Just tried the new app and there's no way to turn off dark mode. So that's an instant delete for me. I used their feedback system to ask them to add it, but until they do I'll stay on the 2.x apps.
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Canva Relaunches Affinity as Free All-in-One Design App
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I am quite happy. I sometimes use Canva for a lot of stuff because Pixelmator Pro is too expensive and Adobe too.
I don’t really care about login/account because Canva has been pretty lax when it comes to making everything work, it doesn’t overload your processor like Adobe creative cloud spyware. Will definitely download this one since I planned to purchase Affinity this Black Friday.
It is actually cool that there is finally a competition to Adobe, definitely a good thing
I don’t really care about login/account because Canva has been pretty lax when it comes to making everything work, it doesn’t overload your processor like Adobe creative cloud spyware. Will definitely download this one since I planned to purchase Affinity this Black Friday.
It is actually cool that there is finally a competition to Adobe, definitely a good thing
Canva can be used from browser online, no restrictions, I doubt there will be any issues.
Even their iPad app is basically an online wrapper of website, or at least it was when I tested back in the days
It will be partially free, like main Canva app. Obviously services like paid photo stocks, AI and maybe something else (like resolution/file locks) will apply. But for 90% of people free version will work just fine for occasional edits, vectors and such
I find it quite intriguing how, these days, the focus seems to be on optimizing customer bases rather than the products themselves.
In the software industry—witness the struggles of Adobe, Serif, and now Canva—this mirrors trends in the broader consumer market. Amazon, to give another example, is now attempting to assert itself with Amazon Haul against TEMU. It’s all about finding new ways to attract customers, only to extract as much cash from them as possible. ChatGPT is following a similar path: much is offered for free, while other features are locked behind subscriptions.
The same applies to automotive software. Some modules are available only at an extra cost or via subscription. What remains free—and what requires payment—is constantly recalibrated by marketing strategists eager to maximize profits. It’s clear: tricky monetization strategies have become the main focus, often at the expense of truly innovative software development.
I recall Affinity at its inception—a genuine breakthrough. Software offered at a fraction of Photoshop’s price, delivering comparable functionality from the very first version, albeit with a different workflow. New users embraced it, while longtime Adobe veterans were more perplexed than impressed. That was real innovation.
Nowadays, it seems, the emphasis has shifted: from developing groundbreaking software to cleverly maximizing potential revenue streams, with sales managers taking center stage.
In the software industry—witness the struggles of Adobe, Serif, and now Canva—this mirrors trends in the broader consumer market. Amazon, to give another example, is now attempting to assert itself with Amazon Haul against TEMU. It’s all about finding new ways to attract customers, only to extract as much cash from them as possible. ChatGPT is following a similar path: much is offered for free, while other features are locked behind subscriptions.
The same applies to automotive software. Some modules are available only at an extra cost or via subscription. What remains free—and what requires payment—is constantly recalibrated by marketing strategists eager to maximize profits. It’s clear: tricky monetization strategies have become the main focus, often at the expense of truly innovative software development.
I recall Affinity at its inception—a genuine breakthrough. Software offered at a fraction of Photoshop’s price, delivering comparable functionality from the very first version, albeit with a different workflow. New users embraced it, while longtime Adobe veterans were more perplexed than impressed. That was real innovation.
Nowadays, it seems, the emphasis has shifted: from developing groundbreaking software to cleverly maximizing potential revenue streams, with sales managers taking center stage.
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As someone who actually does graphic design as part of my job, I have both V2 of Affinity Suite and Creative Cloud Pro. I'm primarily in Illustrator/InDesign from Adobe and Designer/Publisher from Affinity. As a long time Mac user I like Affinity more, it just seems to run better on Apple Silicon. Both have their upsides and downsides.
The AI stuff is a good step, Adobe has some really interesting AI tools, but for me what would make me a full time Affinity user is if they integrated Canva's asset library into Affinity. My company already pays for Canva premium, and canva is making it more and more difficult to export just a single asset. Let me search for, and add, canva assets to my designs.
