Unfortunately I see canva and affinity as opposite ends of the creative spectrum. Serif were always a creative community driven business and sadly I think this will not be the same under canva ownership

I think my main reaction is suspicion. Like many designers, it seems, I like the non-subscription model (for personal financial reasons) and I like the similarity with the Aldus PageMaker and Freehand applications. (Aldus was purchased by Adobe.) I also appreciate the 'Made-for-Mac' ease of use on MacOS. I appreciate that many non-designers use Canva and may feel happy that their platform may be getting an 'upgrade', The next year will show Canva's intention towards Affinity. I really hope the Affinity team retain their independence and that the Affinity suite remains the superb software it is.

When I read about this annoucement, I wanted to cry. As I said in another comment, I love Affiinity for its affordability and feature rich software. If they go to subscription model, it only serves to confirm coporate wants over the lone designer needs continues.

At the end of the day it’s always about making money.

Excellent points. As someone who switched to Affinity years ago, I am concerned going forward. I’m keeping my v2 Affinity apps as long as possible.

if Serif goes subscription I'm out. There isn't much else out there that is a one time purchase.

I'm personally excited by the announcement. Whether designers like it or not, people use Canva. For me, this may make working with small to medium-sized clients more streamlined since I could design the end assets with Canva in mind.

Personally, I have had Canva and Affinity since the very beginning and I love them both. Canva has grown so much from when it first started and I have seen it evolve in an amazing way. There is a plethora of potential here. I am a self taught designer, and I am looking forward to see what this merger has to offer. I agree that these tools should be at the hands of everyone who loves to be creative. It's going to open up the path for many to learn new software and that's always exciting. It's going to be interesting to see how this expands.

Thanks for covering this; I did not know about the acquisition. As a former design educator who discussed tool pricing models in class, I hope they stick to their word and retain the perpetual license. I am excited about the Canva integration because it will help reduce my workload as a small business owner. We will see how it plays out. Looking forward to more of your content.

Just like I left adobe because of subscription I will leave Affinity, I think it's so wrong to nickel and dime customers, just like Microsoft and Adobe..

Hey thanks for covering this :)

Thanks for sharing. This certainly came as a surprise.

We should give canva the benefit of the doubt. If things gets worse, we can always keep our perpetual license, so it's not like we're taking a huge risk!

I'm hopeful that it will change things in a positive way, and in the short term I'm sure it will. In the long term, hiwever, I can forsee Canva Designer, Canva Publisher, and Canva Photo, all on subscription model. Serif needed to reach more people, and they've got ths with Canva, but at what cost? How long before Canva start streamlining the business, bring in their own programmers, and move Affinity's offices to Australia? I'm trying not to be too negative, but I've seen this kind of take over before, and no matter what the parent company promises, eventually their business costs become a priority and changes are made. And is it possible that a few years down the line Adobe could buy Canva?

I don’t mind having a subscription as an option. I would have a problem with subscription being the only option

I am a high a mature photographer and designer. I was using a very old photoshop program and was interested in upgrading to a newer program but was horrified by the cost and expensive subscription cost. I switched to affinity photo and have been very satisfied with prefofmace and quality of the program. I also purchased the designer program and have been using it a lot. I do not need these subscription because I do not do enough to have to place the stuff I on a cloud, l can store it all in my computer.

Look for the licensing model to become subscription only in the future. Another great product with perpetual licensing destroyed by corporate greed.

What about accessibility to people who don't want to be on one of the predatory OS's (Apple, Google, Windows)? Linux being the main one after that. But not the only option. THIS would be accessibility every bit as much as price or disability accessibility. But still as distinctly different as they are to each other. I agree, mergers are almost never good. The world is getting more and more spiritual monopolies (including duopolies, etc). which is leading towards a lot of poor treatment of the population. I bought the Affinity Suite recently, and now I see why it went on sale. On the fence about keeping it, but mostly for accessibility reasons. Thanks for much for this info!

meh...bummer, guess I better grab v2 and hope the promises are kept for updates until another full version release. I'm not holding my breath, I don't use Canva, nor do I have the desire to fund their core business at the expense of an affordable, stable and feature rich design suite with a great professional community. Sorry kids, but this designer/developer has been burnt too many times with shit like this. Pay yearly for PS not me. I buy something it's mine to use. Never mind suits with their fingers in my paints. Macromedia anyone?

