Affinity has been bought by Canva, to compete with Adobe.
It was of course a matter of time before Affinity would outgrow its status of sympathetic small-scale Adobe alternative, and be sold for large proceeds.
Canva is into AI. Hopefully Affinity will get some useful AI-powered image processing tools, like upscalers and denoisers, but Canva will probably add generative shit and introduce subscriptions sooner or later.
But to be honest, before switching to Affinity, I was still using old Adobe suite software, versions from before the subscription model... Even if Affinity goes to the subscription model, you probably don't need the all new super fancy version. If you bought the v2 just keep it, use it for 5-10+ years, until another competitor rises and the cycle starts anew! 😅
@metin yeah, I am happy user of Affinity v2 (I also have v1 as I bought it via AppStore) and I really hope that they will not move fully into subscription. If they will provide subscription for some stuff (like generative AI, which can be sometimes useful for human artists, but as an addition to human work, not just "slap prompt and you made art shit"), then it will be ok. But I want my application to stay mine, it is one of the reasons why I have gave up Adobe and I encourage my wife to do so
@metin and hell, I am no graphic designer or anything (TBH I suck at anything art related, though I am trying). Affinity with their "buy once" was a breath of the fresh air in the waves of subscription models. You can suck all the money in the world from AI-generated-shit crowd, you are more than welcome to, just leave simple people like me, who want to edit some stuff from time to time alone. I paid literally only for that reason.
@metin I know them, the thing is that @GIMP is still missing features like non-destructive editing. I was user of GIMP for quite some time before I switched to macOS and it works pretty well, but when you meander into semi-advanced stuff, then it starts to shows some rough edges.
@hauleth@metin Hi! Just in case you missed this, we've got non-destructive layer effects in our dev builds now. You can even test the feature with our last development version (GIMP 2.99.18). This will be in the stable GIMP 3 which should be released within a few months. 😄
@mbt3d The Affinity press release shows exactly the same "We're so excited and grateful" bullshit as Pixologic wrote when they sold themselves to Maxon. It's all commercial self-interest, as usual.
The FAQ is also reminiscent of the ZBrush FAQ after the Maxon take-over: there's no explicit "There won't be a subscription". 😖
Maxon introduced subscriptions faster than you could process the Pixologic take-over.
@mbt3d@metin And I wonder if this was the plan all along: secretly planning for a takeover (and luxury yacht) as they smiled at our social media posts which promoted Afinity as a moral alternative to that gluttony which is adobe. Affinity even had a sweet little “Spring Sale” last week. I will now commence to uninstall…. #deleteaffinity
@JimPostier@mbt3d Hahaha, for me it's the other way round. I guess it's the same phenomenon as watching a film in your own language. I usually can't get into Dutch films, because I can only see and hear fellow Dutch speakers acting, in stead of getting pulled into an alternate dimension by a film in a different language.
@metin f*ck ! 🙁
Well, let's stay positive : I'm happy that I have not fallen for the universal licence during the v2 upgrade...
I wonder what will happen to activation servers when they'll switch to subscription. (I agree with you, that will happen).
Most probably they will just shut them off and offer a discount on subs for 1 year... 🤣
I might be wrong, but despite the inherent quality of the suite, the biggest selling point was the licence model. Without that, it probably won't last long.
Photoscape X, a surprisingly versatile image editor. I use this nearly all the time. It's free, and you can support the developer with a useful in-app purchase:
@daniel 👍 Be sure to check out the explainer videos on the PhotoScape X site. It's more complete than you'd expect at first sight, and is full of refinements.
The free version has about 90% of all functionality. The very affordable in-app purchase supports the dev and offers some welcome extras.
@metin Thanks for the tip! I did and was quite surprised to see that it supports basic 3D objects 😮
I don't mind paying for good software as long as it's a one-time payment. Subscriptions are hard to justify with my sporadic usage.
What I really like about Affinity is the use of non-destructible filters, as I do a lot of tweaking during the course of a project. Can Photoscape X do the same?
@metin Dammit. I just read about the acquisition. I have the exact same concerns regarding the #Affinity suite - sooner or later it will become subscription-based software.
I am currently using Affinity Photo in v2 but might switch to #PixelmatorPro if they install a subscription model. If you are into #macOS, probably give it a go. Will also take a look at PhotoScape X, thanks for the recommendation. 👍🏼
@Shkspr80 Be sure to check out the explainer videos on the PhotoScape X site. It's more complete than you'd expect at first sight, and is full of refinements.
The free version has about 90% of all functionality. The very affordable in-app Pro purchase supports the dev and offers some welcome extras.
@mbt3d@Shkspr80 Yes, but I've deliberately left it out of my summary, as it's macOS-only, and because it's relatively well-known (featured in an Apple iPad presentation, etc.), I'm afraid sooner or later the commercial subscription shizzle will enter the building.
@metin bugger! I guess I'm going to be using Acorn more extensively in the future and looking for vector and publishing alternatives. I suppose we had a good run, for a while there, at least.
@gunchleoc@darrendilieto I haven't tried Scribus, but I've worked with @inkscape and it's a very competent vector tool. Have a look at these tutorials for a nice impression:
@metin
Thank you for the bad news and the list of alternatives!
While I’m using TeX (ConTeXt) for more layout jobs than I should, I still need some layout app, and Scribus has too narrow limits. Inkscape is really good since ~1.2, but for some jobs, Affinity Designer is still better. And of course I need a photo editor that’s capable of prepress tasks. I can’t work with Gimp, need to check Krita…
Still missing a really good PDF app (for prepress!).
@metin Dunno if this is good news, apparently Affinity will stay separate.
„In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, Canva co-founder Cameron Adams said that Affinity applications will remain separate from Canva’s platform, but that some small integrations should be expected over time. ‚Our product teams have already started chatting and we have some immediate plans for lightweight integration, but we think the products themselves will always be separate’, said Adams.“
@Shkspr80@theverge Thanks for the info. I remain very sceptical. Pixologic also stated after their takeover by Maxon that ZBrush wouldn't change, et cetera, but Maxon soon introduced forced subscriptions, for example. Corporations like Canva, Maxon, Adobe and Autodesk have profit-hungry investors, and the hundreds of millions that have been paid for the takeover need to be earned back a.s.a.p.. They don't care much for the users.
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