Affinity is joining the Canva family. RIP ?

[Gep]

1 hour ago, Terkoz said:

I used to use Lightwave and almost moved across to Modo after LW stopped advancing. Now I know you said you were out of the game but if you still wanted something to keep your hand in or for personal projects I highly recommend Blender. It has come up in leaps and bounds the last couple of years and is currently better than Lightwave ever was. Also it has some fantastic sculpting tools that are supposedly coming very close to ZBrushes capabilities.

Funny you say that, as i looked at it 2 days ago and saw how well they're doing. Almost gave me the will to learn it... but pfff, too old, too hard, haha. After 25 years of illustration, i'm now a carpenter, and happy with it. And no IA can do my job (for now...). This IA thing is really something you graphists have to worry about, and i've seen Canva is already in it, which is frightening for the future of softwares "made for artists".

Seen a very interesting video about this : AI vs Artists - The Biggest Art Heist in History 

If creativity is killed by IA, then humankind is out...

I sincerely wish you creative guys the best of luck. Subscription is the last of your worries...

[VectorVonDoom]

10 hours ago, BeckyM said:

Dumb question but if I redeem the upgrade offer now for V2, will I still be able to concurrently use V1? I remember getting bit by that in the past with other software, even if I was careful not to overwrite the earlier version with the new, sometimes it would deactivate your old product key.

Yes there's no problem running both versions, nothing to be careful of.

[TheCreature]

Follow up on this- I did just get a "four pledges" e-mail stating:

"Perpetual licenses will always be offered and we will always price Affinity fairly and affordably."

That's the first pledge to the community. So I guess we'll see. I'd love to give them some slack here and be wrong but...

[Tia Lapis]

This will be broken as every similar pledge has been broken on other aquisitions. Maxon promised the same for Zbrush. 2 years later: subscription only and no real update in all this time. It is just marketing trying to soften the blow to the users - IT WILL BE BROKEN. 

[CatClaw]

Yepp. Same to HitFilm Pro. Now using Davinci; hoping we don't have to switch to gimp. And i hope if they switch fully to subs, community will refuse and riot and leave the boat. i will stick to V2 as long as i can and i hope there is something planned to exclude AI functions. Don't get me wrong. i like autofill and background remove as example, but that whole ai thing has to be ethical so no artist is getting hurt.

[MikeO]

21 hours ago, vildy said:

We have been using the trial version of all 3 of the Affinity 2 products for our church's E magazine and on the verge of buying the full package while it is on sales for $114.99 USD, but we may pause after this new revelation and look elsewhere for a non-subscription based windows and Mac app

I'd buy it now. It could be years before it might change and it would be years you can't get back struggling with poor software or else paying the Adobe tax. $114 for apps of this quality is a steal. Especially Publisher, which I am beginning to like more than InDesign, as Adobe has let InDesign whither.

[Abelnt]

At home we had two affinity photo licenses, but we're not even going to download the latest version anymore . . .  We've opted to pay Adobe and have two new Photoshop subscriptions. This is a goodbye to this stage of affinity, we were already very tired of waiting for neural filters or AI that never came, but this move leaves us totally out of the affinity game. Good luck to all.

[NM_]

5 hours ago, TheCreature said:

Follow up on this- I did just get a "four pledges" e-mail stating:

"Perpetual licenses will always be offered and we will always price Affinity fairly and affordably."

That's the first pledge to the community. So I guess we'll see. I'd love to give them some slack here and be wrong but...

This pledge is no assurance. All will depened on the functionality included in the various product tiers. Just look at what is happening in all other industries where there is a subscription model. Also, none of the entities in this branch of the industry own the underlying AI technology or its infrastructure, so there will be competition.

This is a repetitive pattern: Talent owns the IP it develops using crowd-funding and becomes more attractive for the highest bidder.  If Serif was a real Adobe competitor, either Adobe or Corel would buy them out. 

We, the end-users make pattern this possible. Therefore, if we do not like it, then it is upon us to change the pattern. What we can do it to put our support, both monetary and know-how, behind FOSS projects.

