The death of Serif Affinity

[Derek Smith]

Canva has bought out Affinity. I use their software: photo, Publisher and Designer, as good as the similar products from Adobe for my needs and for less than a year's subscription. A lot less. But they've sold out.

I suppose part of the reason is the cost of continually improving the software with no regular income stream. But still a downer for me. I lose nothing I suppose as the software is a 'for life' purchase and it is more than sufficient for me at the moment and there seems to be no major upgrade in cameras coming soon, but I'm a bit irritated.

This will not go well for Affinity fans.

[Derek Smith]

Riley Blue said:

That's a bit sad. It was Page Plus, Draw Plus and Photo Plus that got me involved with magazine production in the first place, a long while ago. I moved on later to InDesign, Xpress, Photoshop and Lightroom but for a long while those are what I learnt with and used.

I had the whole Serif range pre Affinity, including Movie Plus, although I used PS as well. Photo Plus was great when all you needed was a quick crop or edit. When Affinity Photo came out in Beta, I thought I'd give it a go, despite still using PS. I quite enjoyed the fun of its steady improvement until it was stable. I bought Photo and loved in. When the next subscription for PS came round, I pulled out. Never looked back. With the three Affinity programmes in Studio I thought it was perfect. Being able to swop programmes with just one click was a revolution for me.

I don't think, or maybe just can't remember, Affinity ever marketing Photo as an alternative or replacement for PS, and Photo2 stood on its own. When Affinity2 runs its course, Canva will go subscription. I won't follow. I don't use some of the facilities of Photo2 now, and I doubt anyone does. Or of PS come to that.

The interface took a little getting used to, not as much as DaVinci Resolve (still not subscription), but I preferred it.

It's a shame. Affinity was a breath of fresh air.

[Derek Smith]

From various sources, it would appear that Canva want to challenge Adobe, producing a better Photoshop et al. That wasn't what the Serif crew wanted. The Affinity trio, especially in 2 mode, stood on its own. There were differences, and I preferred most of them. The Studio bit was good for me. I don't want something that, in the minds of the developers, is better than PS. I merely want Affinity3 to be an improvement of Affinity2.

That said, there were rumours that Affinity2 would be subscription only. Maybe Canva are not in it for the money but for the benefit of the non Adobe community as a whole.

Maybe.