17 ms·

Affinity Studio now free

• dzonga 1y ago
  can't believe this. once paid $50 - but still a steal at that price. now glad people can unleash their creativity.
• nocoiner 1y ago
  This seems … way better than what I expected following the acquisition? What am I missing? And I assume this is a supplement to (and not a replacement of) the existing Affinity applications?
  • kitd 1y ago
    It looks like the pro version includes all the AI features. The free one is for "proper" artists ;)
  • pavlov 1y ago
    It is a replacement, the old Affinity apps are discontinued: "Your Affinity V2 license (via Serif) remains valid and Serif will continue to keep activation servers online. But please note that these apps won’t receive future updates. "For the best experience, we recommend using the new Affinity by Canva app."
    • tym0 1y ago
      As someone who just bought V2 I am worried that V2 uses an activation server at all unlike V1 with its license key. When this free/premium with AI thing crash and burn in a few years I can kiss that license goodbye.
      • northrup 1y ago
        You should log in and download the offline copy of your license key and store it in order to safeguard such things.
        • tym0 1y ago
          Unfortunately it doesn't appear to be a thing for V2
      • binaryturtle 1y ago
        I bought V2 a while ago too when it was offered extra cheap. The problem it doesn't run on my rusty machine. I bought it to have it as reserve once I upgrade my machine someday (who knows if my V1 stuff still runs then?). I learned about this weird activation server stuff afterwards, so ultimately I had to ask for my money back. There was no way to "activate" the software and store the key/keyfile in a backup. In no way this is future proof in my view. I want to use my software w/o depending on the availability of some random 3rd party server. I guess it just got worse with this new app here. I'm not enthusiastic about it at all. This has nothing to do with a price point at all (I was happy to pay for all my 3 V1 apps separately).
    • nocoiner 1y ago
      Oh, that’s a shame. I liked those programs.
    • underlipton 1y ago
      New corollary to the maxim, "If it's free, you're the product": "If the paid version can no longer be purchased, the 'free' version WILL be neutered." They have to remove the option to compare the free, paid, and subscription versions.
• aquir 1y ago
  I'm confused...this is not the same as Affinity Studio from Serif? Or it is? Their website shows something new: https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/ https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/
  • aquir 1y ago
    OK, there is a link to the Affinity Serif product on the Canva website as Affinity V2. Looks like an acquisition
    • sergiotapia 1y ago
      Holy shit good for them in that case! Affinity was always a great company with a great product.
    • jsheard 1y ago
      Yeah Canva bought them out over a year ago, but it was business as usual until now. https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/press/newsroom/canva-press-release/ https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/press/newsroom/canva-press-...
    • deleted 1y ago
      [deleted]
  • achow 1y ago
    This site seems to be the old one - they don't mention their acquistion by Canva in 'About Us' section. https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/about/ https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/about/ Also there is no link anywhere for downloading their products. The current site seems to what OP has posted: affinity.studio Strange choice to keep the old site up and running, and to complicate things the old site is the top result when searched.
  • mjmas 1y ago
    It looks like that's fixed now. It redirects to affinity.studio for me.
• sergiotapia 1y ago
  [flagged]
  • TechSquidTV 1y ago
    OH. I was very confused. Ya that is maybe a lawsuit.
    • deleted 1y ago
      [deleted]
    • doubled112 1y ago
      https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/press/newsroom/canva-press-release/ https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/press/newsroom/canva-press-... Canva bought Affinity.
  • thomasfrank09 1y ago
    This is that. Canva acquired Affinity a while back.
  • yoz-y 1y ago
    But Canva has bought Serif and their products some time ago. I though this was the result of the acquisition?
    • xswhiskey 1y ago
      Yes, this is it. Affinity is a series of products by Serif Labs; which were acquired by Canva about a year ago.
  • drcongo 1y ago
    I was assuming they'd bought it from Serif. This is madness.
  • turnsout 1y ago
    Serif (Affinity) was acquired by Canva—this is the first peek at the result of that acquisition.
• cosmic_cheese 1y ago
  Seems much better than was feared, though I haven't yet downloaded and tried the new version and there's still plenty of room for things to decay in the future. It requiring an account (and thus, internet connectivity) to use is offputting, though. That is a prime enabler of enshittification, since it allows Canva to force updates that users may not necessarily desire. Hopefully it's easy to reverse engineer so old versions can be preserved and remain functional.
  • yoz-y 1y ago
    I do hope you can still use it without internet. Otherwise the program is much less interesting.
    • JustSkyfall 1y ago
      You can use it without internet after the first signin!
• add-sub-mul-div 1y ago
  If I have to "sign up" then I don't really consider it free. Maybe still a good deal for some who need it, but I won't casually try this out like I would if I could just do it anonymously.
  • deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
  • BizarroLand 1y ago
    This is a good rule of thumb
• deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
• turnsout 1y ago
  As an Affinity user, I'm interested to try this out (just downloaded). I'm surprised they tried to put it all in one app. Affinity Publisher is quite different from Affinity Photo for example. Edit: Just checked out the app. They essentially put Affinity Designer, Affinity Photo and Affinity Publisher together in one app, switchable from a tab. Honestly, it's executed well. I hope it stays free—these apps are legitimately useful replacements for their Adobe equivalents.
  • cosmic_cheese 1y ago
    Combining vector and raster editors makes some amount of sense since the raster editor had some vector capabilities anyway, but yeah, tossing in layout/desktop publishing feels kind of weird. It's a bit like combining a microwave oven and a blender.
    • mbirth 1y ago
      DTP is basically vector editing with an emphasis on text boxes.
    • sgerenser 1y ago
      Combining a microwave oven and a blender, you say? They already did that: https://www.thermomix.com https://www.thermomix.com
    • chupchap 1y ago
      No, I used to work in a newspaper and we were switching between text editing, graphic design and image processing tools for our work. This makes a lot of sense! That said, most magazines and newspapers have designated people to focus on each of these and the chances of one person having to shift between all three is a little narrow.
  • codeptualize 1y ago
    It looks very similar to what they already had. If you had all three they all were already integrated, you can just switch between the different types of editing modes.
  • 1y ago
• skwee357 1y ago
  Kind of a bummer. I paid for Affinity tools some time ago, but I guess my license is now worth trash, and if I want to use the new Affinity tools, I need to have "Canva account". I mean, free tools are good. But I smell a road to enshittification (for example, by offering Affinity for free so you create Canva account, then they push Canva AI or whatever BS to you little by little, and in the end deprecate affinity so you would move to Canva web Pro Ultra Version with 90% off for the first 3 months). Could be wrong, will see I guess. [Edit] Just to clarify something. It's not like I expect to pay for a license and get updates forever, but from what it seems like from other comments, the original apps are being removed from the App Store, meaning that the "free Affinity" is "Canva Flavored" Affinity, rather than the original tools.
  • delfinom 1y ago
    Absolutely. "free" tier is just to grow a userbase with mandatory accounts. Give it some time and suddenly that free tier shrinks or requires a subscription to continue.
  • carlosjobim 1y ago
    The complaining is off the charts! Nothing in your life would have changed if you hadn't heard about this free product. Now you rest sleepless and grind your teeth because other people get to enjoy free high quality software.
    • skwee357 1y ago
      Don't worry, I sleep tight and don't grind my teeth (at least not over Affinity). What bothers me, however, is that I bought Affinity tools in the first place in order to avoid marrying myself with Adobe and their predatory business practices. I, and many people here on HN, shared this sentiment of Adobe. However, I'm kind of baffled by the amount of people who seems to celebrate these free tools, as this is a 101 in predatory business making: acquire a good product, make it free but with an account, deprecate said good product and force everyone to use your SaaS offering with monthly subscription. I might be wrong, time will tell. I wonder when people will learn the real value of "free" offering by For Profit Big Corp (c)
• microtonal 1y ago
  It seems that the Affinity apps are removed from the Mac App Store? That would be a shame, because they are sandboxed. I don't want yet another app with unfettered access. Of course, I can still download them from my purchases, but I think there will be no updates anymore?
  • dunham 1y ago
    Yeah, I used to use the app store version of Slack because it was sandboxed. (I later switched to having Safari run it as a web application.) Even if I trusted them, the sandbox would be a layer of protection against bugs. I'd love to have an an easy way to wrap that sandbox around non-app-store applications.
    • liuliu 1y ago
      Developers can still choose to enable sandbox for apps delivered outside of App Store. Some of them simply choose to not do so: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/security/hardened-runtime https://developer.apple.com/documentation/security/hardened-...
      • microtonal 1y ago
        s/some/most/ Sadly. For those that don't know, an easy way to check is to right-click a column in Activity Monitor and enable the Sandbox column.
• osxman 1y ago
  This is bad news... I liked the Publisher/Designer/Photo apps on my Mac. The presentation of this new 'Canva' acquired product feels like a circus, and roadmap is very unclear also. This feels like it will be the end of a none adobe solution. Also I paid every upgrade for NOTHING.
  • odie5533 1y ago
    Now that the basic tools are all free, they no longer make money. AI features are the only thing that makes money, so all development is going to funneled into the AI features exclusively.
    • jessep 1y ago
      That doesn't make sense. The free part is the marketing, the more people like it, the faster it spreads. I run a freemium business and all the motivation internally is to increase growth by improving the free product. Once you achieve a good conversion to pro, any more will slow down growth. At that point, all you care about is improving the product for free users to generate word of mouth, and building features that will do so.
    • dannyw 1y ago
      Hi, Canva employee & Affinity user+lover for 10+ years (pre-acquisition) here. That’s not true. We really do want to make all design, including professional design, as widely accessible as possible; including those who can’t afford it. I understand this could be interpreted as ‘corporate PR’, but even from a game-theory sense, you’d want to maximize the top of your funnel, which is free users.
      • meindnoch 1y ago
        We don't believe you.
        • browningstreet 1y ago
          I've used free Canva and premium Canva on and off for years. Based on their track record, I'm keeping an open mind.
• tym0 1y ago
  Right so people who said they were going to merge the products together and release it free where right on the money. It being free means it'll eventually get enshittified though. Oh well, I just bought V2. What worries me however is that it already used an account instead of a license key like V1...
