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Already purchased for Windows - How to use on my Mac


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I have already purchased Affinity designer for PC. I now also own a MacBook and I want to be able to use the software on both Windows and Mac. Depending on what I am doing or if I am traveling, I might be on my Mac or my PC.

I can only see the option in my account to download the PC version.

Thanks

Simon

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@ionCoder

Welcome to the Affinity forums.

Each OS, Windows, Mac or iOS, has its own individual licensing system.  The software is platform-specific so if you wish to use any of the apps on a different OS to the one you originally bought you will need to purchase a licence for it and then download and install the OS-specific software.

Jeff

Win 10 Pro, i7 6700K, 32Gb RAM, NVidia GTX1660 Ti and Intel HD530 Graphics

Long-time user of Serif products, chiefly PagePlus and PhotoPlus, but also WebPlus, CraftArtistProfessional and DrawPlus.  Delighted to be using Affinity Designer, Photo, and now Publisher, version 1 and now version 2.

iPad Pro (12.9") (iOS 17.4) running Affinity Photo and Designer version 1 and all three version 2 apps.

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  • 5 weeks later...
On 8/12/2019 at 12:25 PM, emmrecs01 said:

Each OS, Windows, Mac or iOS, has its own individual licensing system.  The software is platform-specific so if you wish to use any of the apps on a different OS to the one you originally bought you will need to purchase a licence for it and then download and install the OS-specific software.

 

So, for clarity and avoidance of doubt, if I want to run Affinity on my Windows PC and my Macbook then I have to buy two licenses and pay two license fees.  Like the OP I was looking for the ability to use the same software on my existing Windows machines and my Macbook so I could use whichever was to hand at the time.  I currently use PaintShop Pro on Windows but they don't have a Mac version.  My level of usage doesn't justify the cost of a Photoshop subscription so the price point of Affinity Photo was appealing.  If you're now saying that I need to pay twice as much then that appeal reduces a lot.

Affinity Photo, Designer and Publisher on Windows 10 and Mac

Affinity Photo and Designer on iPad.

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Windows and macOS are different operating Systems. Applications for one of these systems can‘t run on the other system. So you need 2 applications, one for Windows, one for macOS. And since both apps need to be coded, there are investments for both, which you have to pay. And, sincerely: The app is ridiculously cheap regarding its capabilities. If someone doesn‘t recognize this, well, the Affinity products are definitely not the right tools for this person.

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9 hours ago, mac_heibu said:

Windows and macOS are different operating Systems. Applications for one of these systems can‘t run on the other system. So you need 2 applications, one for Windows, one for macOS. And since both apps need to be coded, there are investments for both, which you have to pay. And, sincerely: The app is ridiculously cheap regarding its capabilities. If someone doesn‘t recognize this, well, the Affinity products are definitely not the right tools for this person.

That's a lot of snark for a reply to a post checking that I'd understood the situation correctly.

I'm aware that MacOS and Windows are different operating systems and so you need different compiles of the application, 30+ years in the IT/Computing industry, and still going, kinda makes that clear.  The norm, however, for cross-platform application development for about 25 years now has been to use abstraction libraries so the same code is compiled for each platform, just using different libraries to abstract the application from the OS services, the developer only needs to think about the application they are writing, not the differences in the OSes they might run on.  If your suppliers are telling you they need to code separately for each platform and aren't writing drivers or embedded code (and actually a lot of driver writers are using abstraction libraries these days) then they are ripping you off or need to give their development team a Vegas funeral.

This is the first time I can recall an application where you needed a different license depending on which desktop platform you were running it on for quite some time.  It's kinda inherent in the language of software licenses, you're buying a license to run the code, not the code itself.  This is why in most cases you can install the same application on more than one machine (same or different OS) and so long as you only run it on one machine at a time you're fine with a single user license.

