[Design Software] Serif Affinity (by Canva) Designer/Publisher/Photo now free

[Kirean]

Canva just released Affinity product suite completely free: https://www.affinity.studio/

Has a paid sub for AI related features.

Needs a Canva account.

Haven't found a good breakdown on what else might be new compared to V2. If you had bought V2, you can still access those purchases / downloads.

I'm positively surprised it didn't go full subscription model.

I still don't know how I really feel considering distrust against Canva in the long run and if "free" is a ruse for something else.

I hope Adobe is at least slightly soiling themselves though.

Edit:

They added a video: 

 

Edited Thursday at 08:29 PM by Kirean
added a video

[The Dispossessed Orangutan]

Affinity deprecated their forums last month and told folks who wanted to learn workarounds for the lack of basic features or the pernicious bugs that seemed to take forever to fix to sign up on a Discord server.

I frequently use Affinity Designer v2 and prefer it to Illustrator because it feels more comfortable and less like an engineering program. Still, most of the time, I wished it were being maintained and developed by a small operation of go-getters rather than a 12-tone styled bureaucracy of professional irresponsibility representatives.  The rate of tangible improvement via periodic updates was glacially slow, and, like so many org-chart-developer software products, bugs seemed to be introduced more frequently than fixes.

Despite the product's decade-long existence, many basic features are still missing.

I doubt Canva's AI subscription system will address any of the down-and-dirty workflow hindrances that humans who want to work with vector art face while using Affinity products.

I guess it is time to start learning the arcane ways of Vectorstyler and hope for the best.

 

Edited Thursday at 05:04 PM by The Dispossessed Orangutan

[aidan o driscoll]

@Kirean Just downloaded, not installed yet. Saw this was the case elsewhere.

Straight away when I saw the new "deal" I thought of our Bandlab and Cakewalk experience. 

At the moment the subscription is for extra Canva AI tools if thats your thing:

"With Affinity, you’ll get all the professional tools you need for your design, photo editing, and page layout projects, free of charge. If you’re on a Canva premium plan, you’ll also be able to unlock Canva AI tools directly in Affinity for a super-powered workflow."

How long this will lastv will be interesting AND how long with the "Standard" Affinity suite be updated.

ALSO - they seem to have wound Photo, Designer and Publisher into ONE APP rather that 3 seperate apps.

On this page further down they detail difference tween Affinity and Affinity + Canva AI

https://www.affinity.studio/get-affinity

 

Edited Thursday at 05:08 PM by aidan o driscoll

[aidan o driscoll]

Just installed it alongside Affinity 2 which was already on the system. Didnt ask any questions about older version. Added a new Affinity icon to desktop. Its Affinity V3

[aidan o driscoll]

OK installed and running - indeed all three apps from the traditional affinity suite are rolled in together now:

Vector is Affinity Design
Pixel is Affinity Photo
Layout is Affinity Publisher

My old Affinity 2 suite still works fine

 

Edited Thursday at 05:19 PM by aidan o driscoll

[aidan o driscoll]

Might be worth downloading the latest V2 updates & store away, they are still there ..

[Brian Walton]

45 minutes ago, aidan o driscoll said:

@Kirean Just downloaded, not installed yet. Saw this was the case elsewhere.

Straight away when I saw the new "deal" I thought of our Bandlab and Cakewalk experience. 

At the moment the subscription is for extra Canva AI tools if thats your thing:

"With Affinity, you’ll get all the professional tools you need for your design, photo editing, and page layout projects, free of charge. If you’re on a Canva premium plan, you’ll also be able to unlock Canva AI tools directly in Affinity for a super-powered workflow."

How long this will lastv will be interesting AND how long with the "Standard" Affinity suite be updated.

ALSO - they seem to have wound Photo, Designer and Publisher into ONE APP rather that 3 seperate apps.

On this page further down they detail difference tween Affinity and Affinity + Canva AI

https://www.affinity.studio/get-affinity

 

For anyone that owned all 3 it felt like one app (other than a few limitations on the photo side) for years due to the studio link functionality.  If you opened publisher you could switch between all 3 in the same way they have done here.  

 

vs the new interface:

The announcement video claims they are going with the "free model" forever on this.  Time will tell, but at least I'm glad the update wasn't another money grab.  This is going to take some getting used to though with the interface changes.  