The AI stuff is a good step, Adobe has some really interesting AI tools, but for me what would make me a full time Affinity user is if they integrated Canva's asset library into Affinity. My company already pays for Canva premium, and canva is making it more and more difficult to export just a single asset. Let me search for, and add, canva assets to my designs.
Exactly my thoughts.
For now it seems like a good move, with the upsell of AI features. But I’m not sure this will be this way indefinitely…
Hopefully if they deviate from their promises, the V.2 will remain available…
I look at it differently.
There is no long term... the time is now. Users have long expected workflow enhancements in their Affinity Suite (those that AI provides). Those features are now here, but you have to pay for them on a subscription basis. It doesn't matter that it's only $10/month. It's still a subscription, and subscriptions are still the EXACT reason why Affinity was able to emerge and gain a loyal customer base in the first place.
I have been using Affinity 1.0 for four years, which has been mostly sufficient. Four years times 12 months is 48 months. I paid $214 for the suite. At roughly $4.40 per month, that is 44% the cost of the current subscription, making the "new features" twice the cost.
For me, they are doubling the cost while adding the most hated, angst-inducing aspect of software "ownership" in the modern software-for-hire business model: Subscriptions. I'd gladly pay TWICE the price of what I did to NOT have that feeling, which ironically, would make my outlay close to their subscription rate.
Any way you look at it, it's what they said they wouldn't do.
Fine, except eventually MacOS or hardware will evolve and no longer support V2.I did not read that the V2 software was going to stop working? Just keep what you have been using for your hobby and be happy! Or try out the new free version! Win-win!
The cameras come with the full studio version of the software, no upsells. The full studio version also comes with their editing keyboards and color grading control panels.
Your content/final design or 'image' is not what they are after. They don't need your designs or visual style to train a generative image model. There are plenty of places they can get content for that legally and cheaply. It's the telemetry of how you use the tools in the app that they want. What settings you use, how do you make incremental fine adjustments to arrive at what you want, how big of brush strokes do you make with the doge tool, how do you stack and organize your layers. They want to be able to train a bot to do tasks/use tools in the app the way a human would. The only thing they are promising not to use is your content. Your mouse movements and keystrokes are not content.
When Adobe first revealed AI in creative cloud, it was back in 2017. It was under the Adobe Sensei brand then and they did an entire demo at the MAX Conference of the AI building a movie poster the way that a human would. They very openly and proudly explained how they had been collecting anonymized data on how their professional users used apps like photoshop in the background: What tools they used, what sequence they used them in, etc. to train ML models that could return similar results. It all fit nice in neat into the part of their EULA that said they could collect telemetry to help improve their products. They didn't need a single pixel of user generated content... People were rightly angry though.
You're partially correct. Yes they want business and enterprise customers. However (see above), I think the long game is to be able to offer DAM and an AI designer:
"Hello Marketing director at medium sized business. We noticed you're still paying a Senior and Junior Designer $80k/yr and $68k/yr respectively and a marketing asset assistant at $55k/yr. That's $203k in salaries! What if we told you for $20k/year you could ditch the junior designer, make the senior part-time and keep the assistant around to mange files? You just saved $88k/yr and hit all your KPIs earning you a $10k bonus this year!"
Edit to add:
I don't trust Adobe or Canva, but Canva has a lot more cover to pull something like this off behind the scenes because, while Adobe is outwardly known as the big bad beetle borgs of professional design, Canva's image to the general public is the hip platform that empowers 28 year old stay at home moms to start their own business selling tiny crocheted animal figures for $40/ea. At least you know Adobe is going to move very openly and deliberately. Canva, everything feels a little suspicious.
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Will try out the new version. Very happy with the current version. Waiting to see the new iPad app too.
That's awesome! I already paid for one of their apps before, and now that makes it better.
I will definitely download this.
I will definitely download this.
For now, until you’ve adopted and learned their software and used it for years and then they sneak in a little sneaky snack of a ToS update that uploads everything you’ve ever saved to their AI training center.
While I welcome the update and the free ( for now ) in can't stop being sad we lost a developer who made a great product.
Seriff came from nowhere with a great suite, priced fairly ( may be too low for a business ) and made the big guns shake.