The price point for Affinity is not that dissimilar to other packages with similar functionality from what I've seen, it's the same as I'd pay to upgrade PSP and about £25 less than the new cost of PSP.  I think what you really mean is that 'Affinity isn't a rip off price like PhotoShop can afford to be due to its name recognition."   The issue for me (and possibly the OP) is that wanting to run on both Windows and Mac is about convenience.  Do I want to double my cost, and learn a new  application, to avoid having to carry two laptops once in a while when I need to carry the Mac for some other reason, or do I only pay about the same and stick with the application I know but 4-5 times  a year I'll have to  carry my Windows laptop and my MacBook or put down my MacBook and go into the other room to get my Windows laptop.

 

I'll have to think about it.

Affinity Photo, Designer and Publisher on Windows 10 and Mac

Affinity Photo and Designer on iPad.

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@StephenBooth_uk

48 minutes ago, StephenBooth_uk said:

That's a lot of snark

Sorry, but I don't agree. 

IMO, @mac_heibu was making a number of very valid points based on the fact that Serif made the decision in the very early stages of the development of the whole Affinity range that each app should be able to operate on both Windows and Mac platforms but that users should be required to pay the extremely reasonable price for a licence for each operating system.  Most Affinity app purchasers will require/use only one OS licence since I suspect the majority of users do NOT own/use both Windows and Mac; perhaps rather more may use the iPad versions but these are extremely competitively priced and to be able to use one app on iPad alongside either its Windows or Mac equivalent for a one-off UK price of less than £70 is a real bargain!  Even the less than £100 to buy each app for both Windows and Mac stands very favourably in comparison with the subscription-only model of its famous competitor.

Jeff

 

Win 10 Pro, i7 6700K, 32Gb RAM, NVidia GTX1660 Ti and Intel HD530 Graphics

Long-time user of Serif products, chiefly PagePlus and PhotoPlus, but also WebPlus, CraftArtistProfessional and DrawPlus.  Delighted to be using Affinity Designer, Photo, and now Publisher, version 1 and now version 2.

iPad Pro (12.9") (iOS 17.4) running Affinity Photo and Designer version 1 and all three version 2 apps.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I agree with @StephenBooth_uk. I also use both platforms and unfortunately I bought Affinity Designer for Windows (and APhoto for Mac) and I would like to to use Designer on both computers (only on one machine at a time). 

I agree that price is really low but I don't want to buy it twice. It is waste of my money.

 

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1 hour ago, Chodec said:

I also use both platforms and unfortunately I bought Affinity Designer for Windows (and APhoto for Mac) and I would like to to use Designer on both computers (only on one machine at a time).

If you really can’t countenance purchasing an AD licence for your Mac, why not take advantage of the shared file format? Do the Designer stuff on your Windows machine and then do any further work in Photo on your Mac.

Alfred spacer.png
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen)

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2 hours ago, Chodec said:

I also use both platforms and unfortunately I bought Affinity Designer for Windows (and APhoto for Mac) and I would like to to use Designer on both computers (only on one machine at a time). 

I agree that price is really low but I don't want to buy it twice. It is waste of my money.

I tried it the other way round:

Bought Affinity Designer and Photo for Windows and Mac. Already have a Mac and decided to use a PC too. So I went to my hardware dealer and told him: "I already have a Mac and like to have a PC in addition. I promise, to use only one machine at a time, so I don’t want to buy the PC. It is a waste of money. So, please give it to me for free!"

What should I say? As stubborn as Affinity, the hardware dealer simply refused! So annoying … :)

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I still remember when Adobe was charging the double license for mac and for windows.

Then they introduced a new payment model and "grant" the use on different platforms ... I prefer Affinity for many reasons and I paid for the iPad version as well as the Mac version and I find it right.

I don't think that writing an application for a single operating system is the same as writing it for more than one OS. Of course they could increase the cost by 25 € and say that it was possible to use it on Mac and on Win ... other 25 and give it also for iPad. Probably doubling the cost they could promise more but pleasing few people and making many more "sad".

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On 9/23/2019 at 5:24 PM, mac_heibu said:

I tried it the other way round:

Bought Affinity Designer and Photo for Windows and Mac. Already have a Mac and decided to use a PC too. So I went to my hardware dealer and told him: "I already have a Mac and like to have a PC in addition. I promise, to use only one machine at a time, so I don’t want to buy the PC. It is a waste of money. So, please give it to me for free!"