[Kirean]

Yeah. Everything is fine and dandy now, but I feel like there's an incentive to block "pro" features down the line unless you cough up for a sub. Best case scenario though, is that it irritates Adobe. 

The lack of bug fixes, (slow or non existent) feature updates was always weird. Serif really had/has a great set of tools, but instead of steamrolling on and pushing forward, it almost feels like they got too content too fast. I wouldn't have minded paying quite a bit more every few years for monumental improvements.

But we'll see. I'm glad nothing disastrous happened yet, but can't shake the uneasy feeling.

[aidan o driscoll]

Here is a thing to be aware of from the Affinity Designer facebook group:

"The new affinity reads the old v1 and v2 files without issues and gives you a warning that they are files created with earlier versions [similar to v2 on v1 files]. Seeing the new tool has a different file format [.af], files saved here can't be opened with the older affinity versions."

Edited yesterday at 11:29 AM by aidan o driscoll

[Scott R. Garrigus]

Never used these, but I'll check them out. Thanks!

[aidan o driscoll]

Just now, Scott R. Garrigus said:

Never used these, but I'll check them out. Thanks!

@Scott R. Garrigus When serif first released and then deveoloped AFFINITY suite, over time many jumped ship from Adobe photoshop because they got pee'd off with the subscription thing. Affinity was always buy it outright, not a sub. Plus toolset wise it was as us muso's say say "close enough for jazz" to photoshop to make the jump worth it. 

[aidan o driscoll]

The assets - - brushes etc - you have in V1, V2 and bought which are at the old Serif / Affinity site .. which you can still log into here:

https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/v2

Do not auto install in the NEW CANVA AFFINITY. To install them you can download your assets from above and then drag/drop into the I/F of the new Canva Affinity app.

If you have any custom assets, then go to the old v2 app and over right in say the Brushes panel click the downarrow while the asset you want to export is selected, then choose EXPORT Brushes. Save it, then into new Canva Affinity and drag drop asset file to the U/I

Another way to do the lot is - at the Welcome panel that pops up when you open Canva Affinity ( if not available, click the big white A top left. Then where your user name is top left of that Welcome panel is a little down arrow. Go to ADVANCED and select link V2 account ( or similar, it will be obvious ). a login box for your old AFFINITY A/C will pop up. Login. 

Once this is done go back to the Welcome panel, top left, downarrow by your username, ADVANCED and select MANAGE PURCHASED CONTENT. a box will open with all your purchased assets etc and you can either install individually or via the hamburger menu item top right select Download / Install All 

Edited yesterday at 01:55 PM by aidan o driscoll

[Esteban Villanova]

People are NOT talking this well on the subreddit. Everybody just assumes that the "free forever" statement (mentioned four times in the release video, btw) is just temporary.

We've all been burned too many times to trust any company now. 

[aidan o driscoll]

30 minutes ago, Esteban Villanova said:

People are NOT talking this well on the subreddit. Everybody just assumes that the "free forever" statement (mentioned four times in the release video, btw) is just temporary.

We've all been burned too many times to trust any company now. 

@Esteban Villanova If thats what people think, then there are other options out there.

1. Back to adobe with a sub
2. Go the open source THE GIMP route.
3. Stick with V1 or V2 of old AFFINITY for life and work away as you always did.

If the latter is the road you take then make sure you download the old AFFINITY installers & assets  from your old account here:

 https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/v2

This of course is all up to each user. No one is FORCING anyone to switch to the new Canva AFFINITY. Of course however, the Canva version will be updated as we move forward while the old V2 will not be, it is as it is now.

My 2 cents -  You can download and install the new Canva AFFINITY on the same system as the old V2 Affinity and both work away without messing with each other. So really instead of worrying about the future, right now you can have the best of both worlds FOR FREE ( old and new working side by side )

One caveat however, as I stated above - the new Canva AFFINITY saves files in a DIFFERENT format - .af

So if opening old Affinity files in the new Canva Affinity App I would SAVE AS a different name for the new version, maintaining the old version. Maybe have seperate data folders for each. Yes a bit of a hassle, but really not that much.

