features unfinished and bugs unaddressed*... before I think the wider professional market takes Affinity more seriously.

[nezumi]

If they say nothing people say "silence is very telling..!".

If they say something people say "dont believe them!"

Plus the amount of simply ludicrous ideas like that one about making our own software in India...
Plus outright insults towards devs, telling them to "f off".
Plus childish "change icon to cat to show devs how you feel".

I have never seen such overreaction, such hate towards devs of software you supposedly like. Even when ZBrush was acquired by Maxon and there was panic it didnt reached that levels.

Very few posts with even remotely positive attitude like that of @Rodi . Instead we have screaming mob that no matter what you say (or dont say), whatever you do (or dont do) - it will not be satisfied and will keep on chanting the same thing. At this point I wouldn't be surprised if in protest somebody sprayed some painting in museum with soup... Same energy.

Over the years this devs were always there to listen. I dont have a single post with problem here that wasnt answered by somebody from the team. At the very beginning of Affinity and recently alike. I dont know what future brings and none of those who claim that "THEY KNOW!!!" knows what will happen. However, if anybody of those screamers had some actual brain cells to use they might come to realization that Canva most probably didnt paid that much for Affinity to just kill it. Its not their direct competition. Neither they want to change Affinity into Canva - it makes zero sense. Their reasoning on the other hand makes perfect sense. Canva wants to expand into more professional area. People want that dreaded "AI" in Affinity. These companies complement each other. But noo, screamers will keep on screaming.

Silence is telling and when they tell you something - dont believe them.

Honestly its surprising how many outright stupid people exists on this planet and how so many of them purchased Affinity. Many here is quick to offend devs based on their imagination of whats going to happen, even if nothing of it happened yet. So dont be feely-touchy about being called stupid. Or be, doesn't matter really.

BTW - Canva bought two free photo stocks in 2019. Pexels and Pixabay. 5 years later - both are still there, both under same names, both still free - just button to canva tools was added...

[R C-R]

3 minutes ago, debraspicher said:

The impression currently being left is this is not a priority at all.

I do not have that impression at all. It would be almost pointless to keep releasing updates with few or no fixes for the many well documented bugs.

[R.I.P. Affinity 26.03.2024]

46 minutes ago, Ash said:

Both Canva and us have made 100% clear we are committing to perpetual licences always being available. That will include V3 or any other future major upgrade of our apps which are released. What's more I will say with Canva's backing we are not under the same financial pressure we would have been to release a V3 anytime soon, meaning those of you using V2 will actually benefit from more features as free updates which may previously have been held back for a V3 if that makes sense. This is of great benefit from an engineering standpoint too as we are far better testing and releasing features in smaller chunks than saving them up to package up as a sellable upgrade. 

Saved for future!
Anyway, most of us have no other choice so far. Personally, I can't afford Adobe's prices any more. It's been 3 years with Affinity and I was really happy to have it. Open Source software can't handle my needs. I can only wait few months to see whats gonna happen. What v2.5 is about. Even if all you said is untrue what can I do? Nothing.

[Ash]

8 minutes ago, R.I.P. Affinity 26.03.2024 said:

Saved for future!

As is your display name 😂

[jacekl]

20 minutes ago, nezumi said:

Plus childish "change icon to cat to show devs how you feel".

 

You embarrassed me, I removed the angry cat 😛

[R.I.P. Affinity 26.03.2024]

1 minute ago, Ash said:

As is your display name 😂

Its up to You to prove me wrong. If I am wrong I will change my display name to "Ash was right". Lets say 2 years from now (26.03.26). Let's hope I won't be banned before.

[Rodi]

5 hours ago, Gaz said:

The Affinity suite is easily as good as CS6

 

I am a fan of Affinity, but in Prepress it needs maturing. I have regular stupid issues that are not my fault, but the program. I can use Adobe CC for everything, but I don't because I like Affinity. Two years of more and more use and still not ready to tell the boss to ditch Adobe.

I will say it runs much better with a lot RAM than it did on my older computer, but that's on me.

[Ash]

1 minute ago, R.I.P. Affinity 26.03.2024 said:

Its up to You to prove me wrong. If I am wrong I will change my display name to "Ash was right". Lets say 2 years from now (26.03.26). Let's hope I won't be banned before.

Ha I'll hold you to that!

[MikeW]

Wasn't it someone from Serif who once stated another "never"? "Ain't nobody acquiring us."

So I'll take @Ash's statements with a grain of salt. May well be assurances "to the best of his knowledge," but situations can, and do, change.

