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Canva has acquired Affinity in an effort to compete with Adobe

• s4mw1se 3y ago
  now they just need to train generative AI models by opting in all of their users to allow training in on their data and forcing them to opt-out if they want otherwise. To compete with adobe that is.
• nocoiner 3y ago
  I know nothing about Canva. As someone who has been a big fan of Affinity, their products and their pricing model, do I start freaking out now or can I just wait until the acquisition closes?
  • t-writescode 3y ago
    Yeah, as someone that's been very happy with the Affinity Suite and am scared of any major changes to them, this is pretty scary to me, as well. Reminds me of when Jasc was bought by Corel waaaay back in the day. Canva, if you're on HN, seeing how we're going to respond, please don't take away the stand-alone, non-subscription-based, affordable system that Affinity's products are. I love their products. I don't want to have to find alternatives.
    • freedomben 3y ago
      Hate to say it, but a subscription model is coming. Canva is making money hands over fist by doing that, and I can't imagine they are going to part from what has been so lucrative
      • vetinari 3y ago
        With perpetual license, they were getting some money from me for each major release. With subscription, they are going to get exactly 0.
      • pier25 3y ago
        The only reason people get Affinity is because of the non subscription model. Adobe software is just better.
        • buzzerbetrayed 3y ago
          100% this. There is absolutely 0 reason to use Affinity of Adobe besides pricing model. They can play around with the numbers and try to have a cheaper subscription than Adobe, or maybe bundle it with the other software Canva offers, but ultimately I think switching to a subscription model will be the end of the Affinity software suite.
          • omnimus 3y ago
            Have you tried Affinity? The software itself is a lot better than Adobe in many fundamentals. It’s faster, crashes less, supports a lot more file formats, connection between the individual programs is perfect, they add new quite innovative features at constant pace. Adobe is pretty much legacy software that gets close to zero development, its ridden with bugs that will be never fixed. The reason why everyone hates them is that last non subscription version Adobe CS6 from more than 10 years ago is pretty much the same thing what you get now even though users have been screaming for features and bugfixes. Adobe can have their cake and eat it too.
            • adithyassekhar 3y ago
              The only reason I don't use CS6 is because it doesn't work properly with hidpi displays. It doesn't scale well above 100%.
            • vetinari 3y ago
              Affinity (Photo) still doesn't support tablets properly. You can play around with parameters affected by pressure and tilt, but here Adobe (and Krita) are ahead.
            • pier25 3y ago
              > The software itself is a lot better than Adobe in many fundamentals. It’s faster, crashes less, supports a lot more file formats, connection between the individual programs is perfect, they add new quite innovative features at constant pace. I disagree with all your points. I've been using Adobe for 20 years and Affinity Design and Photo since they released in 2013 or so. Adobe apps are faster on Apple Silicon than Affinity. I haven't experienced a crash in years with Adobe and I have experienced crashes with Affinity quite recently. Adobe has complete integration between programs. Eg: You can use AE timelines into Premiere, import Photoshop files into AE, edit vector objects from Photoshop in Illustrator, etc. Affinity innovation pace is just glacial. V2 introduced some new features but it Serif what... like 10 years? And personally I didn't see any value in the new features. Design is still missing a lot from Illustrator.
    • deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    • timeon 3y ago
      Not only subscription, but what I find problematic about Adobe is bloatware.
      • robotshmobot 3y ago
        Exactly. Creative Cloud launcher digs its greedy fingers deep in your system, running hundreds of processes and constantly phoning home. It’s the model I point to when people say they want alternate app stores. I would much rather download apps individually from the App Store, or at worst a dmg.
        • flenserboy 3y ago
          It would be fantastic for an OS to mandate a particular type of installation (oh how I miss dragging app packages from a .dmg into my Application directory & being done with it) while preventing anything else.
          • jwells89 3y ago
            A lot of desktop software devs are averse to anything but old style full access to everything all the time, but yes I agree. Most software has no good reason to put files anywhere outside of its own application bundle and ~/Library/Application Support/<Program Name>/.
  • facialwipe 3y ago
    I enjoy Serif products but have always wondered how it would survive. Pixelmator stayed a family-run bootstrapped operation while Serif scaled a company in the EU around the Affinity Suite.
• gedy 3y ago
  I don't know, products rarely get better with these acquisitions. I like my native app Affinity Designer, with a reasonable one time license very much as is.
• nikolay 3y ago
  A mistake, if you ask me. They can't compete with Adobe.
  • phinnaeus 3y ago
    Affinity can, though. I haven't touched Photoshop/Illustrator in years since I discovered Affinity.
    • nikolay 3y ago
      Adobe is not just Photoshop and Illustrator; Affinity is still subpar, and Adobe products are moving fast ahead.
      • phinnaeus 3y ago
        Photoshop and Illustrator are surely a vast majority of Adobe product usage. What would be #3? Premiere? Lightroom? Actually I take it back, Acrobat is probably #1
        • omnimus 3y ago
          Indesign is the main graphic software after Photoshop. Basically anything that gets printed uses Indesign. Photoshop is more well known because people love photography as a hobby but in professional print setting photos are just smaller component.
          • phinnaeus 3y ago
            Affinity has an InDesign competitor, so this would seem to be a point in favor of the argument for Affinity being able to compete with Adobe if InDesign is in the top 3 Adobe products.
            • omnimus 3y ago
              I think they are serious competitor and probably that's why they were able to have payday and sell the product.
• MrTrvp 3y ago
  Canva is subscription based.
• microflash 3y ago
  The link should probably be changed to official announcement.[1] That said, this is pretty dismaying. I've been using Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo for years. Their standalone and non-subscription based apps are perfect for my usecase. Compared to Adobe, they are a no-brainer. But, I don't think Canva would leave them be as is. Either next versions will be a subscription or a rug pull is coming for the existing version. [1]: https://www.canva.com/newsroom/news/affinity/ https://www.canva.com/newsroom/news/affinity/
  • achow 3y ago
    Also, this maybe distracting for either parties - Affinity team (if they are pressured to go beyond professional designers or change to subscription, go to cloud, web etc.) - Canva. Professional/enterprise is a very different ball game than the consumer market that they were focussing on. Ex. their mobile app for consumer itself is kind of broken, whereas mobile first experience is very important for the demography that they are targeting.
    • lstamour 3y ago
      Canva slowly built out enterprise features, but it’s not fully there yet. They seem to be aiming for what Sketch was aiming for before Figma overtook it - the ability for teams to publish and use design systems and templates in Canva. Which is a cool niche to start with, but isn’t flexible enough. Plus Canva doesn’t really have the concept of “local files” so they’re stuck until they evolve to include every feature of Google Drive, at minimum, including local file sync. Canva ignoring traditional apps is like Chrome pretending the OS doesn’t exist and then building ChromeOS. Some concepts are necessary complexity, particularly for power users. Canva is a bit too simple still, and thus frustrating.
