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Affinity Studio now free

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Re: Affinity Studio now free

#491

Post by exasperaited »

donmcronald wrote: post #489
exasperaited wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It says, on the actual website, the absolute opposite: "Your content in Affinity isn’t used to train AI features — we can’t access local files. For content you choose to upload to Canva, you’re in control. You can review and update your preferences any time in Canva settings." The only nuance I can think of here is that if you are using the cloud AI tools, you are uploading content. But it's largely hypocritical to c…

> For content you choose to upload to Canva, you’re in control. IE: You're in control of what you upload. What happens after it's on their servers? What happens when they send it to a partner for processing? The AI industry is filled with liars. It's basically "we're not using you data for training, that was a partner we pay that trained using your data." Good luck finding out who actually used your data for training…

No, by "you're in control" they don't just mean that the control is whether or not you upload it. You've elided the other bit of that quote: "You can review and update your preferences any time in Canva settings."

They mean there are two privacy toggles that control it. They ask, you can change your answer.

> AI-powered features can learn and improve with your general usage

> When this setting is on, Canva and our trusted partners will use information about your general usage to help AI-powered features learn and improve. This includes how you interact and create with Canva products, but not your content.

> AI-powered features can learn and improve with your content

> We want to develop better AI features to help improve the way you create it in Canva. We have strict controls and policies in place to protect yours and your Team’s content when building AI, but we still won’t use it without your consent.

Beyond these, I don't know. Or really care, since I won't be using those tools.

Re: Affinity Studio now free

#492

Post by pwatsonwailes »

smrtinsert wrote: post #379
bovermyer wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for the context. I was an Affinity Suite user for a long time after I dropped Adobe. I now use a mixture of GIMP, Krita, and Inkscape for visual things. I don't have a good alternative for InDesign - even Affinity Publisher wasn't one. Since my tabletop RPG business closed, I haven't had a need for a powerful layout application. I just use Typst or LaTeX for my personal projects that need a layout engine.

How is modern gimp compared to ps or affinity wrt photo editing? Thinking things like color correction, shadow highlights, maybe generative fill?

Nowhere even close

Re: Affinity Studio now free

#493

Post by dangus »

gazook89 wrote: post #386
dangus wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I realize that money rules everything but I find it so confusing that so many companies will spend a decade building a great product and then just exit with full knowledge that it will be the inevitable end of the relevance of their work. You might think that some founders somewhere out there would be motivated by some level of ego to say “no, I won’t sell out, I built this amazing thing and the highest bidder owner…

Perhaps they know that a large buyout will help their employees for various reasons, and they set aside their ego to take care of them. A company that hasn’t sold out is Adobe— are we in love with Adobe?

Adobe is a public company, so they exited.

Re: Affinity Studio now free

#494

Post by tecleandor »

gotrythis wrote: post #449
pentagrama wrote: post #143

I used Affinity for several years, so to add some background here: Serif is the company that originally built this software. -------- 2014–2024 Serif developed the Affinity suite, a collection of three independent desktop apps sold with a one-time payment model: - Affinity Designer: vector graphic design (Adobe Illustrator equivalent) - Affinity Photo: digital image editing (Adobe Photoshop equivalent) - Affinity Pub…

I am a daily user of Affinity Publisher and regular user of Affinity Photo. I bought version 1 when it came out, upgraded to version 2, and upgraded this morning to the new, free version. This is NOT FREEMIUM as I understand the model, as it is not limited in any way. This is everything they were charging for and more, now free, with free upgrades. I'm personally thrilled to get so much value for free.

Literally on the landing page they have two columns comparing:

  Affinity vs Affinity + Canva premium plans
And the FAQs under it are trying, repetitively, to upsell the Canva AI plans:

  Are AI features available?
  Yes. With a Canva premium plan you can unlock Canva AI features in Affinity.

  Can I access AI tools without a Canva Pro or other premium plan?
  No, these are only available to those with Canva premium accounts.
Up to 10 or 12 times, I think I've seen it just in that FAQ.

Re: Affinity Studio now free

#495

Post by justinclift »

blackqueeriroh wrote: post #405
nirava wrote: post #238

This is a deletion. - they're completely stopping all updates to v2; even image trace won't be coming to it. You might have paid for perpetual access to it 2 months ago, but it has completely stopped. As the world moves on (new chips, new OS features, just general software movement) this will increasingly feel like a second-class experience. - the new "free" software is a sales funnel into the paid subscription, and…

> they're completely stopping all updates to v2; even image trace won't be coming to it. There’s as of yet no confirmation about this. There is a lot of speculation, but there has not been official confirmation.