• mythz 1y ago
  Awesome, expected Canva were going to jack up the prices or turn it into a subscription after acquisition. A freemium version is very welcome for the rare times I need to use it. No plans to ever be a paying customer myself (sorry Canva), but nice to know it's still being actively developed. Just noticed the AI feature integrations are locked behind a premium sub, makes sense to go for a wide funnel with a premium free product then up-sell to people who want the AI integration, should turn out to be commercially successful. Really hoping a Linux version is in the works. Hopefully the exodus from Windows picks up so we can accelerate the timeline for Linux support. (Currently using the amazing https://photopea.com https://photopea.com for most image edits on Linux)
  • tracerbulletx 1y ago
    I doubt this is good, I'd expect minimal investment in the free version and ever increasing subscriptions. I WANT to pay for my software.
    • Torn 1y ago
      Is enshittification truly inevitable? Perhaps, but as an occasional affinity user this is good news and I don't see a reason to spell doom just yet
    • comradesmith 1y ago
      The better they support the free side, the better the conversion rates will be. So I think the incentives align with both free and paying customers
• microflash 1y ago
  tldr; It is all apps combined in one. It is free. Requires Canva account. AI features require Canva Premium subscription. No iPad app (yet). Still missing RTL support.
• moi2388 1y ago
  That is fantastic. Paid for the affinity products when they first came out. Absolutely great product, I hate Adobe with a passion you wouldn’t believe. The only problem is in time it will probably become paid, as most things do. Oh well, then I’ll just uninstall.
  • gdulli 1y ago
    If you hate Adobe, why feel positively about them starting down the same path?
    • moi2388 11mo ago
      Because I’m not sure (although sceptical) of them going the same path. Freemium with AI and collab locked seems fine to me. I just hope they keep it that way, naive as I may be.
• noduerme 1y ago
  Sooo, the main reason we looked at Affinity as an alternative to the Adobe suite was the fact that it was a one-time purchase without forced updates or all the extra garbage Adobe obsessively adds that slows down each new version. Affinity was nice but just not quite there, in my opinion, as a daily driver for print design and pre-press. Once they were bought by Canva, whose software I find atrocious, I gave up on it. My problem with this is that it seems like a gateway to being forced to pay monthly, Adobe-style. Or else what they're really selling are the AI tools. Just sell me a solid piece of software I can keep using forever offline. I can still do all my design work in Illustrator CS6 if I want to haul out a 15 year old laptop. Sell me a version of that for Apple Silicon and I'll happily pay for it.
• codeptualize 1y ago
  It's a smart approach imo. They had to get a subscription somehow to support AI features which they need to compete (just usage cost wise you can't do that on a one time fee license). But since they promised not to go subscription when they got acquired by Canva, making it free with AI as the subscription is a clever solution to not break their promise while still introducing a subscription model. I think their bet is enough people will want the AI, which I think is correct. As a long time Affinity user, first reaction was: "see, there is the subscription", but on second thought, fair enough, well played. I'll probably get the AI subscription as well. I do wonder if over time more features will go into that premium plan, but we'll see. Edit: It seems like some of the AI stuff runs on device, they are not very clear about what does or doesn't. That makes me change my opinion a bit, as that's just straight up a freemium subscription model.
  • tensor 1y ago
    I think there are a lot of people like me who use it occasionally and won't bother with AI nor a subscription. To me this is a bad sign, as free is unsustainable. It's only a matter of time before they look at their metrics and realize "oh look, we have all these casual users who only use the free stuff, that's a new source of revenue!" at which point either the subscription now covers the app, or worse, they steal your shit for "AI training." Hell, has anyone looked at the EULA for this "free" product? Maybe it's already doing that.
    • sbarre 1y ago
      > Free is unsustainable This is not necessarily true when the free product is a sales funnel. Canva's business model is not "desktop design application" but giving away these tools creates goodwill in the design community and gives them exposure and a lower-friction conversion funnel towards their actual paid products. Since they're desktop apps, there's very little cost to them for the free users who never convert (unlike Figma or other cloud-based products that have operational/bandwidth costs for all users).
      • WorldMaker 1y ago
• Inityx 1y ago
  If you're not paying, you are the product.
  • codeptualize 1y ago
    There is a premium plan for the AI features, so that's the strategy, which does make some sense, I bet a lot of people will want to have those features.
    • okanat 1y ago
      Good software is never freemium. It is either paid upfront or it is a timebomb. I am okay with keeping things proprietary and asking for a fair price. Once free-to-play is introduced, the software is gone for good. I thought about buying Affinity a couple of months ago since they offered a perpetual license. Now I won't even think installing it
      • CodeShmode 1y ago
        Canva proper is freemium, yet they continuously add more free features
  • NoteyComplexity 1y ago
    “Even if you are paying, you are the premium product.” I think we need to stop saying that quote since the existence of subscription. Can you stop Google from tracking you or let you define your “algorithm” if you have purchased YouTube Premium and one of the Google Drive plans? I really doubt. I think it is the value of the company matters. If their intentions is to keep investors happy, the users are always the product no matter paying or not. By contrast, there are quite a lot of free open source software doing the same for free, but the users still remain user.
• dtagames 1y ago
  I must say this is a welcome relief from the overpriced Adobe monopoly which I, as a solo dev, simply can no longer justify. The last suite with this name had a terrible UI. Canva also owns Leonardo which is pretty great so perhaps this will have a decent UI now that they've bought and revamped it.
• sarreph 1y ago
  After the V2 suite was released a few years ago, I realised I would never get the "old" Affinity product experience back -- the same experience and price-point that made me a great and productive self-taught illustrator / designer. C'est la vie, all good things must come to an end. I'm glad the original team made it out with a financial reward (from Canva sale)... Time for someone else to pick up the mantle! [and for everyone else to stop moaning]
  • stavros 1y ago
    What was the difference between v1 and v2?
    • sarreph 1y ago
      V1 felt polished to a degree that implied the developers had thought a lot about how their product should provide a compelling user experience. It was also very performant and rarely crashed. V2 was buggy from the off -- for me -- and crashed frequently. It felt palpably slower and the changes to the featureset IMO were perfunctory (I don't have concrete examples to mind but I remember feeling that way at the time).
      • stavros 1y ago
        Ah, that's too bad. Thanks for the background!
  • JKCalhoun 1y ago
    Version 2 has been fine. FWIW though, I don't use Affinity Photo (but bought it too because I like the company). I'm Pixelmator Pro when it comes to pixels (but love Affinity Designer and Publisher).
• orliesaurus 1y ago
  Interesting move by this company to expand into the creative suite space... BUT I'm curious how they'll handle interoperability with existing workflows... Are there import/export paths for PSD, Sketch, Figma... Without that it's just another silo... ALSO for freelancers and small teams licensing models matter... a subscription tied to an account can be a hurdle if you need to collaborate with clients outside the ecosystem... Would love to see more clarity on offline use, local file formats and plugin APIs... those details make or break a creative suite...
  • kyawzazaw 1y ago
    I think for now, they will be fine with solo. for small businesses
  • ryeights 1y ago
    >Your PSDs are welcome here >Import PSDs, AIs, IDMLs, DWGs, and other file types into Affinity, with structure, layers, and creative intent preserved.
• yawnxyz 1y ago
  kind of fun that their fonts are Affinity Serif and Canva Sans
• insane_dreamer 1y ago
  They seem to have removed Affinity from the Mac App Store. For those who want a lifetime license instead of freemium, Amandine* is similar to Affinity ($30 on Mac Store). (I have no connection to either app). * Edit: It's Amadine, not Amandine (my typo)
  • osxman 1y ago
    Great tip, will give that a try! To find it in the Mac Appstore it is called 'Amadine' (without the 'n') It seems alright at first glance, thanks again for this tip. Feels also more European since it is from Ukraine, supporting them feels good!
  • presbyterian 1y ago
    And if you want just a photo editor, not a vector software, I really recommend Pixelmator Pro. I've had it and Affinity Photo for years, but I find myself sticking with Pixelmator more often than not.
    • p_ing 1y ago
      Apple bought Pixelmator. What is it's future?
      • JKCalhoun 1y ago
        Possibly free also.
        • presbyterian 1y ago
          Why would you assume this? None of their other pro apps (Logic, Final Cut, Motion) have done this.
      • grougnax 1y ago
        Becoming free trash like Affinity.
• glimshe 1y ago
  Nooooooo! I'm a loyal Serif customer and paid for their software. I LOVE Affinity. And I HATE "free" commercial products because they need to extract revenue from subscription services, ads, data selling etc. This is the first step toward making Affinity become another rental application like Photoshop. Escaping Adobe's predatory business model is exactly why I became a Serif customer in the first place.
  • achow 1y ago
    Look at it this way, this could challenge Adobe to make Creative Suite free and charge only for AI in their product (one can dream at least).
    • drivingmenuts 1y ago
      Not a chance - Adobe is too much of an industry standard.
      • criddell 1y ago
        Lotus 1-2-3 was once an industry standard.
    • thewebguyd 1y ago
      One could dream. But hey, anything that puts pressure on Adobe and makes them sweat a little is a win in my book. Fuck them. Now, if maybe Apple would actually do something with their Pixelmator acquisition and re-release aperture, both Apple and Canva/Affinity can start going after Adobe.
  • dannyw 1y ago
    I’m also a loyal Serif customer, love Affinity, and I work at Canva. This is not the first step in that. It’s not anywhere close to our plan. We want to make Affinity, and professional design, the default tool. And a huge part of that is free, forever. AI features; like generative fill, have COGS and incremental inference costs. Hence that’s an _optional_ subscription. I understand why you feel that way. Having being involved, the biggest factor to acquisition & joining forces was our shared mission and beliefs; not things like financial engineering. I hope you can judge us by our actions. It’s you, who we try to build the product for <3
• daft_pink 1y ago
  When somethings free, I’m suspicious.
  • tomrod 1y ago
    If its a local-first app, that could be very good! Even if browser+WASM with local storage that is a step up from web apps. I don't like companies hoovering all data.
    • duiker101 1y ago
      How long before that's no longer the case?
      • brookst 1y ago
        Only way to be sure it will never change is to build it yourself and make it free for everyone forever!
        • radiator 1y ago
          Though even if you build it, someone might eventually make you an offer you cannot refuse.
          • brookst 1y ago
            You can always refuse offers. Plenty of people enjoy working long hours and answering endless customer support issues for no revenue. Well, there must be someone out there.
• cultofmetatron 1y ago
  so basically there's no more incentive to maintain or improve the affinity suite..