  • gardaani 3y ago
    Here's Serif/Affinity announcements: https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/press/newsroom/canva-press-release/ https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/press/newsroom/canva-press-... https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/press/newsroom/canva-statement/ https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/press/newsroom/canva-statem... And here's few Affinity forum threads about the topic: - https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/201405-questions-on-canva-acquiring-affinity/ https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/201405-que... - https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/201403-canva/ https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/201403-can...
• phinnaeus 3y ago
  Maybe I'm naive but I'm not so sure Affinity will automatically end up as a subscription-based app like Canva Pro and Creative Cloud. Subscription makes sense for Canva Pro where a lot of the value add is in additional elements and templates and there's not a versioned app you can buy with a certain set of features. For a tool where you release discrete versions with new features it's a lot easier to just sell it as one-off purchases. Even if Canva was out to milk Affinity for every dollar, the size of the market for the professional-level tools is a tiny drop in the bucket compared to the market for Canva-level tools. I can't imagine it would move the needle. But what do I know...
• KingOfCoders 3y ago
  Oh no!
• graypegg 3y ago
  Well, I’m glad I have my standalone license. I guess I’ll be on Designer V2 for the next 10 years like I was with Illustrator CS3.
  • chilldsgn 3y ago
    Same. I upgraded last year and the software is fantastic and priced exceptionally well. I used to have an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription, but it got way too expensive and the frequency I used it didn't justify the price. Glad I found Affinity. I have Designer V2, Photo V2, and Publisher V2. I use all of them occasionally when I have time to work on my side projects. Subscriptions suck.
  • user432678 3y ago
    I wonder if it will work that long without need for patches/updates with the current pace of deprecations in macOS. Using Affinity Photo myself, wondering if I’d better off switching to Windows at this point.
    • themagician 3y ago
      We really need a version of Docker for desktop apps on macOS now. Would be nice to not have to worry about what's going to be broken after an update.
    • seec 3y ago
      To be honest, that’s only one of the many reason to leave the Apple ecosystem in the near future. I think that many would be better off switching to Windows (or Linux if they can) but they still believe or are attached to how things use to be. I use to really love macOS but it has become an annoyance on many front, removing plenty of what made it better all while making it more and more like iOS and generally more closed and inflexible system. Personally I have lost faith and I think that even if they would start reinvesting right now, it would take 10 years of pain with ever more expensive hardware.
  • jwells89 3y ago
    I’m increasingly tempted to buy a second hand license for one of the old single-purchase Creative Suites and just run that in a VM or with period-accurate hardware forever. For me practically all of the value in current graphic editors is compatibility with modern operating systems… CS1-CS3 are basically feature complete as far as I’m concerned.
• KingOfCoders 3y ago
  (Customer from the very beginning for Designer&Photo, made a book with Publisher) They will move to subscriptions (there will be many more of these moves, see VMWare), which will kill their differenitation towards Adobe and kill the product. If subscription, I can use Illustrator (which has 10x more tutorials than Designer). Most companies screw up M&A.
  • presentation 3y ago
    If the pricing model is the only thing that differentiates Affinity then that wouldn’t have been a very good sign for their future
    • cageface 3y ago
      As a happy Affinity customer and relatively casual user I prefer them because of their reasonable fixed prices and because and I don't have to run the abomination that is the Adobe Cloud client on my machine. If they switch to a subscription model I will definitely be looking for alternatives.
    • abhpro 3y ago
      It's clearly enough for many people. That's the only reason I use Affinity, although I do agree Adobe could change their pricing models overnight and they would be in trouble.
      • KingOfCoders 3y ago
        Me too.
• ulfw 3y ago
  Canva seems lost in terms of what they are or want to be. I suppose AI doesn't help businesses like Canva's.
• pier25 3y ago
  Hopefully this will allow the Serif team to improve their products. I bought their products from day one with the hope they would get better but after 10 years or so I'm still on Adobe.
  • Daub 3y ago
    What could they do better? I am interested.
    • lstamour 3y ago
      Let’s see… they’re so far behind they only recently added pathfinder tools to their illustrator app with v2… initially claimed it wasn’t necessary https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/68819-better-pathfinder-functions/ https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/68819-bett... but then gave in and basically shipped it https://affinity.help/designer2/en-US.lproj/index.html?page=pages/Tools/tools_shapeBuilder.html&title=Shape%20Builder%20Tool https://affinity.help/designer2/en-US.lproj/index.html?page=... It’s hard to sell an entire industry on replacing tools that “just work” with a new set of tools unless they actually work better. Consider what VS Code has had to do to try and get devs switch to it from other IDEs: they had to offer first-class support for pretty much every other IDE’s method of operating, e.g. plugins to take the keyboard shortcuts from other IDEs, plus offer better support for languages (e.g. LSPs, use of TextMate bundles), and on top of that offer new features not seen elsewhere (e.g. devcontainers, web-based IDEs, first-class GitHub integration…) and even then people will obviously still pick JetBrains products for Java or Python because you can’t actually copy every feature and win. Likewise it only took me 5-10 minutes with Publisher before I started noticing missing features with text (Adobe has an excellent text rendering engine, go figure) and Designer in v1 was so frustrating that I haven’t used v2 much, though my use cases were pretty specific. I’ve actually found myself putting up with the bugs in OmniGraffle (oh so many bugs) because the infinite canvas there works so well when zooming around. When it works, that is. Got a bit sidetracked in my answer, but Adobe has a lot going for it. Honestly this is probably great news for Figma, as they have an opportunity now to build better web-based photo and publishing apps before Canva can figure it out.
• appstorelottery 3y ago
  I painfully switched to Affinity because of the rising Adobe subscription prices, I'd been a photoshop/illustrator user from the Dot com boom... I recall paying around 780 every two years for creative suite and given the hell I'd gone through by choosing Flex for a ERP project (Adobe's promises of iOS compatibility never materialising, then breaking compatibility - requiring a close-to-rewrite in their next version of Flex)... to cut a long story short - gave me shall we say - a few resentments towards the company. I suppose it's time to consider Pixelmator now, I'm such a grey-beard... subscriptions suck. ;-)
  • raffraffraff 3y ago
    > Pixelmator Pro requires macOS 12 Monterey or later and is fully optimized for Macs with Apple silicon. Might save some non-Apple users some time.
  • ihateolives 3y ago
    Pixelmator is nice for tinkering, but in no way it compares to Adobe Ps/Ilustrator for professional use. Workflow you can learn but there are subtle bugs that just crop up here and there like freeform transform handles just disappearing on some backgrounds etc. Some of the design decisions are different enough so that I haven't still gotten used to them after two years because it just doesn't feel intuitive to me, e.g. every single time I mess up working with text tool for the first five minutes time until I recall how it works.
• zubspace 3y ago
  Step 1: Announce the acquisition. Everyone will talk about the company and the fear of subscriptions. Step 2: Tell everyone, that the current pricing model will stay and no subscriptions will be offered. Everyone will cheer and recommend the products. Step 3: Wait until the dust settles and switch to subscriptions. The community will say "told you that this will happen" and life goes on.