I am personally more towards ambivalent about whether the Affinity applications ever become subscription. Maybe because I'm now mostly retired with few corporate clients to be concerned with. Coupled with the fact I have never had a corporate client request I use Serif's Affinity applications--nor Canva for that matter. If they do go subscription, and I get requests for their use, I'll simply do what I do with Adobe (when I need to use the latest versions): I'll rent them for the job. It's not a big deal.

[Bryce]

8 hours ago, Laurents said:

I saw this email yesterday and unsubscribed.  They knew there would be blow back here, and a lot of pissed off users.  In the end there really aren't any promises that we can count on.  This latest post should have been with the first post.  I just reactivated my creative suite account.  The whole reason why I switched was Affinity was not adobe and have a great product that does 99% of what I need it for.  To be fair I've never heard of Canva, I live in a bubble, just a dude in the woods making graphics.  I dont care what they have promised, its all the same nonsense Ive heard before.  done with this company and whoever bought them. Adios.

What a stupid post. No logic whatsoever.

"I went to Serif and their software does 99% of what I need. I switched because It wasn't Adobe and now I'm going to Adobe because I received an email about a company change, yet I live in a bubble and only came here to complain when the email came."

You don't care but you do care, we're not sure what about though. You've never heard of Canva but you know it's so bad that you reactivated Adobe, going back to the giant corporation you hated, even though Affinity was paid and it works for you????

[Bryce]

2 minutes ago, Rodi said:

I am a fan of Affinity, but in Prepress it needs maturing. I have regular stupid issues that are not my fault, but the program. I can use Adobe CC for everything, but I don't because I like Affinity. Two years of more and more use and still not ready to tell the boss to ditch Adobe.

I will say it runs much better with a lot RAM than it did on my older computer, but that's on me.

What problems are you experiencing? I use Affinity and the problems with CMYK colors was fixed in a later version of 1.x. We are a print and vinyl shop and don't seem to have any more problems with Affinity (there are always certain files depending on the designer) than we have with Adobe.

[Ash]

Just now, MikeW said:

Ain't nobody acquiring us.

Yeah for the record done by a new employee doing our social media, it was not authorised by me or any of the senior management here and was in the context of loads of rumours that Adobe were going to buy us at that time. But yeah I get it, we've been caught out with a stupid tweet which everyone is loving throwing back in our face. We're not the first and won't be the last!

[Ciaran77]

@Ash 

I may be wrong but reading through your recent statement, is there a hint that in order to keep everybody sweet and on board (which is impossible), your either serve one master or the other, you can’t do both, that AffinintyCanva are going to create some sort of weird ‘class system’ with regards to your future products, that will be used to force people (if they’re desperate enough) into accepting a subscription plan if they want the best out of your future product releases, as in :

(a) AffinintyCanva, licensed ‘Pinocchio’ version - (broken ass, cost-of-living crisis, Working Class Pleps addition) of Photo, Designer and Publisher: It wants to be a real graphics application but it’s not, won’t be any better or faster than you're current instalment. Will have a few additional features added, that you won’t really need, nor use, adding no real value or benefit to your workflow but comes with free ‘Marvel stickers pack’ an 'LGBT lollypop', and a fee bowl of porridge at your local Greg’s shop.

(b) AffinintyCanva, subscription ‘knight rider’ version - (rich people ONLY) of Photo, Designer and Publisher: ultra-streamlined, super-fast, a.i feature rich, lots of stock libraries, (even includes an Image Trace tool) comes with free air miles, a bottle of Cristal champagne

[mehdy]

4 minutes ago, Ash said:

Yeah for the record done by a new employee doing our social media, it was not authorised by me or any of the senior management here and was in the context of loads of rumours that Adobe were going to buy us at that time. But yeah I get it, we've been caught out with a stupid tweet which everyone is loving throwing back in our face. We're not the first and won't be the last!

I hope they didn't get fired, 😔

[Aongus Collins]

1 hour ago, Ash said:

To address some of what is being said on this thread...

Firstly to be clear I'm not a founder, but have been with the company for 25 years. I'm officially appointed as Managing Director of the company, but also use CEO as my title as that is my role in terms of how other countries would view it.

Both Canva and us have made 100% clear we are committing to perpetual licences always being available. That will include V3 or any other future major upgrade of our apps which are released. What's more I will say with Canva's backing we are not under the same financial pressure we would have been to release a V3 anytime soon, meaning those of you using V2 will actually benefit from more features as free updates which may previously have been held back for a V3 if that makes sense. This is of great benefit from an engineering standpoint too as we are far better testing and releasing features in smaller chunks than saving them up to package up as a sellable upgrade. 

https://www.canva.com/newsroom/news/affinity-canva-pledge/

https://www.theverge.com/2024/3/27/24113423/affinity-canva-acquisition-pledge-license-price-subscription

https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/press/newsroom/affinity-and-canva-pledge/

As we have made clear there will at some point be a subscription option also which people can take if they choose to. I'm sure there will be additional benefits to that subscription in the future such as asset and document sync, sharing and collaboration and other things which naturally require a subscription as they are features which incur ongoing cost. It may also include other things which can be leveraged with a Canva subscription such as greater stock libraries of images, graphics and fonts. Hopefully that would just be considered reasonable and understandable. There will certainly not be any cynical cutting down of features or limitation of ongoing support in our existing apps just to force a subscription play.

