Affinity is now free (ish)
Discussion
The new Affinity update, Studio, has been announced and the download is available on the Canva site.
The launch was badly handled I think, with a lot of negatives from owners of the software. I’ve been with Affinity since Beta of the original, 9 years ago or so, and wasn’t looking forward to the changes. However, it’s not as bad as many people predicted and better than some hoped it might be.
Some things from Affinity2 have been lost, or at least are not apparently available in the new Studio, but these might be accessed via the new interface. The UI has been changed a fair, which will make it difficult to work with both I think, although it can be personalised. The big selling point, that it is free, is the one that’s being pushed, alongside all three of the A2 apps being fully amalgamated. You could switch between Photo, Publisher and Designer in any one of the apps in A2, which was a major advantage over Adobe, and this makes it a bit slicker.
If you want AI, this will be/is available via Canva subscription, but the cost hasn’t been announced yet. It will include other routines, and I presume cloud-based facilities as well.
No classification of images included in Studio unfortunately. I’ve been learning the UI of DigiKam, and it is just as well I think. As a free bit of software, Studio is unbeatable. It seems to be better than A2, although there’s been little coverage of the Publisher aspect, so I’m not expecting anything major there. Will it challenge Adobe? Certainly not for pros with the free version. With Canva subscription, who can say, but their pricing has been aggressive in the past. I have little use for AI in images so am unlikely to spend money on Canva’s offerings.
I’ve been reassured. But as a lesson on how not to run a product launch, Canva has it cracked.
For an overview of a late Beta, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTeperbIZBc
The launch was badly handled I think, with a lot of negatives from owners of the software. I’ve been with Affinity since Beta of the original, 9 years ago or so, and wasn’t looking forward to the changes. However, it’s not as bad as many people predicted and better than some hoped it might be.
Some things from Affinity2 have been lost, or at least are not apparently available in the new Studio, but these might be accessed via the new interface. The UI has been changed a fair, which will make it difficult to work with both I think, although it can be personalised. The big selling point, that it is free, is the one that’s being pushed, alongside all three of the A2 apps being fully amalgamated. You could switch between Photo, Publisher and Designer in any one of the apps in A2, which was a major advantage over Adobe, and this makes it a bit slicker.
If you want AI, this will be/is available via Canva subscription, but the cost hasn’t been announced yet. It will include other routines, and I presume cloud-based facilities as well.
No classification of images included in Studio unfortunately. I’ve been learning the UI of DigiKam, and it is just as well I think. As a free bit of software, Studio is unbeatable. It seems to be better than A2, although there’s been little coverage of the Publisher aspect, so I’m not expecting anything major there. Will it challenge Adobe? Certainly not for pros with the free version. With Canva subscription, who can say, but their pricing has been aggressive in the past. I have little use for AI in images so am unlikely to spend money on Canva’s offerings.
I’ve been reassured. But as a lesson on how not to run a product launch, Canva has it cracked.
For an overview of a late Beta, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTeperbIZBc
Cheers Derek, i have Affinity Photo 2 and was wondering what the changes were going to be.
The key thing for me is if there are any more/better tools in Studio than in AP2, (and what is lost) if not i wont bother downloading it.
I have no interest in any of the generated AI stuff with the exception of a remove rool as good as the one in PS.
Having said that i rarely use AP now anyway as I use Capture One for just about everything.
I’ll be interested to see how it performs.
The key thing for me is if there are any more/better tools in Studio than in AP2, (and what is lost) if not i wont bother downloading it.
I have no interest in any of the generated AI stuff with the exception of a remove rool as good as the one in PS.
Having said that i rarely use AP now anyway as I use Capture One for just about everything.
I’ll be interested to see how it performs.
I've been playing with the new Affinity (V3 or Studio?) for a couple of hours.
All my own opinion of course, but it seems little better than V2, although I do appreciate the mods I can do to the UI. Other than that, it's a bit meh.
That said, it's great for the majority of photographers who want to fiddle with images. And it's free. In the 10 years I've been using Affinity, I find I use it for just a few procedures and these on V3 are all present and more or less the same, so I probably won't jump ship. At the moment, I don't use and don't want AI. If that changes, I might consider using Canva AI. It's £100pa, or £13pcm (which works out at more than half as much again per annum), plus a 30-day free trial.
From the pov of an Affinity owner, it's a non-event. I'd recommend it for anyone new to photo-editing, or coming in from less sophisticated software.
All my own opinion of course, but it seems little better than V2, although I do appreciate the mods I can do to the UI. Other than that, it's a bit meh.
That said, it's great for the majority of photographers who want to fiddle with images. And it's free. In the 10 years I've been using Affinity, I find I use it for just a few procedures and these on V3 are all present and more or less the same, so I probably won't jump ship. At the moment, I don't use and don't want AI. If that changes, I might consider using Canva AI. It's £100pa, or £13pcm (which works out at more than half as much again per annum), plus a 30-day free trial.
From the pov of an Affinity owner, it's a non-event. I'd recommend it for anyone new to photo-editing, or coming in from less sophisticated software.
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