  • sotsoguk 3y ago
    Sad, but true
    • zubspace 3y ago
      Yes, and let me explain why. Subscriptions are significantly better for a company. They result in a steady income and a predictable growth curve. It's so much easier to plan the upcoming years if you can predict the income. While we all focus on the latest news, the leaders of those companies already planned their next 10 steps ahead, even taking into account our sentiment towards them. Remember that they aim to maximize profits at all times. It happened or happens in B2B, car sales, music, film, in games, and drawing apps... Everywhere you see, really. And it's so convenient if there is already a scapegoat like Adobe, which transitioned to subscriptions for the same reason. And yes, I hate it. Even though it's easier to swallow 10 bucks a month, eventually you will spend more. They know it and we know it. All we can do as customers is to not support those companies, but this only goes so far. And what are we to do, if most offerings are subscription based?
      • archagon 3y ago
        What this means is that OSS offerings will eventually get good enough and eat their lunch, permanently.
        • fragmede 3y ago
          Yes exactly. See Firefox, Gimp, and Ubuntu's superiority over other offerings.
• dudus 3y ago
  Never heard about Canva. But checking them out they seem to focus on mobile apps and web apps to edit photos and videos. With a very specific focus on social media influencers. Don't be fooled by the cheeky templates and filters,they are going heavy on AI, with some interesting features such as inpainting and video background removal. I guess that's either a very lucrative business or they have a ton of VC money behind them. This acquisition gives them some good editors on desktop to use as a base to deploy some of this AI tech focusing on a more pro market.
  • enra 3y ago
    It is fairly lucrative business, $2b last year from serving the lower end of creative tools market. They are also about to ipo so this acquisition probably gives the an additinal growth story to sell.
    • Scrounger 3y ago
      > It is fairly lucrative business, $2b last year from serving the lower end of creative tools market. Started by some 30 yo Australian chick with no tech background too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ep21f3ncvBk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ep21f3ncvBk
      • goralph 3y ago
        Your point?
      • TheAmazingRace 3y ago
        This is a rather backhanded take. From what I understand of Melanie, she is one of the few folks I've read about that had a rather unique rags to riches story, and is quite driven. I don't begrudge her level of success. To that end, despite her interesting story around her role in the business, Canva itself really appeals to the lowest common denominator, which probably explains why they have such gangbuster financials. It really isn't great for true creatives though, and I feel Canva is dragging the industry down, not pulling it up, in the name of profits.
  • 3y ago
• Daub 3y ago
  This is bad news. The Affinity offers a genuine and very high class alternative to the Adobe suite. Its HDRI workflow is league ahead of anything else. As for Canva, all I can say is that I downgrade any student who makes their research slides using this dumb service. The slides are template-driven horror with each exported pdf slide being rasterized pngs: stupidly large files with text that is impossible to select and copy.
  • blowski 3y ago
    > I downgrade any student who makes their research slides using this dumb service I really hope you’re exaggerating
    • edu 3y ago
      From another comment, he teaches design. As a designer, I find it’s legit to downgrade a design student for using Canva.
      • shufflerofrocks 3y ago
        That's important context then. Using Canva for a design assignment is obviously a mis-step by the student, not a flaw of the tool itself For short-term & quick usage, canva is a perfectly fine tool for editing/formatting stuff
      • blowski 3y ago
        On what basis? Is Canva somehow cheating? I don't know, as I'm not a designer in any way.
        • GlacierFox 3y ago
          Yes.
          • chrisoconnell 3y ago
            Explain why it's cheating? I'm a designer. I have been for over a decade. I don't use Canva, but I use Sketch, Figma, etc., and create templates or utilize templates made by others as starting places. How is Canva any different than this? Part of design is being able to recognize what good design is, and utilizing the tools available to you. If Canva get the job done, and looks good, and has been sufficiently modified to meet the specified criteria supplied in the assignment or spec, how is it cheating? The only way I could see is if they didn't modify the slides and part of the assignment was to create a unique branded slide presentation and they just used an out of the box design. In which case, no design work was done. Someone shouldn't be penalized for the outcome based on the tools utilized unless the spec specifically excludes it. It's like telling a clothing e-commerce company that they shouldn't use Shopify. If the work is done, why waste your time building an e-commerce site from scratch if it meets the specified need? Canva is a great tool, and saves my clients thousands of dollars, while I get to avoid doing the completely mind numbing process of working in PowerPoint or designing social media posts. It's a win/win.
• MichaelMug 3y ago
  Canva's approach has been to create a convoluted, frankenstein's monster, browser-first, mixed media editor that is largely inadequate for professional workflows. Also everything is locked away in their cloud from files to assets. I hate everything about Canva's UX and performance. I suspect Canva will attempt to integrate Affinity into their cloud offering without fully comprehending the specific use cases and features that made Affinity successful in the first place. Canva's target is the novice and social media influencer, Affinity is a different market. Sad day...
• whitehexagon 3y ago
  I wonder in these type of takeovers, when it seems clear that nothing good can come next for the product users, if it would be somehow possible for a cooperative style takeover by the customer base.
• jwr 3y ago
  It's bad news and not because of the "fear of subscription" (if you think you aren't paying for a subscription now, you are deluding yourself). The problem is that most acquisitions go wrong and that larger companies generally care much less about their users. There are no good scenarios and no possible benefits there for Affinity users (like me). In a small company, management cares about users, because these users provide a direct lifeline for the company. In a large business, management cares about "shareholder value" as measured by their bonuses and this quarter's earnings. That does not map well onto customer satisfaction (see Adobe, Dropbox, or really just about any company that became large or got acquired).
• getcrunk 3y ago
  What a shame. So far akamais purchase of linode haven’t bourne ill fruit. Time will tell
• xz18r 3y ago
  If they move Affinity to subscription, CorelDRAW is probably the only viable (commercial) graphic product left with a perpetual license. Apart from FOSS, of course.
  • tap-snap-or-nap 3y ago
    The thing I learnt about FOSS which gives me a long term advantage is that I have to learn to do things only once.
  • pseingatl 3y ago
    No, there's Viva Designer, a German desktop publishing program.
• klelatti 3y ago
  Based on last published accounts (2022) Serif is very profitable and growing strongly: revenue £31.2m (up from £23.4m) and operating profits £17.9m (up from £14.4m). So it doesn't seem like they needed to sell. Of course it is still small in the scheme of things - Canva seems to have revenue of c$2bn - and seems to be owned by three individuals in their 50s so one can probably understand why they wanted to to sell.
  • upsuper 3y ago
    Mel and Cliff are not even 40. See the Australian young rich list, they are the first one and two: https://www.afr.com/young-rich/the-10-richest-young-australians-revealed-20231025-p5eeup?gift=lvqztKlTFuJ3iNkxn-FkuHHjx9hkNZu28eD-is4-giwrzvIIGGfk1uyTZ1o2UrljOB_-A8qjGq_YD3Ij4AFM6LEYW5UvrZ0fUmwG_eEeG3y4YWe46WNO-MlHHwZqXp6s https://www.afr.com/young-rich/the-10-richest-young-australi...
    • klelatti 3y ago
      Serif’s owners not Canva’s.
  • YetAnotherNick 3y ago
    What's the net profit?