[NM_]

7 minutes ago, NM_ said:

We, the end-users make pattern this possible. Therefore, if we do not like it, then it is upon us to change the pattern. What we can do it to put our support, both monetary and know-how, behind FOSS projects.

P.S. Putting my money where my mouth is, I just became a $5/month grahite.rs sponsor.

[Aging Violinist]

I too received the "Four Pledges" email in response to my emailed queries that I mentioned here in a previous post yesterday. Like others, I don't see the pledge as any kind of real assurance -- I saved a copy of it just so that if/when they go back on that pledge, I can look at it with contempt and derision and say "See?!?" and share it widely among my fellow embittered and world-weary cynics.

All we can do is to wait and see at this point and give them the benefit of the doubt. In the meantime, it would be very wise to start looking for and learning how to use alternatives just in case.

But oh! what a joyful noise we can raise when roused, eh? ✊

[debraspicher]

22 minutes ago, Aging Violinist said:

I too received the "Four Pledges" email in response to my emailed queries that I mentioned here in a previous post yesterday. Like others, I don't see the pledge as any kind of real assurance -- I saved a copy of it just so that if/when they go back on that pledge, I can look at it with contempt and derision and say "See?!?" and share it widely among my fellow embittered and world-weary cynics.

You have fun hobbies. I feel like we could be friends.

[pixelstuff]

20 hours ago, Aging Violinist said:

Right, I certainly hope they have a mechanism.

Is there still even a place to download older versions (v1)? I'm a relatively new user to Affinity and only came on board with v2 (though I've quickly grown to like it very much, which only makes this situation all the more aggravating).

I don't think you can buy v1 products anymore, but if you purchased them from Serif in the past, you can still download the installer files from your account "Downloads & product keys" web page.

The older forum announcement pages point to the archives here (but they won't work without a license):

https://store.serif.com/en-us/update/windows/designer/1/

https://store.serif.com/en-us/update/windows/photo/1/

https://store.serif.com/en-us/update/windows/publisher/1/

And by the way you can replace the 1 on the end with a 2 and get to the V2 installer files.

[VectorVonDoom]

25 minutes ago, LondonSquirrel said:

There is something to be careful of - V1 files once opened and saved by V2 will can no longer be opened in V1.

He was asking about installation problems not operational. I would hope by now that everyone knows about file compatibility or lack of.

[BeckyM]

12 hours ago, Komatös said:

There are no stupid questions!

Version 1 and version 2 are installed in separate program directories and can therefore be used side by side. 
The biggest disadvantage here is that you have to install assets and brushes twice, as both versions access different base directories.

Thank you so much! This is exactly what I needed to know.

[Komatös]

You are welcome!

[Terkoz]

Well we did ask them to commit to a perpetual license model. I totally get the pessemism around that pledge. We have all been stung in the past by similar pledges. However all we can do now is continue on and wait and see what happens. I'm not going to bother learning new software just yet. V2 is still being developed and at least for me is able to do all I need to do in this vein. It will be several years before I will need to worry about upgrading.

I'm a cynical bugger by nature but I can be hopeful. Fingers crossed this time the company is telling the truth. It's not like we don't already have enough to be stressed about these days. Let's not add to it if we don't have to.

[BeckyM]

7 hours ago, VectorVonDoom said:

Yes there's no problem running both versions, nothing to be careful of.

Phew! Thank you!

[Silvery Moon]

On 3/26/2024 at 10:48 AM, Pyanepsion said:

😱It is clear that the Affinity suite will eventually migrate to a subscription model, as this is Canvas' business model.

😱In other words, there's nothing planned after version 2.

Exactly…this is the business equivalent of ‘I’ll still love you in the morning…’

[Gill Brooks]

I have looked and Canva previously and decided it's not for me.    I design all my own things, create my own templates.  I have no requirements to use basic ones that someone else has created to their own or some generic requirements.  Same goes for images, etc.  I have NEVER used the Stock option in Affinity.  I have no need.  I create my own.  Why use a stock image that is probably used by thousands of others?  No individuality.   

