Mastodawn

Metin Seven 🎨Mar 26, 2024

🧵 [1/3]

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.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/canva-acquires-affinity-design-suite-004813952.html

#canva #adobe #affinity #GraphicDesign

Canva Strikes Biggest Acquisition Yet in Chase to Take on Adobe

(Bloomberg) -- Canva Inc. acquired the Affinity suite of creative software popular with Mac users, securing its biggest acquisition to date in an effort to...

Yahoo Finance

Metin Seven 🎨

🧵 [2/3]

My favorite Affinity alternatives are:

Photoscape X, a surprisingly versatile image editor and viewer. I use it a lot. It's free, and you can support the developer with a useful in-app "Pro" purchase:

http://x.photoscape.org

@GIMP is getting better and better as time progresses, and will remain free and open source:

https://www.gimp.org

@inkscape is a great open source alternative to Affinity Designer:

https://inkscape.org

#affinity #design #FOSS #illustration #art #adobe

PhotoScape X for Mac and Windows 10

Free Download PhotoScape X - Fun and Easy Photo Editor. PhotoScape X is an all-in-one photo editing software which provides photo-related features such as Photo Viewer, Editor, Cut Out, Batch, Collage, Combine, Create GIF, Color Picker, Screen Capture, RAW images and More. Best Photoshop Alternative.

Metin Seven 🎨Mar 26, 2024

🧵 [3/3]

Some more Affinity alternatives (also see previous post)...

@Krita:
https://krita.org

Photoline:
https://www.pl32.com

VectorStyler
https://vectorstyler.com

Photopea (online):
https://www.photopea.com

Vectorpea (online):
https://www.vectorpea.com

Graphite (online):
https://graphite.rs

Scribus (Affinity Publisher alternative):
http://www.scribus.us

Acorn (macOS only):
https://flyingmeat.com/acorn/

#affinity #canva #adobe #software #design #art #illustration #OpenSource #tip

Digital Painting. Creative Freedom.

Krita is a professional FREE and open source painting program. It is made by artists that want to see affordable art tools for everyone.

Krita

Metin Seven 🎨Mar 26, 2024

Affinity in September 2022... 🙄

#affinity #adobe #canva #software #design #GraphicDesign #art #artwork #illustration #illustrator #designer #publisher #photo

Metin Seven 🎨Mar 26, 2024

That moment you realize you were once interviewed by Affinity, back when they were still a sympathetic Adobe alternative… 🙂

https://affinityspotlight.com/article/metin-seven-ive-always-loved-the-magical-light-of-computer-screens/

#affinity #adobe #canva #software #design #GraphicDesign #art #artwork #illustration #illustrator #designer #publisher #photo #interview #article #read #reading

Metin Seven: 'I’ve always loved the magical light of computer screens' - Affinity Spotlight

Metin Seven is a 2D illustrator and 3D designer living in Bussum (near Amsterdam). He works with his wife—a freelance webdesigner—in their home studio.

Affinity Spotlight

Skylar Caulfield

baby_blue_verify

@metin I wonder if they are gonna drop the buy option. Or honestly when will they drop the buy option and move to all subscription

Metin Seven 🎨Mar 26, 2024

@skymtf I'm afraid this will go in a similar way as Maxon's relatively recent take-over of Pixologic (ZBrush)...

There will be a strategic pause in announcements, until the disgruntlement has largely faded out. Some free 2.x updates will follow, and then, the 3.0 version will be announced along with forced subscriptions. You'll still be able to use 2.x, but support will be dropped.

Acmeworks Jun 7, 2024

@metin Thank you for that list of alternatives. Seeing that there might be another working alternative to illustrator is a glimpse of hope. If inkscape had a usable ui it would be the goto option.

Metin Seven 🎨Jun 7, 2024

@acmeworks 👍 When was the last time you tried Inkscape? The UI / UX has been improved during the past years.

Also, you can always request Inkscape stuff to @inkscape and @doctormo

Acmeworks Jun 7, 2024

@metin @inkscape @doctormo It's been a year or so I'll try it out again now though. What bugs me with inkcape is the pencil tool. It seems to work only with one specific workflow unlike illustrator which gives you more freedom.

Roodbaard Mar 26, 2024

Darren Di Lieto Mar 26, 2024

@metin Oh no. Are they being acquired?

Metin Seven 🎨Mar 26, 2024

@darrendilieto Yep… 🙁

https://graphics.social/@metin/112160618398616073

Metin Seven 🎨 (@[email protected])

🧵 [1/3] 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. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/canva-acquires-affinity-design-suite-004813952.html #canva #adobe #affinity #GraphicDesign

Graphics.social

Darren Di Lieto Mar 26, 2024

@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.