  • filmgirlcw 3y ago
    >So it doesn't seem like they needed to sell. They probably didn’t need to sell (but who knows) but an offer of a buyout at a 20x multiple (based on the Bloomberg report) when the core business faces competition from Adobe and Canva, not just for core features where depending on context, Serif can do quite well, but also in the burgeoning AI-assisted space, where Serif has zero ability to compete (and AI is a big part of Canva and Adobe’s plans, whether certain vocal users like it or not), is compelling. As a longtime user, this move makes me sad because I know I’ll lose some good tools to an inevitable subscription push (I also have Adobe CC and Canva subscriptions that I use for very different tasks so I’m not completely opposed to paying for a sub, but I certainly won’t pay Adobe prices for Affinity), but I can’t fault the company from wanting to exit, especially when the climate is what it is for the tools they sell. Let’s put it this way, I can’t imagine them doing better than this.
• redwasp 3y ago
  Ugh. I've seen what happens with Canva's acquisitions once already, albeit at a much smaller scale: I used to use a free service for PowerPoint templates called SlidesCarnival[1]. Decent templates, very customizable, and generally significantly better than the PowerPoint defaults. They also got bought out by Canva, and I've watched the quality drop massively- any new content is almost entirely unusable, often only available on Canva itself, and chock full of design tropes and poorly SEO-optimized content. (Some of them are so bad as to be unintentionally hilarious.) It's a real mess, and it makes me less than optimistic about them buying out Affinity. To be fair, their model was wildly different from a fully-featured editing suite, and certainly welcomed this kind of change, but they absolutely gutted that site: the only positive is that the original templates are still there, if you search for them. I'm not holding my breath, but I expect the same treatment now. An absolute shame- I don't use a photo editor enough to warrant an Adobe subscription, so I'll probably stay on Affinity V2 until it stops working. [1]: https://www.slidescarnival.com/ https://www.slidescarnival.com/
• sarreph 3y ago
  There was something so special and powerful about Affinity Designer V1. It was just a supreme amount of value and such a robust application that it became the tool I learned to do graphic design on, and the tool I loved. I feel like something slipped with Designer V2 - the features went a bit weird and broad, and the amount of bugs got irritating and eroded my love for it and it being my go-to recommendation. That all said, it’s still good software today and I’m glad the Serif team gets some kind of payday. I think the drop in quality of V2 makes the whole thing a bit less bittersweet for me.
  • WillAdams 3y ago
    The sad thing is that much of what was really nice in AD came from copying Aldus/Altsys/Macromedia Freehand. I wish Adobe had at least put all of Freehand's capabilities into InDesign --- I might still be using it if that were the case.
• PetitPrince 3y ago
  It's a sad state of affair when the first thing people think (myself included, and rightfully so) is "how will the product worsen" (in this case, with subscription) instead of the opposite. I'm also preparing for a mysterious update that will make the V1 and V1 of the suite non-functional because of non-visible stuff like "security improvement" and "system stability". I hope that I'm wrong.
• joduplessis 3y ago
  As per the article, do people really see Canva as a competitor to Adobe? I must be missing something.
  • reportgunner 3y ago
    Affinity is the competitor I think.
• TheCapeGreek 3y ago
  I've never seen much hate for Canva until this thread. HN will really hate on any kind of acquisition, regardless of if the acquirer is a "big bad" like Adobe or not.
  • bluescrn 3y ago
    It’s not about hate for Canva. It’s about love for Affinity. Who are now being gobbled up by a bigger fish, with the inevitable consequence being enshittification.
  • punkbit 3y ago
    Most comments seem to be from Affinity customers. I've been a customer for many years. They have incredible software, and it's extremely sad because past acquisitions seem to destroy the applications people like and support, not the other way around. Canva looks like McDonalds.
  • omgmajk 3y ago
    It's not really hard to see why though. Software which only real saving grace is a better license model than the bigger fish gets bought by another bigger fish to ultimately, most likely, get put in the same license model.
• hresvelgr 3y ago
  In light of this, I can't help but feel the OSS alternatives to the Adobe graphics suite are pretty abysmal. Inkscape is passable but aspects like filters are obtuse to use and that's largely because it's trying to be a good compliant SVG editor and not necessarily a good vector graphics editor. GIMP's user experience in my opinion has been terrible for decades and every time I have given it a chance it's annoyed me into closing it. I can get things done, but it gets in my way. As for Scribus I've never used it, but based on the previous two I'm not instilled with confidence.
  • jarek-foksa 3y ago
    > Inkscape is passable but aspects like filters are obtuse to use and that's largely because it's trying to be a good compliant SVG editor and not necessarily a good vector graphics editor. It is actually possible to build an intuitive UI for filters while staying compliant with SVG. You just have to abstract away the low level SVG primitives ("feColorMatrix", "feComponentTransfer", etc.) with user-friendly presets such as "Sepia" or "Drop shadow". I actually created a mockup for such UI in Inkscape long time ago [1] and I eventually implemented it in Boxy SVG [2]. Advanced filter editing could be improved by switching from tree-based to node-based UI, in similar fashion to e.g. Jasc WebDraw [3]. [1] https://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/SpecSimpleFiltersUi https://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/SpecSimpleFiltersUi [2] https://boxy-svg.com/blog/19 https://boxy-svg.com/blog/19 [3] https://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/webdraw02.png https://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/webdraw02.png
  • jwells89 3y ago
    Personally speaking I’ve always found Inkscape frustrating compared to Sketch or Affinity Designer, but it’s in a different way than GIMP is. GIMP I think would mostly be fine if they just ditched all the quirky GIMP-unique UI conventions in favor of more commonplace counterparts (which in some cases is as “easy” as using standard GTK widgets instead of custom stuff) but who knows when or if that’ll happen.
• maxmcorp 3y ago
  With the advent of generative AI the painting has been on the wall for some time. Using it in Photoshop is simply so good that it is a necessity by now. Affinity are not a large enough company to train an AI, and any AI will not be able to run locally for a long time. So it must take place in the cloud and therefore require a subscription.
• GrumpySloth 3y ago
  This is very sad. I’ve been an Affinity customer since V1. What I expect to happen now is in some future a move to a subscription-based model and more focus on nonsense AI features and some useless cloud integration. Also: since when a company capable of routinely acquiring other established companies for tens of billions of dollars a startup?
  • achow 3y ago
    > since when a company capable of routinely acquiring other established companies for tens of billions of dollars a startup The acquisition was for “several hundred million pounds”, nowhere near tens of billions of dollars.
    • deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    • GrumpySloth 3y ago
      My bad. I got some numbers in the article mixed up.
• infl8ed 3y ago
  This caused me to bite the bullet and buy the v2 universal licence, currently 30% off. If you've ever bought anything v1 including a single app you probably qualify for the upgrade offer which is an extra 25% off on top of the sale https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/store/upgrade-offer/ https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/store/upgrade-offer/ I'm not necessarily against their inevitable subscription model, but may as well get the standalone while the getting is good. There are also often some good grandfather plan rates, if I decide later to go that path.
  • microflash 3y ago
    The problem with V2 license is that it cannot be activated offline so Canva can take a courageous decision to stop activations any time in future. V1 is great because it can be activated offline.
