Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Affinity Studio now free

affinity.studio

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

641–650 of 825 posts

Re: Affinity Studio now free

#641

Post by xtagon »

reassess_blind wrote: post #640
xtagon wrote: post #639

Not happy. I recently purchased the whole suite and now not only is it now free (didn't need to purchase it), but it's no longer even what I want. And it doesn't work on iPad until they finish whatever rewrite, when cross-platform + apple pencil niceness was a huge draw. Sure, it's free -- but it's no longer the same product with the same priorities.

How long ago? I’d be going for a refund or credit card coverage if you’ve got it.

I don't feel like they owe me a refund in principle, at the end of the day I paid for subscription-free software and they delivered it, and I'm happy to do that exchange. I just don't like the changes and the future direction and that I won't be receiving updates to the one I'm currently using.

Re: Affinity Studio now free

#642

Post by Espressosaurus »

renewiltord wrote: post #406
Espressosaurus wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I paid for v1 and v2, and would have happily paid for v3. The reason I’m not using Adobe is to avoid their onerous subscription. If Affinity has moved to a subscription model then why bother not using the incumbent?

Okay so you wanted a different kind of subscription (based on major versions). That’s different from the guy I’m replying to who wants to Buy Software And Just Use It. He can do that with v2. Never needs to pay a penny again.

No, I still want the option of sticking with the old version if I decide that I'm done for now and for it to continue working.

I want to own my software, not rent it.

Re: Affinity Studio now free

#643

Post by renewiltord »

Espressosaurus wrote: post #642
renewiltord wrote: post #406

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay so you wanted a different kind of subscription (based on major versions). That’s different from the guy I’m replying to who wants to Buy Software And Just Use It. He can do that with v2. Never needs to pay a penny again.

No, I still want the option of sticking with the old version if I decide that I'm done for now and for it to continue working. I want to own my software, not rent it.

All right, well you've got it. There's just no corresponding new version. Just like there are no more albums by Prince. I suppose you were lamenting there were no more songs by Prince, which is fair. I, too, feel that void.

Except for the odd fact that now you've got the software without having to pay.

Re: Affinity Studio now free

#644

Post by Gabrys1 »

jazzyjackson wrote: post #333
alt227 wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is such a shame IMO. The Serif suite was great, and I used to try to get every designer I could to dump adobe and switch to serif. Now that it has switched to a freemium model trying to get you to subscribe to AI, I wont be using this or telling other people about it any more. Their priorities have changed. No longer are they trying to to beat adobe at their own game, they are just chasing AI money like everyone…

I think it's really cool they can get AI money from the people who want to pay that, to give away the core for free. I can empathize with feeling their focus will be elsewhere (whatever increases revenue) but I figure AI isn't magic, they need to have the rest of the creative suite work well to, yaknow, synergize Edit: I'll add that I much prefer purchasing perpetual licenses for software that can work without a clou…

pCloud also has lifetime payment for a storage service.

This must be some kind of Ponzi scheme, I guess they must count on

1. storage getting cheaper 2. traffic getting cheaper 3. that people will need more and more storage with time

Re: Affinity Studio now free

#645

Post by isodev »

curioussquirrel wrote: post #500
isodev wrote: post #438

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

When people say AI, they refer to LLMs. Your examples are models in general which have been around for a lot longer before the OpenAI and techbros had the AGI wet dream.

Re: Affinity Studio now free

#646

Post by isodev »

hbcondo714 wrote: post #554
curioussquirrel wrote: post #500

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Similar, I'm accustomed to using the Magic Wand tool in Paint[1] and Pinta[2] to select pixels based on color. I can't find this anywhere in Affinity. [1] https://www.getpaint.net/doc/latest/MagicWand.html [2] https://www.pinta-project.com/user-guide/wand/

This is not “AI” :)

Re: Affinity Studio now free

#647

Post by mamonoleechi »

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?

Color correction has been there for a long time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbU8FqTI-A4 but it was destructive (on the video it is gimp 2.10, but it was there before)

They added non-destructive adjustment layers in gimp version 3.0 that can do the same

Re: Affinity Studio now free

#649

Post by mediumsmart »

bovermyer wrote: post #327
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…

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.

I only needed InDesign to generate print files for some publishers and Scribus fills that gap for me.

Re: Affinity Studio now free

#650

Post by timc3 »

insane_dreamer wrote: post #626
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.

> don't have a good alternative for InDesign There really is none, at least not that is comparable. InDesign is perhaps the one product where Adobe really shines. Aldus PageMaker and Quark XPress were worthy predecessors; I used both back in the day, but Adobe bought PageMaker and discontinued it. As for Quark, not sure what happened to them but they're not around anymore.

I used Quark XPress, and it really felt like it had a monopoly on the professional market in the UK at the time. It didn't really innovate, it was slow and clunky. Then InDesign came along and it was a breath of fresh air.

Took many years for the transition to happen, but a lot of people in my circle wanted to see the back of Quark.

Post reply on HN