If completely paranoid  .. make a copy of the old file first, paste into a new Canva affinity data folder and open that one and save it

Edited yesterday at 02:09 PM by aidan o driscoll

[aidan o driscoll]

MORE

The new Canva Affinity -  Up top left where you have the "apps" listed - Vector, Pixel, layout you also have a vertical 3 dot drop down menu called the STUDIO MANAGER. Here you can get rid of the CANVA AI item if you wish BUT you can also add MORE - Retouching, Slice, Color Grading, Typography, Compositing

You can also CREATE YOUR OWN "STDIO" layouts via the Create studio button at bottom of image below. I imagine you can then share these with others

Edited yesterday at 03:43 PM by aidan o driscoll

[Scott R. Garrigus]

3 hours ago, aidan o driscoll said:

@Scott R. Garrigus When serif first released and then deveoloped AFFINITY suite, over time many jumped ship from Adobe photoshop because they got pee'd off with the subscription thing. Affinity was always buy it outright, not a sub. Plus toolset wise it was as us muso's say say "close enough for jazz" to photoshop to make the jump worth it. 

Normally, I use PhotoImpact Pro and / or Xara Designer Pro for any graphical asset needs, but I'm definitely interested in seeing what this suite can do in that regard.

[jackson white]

haven't reviewed the complete list of new features, but noting they've finally integrated some form of bmp > vector conversion which was why i never upgraded to V2. a new file format is a reasonable expectation given the 3 in 1 consolidation but not so different from the previous workflow. @aidan o driscoll  thx for the note on the 3rd party assets.

seems to me Canva believes the future is in ai tools and is making a bet to capture market share before any incumbents can counter. certainly more of an opportunity than incremental upgrades for a "we're-not-subscription" alts. 

[Esteban Villanova]

5 hours ago, aidan o driscoll said:

@Esteban Villanova If thats what people think, then there are other options out there.

1. Back to adobe with a sub
2. Go the open source THE GIMP route.
3. Stick with V1 or V2 of old AFFINITY for life and work away as you always did.

If the latter is the road you take then make sure you download the old AFFINITY installers & assets  from your old account here:

 https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/v2

This of course is all up to each user. No one is FORCING anyone to switch to the new Canva AFFINITY. Of course however, the Canva version will be updated as we move forward while the old V2 will not be, it is as it is now.

My 2 cents -  You can download and install the new Canva AFFINITY on the same system as the old V2 Affinity and both work away without messing with each other. So really instead of worrying about the future, right now you can have the best of both worlds FOR FREE ( old and new working side by side )

One caveat however, as I stated above - the new Canva AFFINITY saves files in a DIFFERENT format - .af

So if opening old Affinity files in the new Canva Affinity App I would SAVE AS a different name for the new version, maintaining the old version. Maybe have seperate data folders for each. Yes a bit of a hassle, but really not that much.

If completely paranoid  .. make a copy of the old file first, paste into a new Canva affinity data folder and open that one and save it

I don't have a paid license, but I used the extended demo they offered at some point. I'm happy with the new Affinity myself, it's running smoothly in my humble machine. I just went there to see what people thought. Not a lot of positive vibes, but hey, it's Reddit.

[Brian Walton]

1 hour ago, jackson white said:

haven't reviewed the complete list of new features, but noting they've finally integrated some form of bmp > vector conversion which was why i never upgraded to V2. a new file format is a reasonable expectation given the 3 in 1 consolidation but not so different from the previous workflow. @aidan o driscoll  thx for the note on the 3rd party assets.

seems to me Canva believes the future is in ai tools and is making a bet to capture market share before any incumbents can counter. certainly more of an opportunity than incremental upgrades for a "we're-not-subscription" alts. 

I'd bet they are probably correct.  The number of edit and create things completely manually is already becoming a tiny subset of the people out there creating content.

I've been shocked to see how many people with no art skills at all have a canva account and literally get paid to use it at a job.  Everything from an office manager using it to create name tags or flyers to people creating their entire marketing campaigns with it.  The money has always been in selling to companies not individual creators and the market for people that want that AI assistance without having to dedicate years to get good at design is where the lions share is.

[antler]

7 hours ago, Esteban Villanova said:

People are NOT talking this well on the subreddit. Everybody just assumes that the "free forever" statement (mentioned four times in the release video, btw) is just temporary.

We've all been burned too many times to trust any company now. 

True. But let's also not forget MeldaProduction and Image‑Line (and probably a few others that have slipped my mind) have been good on their word for free updates so far.