    • infl8ed 3y ago
      Interesting! I didn't realise this, however on balance I think I'm still happy with my purchase. Also looking into it, business licences (minimum of 2 pack purchase) can still be activated offline, just in case that is useful to anyone https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/188396-offline-activation/ https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/188396-off...
    • RicoElectrico 3y ago
      Great to know, I pondered buying V2 as a V1 owner, but now they can kiss my butt. The only downside is that Affinity V2 has no option to save files in a V1-compatible manner. Which stinks for exchanging stuff with other Affinity users.
      • bananapub 3y ago
        > I pondered buying V2 as a V1 owner, but now they can kiss my butt. you're...declining to support a company you like that makes software you like, that is offering a massive discount to you, because at some point in the future they may not allow more activations of version 2, which would not affect your ability to use version 1 in any way? this is a rather idiosyncratic position to take. > The only downside is that Affinity V2 has no option to save files in a V1-compatible manner. Which stinks for exchanging stuff with other Affinity users. as an affinity user, I am glad they didn't do that and instead did almost literally anything else with that engineering time.
• mythz 3y ago
  I'm a happy Affinity Customer thanks to their low cost perpetual licenses and quality software, hoping that none of that changes - don't use it nearly enough to justify maintaining a subscription.
• kkirsche 3y ago
  I love their software and am happy for the humans behind it all. As a customer who doesn’t believe they won’t force a subscription on me, I wish I had never supported them
• rcarmo 3y ago
  Oh boy. I willingly gave my money to Affinity because I don’t want a subscription model, I don’t want my creative apps to rely on the cloud _at all_ to work _and_ I want native Mac apps. I am not reassured by their FAQ at all. I suspect a year from now Canva will break at least one (if not all three) of these features and force me to leave Affinity by version 3. It would be extremely ironic if Gimp was the only graphics app left standing I could use without all of the above nonsense (well, I am happy to keep supporting Pixelmator, but… you get the idea).
  • rpastuszak 3y ago
    > It would be extremely ironic if Gimp was the only graphics app left standing I could use without all of the above nonsense I know successful agencies relying on OSS tools only (such as Gimp and Penpot) so I wouldn't mind that. I hope Gimp will have its Blender moment (I've been using Blender for years, but always kept coming back to Maya, this changed with the new UI)
    • kfarr 3y ago
      Agreed, GIMP is powerful and just one UI refresh away from being a true alternative for many.
  • WillAdams 3y ago
    In addition to Gimp there are: - Paint.net - Pixen - Inkscape --- straight-forward vector editing - Seashore --- this is Mac OS UI overlay for GIMP - Krita --- vector editing with painting features - Scribus --- page layout - TeX/LaTeX --- batch/markup driven page layout which can do anything one can put together a TeX macro to achieve (I use it a lot and have written articles for TUGboat on it: https://tug.org/TUGboat/Articles/tb24-2/tb77adams.pdf https://tug.org/TUGboat/Articles/tb24-2/tb77adams.pdf - Blender -- 3D modeling - GraviT --- another vector editor, this is likely the one most like to Affinity Designer (since they were both modeled on Freehand) - FontForge
    • nacs 3y ago
      I wish more people knew-of/promoted Krita - it's far more user friendly than GIMP and just as powerful if not more. Fantastic for photo editing, digital art/paint and vector tools. https://krita.org/en/features/ https://krita.org/en/features/
• punkbit 3y ago
  Sad news! I've been an Affinity customer for many years; I like it much better than Adobe. Canvas branding is underwhelming, and there is no doubt in my mind that Affinity will change to be at the level of what Canvas represents: a web app.
• ReleaseCandidat 3y ago
  Official statement from Affinity (Serif): https://affinity.serif.com/de/press/newsroom/canva-statement/ https://affinity.serif.com/de/press/newsroom/canva-statement... Canva’s business model is subscription, are there any plans to change how Affinity is sold? There are no changes to our current pricing model planned at this time, with all our apps still available as a one-off purchase. Existing Affinity users will be able to continue to use your apps in perpetuity as they were originally purchased – with plenty of free updates to V2 still to look forward to! Am I the only only reading "no changes ... at this time" with a ", but there are going to be ..."
  • rjzzleep 3y ago
    You’re definitely not the only one. It’s going to be a matter of time before subscriptions come.
  • steve1977 3y ago
    "with plenty of free updates to V2" But let's not talk about V3...
  • matwood 3y ago
    > at this time Anything a business says about current business should have 'at this time' appended. They are simply being honest.
    • coldtea 3y ago
      This is a different context. Whenever an acquired business says "at this time", it means "forget everything you think you knew about us, so long suckers!".
  • coldtea 3y ago
    >Existing Affinity users will be able to continue to use your apps in perpetuity as they were originally purchased Until of course Apple changes some API, or Windows users want to jump to ARM or something, and then they're up shit creek.
• lloydatkinson 3y ago
  Ah great. More fucking enshittification. What a disaster.
• returnInfinity 3y ago
  Canva wants to be the next Adobe Acquire figma next.
• pentagrama 3y ago
  I love Affinity Designer as a tool and his pay once license, I'm pretty sure that if you already purchased current version (V2), you will be fine, but I'm afraid they will go the subscription route soon like Adobe and Canva. Is suspicious that Affinity marketing was always highlighting the pay once license model and against subscription, and in the official announcement there is no mention of that. A lesson is that with the good ol Inkscape that type of thing that endangered the tool it doesn't happen.
  • beezlebroxxxxxx 3y ago
    It will probably go subscription, unfortunately. But the smart move would be to double the price (obviously not immediately, but eventually) while retaining the pay once model and really doubling down on the professional aspect of the Affinity products (even if, compared to Adobe, they're not super professional grade yet). The reason people bought Affinity stuff was the pay once deal. That's how you retain those customers while aggressively moving into a prosumer market for Canva. Now, though, Affinity is just another gravestone on the path of insane tech rent-seeking, buy-extract-kill, and financialization.
    • seec 3y ago
      I agree but if they want to double the price they really need to be a lot better. Last time I used it for a quick project (relatively simple yet complex restaurant menu layout) I really wished I had used Adobe stuff instead (paid for a month or bootleg version). On the surface Affinity stuff is nice but it is very lacking in some not even advanced use cases and rather finicky, errors/bugs prone. You end up spending a lot more time, building up a lot more frustration than you would with Adobe tools. Adobe is stupid expensive for someone who do not make money off it, but their software are quite good all things considered…
• steve1977 3y ago
  If Adobe would have a little bit of brain left, they would offer a cheaper subscription now. Essentially covering Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. Instead of only the reasonably priced PS/LR bundle versus the too expensive "all the products we ever had" bundle. They could basically wipe out Affinity. But yeah, won't happen I guess...