  • alt227 1y ago
    Yep, the design side of the software will rot and die.
  • blackqueeriroh 1y ago
    Except their competitors? Why do you think Canva bought them?
    • cultofmetatron 1y ago
      a giant mailing list for sales. not all acquisiions end up as a benefit to the product. just look at what happenned to screenhero
• doctorpangloss 1y ago
  what people actually want: to pay the ridiculously cheap $20/mo or whatever it is for Photoshop, but to use whichever backend they want for generative AI, not the other way around.
  • brookst 1y ago
    I think you made a typo spelling “I”
• wdb 1y ago
  Can't figure out if any new non-AI features were added?
  • garganzol 1y ago
    Plenty of them. Image tracing is probably the most notable one (converts pixels to vectors). After playing with it several hours, I can say that Affinity 3 is pretty solid release. The new AI persona is surprisingly useful too. Initially, I was reluctant to migrate from Affinity 2 but now I'm sold.
• vasilzhigilei 1y ago
  Linux version when
  • dp-hackernews 1y ago
    Indeed. Although I suspect Wine or proton could be an option - not checked.
    • akpa1 1y ago
      Older versions historically haven’t worked very well, but I’ve not tried with newer copies.
    • MrDrMcCoy 1y ago
      There's a custom patched wine that can run version 1 reasonably well, and efforts were ongoing for version 2. Haven't really tried it since I'm not a artist. https://codeberg.org/Wanesty/affinity-wine-docs https://codeberg.org/Wanesty/affinity-wine-docs
    • Maxious 1y ago
      https://github.com/seapear/AffinityOnLinux https://github.com/seapear/AffinityOnLinux is being updated to reflect the v3 but it does work
      • tym0 1y ago
        Yeah I use this. - V1 has some rendering issue on my work machine (haven't updated it in a bit, could have been fixed) - V2 mostly works well on my home machine, some crashes Overall wouldn't use it for work but for small edits it's fine.
• meindnoch 1y ago
  >Sign up to download Into the trash it goes.
  • slig 1y ago
    You really like to say that, don't you? https://news.ycombinator.com/context?id=45707186 https://news.ycombinator.com/context?id=45707186
    • latexr 1y ago
      Doesn’t even make sense. If you need an account to download, then before you make the account there is nothing to trash.
  • keyliejener 1y ago
    [dead]
• KaiMagnus 1y ago
  Wow, completely free? I wonder how the team plans look like, seems like you need to contact them even for single digit seat counts. An UI design tab next please, some more players in that space would be nice.
  • wouldbecouldbe 1y ago
    Yeah I can actually cancel my pro plan now, dont think I need the AI Feature, let's see
• indiantinker 1y ago
  So did they buy Affinity and all their tools and gave it for free? https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/about/ https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/about/
  • deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
  • alt227 1y ago
    Yep, but dont expect the level of quality development that was there before. These'free' tools are to attract you to buy ai. They are now only selling tools. Serif were pushing to beat Adobe at their own game and make the best designer tools available. Canva are just trying to sell you ai.
    • indiantinker 1y ago
      Interesting. Yes, the pro features seem to be just about ai these days. I used affinity’s indesign equivalent while at work and it was quite good. I wonder what the business model is? Same as figma a while back?
    • blackqueeriroh 1y ago
      So why has Canva been giving massive amounts of their quality development away for free for over 10 years?
      • trinix912 1y ago
        It's never been free, they've always been developing stuff to push you to Canva Pro.
        • CodeShmode 1y ago
          The issue being they don’t give everything away for free?
• thijsvandien 1y ago
  Mixed feelings about this. The apps were great and it's always uncomfortable when the future becomes uncertain due to a big acquisition. So far, it seems it could've gone worse. Their business model makes sense. I like that everything got integrated now, because Photo, Designer and Publisher being separate with so much overlap didn't feel natural. Hate the new logo, though... Some elegance was definitely lost.
• TechRemarker 1y ago
  Been curious what the Oct 10 announcement would be. It seemed most likely an acquisition since they wanted enough time of not selling existing products to avoid dealing with a month of refunds. Appears Canva bought with it now being a single app that is "free" but paid for premium features. While many may rejoice at a solid free options it's certainly an unfortunate day for those who rely on it. As Canva makes money on people using the paid version so attention will be at making that version more enticing over time and free less. If people all just used the free and not the premium for AI, then they would either start charging for the "free" version or take away features from the free version to make the "choice" easier to upgrade. All in all good for Canva, and good for more casual users who can jump ship any time to free options but would be quite worrisome for those who have looked towards Affinity as the alternative to Adobe.
  • achow 1y ago
    Canva acquired Affinity year and half back - Mar 2024. https://www.canva.com/en_in/newsroom/news/affinity/ https://www.canva.com/en_in/newsroom/news/affinity/
• lousken 1y ago
  so this means that the linux-wine version will not stop working after some random update i assume?
  • raffraffraff 1y ago
    Does the latest version actually work under wine? I remember trying a while back and only v1 was usable.
    • lousken 1y ago
      seems like it https://github.com/ryzendew/AffinityOnLinux https://github.com/ryzendew/AffinityOnLinux
• oliviergg 1y ago
  On Mac, the app size when installed is 3.5GB!?? How can we get such a size?
  • dchest 1y ago
    I have: - Affinity Designer 2 — 2.88 GB - Affinity Photo 2 — 2.81 GB + publisher (don't have it) So... smaller than both of them :)
• johnhamlin 1y ago
  Love to see this the day Adobe emailed to say it’s hiking my Photoshop/Lightroom subscription by 50% ($10/mo -> $15/mo)
  • quchen 1y ago
    One of the reasons I stopped doing photography was that I realized I’m locked to using Lightroom where all my previous pictures are, and without a subscription it’s such a hassle to gain access to them again. I miss the days when I just bought Lightroom and that was it. :-(
    • stavros 1y ago
      Capture One is fantastic, though.
      • orbital-decay 1y ago
        Yes but settings for any existing photos are non-transferable between different RAW editing systems, by design. Even different versions of the same software have to keep around all old code for compatibility.
      • Computer0 1y ago
        One of the last 2 pieces of perpetual license pieces of photo software I have left. This software segment has almost entirely been consumed by subscriptions.
    • hv42 1y ago
      https://github.com/CyberTimon/RapidRAW https://github.com/CyberTimon/RapidRAW is rapidly going to be a nice cross-platform alternative to Lightroom
    • roywiggins 1y ago
      I'm still staggering on with Lightroom 5, who knows how long that will work. Until I buy a new camera it doesn't support the RAWs of, I guess.
  • 1y ago
• ocdtrekkie 1y ago
  The entire popularity of Affinity was licenses you could buy once and use forever and not have subscriptions or anything over you. Now it's "free" with an account and an optional subscription. Basically the opposite of why everyone supported them. Good luck, folks.
• Zealotux 1y ago
  I was just looking yesterday for a simple vector editor, will give it a try. Sorry, Inkscape is a total mess to use.
• Lapra 1y ago
  I just want to buy a product and not have it constantly upsell me. Like what Affinity was before. Please.
  • skwee357 1y ago
    But how will the company “maximize shareholder value” then?
• mwkaufma 1y ago
  Many comments here that this "makes sense." Free does not make sense! If I'm not paying for it I'm not the customer anymore.
  • forgotoldacc 1y ago
    Yep. Your art is now their training data. Their AI subscription today comes at the cost of your job tomorrow.
    • nicce 1y ago
      Does this read in ToS somewhere? I know many professional artists and if they would find out that their work is used for training, the app is uninstalled faster than it takes time for you to read this text.
      • mwkaufma 1y ago
        It requires a Canva login now, so they'll smuggle it in through there. If it not already in the language it's inevitable because it's set up for enshittification now.
      • exasperaited 1y ago
        It says, on the actual website, the absolute opposite: "Your content in Affinity isn’t used to train AI features — we can’t access local files. For content you choose to upload to Canva, you’re in control. You can review and update your preferences any time in Canva settings." The only nuance I can think of here is that if you are using the cloud AI tools, you are uploading content. But it's largely hypocritical to complain about AI tools being trained on your content. They were trained on everyone else's.
        • nicce 1y ago
          Professionals I know don't want to use AI at all. So if Affinity is really not using the produced art for training, many artists will get a good tool for free.
• 1023bytes 1y ago
  So basically "Canva Desktop"?
• TechPlasma 1y ago
  IF the new app truly has all the features of V1 and V2 of the affinity apps. And IF it's truly free. Would it would damn sure be nice of them remove the license requirement from the V1 and V2 versions which I both bought and loved. And let users continue to enjoy these pieces of software for years to come without having to sign up for this new program which I don't trust at all. I've used and loved it for close to 10 years now. And it's fantastic software. But I just can't trust software without a proper non-subscription business model. I'm not going back to fucking Adobe and it's ilk.
• nalekberov 1y ago
  https://downloads.affinity.studio/Affinity.dmg https://downloads.affinity.studio/Affinity.dmg thank me later.
  • latexr 1y ago
    You still need an account to start the app, so the direct download doesn’t really save any effort.
    • nalekberov 1y ago
      That's right, thanks for pointing this out.
• user_7832 1y ago
  Side/relevant (?) note, earlier this month, serif had made affinity free (at least for iPad if not for others as well). Many had speculated a v3 or something coming up… but I suppose “everything is free” is pretty nice too? (Idk why everyone’s disappointed, it seems clear that canvas hopes the AI is good enough to get people to fork over their money. That’s… alright, as of now?)
  • nirava 1y ago
    disappointed because a "best we offer, forever" paid software got swapped under our nose for "free for all after you login but we'll beg you to pay monthly by dangling features in the UI but locking them behind a trial or subscription" software. There are many many free and amazing software tools in this space I could have made a workflow out of. I explicitly BOUGHT this thing because it promised to be simple and "the best experience we can offer" software. I think that distinction matters.
    • user_7832 1y ago
      > …we'll beg you to pay monthly by dangling features in the UI but locking them behind a trial or subscription" software. The features appear to only be things that affinity already didn’t have, right? I agree it might involve annoying ads or pop ups, but if canva really does what they’re saying (which, of course, is a pretty big if), then it’s functionally identical to affinity v2? (I also had considered the software but for some reason thought it was Apple only and never bought it for windows.)