I understand examples of previous acquisitions can make some of you fearful, but they are just historic examples - it has no bearing on what will happen in this case and we are genuinely doing something here which is very different and special. Everything I said on Tuesday, and what both Canva and us pledged yesterday, is 100% true and we are going to stand by it. That includes keeping our entire team here with no layoffs, and continuing to be based in Nottingham. 

If you want to believe this or not is up to you, I'm not sure what more we can say at this point to convince those who doubt it. We'll deliver on this over the coming months and years so whatever is being said right now I know it's going to be all good and assuming you are still using Affinity apps you will be happy with how they have developed and that we have continued to be fair and inclusive with our pricing.

Also to follow on from Patricks point - I can take some of the personal attacks on me, but I have to say some of the conduct on this thread with some of you being very quick to attack other community members just because they hold different opinions is really disheartening to see. You can absolutely give your opinion on this deal for sure, and we are happy to leave this as an open forum within reason, but that does mean being courteous to other forum members and not just repeating the same points over and over.

Thanks,

Ash
 

Thank you for your further clarification, and for pointing out that Canva has fully committed to the four pledges on its website. This is as credible as it gets.

As a freelancer, I don’t need collaborative tools currently, and detest subscriptions. 

But if document sync, asset sharing etc means getting work from organisations that have already signed up to Canva (for example, providing customised assets made in Affinity that they could open in the same software), I would reconsider! 

To a glass half-full person, this acquisition/synergy has the potential to create new opportunities for Affinity artists.

[debraspicher]

1 hour ago, Bryan Rieger said:

As I seem to have no more reactions available to me today, I'm just going to echo both @R C-R and @debraspicher's comments. Getting a handle on the ever increasing bug count and prioritizing stability must be a priority going forward.

So I guess we can take the silence as a firm "nah" and the laugh emoji from the forum heckler was a massive morale boost to the effect of "it's going to be more or less the same." It's genuinely a massive shame. I love Affinity products how they are being tailored. But if they don't function as designed, none of that matters in the end... Best wishes.

[mehdy]

@Ash

What I understand maybe will be 2 available options for V3 or maybe some stage of V2.x

Option 1 (one time payment) the usual softwares we know linked to our account on affinity.serif hosting, normal usage without fancy cloud and extra stuff. The updates will be free untill next version comes out.

Option 2 (subscription) with same benefits as option 1 but with extra fancy services like cloud storage and syncing our devices and resources like stocks templates and like so, this will be additional options for those who need it, 

 

Please confirm this Mr @Ash. 

Thank you so much in advance.

[Ruffian]

@Ash The most comforting thing that you have done is show up here on the forums!  I have been using Serif products from the Plus days and then added the Affinity Photo as soon as it was released for Windows and continued to upgrade as I had great customer service in the very beginning.  It was awesome being able to get a real person on the phone way back then being in the US.  Thank you.  I have converted so many friends over and really would hate to see Affinity disappear.

[MikeW]

8 minutes ago, Ash said:

Yeah for the record done by a new employee doing our social media, it was not authorised by me or any of the senior management here and was in the context of loads of rumours that Adobe were going to buy us at that time. But yeah I get it, we've been caught out with a stupid tweet which everyone is loving throwing back in our face. We're not the first and won't be the last!

No worries, @Ash. Even if that had been a sanctioned tweet (which there was time to "correct"), business models can, and do, change. This will be evident if/when Canva goes public or sold to different VCs. The pressure for ever-growing returns puts an extreme amount of pressure on the board of directors. And crap always rolls downhill.

Like I wrote, I'm not worried about it (even if I wasn't semi-retired).

And, as long as the Affinity applications are not subscription, I'll still do what little I do to make them better.

[mehdy]

2 minutes ago, Ruffian said:

@Ash The most comforting thing that you have done is show up here on the forums!  I have been using Serif products from the Plus days and then added the Affinity Photo as soon as it was released for Windows and continued to upgrade as I had great customer service in the very beginning.  It was awesome being able to get a real person on the phone way back then being in the US.  Thank you.  I have converted so many friends over and really would hate to see Affinity disappear.

Me too I loved Affinity and I recommend on every video on my SM, some of why students are very happy and satisfied. I wish to see this community growth and Affinity become the new Standard.