  • filmgirlcw 3y ago
    They don’t need to do that. First, Adobe doesn’t see Affinity as meaningful competition. Adobe sees Figma and Canva (and Blackmagic and Avid in the NLE space) as competition, but a company doing £30m a year in revenue is barely a blip on their radar (Adobe did nearly $20b in revenue in FY23). Second, for the lowend market that Affinity serves, Adobe Express (its Canva compete) and Photoshop Express ($35 a year) are going to be enough for most of the core users. And Canva has quickly taken on the role for the low cost design tool of choice for normies who want to collaborate. I don’t use it for anything fancy, but I am not going to lie and say it isn’t better/faster at making YouTube thumbnails than basically anything else. Canva is the competitor, not Affinity. And Canva is being smart by buying a tool/team with a lot of users that they have the opportunity to now integrate with Canva. Will that integration be any good? I don’t know. But the leading web tool now has a native app component. But make no mistake, Adobe has zero incentive to lower its prices for its core products at this time (the web products are a different story). The challenge it faces is when users at scale opt for similarly priced alternatives (Figma over XD, Canva over Adobe Express), not the middling number of users (and I count myself as one of them, but I’m just being honest) that pay for Affinity because it is a nice low cost tool. I cannot imagine anyone who has a real business need for Photoshop, Illustrator or InDesign and has to collaborate with others (and that part is key; if you’re a solo designer who never has to share files with others, that’s great but we’re not the target audience for Adobe anyway and we probably haven’t been since the early 1990s) choosing anything other than Adobe. The $720 a year or whatever it has gone up to is just the price of doing business. Where Adobe faces challenges is from the people who don’t need to use Illustrator, InDesign or Photoshop for their work but have very strong web-based competition for specific tools. The UX teams that are standardized on Figma, even if they got XD as part of Creative Cloud, who don’t use Photoshop or Illustrator or InDesign, would rather pay the $45 or $75 a month to Figma. And the marketing teams that need to make graphics for social media or newsletters or whatever, would often rather pay $120 per seat for Canva than for Adobe Express (tho my recent experiments with Express show that it is getting very close to Canva in terms of capabilities and is better in some instances, Canva is prob better for that target audience, however). That’s the competition, not the offline design tools.
• soapdog 3y ago
  Why every product I like ends up being bought... argh, we can't have nice things.
  • chadcmulligan 3y ago
    It's interesting, if a car company is bought then they keep churning out cars (usually), if a software company is bought it's often broken. Software dev is a fragile thing relying on a network of talented individuals which is very easily broken by accountants and bottom lines. In some ways it's more like movie companies with networks of creatives that can be damaged by a takeover - Disney/Marvel immediately comes to mind.
  • paxys 3y ago
    Because no one wants to pay for products they like.
    • hollander 3y ago
      We don't want to pay for software? Look at the Appstore! Good products for reasonable prices are worth the money. Affinity offers a good product for a reasonable price. Adobe offers a better product but the subscription model is hated by many. For me Affinity products are good enough. Let's hope the current versions keep on working on Apple Silicon and Windows 11/12/etc. The current 2 version is good enough for me and for the next ten years. If I really need AI tools for image editing, I'll take a one month subscription to some tool.
      • ghaff 3y ago
        I look at app stores and see a lot of "free to play" products. So many users have gotten so accustomed to not paying upfront for products (which historically could be substantial amounts) that the option is often no longer available.
        • microtonal 3y ago
          Affinity targets professional users who would purchase Adobe products otherwise. Professional users are more willing to pay for products. Affinity was doing pretty well in the Mac App Store (though they moved to free download + in-app purchase or purchase through their website).
• Kye 3y ago
  The fast race toward version 3 has been a cause for concern. It _just_ came out and it's already in the 2.4s.
• junon 3y ago
  Welp, as if Affinity didn't already have problems... Also, this. https://twitter.com/affinitybyserif/status/1570728566350020608 https://twitter.com/affinitybyserif/status/15707285663500206...
• drivingmenuts 3y ago
  I have this horrible feeling that they're going to convert the Affinity suite to be online-only products.
• thrillgore 3y ago
  Oh jesus christ, can we stop with the acquisitions?
  • deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
• pers0n 3y ago
  It’s a matter of time before Adobe buys them and kills everything
  • WillAdams 3y ago
    Fortunately, it looks as if Adobe has gotten so big that they won't be allowed to buy much more --- witness the recent Figma deal which was shut down.
• jwells89 3y ago
  Disappointing, because this likely spells the end of one-time-purchase Affinity products, and as mentioned in the article up until now that has been a big selling point for them. I hope I’m wrong, but if I’m not it doesn’t fare well for Affinity’s future growth and popularity. People are likely to go back to Adobe because there’s no point giving up the compatibility, instructional material, etc that comes with Adobe stuff if they’re stuck with subscriptions either way.
  • agotterer 3y ago
    I hope you’re wrong as well! As a casual creative with the occasional need for photo editing and vector design tools, I could never justify the price for an Adobe subscription. But I’ve happily bought Affinity Photo and Design. They aren’t as polished as their Adobe counterparts, but the price was just right. I wouldn’t sign up for a monthly subscription.
  • justaman 3y ago
    I just heard about this software today. Seeing that it was a one time purchase, I almost got out my wallet right then and there. Making it a subscription model would immediately turn me off.
  • DavidGetchel 3y ago
    I agree. I've been using their programs since they came out and the one-time-purchase helped me get away from adobes clutches. Another good thing likely bites the dust.
• jsjohnst 3y ago
  Looking at Canva’s pricing page makes me glad I have a perpetual license to Affinity’s products. Now the question is, will I ever get any updates to Photo/Design/Publisher? I don’t need new features, but I do care about bug fixes and such.
  • upsuper 3y ago
    > Now the question is, will I ever get any updates to Photo/Design/Publisher? They answered the question in their FAQ: > Will my Affinity apps still get updates? > Yes! We have many free updates planned for V2, with a continued focus on improvements and the features you ask for.
• rchaud 3y ago
  I have Affinity Designer and Publisher, which I've used to design and publish a music fanzine: https://www.glidermag.com https://www.glidermag.com This is slightly worrying news as Canva is the opposite of the Affinity suite: cloud-only and subscription-based. I could purchase brush sets on Affinity for a fixed price, and many were made available on the user messageboard for free.
  • bastawhiz 3y ago
    Just so you know, the URL you linked isn't loading for me.
  • lovegrenoble 3y ago
    Ce site est inaccessible Vérifiez si l'adresse glidermag.com est correcte. can't access
    • rchaud 3y ago
      Updated the URL!
  • lambdas 3y ago
    Looks like it isn’t routing it correctly without the `www.` https://www.glidermag.com/ https://www.glidermag.com/ <- this works. Off topic, and if I may be so bold, check out Whitelands. They’re my friends band and they just toured with Slowdive, one to watch out for! (I am 100% biased though).
    • rchaud 3y ago
      Just updated the link. I will check out Whitelands; I just saw Slowdive in November, they had Drab Majesty open for them in Canada.
• pelagicAustral 3y ago
  I've been using Affinity products forever, in fact since before the Affinity era, then they were branded Serif (DrawPlus, PhotoPlus, etc)... They have been incredibly consistent over the years with the quality of their products, which is why I have purchased many licenses over the years and always recommended people to look into their software... Like others in the thread, I really do hope they don't change to subscription-based pricing, but I assume the worst.