      • nirava 1y ago
        not just identical, the new "free" thing will have more. popular requests like image trace and vector blend go to the "free" but not v2 (which, on its own is understandable tbh, no one expects a one time purchase of v2 to improve for eternity) thing is, functionality wise, the affinity software suite wasn't unique in the first place. there's a million different tools, many free and some open source, that you can use to create and edit and view. I think many people bought it because it stood for something more than what it's frankly mediocre feature-set might have implied. We bought it because we refuse pop-ups and ads on principle (specially on a paid, professional software system), and thought that feeling itself was worth the money paid.
• scblock 1y ago
  I'm done with this. Open source only from here on out. You can't trust anyone in this day and age to turn not their products into AI pushing garbage.
  • viraptor 1y ago
    Unfortunately there is no realistic vector drawing open source app for MacOS. Inkscape is still basically unusable with extreme lag. LibreDraw is ok for very basic things. But that's about it.
    • rcarmo 1y ago
      Well, if Apple did something about it... We would at least have some half-assed thing that would look good in commercials.
      • spiderice 1y ago
        Pixelmator somewhat fits that (minus the half-assed part). Pixelmator is, at least for now, pay once. And given Apple's size I don't see them trying to squeeze customers for Pixelmator subscriptions. It definitely isn't a full vector program at the level of Illustrator/Affinity. But for a lot of people it probably has powerful enough vector editing.
        • reaperducer 1y ago
          I see that there is Pixelmator ($50) and Photomator ($120), both from Apple. Any idea what the difference is? The cheaper one looks more capable.
          • LeoPanthera 1y ago
            Pixelmator = Photoshop Photomator = Lightroom, but without the library management
    • TranquilMarmot 1y ago
• gspencley 1y ago
  I switched to Affinity as part an ongoing effort to "de-Adobe-ize." I had no idea that they were owned by Canva. This could be good news, but as someone who paid for a perpetual license, I'm worried that some of the features I paid a one-time license for will eventually move to a Canva subscription model :( The reason that worries me is that when I look at the feature chart, you've got "Affinity" compared with "Affinity + Canva Premium Plans." Subscriptions make sense for certain services. I'm not opposed to a subscription model in general. But for creative tools, I LOATHE subscriptions. It means that my creative work is now held hostage by rent-seekers who require me to pay them monthly fees to be able to access my art work. NO! So if I ever need a Canva Premium plan in the future to be able to use certain Affinity features that I've PAID FOR then fuck them, I'm abandoning them as fast I abandoned Adobe after being an Adobe user/customer for 30+ years.
  • t-writescode 1y ago
    What client-side features do you use that you think will get ripped out and paywalled from an old version?
    • gspencley 1y ago
      Thyat's a fair question and the honest answer is I don't know and I'd have to sift through the feature comparison chart to see if there's anything I actively use today with my paid license that is moving to a Canva Premium subscription. My real point is that Affinity had two selling points that "converted me:" - Artist word of mouth. Photo & Design were becoming popular as an alternative to Photoshop & Illustrator so when artists started recommending it as an alternative I listened and checked them out. - Perpetual license / no subscription model. That was THE NUMBER ONE SELLING POINT that got me on board as a customer. The second I even need to login to an account to be able to use the thing I paid a one time fee for, it's going to rub me the wrong way. It feels like a bait and switch.
      • t-writescode 1y ago
        Do you find CD-Keys that round-trip one time, ever to be a violation of a perpetual license? That’s effectively what “login to an account” means - especially if it works offline forever, afterward. (I haven’t checked if it does, in this case)
• ryanmcbride 1y ago
  wow, if they add Good Enough™ video editing I can probably cancel my Adobe CC subscription
  • mrgaro 1y ago
    Highly recommend DaVinci Resolve, way better than Premiere in my opinion.
• mns 1y ago
  Devastated about this. Good for them for making money on the sale to Canva, but still, this is a sad day. Studio is now freemium, in the future probably more and more features (outside of AI) will be added in the subscription, and you will end up with an app full of disabled features and pop-ups encouraging you to subscribe and unlock the new and shiny thing. There is absolutely nothing in the world that anyone can say to convince me that this is not the end for Affinity. Every single product that went through this ended up being an ad data gathering subscription pushing unusable app for anything useful. I have both a V1 and V2 license. V2 is probably now useless considering that it will never get any updates. This marks the death of one of the last popular pay once and use forever apps (in the sense that a V3 with new features will never exist).
  • t-writescode 1y ago
    [flagged]
    • mns 1y ago
      Any type of updates (bugs, security, OS support) will go only to the Canva version, no part of my comment was about the new hotness or that being the reason I bought any of the licenses.
      • t-writescode 1y ago
        I admit I’m not that worried about a virus or exploit in a jpeg that specifically targets the less-popular image editing application, when I have a solid virus scanner. And I’ll be switching to Proton for this soon enough, so OS support stops mattering for the most part. And most bugs you just work around when they’re in a large and stable enough product like Affinity Photo
    • slig 1y ago
      >It’ll keep working for decades to come because you own the software Only if you don't update the OS and/or the drivers.
    • 1y ago
• pentagrama 1y ago
  I used Affinity for several years, so to add some background here: Serif is the company that originally built this software. -------- 2014–2024 Serif developed the Affinity suite, a collection of three independent desktop apps sold with a one-time payment model: - Affinity Designer: vector graphic design (Adobe Illustrator equivalent) - Affinity Photo: digital image editing (Adobe Photoshop equivalent) - Affinity Publisher: print and layout design (Adobe InDesign equivalent) They were solid, professional tools without subscriptions like Adobe, a big reason why many designers loved them. ------- 2024 Canva acquired Serif. ------- 2025 (today) The product has been relaunched. The three apps are now merged into a single app, simply called Affinity, and it follows a freemium model. From what I’ve tested, you need a Canva account to download and open the app (you can opt out of some telemetry during setup). The new app has four tabs: - Vector: formerly Affinity Designer - Pixel: formerly Affinity Photo - Layout: formerly Affinity Publisher - Canva AI: a new, paid AI-powered section Screenshot https://imgur.com/a/h1S6fcK https://imgur.com/a/h1S6fcK Hope can help!
  • davedx 1y ago
    I worked at Serif during the early years of their pivot from boxed desktop software in C++ for Windows to an internet company making modern design software. It was a nice place to work, had some good friends there. Been interesting watching their journey.
    • junon 1y ago
      I got the impression there was a disconnect between product and eng teams based on quite a few spicy responses from Serif on the forums. Was that the case?
    • Telemakhos 1y ago
      I just want to say "thank you." I use Affinity Publisher 2 (and used the first version) on a daily basis, and it's been amazing. I think I heard once that Affinity started because the founders wanted to publish a newsletter, and they developed image editing and vector editing software en route to making the page layout software they wanted. If that's true, it's an awesome route to take in life; if not, they (and you) still did an awesome job making software that understands user workflows and accomplishes wonderful things. You've made my life easier for years.
• marcodiego 1y ago
  And since it will be a freemium model or ad-supported, here comes one more example why we should use and support free software.
• mindcrash 1y ago
  Does anyone know what will happen with Affinity for iOS? The current apps are all released by Serif but have been made fully free recentyly. So discontinued or what? Would be a real tragedy if it is...
  • adfm 1y ago
    It was mentioned in the release video that it’ll be a single app to come out next year.
• nalekberov 1y ago
  Ran it for the first time, already made 16 network requests. [1] Not too bad at all. [1] https://ibb.co/RkVgBFGw https://ibb.co/RkVgBFGw
• gethly 1y ago
  Yet after decades, Gimp still can't compete even with programs built from scratch :D
  • TranquilMarmot 1y ago
    GIMP is open source if you want to go help improve it ;)
    • tredre3 1y ago
      I tried ;) GIMP developers aren't very open to external contributions. I don't consider my attempts to be of low quality either, but the bike shedding resulted in them never being accepted. "It's best to wait until X lands" or "I think this will be part of Y". Meanwhile, 10 years later, the functional features I've tried to contribute are still not possible in GIMP ;)
      • TranquilMarmot 1y ago
        Yeah, I was mostly being facetious haha. I know that GIMP as a project is notoriously difficult to contribute to.
        • a96 1y ago
          If someone actually has the ability to do instead of just complain, the answer is to fork it and welcome more patches. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GIMP#Forks_and_derivatives https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GIMP#Forks_and_derivatives There might be one already, of course.
  • zitsarethecure 1y ago
    If it works well enough for the people who use it, why does it matter?
    • thoroughburro 1y ago
      It doesn’t work well enough for the people who use it; false assumption. I use it, and it’s a cludge that I resent every time I have no other option.
• Balvarez 1y ago
  We see that people people love you Affinity software! Lets buy it and stop doing what people love about it!
• Balvarez 1y ago
  Let's aquire software that people love using... and then kill what they love about it!!
  • slig 1y ago
    We have to understand that we're a minority and they're after another market. I'm surprised it took this long, to be honest.
  • grougnax 1y ago
    The goal is to kill the product, so people are forced to pay for Canva
  • robertoandred 1y ago
    What is it you think they killed? It’s just V3 of the suite, and it’s free now.
• Flux159 1y ago
  Is this built with JS / something like Fabric JS? There are some things that feel very similar to a web app that I worked on before. Wondering if there's plans to have a plugin API at some point if it is.
  • Maxious 1y ago
    There is support for photoshop plugins https://affinity.help/photo2/en-US.lproj/index.html?page=pages/Filters/plugins.html&title=Using%20Plugins https://affinity.help/photo2/en-US.lproj/index.html?page=pag...
• qunt 1y ago
  [dead]
• internetter 1y ago
  You can link your V2 store purchases by signing into the app, clicking the dropdown with your name in the top left of the popup window, and clicking on the "Advanced" dropdown I don't like the new UI. It feels dumbed down.
• jwr 1y ago
  I hope the older versions (V2) will be maintained for a while… I can't help but worry about the upcoming ensh*ttification — I think it's inevitable that some day some exec at this now large company will come up with innovative ideas for "monetizing those free users" and things will go down the drain as usual. I would be perfectly fine with paying for continued maintenance of V2.
  • greggh 1y ago
    Nope. No more updates and it's removed from the app stores.
• rcarmo 1y ago
  Well, I downloaded the Mac app, and here's what I don't like: - Goodness gracious, that icon. And 3.5GB????? - Requires a login (so I suppose no disconnected operation) - Seems to jumble together the vector, bitmap and publishing apps (which I very much prefer to have as separate things) Mostly everything I've been able to try in 30 minutes seems to work, but a 3.5GB app is a sad sign of the times. Will most likely keep using the old versions until they die on me, especially on the iPad.