Not really an equivalent situation or apropos analogy, you're talking about a physical object that has consumed resources and once you have it the seller cannot sell it to another person. A closer analogy would be buying a book to read on a Kindle Keyboard and later wanting to read the same book on a Kindle Paperwhite, then Amazon want charge you for it again because you are reading it on a different platform.

Affinity Photo, Designer and Publisher on Windows 10 and Mac

Affinity Photo and Designer on iPad.

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6 hours ago, Filo63 said:

I don't think that writing an application for a single operating system is the same as writing it for more than one OS. 

I work in IT, in most cases writing for more than one OS is for all intents and purposes the same as writing for one.

The actual application code is the same, just when it is compiled (the human readable code is converted to the code the computer actually runs) it is linked to different libraries. Think of these libraries as being like a travel adaptor.  Your location is given as Italy where, a quick Google search tells me, mains plugs are two or three prongs arranged in a row and the mains voltage is 230v.  If you came to the UK (where mains plugs have three pins arranged in a triangle and the mains voltage is 230v) and brought your laptop then would you expect to have to buy a new laptop, or just use an adaptor?

Affinity Photo, Designer and Publisher on Windows 10 and Mac

Affinity Photo and Designer on iPad.

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24 minutes ago, StephenBooth_uk said:

Not really an equivalent situation or apropos analogy, you're talking about a physical object that has consumed resources and once you have it the seller cannot sell it to another person. A closer analogy would be buying a book to read on a Kindle Keyboard and later wanting to read the same book on a Kindle Paperwhite, then Amazon want charge you for it again because you are reading it on a different platform.

<eyeroll> If we're going to down the silly analogy road, Serif's position is more like "You bought this to read on Kindle, if you want to read it on Apple Books you need to buy it again," than it is about the different Kindle devices.

I can appreciate that some people may get surprised by the "license per platform model" and may even hate (intentionally strong word chosen) such a model but even in a perfect development world, it takes different resources to create and maintain a substantial part of the application on each platform. All the math in the world that may be in common code everywhere the Affinity apps reside doesn't make it appear magically through a user interface. It doesn't make it magically compatible (and accurate) with different versions of Windows, macOS, and iPadOS (nee iOS).

A for-profit entity has a choice of spreading those development costs across all platforms (making each one more expensive to subsidize the others) or to allow (for some part) each platform to earn its own keep. Both approaches have pros and cons and when there's an uproar over having to deal with separate licenses at a cumulative cost that still is less than that of the competition, that uproar can arguably be likened to whining more than constructive market and user feedback.

If you don't want to support Serif's business model, make your voice heard to them then go spend a greater amount money on the competition, if that's what you need to do. Serif's value proposition is not misleading nor is it out of place in the market.

https://bmb.photos | Focus: The unexpected, the abstract, the extreme on screen, paper, & other physical outputTools: macOS (Primary: Ventura, MBP2018), Canon (Primary: 5D3), iPhone (Primary: 14PM), Nikon Film Scanners, Epson Printers

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25 minutes ago, Brad Brighton said:

<eyeroll> If we're going to down the silly analogy road, Serif's position is more like "You bought this to read on Kindle, if you want to read it on Apple Books you need to buy it again," than it is about the different Kindle devices.

I can appreciate that some people may get surprised by the "license per platform model" and may even hate (intentionally strong word chosen) such a model but even in a perfect development world, it takes different resources to create and maintain a substantial part of the application on each platform. All the math in the world that may be in common code everywhere the Affinity apps reside doesn't make it appear magically through a user interface. It doesn't make it magically compatible (and accurate) with different versions of Windows, macOS, and iPadOS (nee iOS).

A for-profit entity has a choice of spreading those development costs across all platforms (making each one more expensive to subsidize the others) or to allow (for some part) each platform to earn its own keep. Both approaches have pros and cons and when there's an uproar over having to deal with separate licenses at a cumulative cost that still is less than that of the competition, that uproar can arguably be likened to whining more than constructive market and user feedback.