I see the Adobe model coming to Affinity.

The biggest winner in Adobe's license debacle is Canva, who just recently bought out the Serif/Affinity suite. What timing. Affinity software will now sell thru the roof and reap tons for Canva. I'm sure there's a lot of celebrating at the Canva headquarters. Prediction: Adobe BUYS Canva.

I was using DxO. I paid for it and expected it to be supported, at least for a year or two. Instead each year they release a new version that you have to buy (you get a token discount if you had the previous version but not much). They also moved all the key features out and sell them separately as add-ons which also have to be repurchased every year. At least a subscription model, unpalatable as it is, is transparent. If Canva/Affinity follow the DxO business model that's just bait and switch.

I don't trust their promises flaunted to the four winds about not having a generalized subscription plan for everybody, because, when that happens, it generally means nobody's going to keep their promises but I want to stay positive, so I wait and see.

Thank you for sharing this interesting news. I have a question for you: Has Affinity an aplication like Adobe InDesign? And, if yes, can you do Accessible PDFs with?

Maybe Canva offered the team at Affinity/Serif residency and eventual citizenship in Australia.

Maybe Affinity Photo will finally provide a photo browser. The one big weakness of Affinity photo is that no other browser displays .Ap files. Using AP reminds me of driving a car with no windscreen

Perpetual license are obviously end-user preferred but companies need subscriptions for income they can budget for. Many perpetual license software titles have gone out of business by not moving to the subscription model.

I'm distrustful. Companies do things to benefit themselves, not their customers or users. Adobe used to have a two-tier system: $20/mo. for two programs, $30-60 for the full suite of programs. Whoops! Now the $20/mo. option is for ONE program. Just squeezing the little guy.

Canva needs to up their accessibility in terms of accessible PDF files, properly tagged with tools in Canva to do that well.

Time traveler here: Canva will one day change affinity into something that more closely resembles an adobe PS version in that it will be a subscription service (albeit at a lower price point simply because they can’t compete directly). There will be a free version of affinity with features behind a paywall. One thing that WONT exist in the future is a perpetual license (at least of new versions).

Affinity’s perpetual licensing is only for that version. When now Canva updates Affinity suite to version 3 you will have to rebuy the suite. Not a big deal but not a perpetual license in the truest sense like some apps.

We need a solid Open-Source Graphic Suite. Then, we won't depend on the whim of big companies that pursue their own interests. Adobe bought and buried Macromedia. Macromedia Fireworks and Flash were great products, and now they are gone.

I think it will work. Both Canva and Affinity have similar philosophies. They're not like Microsoft or Adobe which are $$$ focused.

This would be a great time for Affinity and Canva to add live tracing to Designer. Unruffle some feathers.

Canva needs the input of designers and illustrators to train AI. They will convert affinity into a cloud app to have access to this valuable information, trying to imitate what Adobe has been doing since adobe cloud

Serif screwed their customers twice. They did it before and now.

I think will go a long way towards competing with Adobe. Interesting!

2:25 Why would it bother designers that non designers are using a product? Someone creating a news letter for their local pottery club doesn't have any interest in over spending for a professional designer, but they shouldn't have access to the same tools?

from now on it's Open Source for me, Affinity couldn't give a **** about customers and there were big players using affinity

I don't necessarily have a problem with SaaS if it's a good service (ex. There's really no excuse for a known issue when you've got a consistent source of revenue to devote to man-hours). That said, the perpetual licenses are the biggest selling point of Affinity, and it wouldn't be a good game plan for Canva to gut this goose that's been laying golden eggs. I'm optimistic that this keeps Affinity afloat (or why else would they have taken the offer?), but I certainly understand the concerns.