  • jama211 1y ago
    It’s because it’s four apps in one, they merged the affinity suite apps then added their own ai app too
    • rcarmo 1y ago
      Fine, but the Mac mini I downloaded this in has very little internal storage, so I am not using this and will only keep the old designer and publisher apps around (Pixelmator is better for my use case)
      • whywhywhywhy 1y ago
        Well the same Adobe apps would be around 10GB so it's a bit pointless to complain about it.
        • a96 1y ago
          Just because something has an even worse version of the problem doesn't mean complaining about it is pointless. The opposite.
  • egypturnash 1y ago
    > a 3.5GB app is a sad sign of the times. It's par for the course, Illustrator 2025 is 2.8 gigs on my Mac for just the binary, 3.29 gigs for its directory in /Applications for some of its support files, plus however much space it takes up in ~/Library for more of its support files. Photoshop's another 4.8 gigs for its binary and InDesign's another 2, so Affinity's doing pretty well to get some part of the functionality of all of those in a mere 3.5 gigs. Or Adobe's hilariously bloated. Or both. Let's go with both, really.
• pelagicAustral 1y ago
  On first impression it feels wonky. I have v2 installed for Photo, Design and Publisher and they all feel much better to work with. I guess I can count my blessings and at least be grateful that it's not yet another Electron clusterfuck a la New Outlook
• keyliejener 1y ago
  [dead]
• greggh 1y ago
  I don't understand this thread at all. I think this is the first time I have seen a thread that talks about something requiring a new account be created at some company, and a nonsensical major change to a product (merging the products into one, optional subscriptions) where the majority of people seem to be saying "thats ok and good luck" to the company. Worse, people who are upset this has happened to software they liked are getting downvoted. These three pieces of software are not the same tool and them all being shoehorned into one UI is just idiotic. It feels like the thread is being astroturfed. They removed our software that we paid for from the Mac Store, and everyone is just like "thats fine, good move canva". Serif did a great job of keeping their software working through macOS major version updates. It's another reason many of us paid for their software. That's gone, and people are just cheering them on. It's very confusing.
  • alt227 1y ago
    Plenty of people in this thread mourning the loss of the only real competitor to Adobe in the design space. This is indeed a sad day.
  • hmstx 1y ago
    Seems like it's, - "good job on the acquisition and maintaining some kind of product" - how many of these are users? - "this is now dead and completely useless to me, I am switching to something FLOSS this instant" - I'm betting v2-decayed-for-a-couple-years still beats GIMP/Inkscape from the future in at least UX for example, and it certainly does now) - some "it's all a scheme for AI training" which would be more of what I'd expect, although for the time being, appears to be FUD when it comes to local files (surely Lord Vader will change the terms further as well) For me it took a bit of self-discipline watching the video announcement first, before checking any comments anywhere. I'm glad I got my v2 licences a few years ago, they've allowed me to dabble in graphics again without losing my mind to other even more affortable products. The strings that come attached with this and the potential lack of options for some workflows later down the line bother me. Just hoping v2 doesn't get too much more unstable with time.
  • Slow_Hand 1y ago
    > These three pieces of software are not the same tool and them all being shoehorned into one UI is just idiotic. Have you used it yet? It's a very elegant implementation. I, for one, am very excited about the workflow advantages of being able to easily switch between all three modalities with a click.
• nirava 1y ago
  This is a deletion. - they're completely stopping all updates to v2; even image trace won't be coming to it. You might have paid for perpetual access to it 2 months ago, but it has completely stopped. As the world moves on (new chips, new OS features, just general software movement) this will increasingly feel like a second-class experience. - the new "free" software is a sales funnel into the paid subscription, and will also increasingly have that "second-class" feeling as new pro-only things are added to it. it is also practically guaranteed to feed your work into AI unless you buy pro sometime in the next 5 years In short, something secure, top class, the "best the company offers" product doesn't exist anymore. What was once there isn't.
  • damnesian 1y ago
    > the new "free" software is a sales funnel into the paid subscription, and will also increasingly have that "second-class" feeling as new pro-only things are added to it There's a plague of this on the entire industry now. Free apps abound, none of them will do exactly what you need, all of them will point you to the shiny unfree thing that will.
    • jonathanstrange 1y ago
      The practice would be easier to tolerate if the unfree thing had reasonable pricing. Alas, it is always subscription-based and the monthly fee is crazy high, in the range of re-buying a traditional download product every four months. I understand that professional users might have more money to spend but it still seems to me that those companies overestimate what potential customers are willing to pay as running costs.
    • netghost 1y ago
      I mean 20+ years ago we called this shareware. If you get value out of the free part of a tool, great! If not, then you get to choose to pay for the rest or not. Personally I'm happy that it tends to be the feature set I can live without that costs money. Not always, but often enough.
      • deleted 1y ago
• fschuett 1y ago
  If possible, please make a Linux version. Just in case any Canva engineer is reading this.
• popcar2 1y ago
  Uhhuh. I think anyone in the tech field can immediately tell where this is going, and I'm not at all excited for it. 1. They silently make it online only. Currently you need to make an account and be online on activation, so they're already one step closer to getting there. 2. They silently ditch the concept of buying and owning Affinity software, but that's okay because it's ~totally free~! 3. As soon as they lock in enough users from how nice and friendly they are, pull the rug. At some point they'll suddenly start locking features behind the pro subscription. It's textbook at this point.
  • grougnax 1y ago
    It's always like this, and it's been like this for 40 years, and every time, people get caught by surprise...
• p_ing 1y ago
  Why did they force the use of Safari to sign into the app? What's the disrespect with the user's browser of choice (and one that already has the valid token)?
  • ezfe 1y ago
    There is no code in Canva that specifically opens Safari, it would be a `ASWebAuthenticationSession` from macOS. Safari is used by default, other browsers have to support this feature to use it and do not, so you just get Safari.
  • ajs1998 1y ago
    Yeah this is driving me crazy. It must be a bug because it says "a new tab has been opened in your default browser" but my default browser is not Safari.
• possiblerobot 1y ago
  The entire Affinity Suite is now reduced to bait on a hook for an AI subscription service. This is enshittification. This arrangement will also undermine Affinity's credibility as a serious tool for work (and play!). I just want to pay for nice software made by thoughtful people like a normal human.
  • TranquilMarmot 1y ago
    Support open source projects with donations and contributions
    • possiblerobot 1y ago
      I'd love to do that, but I haven't seen any projects that have the polish and cohesive vision that I feel pro art / design tools should have. Apps like Inkscape and GIMP have always felt pretty rough around the edges and unpleasant to me, in a way that money won't help. Can you recommend any?
    • GuinansEyebrows 1y ago
      i would gladly pay $500 for GIMP if i felt their developers would prioritize features that i actually need out of an image manipulation program. they never have and by the looks of things, they never will. it's too bad.
      • a96 1y ago
        I wonder if there would be a bounty that you can set up somewhere. That would be a nice chunk to get started on a fork.
• rckt 1y ago
  I opened an SVG file, copy-pasted a shape, exported the file and the new shape was wrapped in a transform tag, which was absolutely unnecessary. Won't be using this. Once there was a great app, Gravit Designer. It produced the cleanest SVG markup. Too bad Corel murdered it.
• lloydjones 1y ago
  I expressly bought this software (Designer, Photo, Publisher) out of principle, against Adobe's enshittification and monopolisation, and because it was premised on "pay once; own it forever". This is obviously the 'tech circle of life' in action, but... how depressing... I've always been guilty of preaching market diversification but sticking with the big(ger) players, but this sort of thing illustrates the need for multiple, viable players that all have good market share, so that – whenever one gets cannibalised and debased into some VC-money-addled marketing funnel – there are others to which people can flock in support/protest
• doawoo 1y ago
  Well, time to donate more money to Krita, Inkscape, etc.
• grougnax 1y ago
  Well. It can now be considered as pure trash. Goodbye, Affinity.
• WillAdams 1y ago
  Thoughts on opensource alternatives? - Inkscape is an obvious one --- there's also https://cenon.info/ https://cenon.info/, perhaps Gravit Designer? Any word on Graphite.rs 's stand-alone desktop version? - GIMP, Paint.net, Darktable and Krita - Scribus or LaTeX or Typst
  • GuinansEyebrows 1y ago
    > GIMP still no cmyk, and AFAIK text editing is almost worse than useless. not everybody's use case, but it keeps me spending 12.99 a month for PS.
  • raincole 1y ago
    And Blender. Yeah I know it sounds like a joke, but all Blender's icons are made in Blender, so it's officially an 2D vector graphics app too.
    • shrinks99 1y ago
      Most of Blender's icons are actually made in Penpot which is also what the Blender foundation uses for UI prototyping. The brush icons are made in Blender though! https://penpot.app/penpothub/libraries-templates/blender-cons-set https://penpot.app/penpothub/libraries-templates/blender-con... https://code.blender.org/2024/11/new-brush-thumbnails/ https://code.blender.org/2024/11/new-brush-thumbnails/
  • starkparker 1y ago
    Haven't seen anything on Graphite.rs (site is still suggesting Q4 2025) but people on the Affinity Discord have been putting a lot of disgruntled new eyes on it.
    • scroot 1y ago
      Thanks for posting, I hadn't even heard of this
  • indrora 1y ago
    Gravit Designer was sunset 9/1 of this year after the acquisition by Corel.
• rekabis 1y ago
  Any app that requires an account just to run a totally-local app, is also a company that can unilaterally deny your ability to run said software on your own computer for whatever reason they want. Thanks, but no thanks. If I install it, it should be mine to do whatever the hell I want to do with it, online OR OFFLINE.
  • gazook89 1y ago
    Their FAQ says that the account and online access are needed for the download and license activation, but after that it can be run offline.
• softfalcon 1y ago
  Oh great, I just finished my year long move from Photoshop to Affinity Photo… Now I have to start over again? Ugghhh…
• HeckFeck 1y ago
  AI has now devoured humanity, and not even with entertainment if it was in a proper dystopian way. It's just engorging all the software products we love, accelerating enshitiffication. We just get another fucking subscription. Why can't we have killer robots to fight instead?