> they're completely stopping all updates to v2

The article itself says at least this bit. I didn't notice anything about a "trace" thing though, but I was just skimming.

Re: Affinity Studio now free

#496

Post by crabmusket »

gazook89 wrote: post #381
iamphilrae wrote: post #371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And so the enshittification begins. Such a shame to lose another set of solid, non-subscription-based desktop apps.

Gathered from the FAQ, you only pay if you want Canva AI features. Yes, you create a Canva account, which is free, so that you can get your license. With old affinity, you also needed an account to receive the license. In the new UI the ai features are tucked into an additional “studio” like how layout, raster, and vector are individual studios. You can choose which studios have a visible toggle, so you can hide the…

> But right now, they’ve just made it free.

It sounds like you're positioning this as a counter to the post you're replying to, but I think that is actually what they're complaining about.

> you only pay if you want Canva AI features

Right, so what they've done is tied their business model as a product to AI features and nothing else. That's not "oh good, I can use it for free", it's "oh no, they are no longer incentivised to care about the parts of the product I wanted".

Re: Affinity Studio now free

#497

Post by dangus »

truncate wrote: post #315
dangus wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I realize that money rules everything but I find it so confusing that so many companies will spend a decade building a great product and then just exit with full knowledge that it will be the inevitable end of the relevance of their work. You might think that some founders somewhere out there would be motivated by some level of ego to say “no, I won’t sell out, I built this amazing thing and the highest bidder owner…

>> technology the cult of the exit rules all Technology also moves fast, highly competitive and expensive. I'm definitely sad about this, but I can't blame founders for this. I've never founded any company myself, but I can imagine after decade of working on same product as a relatively small shop, it can be tiring, exhausting and probably new priorities (personal life, health etc ...).

You can have controlling ownership in a company that you don’t manage on a day-to-day basis.

Re: Affinity Studio now free

#498

Post by tonyedgecombe »

fidotron wrote: post #307
pentagrama wrote: post #143

I used Affinity for several years, so to add some background here: Serif is the company that originally built this software. -------- 2014–2024 Serif developed the Affinity suite, a collection of three independent desktop apps sold with a one-time payment model: - Affinity Designer: vector graphic design (Adobe Illustrator equivalent) - Affinity Photo: digital image editing (Adobe Photoshop equivalent) - Affinity Pub…

It's definitely a sad end, though I still think that what happened with Xara was the real tragedy. (A friend of mine is still bitter about Freehand too). Someone should investigate why the 2D vector graphics space is such a repeated dumpster fire.

> Someone should investigate why the 2D vector graphics space is such a repeated dumpster fire.

It’s interesting that none of the independent tools survive for long. I wonder if Adobe Illustrator is so dominant that there is little room left for the competitors.

Re: Affinity Studio now free

#499

Post by dangus »

turnsout wrote: post #375
dangus wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I realize that money rules everything but I find it so confusing that so many companies will spend a decade building a great product and then just exit with full knowledge that it will be the inevitable end of the relevance of their work. You might think that some founders somewhere out there would be motivated by some level of ego to say “no, I won’t sell out, I built this amazing thing and the highest bidder owner…

It's more complicated than that. Sometimes after 15 years, the founders want to move on and do something else. Or they want to build a dream house. Or their cofounder wants to get out. Or they hear the long-term vision of the acquiring company, and want to be a part of it. Although it's an uphill battle, not every acquisition ends with the product being destroyed. Just look at what Apple did with NeXT and PA Semi…

You can have controlling stake in a company without working there day to day.

Apple literally destroyed those companies. After Apple acquired NeXT there was one less operating system on the market. PA Semi now doesn’t have a product that is sold to the open market.

Re: Affinity Studio now free

#500

Post by curioussquirrel »

isodev wrote: post #438
derefr wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To push back against this sentiment: “chasing AI money” isn’t necessarily their thought process here; i.e. it’s not the only reason they would “switch to a freemium model trying to get you to subscribe to AI.” Keeping in mind that: 1. “AI” (i.e. large ML model) -driven features are in demand (if not by existing users, then by not-yet-users, serving as a TAM-expansion strategy) 2. Large ML models require a lot of reso…

> 1. “AI” (i.e. large ML model) -driven features are in demand No, there’re not. People with influence or who have invested in the space say that these features are in demand/the next big thing. In reality, I haven’t seen a single user interview where the person actively wanted or was even excited about AI.

Photoshop now has a bunch of features that get used in professional environments. And in the end user space, facial recognition or magic eraser are features in apps like Google Photos that people actively use and like. People probably don't care that it's AI under the hood, in fact they probably don't even realize.

There is a lot of unchecked hype, but that doesn't mean there is no substance.

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