  • ramijames 3y ago
    It really seems that the whole software world has decided to move to monthly payments. It really irks me. I don't want this.
    • bogota 3y ago
      Have to extract the most value for shareholders. Only way i see it changing is people start stealing software because they get sick of it or people stop using subscription based licenses all together.
      • andy_ppp 3y ago
        I absolutely hate it too. I think we all need a subscriptions manager. Adobe for example were charging me $15 per month for Lightroom forever and Lightroom had broken and deleted all my photos years before. I think there was a problem with their software because I did not have a subscription that I could see when I logged in to any of the accounts I had. I just gave up at some point trying to cancel (I'd even talked with their chat for several hours). But recently logged in and managed to finally see the hidden subscription! It was still difficult to cancel but at least I could actually do it! Hard to know what to do apart from take Adobe to the small claims court about this.
        • a2800276 3y ago
          Registered mail to Adobe?
      • 3y ago
• auxfil 3y ago
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• optymizer 3y ago
  I like Affinity products. They replaced all my photoshop/illustrator needs for webdev and it was so easy to switch. The fixed license cost was great too. Now I'm worried that the typical scenario is going to unfold where Canva makes sweeping changes, replaces product vision and licensing model. I guess I can keep using the current versions for a while, until they stop the updates.
  • lovegrenoble 3y ago
    Same for me, replaced f** Adobe, too expensive, too greedy
  • stephen_g 3y ago
    Yeah, I love their Designer and Publisher products. Haven’t used Photo really because I already used Pixelmator Pro but it also looks good, and between those and Final Cut Pro and DaVinci Resolve i’ve cut Adobe out of my life. So this is a super worrying announcement. I really hope they don’t screw up Affinity - I really wonder how long they can hold off the temptation to let them do what they do without screwing it all up and killing the product line…
• xoa 3y ago
  While Affinity is a one-time purchase, I'll admit I was very, very disappointed when with the last version they switched from a normal product key to online-only activation requirement which was not at all clear at purchase time. So despite having purchased the whole v2 suite I ended up never using it and staying with v1, and their response was pretty junk as well. That said, I share concerns of other posters that this isn't going to make the trajectory any better. The email sent out by the CEO also gave me very strong "Our Incredible Journey" [0] vibes: >"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 that would never previously have been achievable. >Canva's revolutionary approach to design democratisation and commitment to empowering everyone to create aligns perfectly with our core values and vision. This union is a testament to what can be achieved when two companies that share a common goal of making design accessible and enjoyable for everyone come together." I can't speak for anyone else on HN but the whole thing (more resources! empowerment! design democratisation!) gives me some serious deja vu. ---- 0: https://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com/ https://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com/
  • V__ 3y ago
    I hate these statements. They could have said something like: "We got bought by Canva because they want more independence/alternatives from Adobe. We can invest more in development. Expect more integrations with Canva. Currently there are no plans for changes to our business model" But they didn't. Their statement was meaningless with zero information. Which means either they will absolutely enshitificate everything or they didn't care to ask or they didn't clarify it during negotiations. All reasons to stay far away from now on. I was planning to buy their suit for a whole team next month. Time to look elsewhere.
    • upsuper 3y ago
      > "... Currently there are no plans for changes to our business model" They mentioned exactly that in the FAQ: > Canva’s business model is subscription, are there any plans to change how Affinity is sold? > There are no changes to our current pricing model planned at this time, with all our apps still available as a one-off purchase.
• martin_henk 3y ago
  It could be worse than canva, which is actually pretty great value when used with a free account. Also, Canva seems to take design kind of seriously. For example google Slides still can't do any font kerning after all these years.
• mortenjorck 3y ago
  This would be a great time for Canva to reassure customers that they don’t intend to change Affinity‘s business model. Not to say such assurances are even a reliable indicator of future plans, but it would at least be a nice gesture.
  • ricardobeat 3y ago
    That would be pointless as they will 100% be changing the business model. We’ve learned that over the past 20 years. RIP Affinity and one-time purchases.
  • josefresco 3y ago
    No changes "at this time" is the key phrase here. Not exactly reassuring.
• karaterobot 3y ago
  I depend on Affinity products, and am not sure how to take this news. When Adobe tried to buy Figma, I knew both companies very well and knew equally well that Adobe would ruin Figma if they owned it. I'm glad that it didn't happen. But I don't know anything about Canva as a company. Product acquisitions usually have a certain trajectory, and my default assumption is that this will follow it: deeper, unasked-for integration with Canva's other products, a new pricing model, a brand new feature roadmap driven by the desire to make back their money, the departure of key figures from Affinity about a year from now. I hope I'm wrong though!
• whywhywhywhy 3y ago
  Not sure why a web based subscription product which already had collaboration features would want to own native one shot apps. Only way I can see logic for this acquisition is if they're wanting the talent/experience of Affinity's developers to build web based offerings of the feature sets of Photo, Designers, Publisher as part of a Canva web offering.
  • rchaud 3y ago
    The latter is unlikely. The developers are active on the Affinity messageboards, I don't recall them ever having any interest in building web apps. Just creating a "good enough" cross-platform alternative to Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator is more than a full-time job already.
• froyolobro 3y ago
  Affinity is amazing (I use Designer, and my dad loves Photo). Canva is actually pretty amazing too. It's going to stir things up, for sure.
• lambdas 3y ago
  Shame. Purchased a V2 suite licence despite being perfectly happy with V1 because I wanted to support them, I don’t see anything good coming from merging with Canva.
• duiker101 3y ago
  oh no, the whole reason why I like Affinity products is the pricing model. I can't imagine that will last long.
• dinkleberg 3y ago
  We just need to get some big companies to give GIMP (or another OSS alternative) the Blender treatment.
  • microtonal 3y ago
    Most customers of Adobe and Affinity are on Mac or Windows. I am not sure about Windows, but unfortunately GTK apps are absolutely horrible on macOS. It probably makes more sense so fund something Qt-based for better cross-platform support. That said, for big companies a Creative Cloud subscription (let alone a single app subscription) is only a drop in the bucket compared to employee salaries. I think Affinity Suite is probably most popular among indie folks, people who need it less regularly, etc.
• jonathanstrange 3y ago
  These kind of acquisitions always astonish me. How does a web company that essentially sells toys get the money to purchase a company that sells professional desktop products?
  • luismedel 3y ago
    True. Maybe a proof of the power of subscription based models?
  • rchaud 3y ago
    It's 'valued' at $40bn, so if you can figure out the particulars of their VC rain dance, I imagine there's plenty of capital available for acquisitions.
    • goralph 3y ago
      They’re at a 13x multiple which is fairly conservative for a SaaS with their growth rates, and have been profitable since 2017. Disclaimer: I used to work there.
• liminal 3y ago
  I don't see the point of this acquisition. The products don't compete, so it's not eliminating market competition. The products also don't 'synergize' (ugh) well: they target different market demographics, have separate learning curves and different business models. Why?
  • drivingmenuts 3y ago
    Market coverage? Now they're in the desktop app market without having to develop their own thing.