I also have no interest in working "in the cloud".  In fact, I flatly refuse to do so. 

So, unless Affinity products can operate as standalone products, away from the Canva Cloud Circus, I won't be paying for an upgrade to V3 if that ever happens.  I'll just continue using V2 and forfeit any possible additions. 

[andrewscott]

I'm hopeful that the Affinity line will be permitted to maintain one of the principle reasons for it's success—reasonably priced, non-subscription pricing. If it switches to a subscription model then there's less to distinguish it from Adobe, which has more features and is seen as 'industry standard' by many.

I can't help but reflect on some of the graphics applications I've used over the years. I started with Illustrator 1.0 and Photoshop 1.0 (which was a big step up from MacPaint, I can tell you). Aldus Freehand became my favourite raster tool but Adobe bought it and killed it. (Same thing happened to Aldus PageMaker → Adobe PageMaker → dead.) I went back to Illustrator. I'd hate to see the same thing happen for Affinity Designer but perhaps I'll be back using Illustrator again in my dotage. Such is life, apparently.

The Affinity and Canva Teams are making the right noises and likely have the best intentions but there's no way of knowing what will happen down the track. All it takes is one new CEO driven by short-sighted greed, and everything changes overnight.

I don't think there's much point worrying about it . Just carry on and stay flexible. Here in 2024 Affinity is still the best thing for my needs.

[MmmMaarten]

Yet another company not keeping promises and selling out ('we will never') and having fluid worthless principles. Spineless. Disrespectful to clients that helped the company grow, but will leave soon. Sad business policy. Trust was gone as soon as you as a company broke your own promises. Yet another sell out going for money, not understanding what caused the value to even be there. Short sighted.

[CatClaw]

2 hours ago, MmmMaarten said:

Yet another company not keeping promises and selling out ('we will never') and having fluid worthless principles. Spineless. Disrespectful to clients that helped the company grow, but will leave soon. Sad business policy. Trust was gone as soon as you as a company broke your own promises. Yet another sell out going for money, not understanding what caused the value to even be there. Short sighted.

I think this is the main reason, why everyone is unison upseted. Never say never (and post this online). It is normal that a company is expanding or gets somewhere selled out. But i'm sure there are better options than Canva.

[Yuu Shirome]

So does anyone know for sure if the versions we purchased will still remain usable even after the change to the subscription model? I just got Designer V2 for a few months and now I’m anxious seeing this merging news

[ShelvsHOTpencil]

Yep if they only offer sub for 3 I am going back to adobe out of spite.

right now I stopped buying tools made for affinity as I am going to migrate to an alternative as soon as I see subscriptions

this is the second company which did this and I am no longer going to spend money to support new projects claiming to be the “ alternative to x”.

because sooner or later after they got all your money , they always change.

I am extremely disappointed by the Affinity team.

[MmmMaarten]

6 hours ago, CatClaw said:

I think this is the main reason, why everyone is unison upseted. Never say never (and post this online). It is normal that a company is expanding or gets somewhere selled out. But i'm sure there are better options than Canva.

No offence and we're probably thinking the same, but I don't agree exactly. It's not 'Never say never'. Speaking out loud what your principles as a company are I think is a good thing. It's keeping these principles and promises and have some spine in your back that's what's strongly failing here. Simple as that.

If you are so lame to just leave your own principles out of pure greed, while betraying the user base that helped you be in this position, you're worth nothing and don't even get where you were coming from. Which is bad.

It's disrespectful to say the least. People and companies like me trusted this company and feel betrayed, because we are. Not because the company said their principles out loud (used as marketing when they needed us because that's what attracted their clients in the first place), but because the company left these own principles in a blink of the eye when the money came. Total lack of integrity and spine. And also lack of long term business sense and even a sense of understanding what is the reason for existance of this product range and your user base.

It doesn't even matter what they will or won't do in the future; somebody who cheats cannot be trusted and will cheat again. And again. As it's already proven that their words mean nothing and cannot be trusted.