Affinity (Serif) Sold

[Glevum Owl]

Anyone else notice that UK based Serif, makers of PS alternative Affinity Photo, were bought out by Australian company Canva?

I’m puzzled as to why there is nothing on the forum about this. Too few Affinity Photo users here? Or are we all happy with the alternatives?

 

[davidzvi]

I had been holding out hope for them, I thought they were supposed to be coming out with a true LR competitor. But that seems to have gone by the wayside.

 

[Glevum Owl]

Not long after the release of the first Mac only Affinity software, Serif hinted that they were considering an LR alternative. I contacted them directly a year or so later and they confirmed it was planned but only when the Affinity line was well established.

I honestly can’t see that happening now.

Canva are an online service provider. Expect an Affinity subscription model. I’ll give it three years, max. before that happens.

 

[rayvonn]

I’m puzzled as to why there is nothing on the forum about this.

A fair enough observation given each new edition of PS and any competing cheaper software aiming to provide a viable alternative used to get fanfares. It’s not like that so much anymore is it. Well I can only answer for my part which is that PP software used to be critical to my workflow and its ability to significantly alter an image. As I gotten older I’ve grown to accept (respect?) the output of what my chosen camera/ lens combinations give me. That’s the priority for me, working around that, before any PP considerations. I do still use PP of course, that’s a given seeing as I only shoot raw, it’s just not as critical as it once was, I can use older software without new releases being so relevant.

 

[Richard]

As an Affinity user I was sent an email about the changes a few weeks ago. This is what they said about moving to a subscription model:

We are committed to fair, transparent and affordable pricing, including the perpetual licenses that have made Affinity special.

We share a commitment to making design fairer and more accessible. For Canva, this has meant making our core product available for free to millions of people across the globe, and for Affinity, this has meant a fairly priced perpetual license model. We know this model has been a key part of the Affinity offering and we are committed to continue to offer perpetual licenses in the future.

If we do offer a subscription, it will only ever be as an option alongside the perpetual model, for those who prefer it. This fits with enabling Canva users to start adopting Affinity. It could also allow us to offer Affinity users a way to scale their workflows using Canva as a platform to share and collaborate on their Affinity assets, if they choose to.

-R