• dantondwa 3y ago
  I guess there goes Affinity's only reason one might prefer them over Adobe. Personally, I use all their programs quite a bit (Photo, Designer, Publisher). I like them, but I don't think they're better than Adobe's offering. If they'll eventually shift to a subscription model, I guess I won't be interested in Affinity anymore, given their products are inferior.
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• ocdtrekkie 3y ago
  This is deeply saddening news. I own Affinity Photo and Designer and I'm sure in a few years people won't be able to say that. For most of my usage, mind you, Krita and Inkscape have been able to meet my needs, so more than likely this will just solidify my preference for the open source options out there.
• telegtron 3y ago
  ... and let the enshittification begin!
• potta_coffee 3y ago
  I love Affinity and I don't love Canva. I'm hopeful nothing much changes but I'm not holding my breath. I'll pay a subscription over my dead body.
  • gkoberger 3y ago
    Agreed, but Canva isn't really for us. Canva is for the types of people who "want a poster/t-shirt/etc that's pretty enough and have no skills with Photoshop." Canva is buying Affinity to expand their market into professionals, not to water it down.
• ergonaught 3y ago
  I began migrating stuff away as soon as I got their email announcement today.
• thrownawayjests 3y ago
  There goes the last lingering thread of my non-Linux OS use.
• oliwarner 3y ago
  I'd perform undignified sex acts on camera for supported Linux and Android versions. I'd pay too if that helps. I think lot of Linux developer-creatives would. I love Inkscape and GIMP but they desperately need domestic competition. What I didn't manage to read was are they buying Serif or buying this from Serif?
• graypegg 3y ago
  From the forum, on the topic of the buyout: "[I] 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." - Ash So that's at least possibly a sign of better information to follow. https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/201413-affinity-is-joining-the-canva-family/&do=findComment&comment=1192418 https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/201413-aff...
  • anonymousab 3y ago
    Well, we'll see what they have to say. But I wouldn't get my hopes up. "There are no changes to our current pricing model planned _at this time_" is already a very telling part of Serif's previous statement. While they have earned a measure of trust, the problem is that they aren't the ones you need to trust anymore - if Canva wants to turn Affinity into a collection of bloodsucking subscription apps, then that's what's going to happen, short of a legally binding guarantee to the contrary.
    • UberFly 3y ago
      The best redeeming feature of Affinity apps was that they weren't a bloodsucking subscription like Adobe. Hopefully they have a plan for the apps that keeps them the best anti-Adobe option.
  • bananapub 3y ago
    what could they possibly say? they can't guarantee they won't move to a subscription service in the future - this entire discussion is about how Affinity management have sold out and no longer control the company.
• ksec 3y ago
  Yet another UK business in tech with great potential now gone. It just seems UK cant grow any big tech company. Even ignoring Tech, most if not all of the big UK companies are in Finances and Services.
• alwillis 3y ago
  I think one thing most people are missing: because Canva has 175 million users with a significant number of them paying a subscription, this enables them to keep the Affinity apps purchase model in place. Think about it: why would Canva essentially destroy the reason why so many users (around 3 million according to the reporting) went to Affinity in the first place by going to a subscription model? I don't see that happening. Canva is clear they want a foothold in the professional design market and buying Affinity and its team is the quickest way to get there. I paid for V1 of the Affinity suite and happily paid for the universal V2 license upgrade which enabled me to run their apps on my iPad and my Mac and even Windows if I ever needed that. It was a bargain. Ironically, I just removed the last remnants of Creative Cloud last week. I hadn't been using it, but it was there "just in case…". Unlike when Adobe tried to buy Figma, I'm more optimistic than most that this going to turn out well for existing Affinity users. I'd have no problem with being able to roundtrip designs between Affinity and Canva seamlessly. Someone could start on Canva and one a project progressed to a certain point, they could seamlessly transition to Affinity. Depending on what you're doing, you can quickly reach Canva's limits and it should be trivial to pickup where you left on in a future version of Affinity Designer or Photo. Other than being able to configure DropBox, there's no cloud syncing support built-in to Affinity. Sure, you can glue it together with iCloud, OneBox, etc. but that's not what users should have to do in 2024. I'm no stranger to bad outcomes from botched and user-hostile mergers and acquisitions of software. But this one has all of the potential to go the right way and I have no reason to think otherwise at this time.
  • bananapub 3y ago
    > because Canva has 175 million users with a significant number of them paying a subscription, this enables them to keep the Affinity apps purchase model in place. please bookmark your own post and come back to it in five years so you can have a big a laugh. Canva wants to be a player in image editing/design/etc. They have a big product that their investors love and has the ever-so-common monthly-tax funding model. They have now bought a tiny, niche, desktop editing suite that makes approximately zero profit compared to Canva. Do you think they did this because: 1. they thought it would be fun to own it and not interfere in any way, and to tell their investors to fuck off over and over when they suggest redeploying resources 1. they thought it would provide a good group of people and codebases to expand their existing editing software, and given that the software they currently sell makes essentially no money, at best they'll let it limp along with most staff working on integrating it into Canva-proper, at worst they'll kill it
• pseingatl 3y ago
  Viva Designer is a German desktop publishing program which does not use a subscription-based model. Haven't seen it mentioned here.
• nipperkinfeet 3y ago
  God, darn it. It's time to disable updates and retain an archived copy of the installer.
• coldtea 3y ago
  OK, there goes a decent-ish Adobe alternative. Now it will be more subscriptions, polluted with embedded Canva shit, and perhaps phasing out the desktop apps altogether.
  • bigboy12 3y ago
    Adobe is for pros.
    • coldtea 3y ago
      "Pros" is not well defined, unless if it's just used to mean "people getting paid for work they do by using the software" (what actually separates the pros from the non-pros: getting paid). Otherwise, it's a "no true Scotsman" thing, only including the 10% of hardcore graphic designers deep into Photoshop and Illustrator and such, and not the 90% of web designers, app UI designers, content creators, artists, and others, who might or might not use Adobe, but that still often make more $ than belleguered "pro" graphic designers. It's like how an exexutive using an MBP and making $500,000k/year is "not a pro" for some, but some guy using it to make $70k/year is, and somehow gets to define what is or isn't a "pro machine". For what many (or most) people do in 2024, many alternatives, including Affinity, Canva, Figma, Sketch, and others, are fine for their professional (as in, charging customers, or earning money by work created using the software) use cases.
• DHPersonal 3y ago
  I got a press release email from Canva today that included the following about perpetual licenses, which reads to me as if the prices are going to be increasing on those licenses: > We are committed to fair, transparent and affordable pricing, including the perpetual licenses that have made Affinity special. > We share a commitment to making design fairer and more accessible. For Canva, this has meant making our core product available for free to millions of people across the globe, and for Affinity, this has meant a fairly priced perpetual license model. We know this model has been a key part of the Affinity offering and we are committed to continue to offer perpetual licenses in the future. > If we do offer a subscription, it will only ever be as an option alongside the perpetual model, for those who prefer it. This fits with enabling Canva users to start adopting Affinity. It could also allow us to offer Affinity users a way to scale their workflows using Canva as a platform to share and collaborate on their Affinity assets, if they choose to.