Canva is cash rich at the moment. So many 'hobbyist' designers are jumping on the etsy pod wagon after watching those 'earn 5k in 30 days' videos. Its a real shame that Affinity is no longer independent. Canva has a founder with her heart in the right place (Melanie Perkins), but it makes me nervous.

Ok but be serious Adobe products are miles ahead. I use both but but Affinity are good apps that can produce also pro level works, Adobe can do much more with more tools in a very better way. Only generative fill is a game changer. Last thing. My experience says that this kind of acquisition are NEVER an advantage for the costumer. I hope to be wrong since I use affinity suite on iPad Pro very often and on IPad Os it is simply the best!

I didn't know of this acquisition and expect that users of the Affinity suite will loose. Canva has never impressed me and its incorporation of AI has been terrible. I expect its incorporation of Affinity will be just as bad. I purchased the Affinity suite years ago because of Adobe's practices.

I'm in the "mergers are bad" camp. If Affinity wants to compete with serious design apps of Adobe, which are standard, I don't see how it can cater to both Canva users and power users. I just don't see that.

Back to GIMP

Sad about affinity. I imagine it will become a subscription, so I will mention Coraldraw. Subscription-yes, but cheaper than Adobe and has autotrace.

Hopefully Canva doesn't turn Affinity into a subscription model...That's one of the biggest reasons I"ve used Affinity for years.

Oh well… just my opinion, but if I Have to pay for a subscription, I’ll go back to Adobe. Better, stronger, well established software, in my mind. Even if I don’t need all of it, I’ll pay a subscription for Adobe before I pay for Canva. I have never been able to use their software as an app, so I have no desire to use Affinity if they start messing with it. Kinda like paying for Straight Talk rather than Verizon. Just my .02

Now Affinity needs to be able to import and export Adobe file types and it's freaking Game over for Adobe. When Affinity and Canva are made to work seamlessly together and can import and export Adobe file types, watch out graphics world.

I din’t like Canva so this is not good news to me. Looks like I’ll be honing my Photopea skills.

I use Affinity because I don't like the hard prices and rent from Adobe. Sadly The market command and make the rules.

It's like going to the symphony dressed in sneakers, blue jeans and a t-shirt. Not happy, AT ALL.

Despite the reassuring words, these acquisitions normally are a bad thing. I have still never forgiven Adobe for buying Macromedia. Despite reassurances that nothing will change, Adobe absolutely destroyed the software I loved. They had to buy Macromedia because the software was so much better, and Adobe could not compete. I particularly loved Fireworks and used it every day. Adobe first dumbed it down to Adobe level, took away everything that gave us reason to use it, and then once users were forced to abandon it because it was no longer useful, discontinued it, supposedly because of lack of interest. No. They sabotaged it. No forgive-ness for that, ever. We are now seeing Nikon taking the wrecking ball to RED cinema cameras after its purchase by getting rid of the Californian people who developed the cool cameras that we all loved, and replacing them with Japanese bean counters. Presumably to make RED cameras as soulless as current Nikon cameras. Let us hope that Canva does not own a wrecking ball.

Democratising design!

Canva is Publisher ; just saying.

Bad news :(

If they change the Affinity pricing/ upgrade model, I'll find something else. At what point do we draw the line with these corporations?? It's time to speak up with your wallet.

Don't be evil, Serif

Affinity Designer will eventually degrade from an art/illustration tool to an advertising trash mass production tool.

So sad. Let's see if the mob or some other vulture capitalist ruins this company like so many are doing. Let's see how long it stays affordable and viable. Why wasn't it offered to the users first?

its still can't fucking compete with Adobe.