• jesse_dot_id 1y ago
  Bought the Affinity Studio license less than a year ago and I'm feeling incredibly ripped off right now. So much so that I'm going to cancel my Canva subscription. When you do things like this, Canva, you are sending a loud and clear signal to me that even though I paid a lot of money for your product, I am STILL just a product to you and not a customer, and thus can no longer trust any of your offerings. I'm so sick of sellouts.
• deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
• dejongh 1y ago
  Freeium mostly sucks. Escape before they squeeze every drop of blood out of you. There is a cost to everything that is how the reality get's in.
• rohan_ 1y ago
  Isn't everyone using Rive these days?
  • TheRealNGenius 1y ago
    [dead]
• jumpocelot 1y ago
  Unlisted video sent by e-mail to those who subscribed on that mysterious page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UP_TBaKODlw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UP_TBaKODlw
• peteforde 1y ago
  I'm feeling some real hurt seeing this announcement. I bought the Affinity v1 apps, buying into the vision for a no-BS forever app. I was surprised to see a v2 app show up a year after I bought into v1 with what I remember was something like a 25% discount. But this was going to be the new forever app, and I understand wanting to get things right on a second pass. Reading about how v2 will no longer get updates just makes me see red.
  • ezfe 1y ago
    You bought a one time license and the app still works, what's the issue? You can't expect to pay $70 for perpetual software.
    • peteforde 1y ago
      Except that their messaging was very much that this was a product designed by people who believed that you should buy something once and that you should be able to use it for a long, long time. Lots of new content and features in the pipeline. The safe harbor from subscription model bloodsuckers we should support with our dollars on principle. Remember Windows 10 was once marketed as the last Windows? I do. The real harm here is that every time there's a rug pull, our trust evaporates just a little further while our memories get a little bit longer.
  • atoav 1y ago
    Well this puts them on my blacklist. And I am an educator in precisely the artschool they would profit off catering to. I refuse to teach my student tools that change the contract once you bought into them. Adobe is on that list too. The only major non-open source software that isn't is anything by Black Magic or Steam, both companies that have found healthy sustainable business models and jave acted reliable towards creaters and the open source community they relied on in their humbe beginnings.
    • comradesmith 1y ago
      They didn’t change anything about the software you bought? It still functions like it did the day you bought it.
• lloydatkinson 1y ago
  I got the email just now about this. I was happy to pay real money for good software as I had done for Affinity V1 and would have upgraded to V3… but now it’s free because we are the business now. With a big dollop of AI slop on top. Every single time some acquisition happens, this happens. I am more than happy to pay good money for quality software to support a business so it doesn’t need to resort to this. Even a monthly subscription would have been preferable.
• smrtinsert 1y ago
  More TelemetryWare? No thanks!
• tonyhart7 1y ago
  seems like Canva want to take adobe market share
• karaterobot 1y ago
  I bought all the Affinity programs after ditching Adobe, which I'd used for 20 years or so. I'm a professional designer, and even though most of my work is in Figma these days, it's nice having dedicated bitmap editing and document design applications. I bought (two different versions of) these apps specifically because they weren't a SaaS suite with a predatory monthly subscription model, and a constant barrage of cross-promotion and integration with their other products. Now that Figma is public, it's rapidly become another fully enshittified SaaS suite whose only selling point is that there's nothing better out there for now. Affinity is now pivoting in the same direction. What a time to be a designer!
• floo 1y ago
  For context: I own licenses for both Affinity Designer, and the full Affinity 2 suite. Just tried the new affinity application for a couple hours and it's pretty great. Personas are now studios and as far as I can tell features from all apps are now integrated into one. Giving this away for free is insane value and I am very glad to have this as a photoshop alternative.
  • coldcode 1y ago
    Did they remove any features in Photo? Or is it basically just glommed together?
    • floo 1y ago
      Looks complete to me.
• pbowyer 1y ago
  This is well timed as my wife has lost her educator status, and we've canceled Adobe Creative Cloud this month as we can't stomach the jump from £400 to £800/yr.
• egorfine 1y ago
  I'm not sure that's good news actually. If you're not the customer - you're the product.
• BeFlatXIII 1y ago
  …and they still don't have proper Devanagari support.
• mjmas 1y ago
  Won't this end up how Draftsight did? (Free for years but required user details, and then Dassault decided to disable each and every free installation and require a subscription)
• girvo 1y ago
  Oh this is so sad. I was literally trying to buy a license for Photo the other day and confused as to why. I don’t want a Canva license I don’t want a bloody subscription
• mung 1y ago
  I feel like everyone is very negative about something that hasn't happened yet. This gives a desktop environment to Canva users, where the revenue actually is. It's both a trojan horse and a usable product. Will everyone's worse fears come true? Maybe, maybe not. Mean time you have an excellent app, for free, and very few software products, free, open source, closed source, perpetual, subscription.... last "forever". They are often obsoleted by some new product, new workflow or just a new OS. Take it for what it is right now.
  • girvo 1y ago
    > Will everyone's worse fears come true? Yes, they will. Enshittification is a constant and is driven by misaligned investment incentives to that of good products.
  • InsideOutSanta 1y ago
    The new version is a nice update over v2, with some great new features. The downside is that some useful features like background removal will never come to the non-subscription version. OTOH, the subscription is cheap if you think of it as license cost for an Adobe alternative.
  • chemotaxis 1y ago
    > Will everyone's worse fears come true? I mean, it's sort of inevitable. Eventually, Canva will find itself under pressure to grow revenue (or even just weather a downturn). The maintenance of a complex desktop application is expensive and there will be pressure to increase "conversions" by putting more and more of the useful functions behind a paywall. That said, their immediate goal is probably to take away customers from Adobe, and right now, the product is free, has more features than the old Affinity, doesn't need to talk to activation servers on an ongoing basis, and doesn't auto-update. So we should enjoy it while it lasts.
  • blub 1y ago
    It’s already happened: when trying to download, I can’t sign up for “security reasons”. This never happened to me when getting something from the AppStore, or from anyone else really. And that’s the problem with cloudgarbage, you have zero control over it.
• wartywhoa23 1y ago
  If a product is free, the user is the product. Why the account tie? Will it phone home to train yet another AI model on my image editing workflows? Will it work air-gapped?
  • whywhywhywhy 1y ago
    Yeah 100% the hope is to train a model to do the things currently a professional needs hiring for so they can enable an unskilled to prompt that work.
• yoz-y 1y ago
  Arf, and me who was hitting that "update later button", now I wish I had updated to the latest version before the removal from the store. That said, I'll try this when it will become necessary. Affinity tools were great. I downloaded the new Canva version, and although I'm not a fan of the new icons and general look and feel it seems okay. It feels a bit less responsive than the v2, that might be fixed with some "bug fixes & small improvements" releases. I might be just jaded and resigned. Edit: Actually it is still possible to update.
• Slow_Hand 1y ago
  I looove the fact that we can now seamlessly switch between the Photo, Designer, and Publisher modalities within a single program. One of the great things about using the Affinity suite for the last few years has been the consistency of design conventions and key commands across all three programs, so of course it makes sense to merge them all! Whereas Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign all have inherited different commands and conventions from their independent developments and are incongruent. I'm so impressed by the workflow now. This feels like a tremendous win from a workflow standpoint.
  • comradesmith 1y ago
    Yeah I get the feeling everyone is talking about the AI stuff, but the majority of the launch talks about the actual _software_ they’re launching, and I really like it. I’m happy for AI subscribers to subsidise my experience ;)
• benbristow 1y ago
  Well, that's annoying as I bought a licence about 6 months ago. They've missed a trick so far not making a Linux version. People have been crying out for ages that Adobe never made a Linux version of Photoshop, and with the whole Windows 11 debacle now and people shifting over it would make perfect sense.
• j45 1y ago
  I would have rather paid for this product as is and kept paying.
• npilk 1y ago
  What a fascinating thread. I bought Affinity Photo and Designer V1 as one-time purchases a few years ago. I didn't upgrade to V2 when those came out. I have continued to occasionally use the V1 apps - I was just in Photo the other day. To me this is exactly why you would want to buy software licenses as one-time purchases - the company can't rug pull you for what you already bought. If I want, I can keep using the Affinity apps on this machine indefinitely. It seems a lot of people are really frustrated that they purchased software and now the company is doing something else. Isn't the whole point of purchasing a license for standalone software that you are protected in case the company goes under, or gets bought, or decides to do something else? Do people think the apps they bought are going away? Or did they expect to get free updates forever for their one-time purchase? Or am I missing something in this announcement?
  • cromka 1y ago
    They expected to be able to upgrade it in the future to most recent version with a one-time payment fee, like they used to so far.
    • donmcronald 1y ago
      What? Lots of us bought v1, then v2, and would have bought v3 too.
      • nicce 1y ago
        I guess people feel betrayed (while I don’t think that it is justified), when they can’t buy v3 anymore but need to use other means.
  • kyer-sh 1y ago
    You answered your own question. Buying a perpetual license ensures the company can’t rug pull you. Not having the option for a perpetual license gives no guarantees of the sort. One of Serif’s top selling points was the perpetual license, and people were rightfully nervous about the Canva acquisition. They even made it a huge point in their announcement to reassure people who were nervous about the perpetual license model going away. A perpetual license does not entitle me to anything beyond the scope of the license, of course. It’s great that I can use V2 for as long as it serves my needs. But now, when someone new is looking for graphic design software, or if I find am missing some good features in V1 or V2 that get added to the new software, of course I will be upset that I no longer have the option to upgrade to or recommend the non-rug-pullable option. I feel like it’s not unreasonable to have a negative opinion towards the decisions companies make that further the enshittification of the professional software world.
• sedatk 1y ago
  I own Affinity products and I used to be able to login to Serif's site to download them. Now that download link seems to have gone. I wish I had archived those images. Not sure if they would keep working though.
  • nullfield 1y ago
    You still can, or at least I can. https://store.serif.com/en-us/account/ https://store.serif.com/en-us/account/ After login it forwarded me to the new site, but going back has orders, v2 downloads, and stuff.