If you don't want to support Serif's business model, make your voice heard to them then go spend a greater amount money on the competition, if that's what you need to. Serif's value proposition is not misleading nor is it out of place in the market.

A good balanced reply Brad methinks. Like others on here I am also a software engineer (mostly embedded for 30 years but lately snuck into C# XAML UI .. old dogs and new tricks hey) and yes you are right just because a code base as a common design for different operating system the implementation for different OS and the corresponding UI doesn't happen by magic and there then is maintaining said different platforms not to mention the heaps of testing in development etc. I have both Affinity Photo and Designer for Mac but I would be happy to purchase a licence for an iPad if I had one ... saving pennies ... I rather fancy using an Apple pencil too, I think given the price of the hardware Affinity licences are good value. 

Please don't mistake my opinion for expert comment :) for no way no how am I an expert on anything. However I am curious and willing to learn. 

 

Affinity Photo (latest I promise)

Affinity Photo Beta (I have a lot of time on my hands)

Affinity Designer (Also the latest; promise)

Affinity Designer Beta (Because I like new things)

I need to get out more - Yes :)

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20 minutes ago, Reggie1958 said:

 Like others on here I am also a software engineer (mostly embedded for 30 years but lately snuck into C# XAML UI .. old dogs and new tricks hey) 

Embedded is different, you're generally much closer to the metal.

You say you're getting into C#.  The same C# source code can, so long as you're not using any custom, platform specific libraries (e.g. you're expecting to run under Sharepoint and so call Sharepoint services),  be compiled for Windows, Linux and (if memory serves) Mac.  You don't need rewrite the code for each platform, which some here have been claiming, just use the appropriate compiler.  On Windows you're code will probably use .Net and on Linux and Mac it will be Mono, but you don't need to care, all that is handled for you and the code will run the same on each platform and (window manager on Linux allowing) look pretty much the same except for minor details like on Windows the Minimise/Maximise/Close buttons are on the top right of each window and on Mac they are top left (Linux it depends on your window manager).

This is the only application I've thus far found where you need to buy a separate licence to run on Windows and Mac.  Some of the enterprise vertical apps we support at work have different license models for different platforms but that's due to being licensed per core and not all cores are created equal.  Even those will generally let you port from one platform for another and only pay the difference.

Affinity Photo, Designer and Publisher on Windows 10 and Mac

Affinity Photo and Designer on iPad.

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26 minutes ago, StephenBooth_uk said:

The same C# source code can, so long as you're not using any custom, platform specific libraries (e.g. you're expecting to run under Sharepoint and so call Sharepoint services),  be compiled for Windows, Linux and (if memory serves) Mac.

The front-end code for the Affinity apps is C# on Windows but Objective C on Mac.

 

Alfred spacer.png
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen)

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11 hours ago, StephenBooth_uk said:

Embedded is different, you're generally much closer to the metal.

You say you're getting into C#.  The same C# source code can, so long as you're not using any custom, platform specific libraries (e.g. you're expecting to run under Sharepoint and so call Sharepoint services),  be compiled for Windows, Linux and (if memory serves) Mac.  You don't need rewrite the code for each platform, which some here have been claiming, just use the appropriate compiler.  On Windows you're code will probably use .Net and on Linux and Mac it will be Mono, but you don't need to care, all that is handled for you and the code will run the same on each platform and (window manager on Linux allowing) look pretty much the same except for minor details like on Windows the Minimise/Maximise/Close buttons are on the top right of each window and on Mac they are top left (Linux it depends on your window manager).

This is the only application I've thus far found where you need to buy a separate licence to run on Windows and Mac.  Some of the enterprise vertical apps we support at work have different license models for different platforms but that's due to being licensed per core and not all cores are created equal.  Even those will generally let you port from one platform for another and only pay the difference.

Hi Stephen,

Very true Stephen, I grant you the embedded world of software development is very different; the metal is very close at hand and true in my day job I am nearly as busy with the concerns of the hardware as much as software design, implementation and testing. I have no wish to argue one business model is better than another on the strength of my personal knowledge and experience or in fact if there is a best, correct or better way of doing business at all. The commercial choices of a business are the just that, their choice.  From a customers' perspective we too have choice, well at least realistically the choices that are presented to us including the walking away choice.