I was happy to pay for a V3 and I had 1 and 2, now that they are gone ( yes they are part of canvas ) it's a big question mark for the future of the suite.
Seriff came from nowhere with a great suite, priced fairly ( may be too low for a business ) and made the big guns shake.
I was happy to pay for a V3 and I had 1 and 2, now that they are gone ( yes they are part of canvas ) it's a big question mark for the future of the suite.
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Watched the online video with CEO Ash Hewson from the email. Then installed and took a quick spin, once I could log-in to Canva using my Serif login. Love Affinity and use v1 (MAS) and v2 both still (need Mojave compatibility).
I love the combined all in one app with no missing features and many more new ones that I really need (except for the background remover going to paid AI, will use v2 for that feature now). Compared to what many were thinking might happen, this is awesome news to me and puts my fears to rest for now. Also the promises of it being free forever and staying committed to the goal of Affinity, is appreciated by me.
The pay part is AI, fine with me as I'm sure it will make them lots of money over time. And free with the no AI is also fine. Canva has deep pockets and what Affinity was making was peanuts in comparison. With Ash Hewson at the helm as CEO, he has the vision and I'm liking how they are building it out.
They also intend to keep it free going forward, according to Affinity CEO. As long as the Affinity team is in the drivers seat, like they are right now, I don't see any issue.
Everything can be done offline once it is installed and opened and signed into. Good to go offline. Perfect for a pro app.
The two things I don't like right now:
• The new logo. Yuck! I understand it but don't like it. I would prefer a new colour based on the old logos. At least Numbers now has another bright green buddy in the dock. LOL I'm going to have to do something about that. I just can't stand it. BBEdit, Onyx, TextSoap and the old QuickTime 7 are the only apps I like that has a letter in the design or for the design. It does stick out when the old app icons blended in with the other pro apps I have in the dock. I attached a screen shot of how it compares to v1 apps and Numbers.
• No Mac App Store version!
I love the combined all in one app with no missing features and many more new ones that I really need (except for the background remover going to paid AI, will use v2 for that feature now). Compared to what many were thinking might happen, this is awesome news to me and puts my fears to rest for now. Also the promises of it being free forever and staying committed to the goal of Affinity, is appreciated by me.
The pay part is AI, fine with me as I'm sure it will make them lots of money over time. And free with the no AI is also fine. Canva has deep pockets and what Affinity was making was peanuts in comparison. With Ash Hewson at the helm as CEO, he has the vision and I'm liking how they are building it out.
They also intend to keep it free going forward, according to Affinity CEO. As long as the Affinity team is in the drivers seat, like they are right now, I don't see any issue.
Everything can be done offline once it is installed and opened and signed into. Good to go offline. Perfect for a pro app.
The two things I don't like right now:
• The new logo. Yuck! I understand it but don't like it. I would prefer a new colour based on the old logos. At least Numbers now has another bright green buddy in the dock. LOL I'm going to have to do something about that. I just can't stand it. BBEdit, Onyx, TextSoap and the old QuickTime 7 are the only apps I like that has a letter in the design or for the design. It does stick out when the old app icons blended in with the other pro apps I have in the dock. I attached a screen shot of how it compares to v1 apps and Numbers.
• No Mac App Store version!
Attachments
Nobody is forcing you to upgrade. Any real new features would require you to buy a V3 anyway.
There's a big red flag here. The reason they did this was to drive monthly recurring revenue. Free does not do that. Mindshare and product focus is dead. I've seen a lot of bait and switch stuff in the last few years. This is almost the standard business model now. I wish their customers luck.
Tethering and sign in bothers me. Lightroom Classic already punched me in the balls once when it decided to require signing in again when I had no Internet availability for 2 days. I had to find a hooky WiFi network in the middle of nowhere, which is not as easy. I am looking for offline solutions. (also f**k Nikon for doing that to NX Studio as well)
Tethering and sign in bothers me. Lightroom Classic already punched me in the balls once when it decided to require signing in again when I had no Internet availability for 2 days. I had to find a hooky WiFi network in the middle of nowhere, which is not as easy. I am looking for offline solutions. (also f**k Nikon for doing that to NX Studio as well)