• nobody9999 1y ago
  >Affinity Studio now free I'd love to have an actually free alternative to the offerings from those rapacious thugs over at Adobe. /RANT But this isn't actually free. Rather than paying with currency, you pay with your PII and, presumably, your attention as you're relentlessly marketed to by Canva and by whomever they decide to sell your PII. This is all too common and folks seem to be okay with it for some unknown reason. If you walked into an art supply store, grabbed the stuff you wanted/needed and headed to the cashier with cash and they refused to sell you anything unless you provided them with your name, phone number, email address, etc., etc., etc. you'd likely walk out without purchasing anything. [N.B.: Yes, Radio Shack always asked for that info, but didn't require it for purchases.] Yet it seems that selling your personal details and attention is perfectly fine online. What's more, since you must have a valid "account" with Canva to use their "free" offering, you are also subject (generally without recourse) to changes in the licensing/subscription models and they can take it away whenever they feel like it. What could go wrong? It's not like that's ever been an issue, right? I'd love to use Affinity Studio. But I won't. Because the price is too high for me. I'd note that these sorts of shenanigans aren't limited to Canva -- far from it. It's just one more vendor contributing to the further enshittification of the tech sphere. And more's the pity. /RANT Why is/isn't it too "expensive" for you? (Note, this is a real question, not a poke at anyone.) Edit: Fixed prose. Added to rant.
• anupj 1y ago
  [dead]
• ch_fr 1y ago
  I was very surprised by this move, because the whole lingo while they were teasing it was giving me much worse vibes than what this ended up being about. I paid for V1, paid again after they released V2 even though I was on Linux which they didn't support. I did it mostly out of support, and also because the community was making strides to get a decent wine setup working, so I would eventually get back to using it if I ever felt like it. More diversity in creative software is always nice to have, and it's good to keep challenging the idea that "Adobe is dominant because it's the best solution". Tho I don't feel like Canva is quite the player I'd be rooting for either. Fortunately, they seem to be handling the existing lifetime licenses a lot better than Autograph did when it got acquired by Maxon. Overall I think I'm rooting for them. Good luck Affinity!
• dom96 1y ago
  Are there any alternatives out there that are still subscription-free and AI-free?
• Hoasi 1y ago
  Another one bites the dust.
• hamish-b 1y ago
  I'm surprised people aren't really talking about how this affects Adobe going into the future. Adobe frankly has been hostile to it's users for the past while, this should really shake up the game. Creatives now have access to a pro-level tool for free with the option to pay extra for AI features. This is a clear shot across Adobe's bow and positions Canva to control the creative vertical from professionals to the average person.
• danpalmer 1y ago
  Using this free desktop app requires Canva sign-in, ok fine, I can stomach that, it's free after all. Signing in launches a browser to complete the sign-in process, but on macOS it launches Safari, not my OS default browser – this takes extra work to do over just using the `openUrl` call on macOS. Safari is blocked. Thankfully something on my system redirects the URL opening to pass it to my orgs enforced browser, I sign-in, and then nothing happens. The page says it has launched Affinity, but Affinity is sitting there doing nothing waiting for me to log in. I realise I'm on a somewhat non-standard setup, but an OAuth login flow is not hard to get right. I've built dozens of these flows in my career and messing it up this much is hard. Edit: > To report a bug within the application, click the "?" button in the top-right corner of the workspace. From the panel, select "Report a Bug". This menu is not accessible until you have signed in. No other method of bug reporting is provided.
  • Torn 1y ago
    I've had good experience contacting canva support in the past who've checked things with engineering teams, you should be able to contact them about their new affinity sign-in
• tracker1 1y ago
  Really wish they'd do a Linux version... Even an app image or flatpak bundled with working wine would be nice to see.
  • slig 1y ago
    Have you seen this? https://github.com/seapear/AffinityOnLinux https://github.com/seapear/AffinityOnLinux
• lukakopajtic 1y ago
  Nothing is free. I think we've all learned that by now. AI issues aside, think about the data you're locking forever when switching to Affinity. As much as we all hate Adobe, their formats are at least reverse-engineered and their specs published. With Canva's new free toy, you don't get that luxury. All of your work and data are basically locked forever in their proprietary format that no open-source software can read. So it's really up to Canva to decide for how long you get to play for free and under what rules.
• agnishom 1y ago
  I can't find the "Pricing" button on the webpage anywhere. I don't want "Free", I want a situation where I can buy and own a perpetual license for the software.
• october8140 1y ago
  This sucks. But it also means the door is open for yet another person to come along and make one-time purchase Vector/Pixel/Layout apps.
  • whywhywhywhy 1y ago
    The cycle will just repeat itself unless they’re open source.
• slmjkdbtl 1y ago
  I'm daily user of the old 3-piece suite, should I be worried they will be taken away from me in the near future?
• rifty 1y ago
  I'm not disappointed at how far Affinity has pushed the baseline for graphic design software up until this point for me with V1 and V2. I'll stay tentatively hopeful that we don't see this backslide in V3 even though i'm not expecting the same development velocity for new baseline features outside of the subscription now. I'm not that hopeful though.. with freemium, everything is subject to be clawed back slowly into a subscription if the subscription offering fails to perform well enough.
• bryanhogan 1y ago
  This is a sad day, but it was obvious something horrible would happen, since they had pulled the products with zero communication, such a user hostile move to remove products for a month.
• weaksauce 1y ago
  I too would really like a linux version of this
  • Maxious 1y ago
    It works under wine (including the V3 version) https://github.com/seapear/AffinityOnLinux https://github.com/seapear/AffinityOnLinux
    • raffraffraff 1y ago
      TY!
    • weaksauce 1y ago
      awesome... thank you!
• retouch 1y ago
  Awesome—I even used to pay for it.
• JSR_FDED 1y ago
  This is a simple business decision by Canva. They see the future of creative work is to lean heavily on AI. So all the basic editing functionality is now table stakes. Giving it away for free is a powerful play against Adobe.
• garganzol 1y ago
  I've been a long-time Affinity Suite user - starting with the 1.x versions and later migrating to 2.x. I recently tried the new Affinity Studio (Affinity 3.x), and one change immediately kills productivity: the artboard background color is now pitch black. Here's why that matters. The artboard background isn't part of a design - it’s a neutral filler color meant to visually separate artboards, much like the wall color in an art gallery. When the background is pure black, darker designs blend into it, making it almost impossible to distinguish artboard boundaries. The result? A confusing, visually fatiguing workspace. Previous Affinity versions got this right: they used a neutral grey, a tried-and-true choice that rarely clashed with any design content. Sadly, this feels like yet another case of form over function. I can easily imagine someone in-house thinking the black background "looked cool", but that aesthetic decision severely compromises usability - and says a lot about where priorities lie. Canva's acquisition of Affinity gives off the same uneasy vibe as Broadcom buying VMware. Great tools, potentially questionable stewardship.
  • JeremyJaydan 1y ago
    You can right click the 'pasteboard' and change it to gray.
    • garganzol 1y ago
      Thanks for the tip. There are some predefined colors out there, but all of them either too dark (darker shades of gray) or too bright (white). My spatial brain needs #e5e5e5 to function properly, but it seems impossible to set that in Affinity 3.0. Edit: never mind, found it at Settings -> User Interface -> Artboard Background Gray Level.
• geenat 1y ago
  Adobe shitting their pants r n
• protocolture 1y ago
  Reminds me of DBAN/EBAN. Was the case we had 2 really good options in enterprise data destruction. EBAN with a yearly license scheme, and BLANCCO with a per hard drive wiped license scheme. BLANCCO buys EBAN, kills the product, but permits DBAN the open source variant to be available permanently, with no modern EBAN features, and no updates. Of course they did make one change to DBAN, it leaves a small image on wiped hard drives advertising BLANCCO. And ofc, there was nothing really preventing Blanccos per hard drive license from increasing. I use both Affinity V2 and Canva. I used Affinity for finicky stuff, and Canva for pointy clicky template based construction when I need something simple, fast. I detest Canva, despite using it. Everything is advertising for the premium version. And I expect Affinity to go the same way, Canvas elements will (if not already) be integrated, and those elements will in most cases advertise themselves as being paid assets. Eventually it will go the way of DBAN and just be an advertisement for Canva. I will ride out V2 for as long as it continues to function. Then I will find something else. This is a tremendous loss.
• Daub 1y ago
  For those of you puzzled as to how three separate apps (Photo, Designer and Publsher) have become one (Studio), as a long-time user it was always clear that under the hood this was always the case. Indeed such interoperability has clearly been built into the Affinity suite from the ground up. This is 100 miles away from the interoperability of Adobe's Dynamic Link whereby apps such as Premier and After Effects are 'united' in a manner that feels clunky and forced. Almost all Adobe apps were acquisitions, and most of them are now horrendously long in the tooth. Uniting them seamlessly would be impossible. I adore Affinity photo for its top to bottom support for high dynamic range images. Editing RAW images is a buttery smooth dream, compared to Photoshop, which feels like I am banging my head against the software.
• garganzol 1y ago
  Despite the mixed feelings I have about this direction, Canva's AI deal seems to be legit. Usually, AI does a fairly limited job when it comes to vector graphics, but this is what I've got with Affinity Studio: > Generate a playful logo for product named "Serenity" using the style of Robin Hood forest and freedom themes The result for such a simple prompt is pretty impressive: https://imgur.com/a/xLZlfQM https://imgur.com/a/xLZlfQM, the produced artifact is already in vector format with tweakable curves, lines, and colors. Well played, Canva. Maybe Affinity Studio is a smart move in the long run. I think I will be among Pro subscribers.
• josfredo 1y ago
  Not devastated by this because faith was not put in any product whatsoever. Just time building up on things. Greed eating out some dreams.
• shahzaibmushtaq 1y ago
  > "Sign up to download" No, thank you.
• xtagon 1y ago
  Not happy. I recently purchased the whole suite and now not only is it now free (didn't need to purchase it), but it's no longer even what I want. And it doesn't work on iPad until they finish whatever rewrite, when cross-platform + apple pencil niceness was a huge draw. Sure, it's free -- but it's no longer the same product with the same priorities.
  • reassess_blind 1y ago
    How long ago? I’d be going for a refund or credit card coverage if you’ve got it.
    • xtagon 1y ago
      I don't feel like they owe me a refund in principle, at the end of the day I paid for subscription-free software and they delivered it, and I'm happy to do that exchange. I just don't like the changes and the future direction and that I won't be receiving updates to the one I'm currently using.
      • reassess_blind 1y ago
        Ah, I thought you’d paid a one off fee.
• monkeywork 1y ago
  Wish they would properly support linux - the Affinity products are PAINFUL if not near impossible to get working in wine.