It is a very good point that many subscription services, just for an example Microsoft Office 365, allow the use of their software on different platforms for the same licence. However the Adobe's and Microsoft's of this world do have a massive advantage and that is sheer size of financial power and number of employees.

I suppose it comes down to what customers want in the end, this customer is personally happy with the Affinity software licensing scheme, however I do concede licensing is a tricky balance in the world of software.

I just see that the hardware platform, especially for high work load specifications for example working with lots of large RAW files and even larger Tiff files, can be very expensive and the relative cost of Affinity software is small in comparison. If Affinity software was in the multiple hundreds of pounds/dollars I might possibly feel entitled to a more open licensing regime.

Regards

Reggie

Please don't mistake my opinion for expert comment :) for no way no how am I an expert on anything. However I am curious and willing to learn. 

 

Affinity Photo (latest I promise)

Affinity Photo Beta (I have a lot of time on my hands)

Affinity Designer (Also the latest; promise)

Affinity Designer Beta (Because I like new things)

I need to get out more - Yes :)

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11 hours ago, Alfred said:

The front-end code for the Affinity apps is C# on Windows but Objective C on Mac.

 

Thanks Alfred for the information, Interesting and not entirely a surprise. Well lets stop this chatter and get on with some Photography :-D 

tree_sunset_light.jpg

Please don't mistake my opinion for expert comment :) for no way no how am I an expert on anything. However I am curious and willing to learn. 

 

Affinity Photo (latest I promise)

Affinity Photo Beta (I have a lot of time on my hands)

Affinity Designer (Also the latest; promise)

Affinity Designer Beta (Because I like new things)

I need to get out more - Yes :)

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  • 3 months later...

Uhm... one would expect that one license covers usage by one user. What Affinity is saying now is that you need 1 license for each computer. Per seat vs per user licensing. For a product like Affinity per user would be preferred, since it's a product for a select group of users ('artists'), not a generic use product like Office. But Affinity's license terms are a mixed bag now and do specify Windows or Mac specifically which does not make much sense for a product that works exactly the same on all platforms. https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/licence/

In the past the excuse was 'appstore', but now they sell it directly themselves. Incorporating some kind of account system would solve this and could even include iPad releases. Just ask a bit more for all platforms for version X. That would make everyone happy. Personally I would drop single platform licenses in this case and go multi all the way. Now it's very inconvenient for users with macbooks and Windows desktop pc's (and that's ignoring the iPad stuff).

Edited by Dadado
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10 hours ago, Dadado said:

one would expect that one license covers usage by one user. What Affinity is saying now is that you need 1 license for each computer.

One license can cover more than one user (all members in a family, for one example). And you don't need one license per computer. If you have 10 Mac devices your one license will cover all of them. Same if you have 10 Windows devices.

And as far as I know Serif is not saying anything differently now about the Affinity licensing than they ever have, except that I think there used to be a limit of 5 computers, which was removed.

10 hours ago, Dadado said:

In the past the excuse was 'appstore', but now they sell it directly themselves. Incorporating some kind of account system would solve this and could even include iPad releases.

The App Stores are still at least part of the rationale. As there is no transfer of license information between Apple, Microsoft, and Serif, a proposal like yours would be unfair to users who want to use the App Stores, since they would not be able to participate. It would have to apply to purchases solely via the Affinity Store. And it could not cover iPad, whose version is sold exclusively through that App Store.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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  • Staff

It is clear from many threads like this that some users would like a "per person/cross platform" licensing option. At present, outside of our corporate perpetual desktop licensing options, Serif do not offer that, sorry. Perhaps we could one day make a perpetual license on all platforms an option for anyone (if they want it), but it requires a lot of thought as getting iPad software is currently only an iPad store option, so it's technically much easier to do this desktop only. Anyway, theory aside, for the time being the answer is as stated, no, that is not how it is sold, sorry.

Patrick Connor
Serif Europe Ltd

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility lies in being superior to your previous self."  W. L. Sheldon

 

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