  • samuell 1y ago
    I was going to ask about wine support. Anyone tried in Bottles (wine distribution)? I've had better luck with Bottles than plain Wine with other software. Hoping to try soon.
    • pqb 1y ago
      In the article [0] (also posted on HackerNews [1]) they share a link to page, which is a guide how to run new Affinity (v3) using Wine/Bottles combo [2]. [0]: https://tedium.co/2025/10/30/canva-affinity-free-loss-leader-strategy/ https://tedium.co/2025/10/30/canva-affinity-free-loss-leader... [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45771211 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45771211 [2]: https://affinity.liz.pet/ https://affinity.liz.pet/
• raffraffraff 1y ago
  Still doesn't work on Linux :(
• ctippett 1y ago
  I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere, but the application bundle on macOS hints at a pretty robust scripting API using Javascript. The functionality doesn't seem to be exposed from what I can see in the app. /Applications/Affinity.app/Contents/Resources/JSLib ├── application.js ├── artboardinterface.js ├── artboardproperties.js ├── baseboxinterface.js ├── brushfillinterface.js ├── buffer.js ├── collection.js ├── colours.js ... ├── units.js ├── vectorbrush.js └── visibilityinterface.js
  • Kelteseth 1y ago
    Nice catch! As a V1 and then V2 user, this was the only thing that was missing for me :)
  • obliquely 1y ago
    In the "first look video" Ash Hewson (Affinity CEO) says "“we’ve also got full scripting capability coming very, very soon” (at 21:33). What's said in the video is that this - and some other developments - will be part of "free" and not dependent on subscription. https://youtu.be/UP_TBaKODlw?si=lJkRZ6l8ekQRF43R&t=1293 https://youtu.be/UP_TBaKODlw?si=lJkRZ6l8ekQRF43R&t=1293
• cprecioso 1y ago
  I'm disappointed to see so many negative responses to such a good thing to do. I understand where it's coming from, the distrust on progressively de-empowering freemium apps. But if there was a product to gain some trust (or at least the benefit of the doubt) on doing the right thing, and having a fair and balanced approach to monetization, it is Affinity. Same thing they've been doing for years. I for one, think this is a really nice thing, and that it gives access to really well-made and actual professional-level design tools to a huge swath of people who didn't have it before, be it for personal use or for work. No previously included feature is now part of the subscription, and they've made sure to say they'll be free forever. I see this as a huge win.
• Dilettante_ 1y ago
  on macOS or Windows. >:(
• deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
• pietmichal 1y ago
  This is a step 1 in the process of enshittification. When the AI bubble bursts, Canva will stop being so generous and they have all cards in place in case they have to stop being nice.
• carlottatotta 1y ago
  [flagged]
• carlottatotta 1y ago
  [flagged]
• asyncwanderer 1y ago
  I’m just happy good design tools are free again, feels like a win for everyone.
• s0teri0s 1y ago
  The software I paid money for better not update to this crap.
• qustrolabe 1y ago
  This thread is pure doomerism. Program became free and people made up tens of scenarios why this is bad, awful and literally the end. I mean I understand it's "too good to be true" and some "rug pull" is coming, but people acting like it's "over over". So far what I've got is a new amazing photo editor that's unlike GIMP has "Inpaint brush" and "Patch tool" and even has free built-in image segmentation model and tons of other good features and even, seems, should support Photoshop plugins. Even if every single new feature going from now on will be gated behind some absurdly priced subscription I'm still totally fine with what i've been given already. No way they bet entirely on AI thing popping off, unless they'll come up with their own "Nano Banana" idk who really needs simple "text to image" model, and even if they do it's still not that good to be worthy of subscription. On another note subscription right now also gives access to three local running models: upscale, depth map generation and colorizer, pretty cool small models in addition to segmentation that's given for free, I guess they might end up adding additional later there. Another thing I see is that several third party services baked in, for example Dropbox in linked services and two stock image providers Pexels and Pixabay, maybe that covers some cost for them. On mysterious ploy to gather all users data for Big AI I see one concerning thing: Right away program asked whether I want to share data and I selected option "no" but then in settings suspicious "Send usage and performance data to Affinity" was enabled, either I forgot that I pressed yes or it's a bug or something intentional.
• progx 1y ago
  Linux please!!! :D
• calmingsolitude 1y ago
  Downloaded v3 but it kept crashing for me on Windows 10. Possibly because I had designer v1 previously installed. If anyone's facing the same issue, deleting %APPDATA%\Affinity directory fixes this.
• srmatto 1y ago
  As of right now it seems like if you have the old V2 apps installed they can still be (re)activated with your old Serif/Affinity license that is tied to an email. I was able to just do that with Designer v2. I also seem to be able to re-down them through the Apple App Store and they work fine. You do get a prompt "Would you like to keep your app linked to your Affinity Store account? This allows you to automatically stream any free or purchased content you have directly to your app." But its unclear to me what that means at the moment given that Canva has changed the licensing model.
• js-j 1y ago
  They've lost a loyal customer. I no longer have a reason to continue using the product, and would rather switch to Adobe.
  • ndr42 1y ago
    What was your reason to use the product (to what end) and what has changed now that you now have no reason to continue to use it? What has Adobe to do with it? I get that some have fears that Affinity is getting unusable for them in the future so maybe it's good to look for alternatives. But if you are willing to switch to Adobe you can do this when it has gotten unusable.
    • js-j 1y ago
      The promise of Affinity: a professional graphic design package without the hefty monthly subscription cost of Adobe. Now it is "free". How come?! I don't take it! It's a fundamental law of economics that there is no free lunch. I will not be paying for the product with my personal data. Adobe's products are more professional than Affinity's, and they are de facto the norm for professional graphic design. The main reason for me to consider non-free software for graphic design is not that Gimp, Inkscape, etc. are not good enough and lacking in features. It's about the social aspect of working and interacting with other peer designers.
• antonyh 1y ago
  I loved the Affinity apps, but not on a subscription. I don't do subscriptions or 'freemium' for apps, only for content. On desktop I'll move to Krita / Inkscape / Scribus. On iPad, not sure yet. The key here is watching out for proprietary formats that won't open without the app or subscription; this is something we are going through with Microsoft Publisher offboarding right now to ensure we can archive and read the designs in the future. The same applies to Affinity - if you value past creations, export them to a common future-proof format.
• Mobius01 1y ago
  I am disappointed by this development, as the precedent for this business model is out there for anyone to see. But I have little to add about that What I do hope to see is more talent and investment contributed to OSS tools. It would really benefit everyone if GIMP, Inkscape, Krita and others received the Blender treatment.
• fhennig 1y ago
  I was using Affinity Designer! I still will, I liked it. I was really happy about the pay-once model. It's quite obvious that it's now a funnel into the subscription, and that's not great.
• sunjester 1y ago
  Doesn't support my operating system.
• Atalocke 1y ago
  I think a lot of commentor here forget that Canva is a large, profitable company that has a long track record of putting its consumers first. I'm not going to pretend that the fruit won't ever sour, but a company that wants to get more people in design, upsell them on fremium optional features, and has other profitable businesses to support the funnel is a hell of a lot better than Adobe. If Serif was going to be acquired, I can't think of a better company to have done it.
• Atalocke 1y ago
  I've been using the affinity suite since v1 for nearly a decade. Upgraded to v2 when that came out, and use it weekly on my iPad and Desktop. I was warry of Canva for a while, but my wife really got into it for designing and printing signage, invitations, and cards for our wedding. She's a light prosumer, and seeing her be able to create some really awesome stuff and fuel her creativity made me quite happy. Well worth the $15/m for pro to see her smile and be proud of herself. I was worried when they bought Serif, but this new Affinity gives me hope. Canva makes good design products but they've been missing from the pro market. We all know Adobe runs that arena, and that most consumers are sick of their business practices. Canva is probably the best company positioned right now to compete with Adobe, and they have a huge incentive to bring users over. Keeping the base app free while enabling an optional subscriptions for the only remote component with operating costs lets Canva keep their top level funnel wide open. Even if most users don't pay for AI, that's still a huge number of people in the Canva ecosystem. Of all the companies to buy Serif, Canva is probably the best case scenario.
• OutputRiff 1y ago
  I still always wanted Serif to build a really solid competitor to Lightroom's catalog management. Thats the only thing I never got from them. Otherwise, I've always been a fan of Affinity photo.
• AlienRobot 1y ago
  This is very disappointing. I bought Affinity because I thought a "pay once, own the software" was a business model worth supporting. In fact, people loved to point to Affinity's transactional model to contrast it with Adobe's subscription model. Now it will become freeware, and by "freeware" I mean "nagware" because it will keep telling you about pro/AI features that you don't have access to. Just like on Windows you don't own the system, on this "freeware" you don't own the software. You're a renter, a freeloader. So you can't complain about the ads. But you WANTED to just buy the thing so you wouldn't have to deal with ads. That option is now off the table. Imagine if you bought a boat and you can't just enter every room of the boat, because the boat comes with a bouncer that stands in front of a certain door and he won't let you enter. That's what it feels like. Not only the boat isn't yours, it is also not a welcoming place to be. It will always feel like you're an outsider being conditionally allowed on someone's software instead of just being a guy using a thing you own. I don't know. On some days I feel I just don't like software anymore.
  • a96 1y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Free_Software_Definition https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Free_Software_Definition - none of these problems.
• lellenlelmat 1y ago
  Great Programm
• vlad 11mo ago
  I explained to Affinity this summer, "...it would only be in your favor to have a designer learn your tools instead of Figma and Adobe, because the reason they got popular is because people brought them to work." In 2025, Affinity's trial was one week. Last year, hundreds of thousands of people saw ads and signed up for 6 month licenses. I signed up, but I didn't activate. There was no requirement to activate immediately in the offer, and the welcome email specifically mentioned the license would start after the downloadable products were activated. Affinity announced in 2024 that the offer has been updated: the 6 month licenses would expire immediately if not started in the next weeks. Since I had written my own desktop software products, I advised Affinity to email the hundreds of thousands of people and offer another long license, especially if they didn't activate or didn't use it. I explained my advice to affinity@serif.com: "I decided... I'm not going to be using my time to learn new design software in a week's trial... I think there is a very easy and (practically) free solution, like I wrote in the original replies, including extending a license." "...it would only be in your favor to have a designer learn your tools instead of Figma and Adobe, because the reason they got popular is because people brought them to work." And now, the 2024 web page with the offers redirects to the new announcement!