Darren Di Lieto Mar 26, 2024

@metin I love their tagline, "Those that can't, use Canva" 🙃 #Joking

GunChleoc Mar 26, 2024

@darrendilieto @metin Have you tried Inkscape and Scribus to see if they do what you need?

Metin Seven 🎨Mar 26, 2024

@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:

https://www.youtube.com/@LogosByNick

Bevor Sie zu YouTube weitergehen

Darren Di Lieto Mar 26, 2024

@metin @gunchleoc @inkscape Inkscape is now on my list for when I get a minute for this stuff. 🙂 THANKS!

GunChleoc Mar 26, 2024

@darrendilieto @metin @inkscape Take a look at this blog for an artproject that was set in Scribus: https://www.davidrevoy.com/article735/the-english-book-printed-project-production-report-1

The English book printed project: production report 1

David Revoy

ToddZ Ⓥ Mar 26, 2024

Which is why I can't take the "Ain't nothing gonna change" announcement from the #Affinity CEO seriously.

Clu | #RipNatenom 🕯Mar 26, 2024

@toddz I think it's brutally honest. Especially when it comes to the #1 reason for a lot of folks who switched from Adobe's in$anity to Affinity:
»Canva’s business model is subscription, are there any plans to change how Affinity is sold?
There are no changes to our current pricing model planned at this time«.
*At this time* 🤡

Plus: »plenty of *free updates to V2* still to look forward to!«
*Version 2*

So it's safe to assume that after V2 the Enshitification* of Affinity will begin.

Clu | #RipNatenom 🕯Mar 26, 2024

*) Enshitification: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification
@toddz @metin

Enshittification - Wikipedia

Clu | #RipNatenom 🕯Mar 26, 2024

Really sad to see the once lovely alternative to Adobe's aggressive subscription- and cloud plans probably end up taking the same path after all.

EaterOfSnacks Mar 26, 2024

@metin @Krita Not so convinced by Scribus - the application is nice enough but the last I saw it was producing tables as groups of rectangles. That's almost as awful as the old Quark 3 "text tabs and hand drawn lines" monstrosities I used to be given back in the day. Apologies if they've moved on since I looked. For page layout I'm in non-WSYIWYG mode at the moment with the excellent Typst (https://typst.app), which is a different way of working but you quickly get used to it.

Typst: The new foundation for documents

Typst is the new foundation for documents. Sign up now and experience limitless power to write, create, and automate anything that you can fit on a page.

Typst

lashman Mar 26, 2024

@metin awful, terrible news! i hate everything about this

sharpstick Mar 26, 2024

@metin @Krita How many of these support CMYK?

Metin Seven 🎨Mar 26, 2024

@sharpstick I haven't got personal expience with a number of the mentioned tools, but know that GIMP, Photopea (online), Scribus and Photoline have CMYK support.

Photoline's UI / UX is a bit archaic, but it's powerful under the hood:

https://www.pl32.com

PhotoLine: Photo Editing, Vector Editor, Design Software

Dr. Daniel Dizdarevic Mar 26, 2024

@metin Oh no, I really like Affinity... I hope they don't ruin it completely 😔

I was using Gimp before I bought Affinity Photo, but I don't really like the UI. It feels clunky.

I've never heard of Photoscape, but it looks nice and I'll have to give it a try!

Metin Seven 🎨Mar 26, 2024

@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.

Dr. Daniel Dizdarevic Mar 26, 2024

@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 Seven 🎨Mar 26, 2024

@daniel I'm afraid non-destructive filters are not available in PhotoScape X, it does have a lot of non-destructive layer effects, see the screenshot.

Dr. Daniel Dizdarevic Mar 26, 2024

@metin Haha, I was going to mention @inkscape in another post, but you beat me to it 😅

Inkscape is really powerful and has cool features that Affinity Designer lacks, like bitmap extrapolation!

Here is a YouTube channel that demonstrates this: https://www.youtube.com/@LogosByNick

Bevor Sie zu YouTube weitergehen

Metin Seven 🎨Mar 26, 2024

@daniel Thanks Daniel! I'll gather some more alternatives and post them here soon.

eobet Mar 26, 2024

@metin @GIMP @inkscape Noooooooo! I was a happy customer of Affinity, and I just can’t get into the UX of Inkscape (and I don’t want to go near that other one). 😭😭😭

Mel Mar 26, 2024

@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. 👍🏼

https://www.pixelmator.com/pro/

Pixelmator Pro

Pixelmator Pro is a powerful, beautiful, and easy to use image editor packed full of innovations.

Pixelmator Pro

Metin Seven 🎨Mar 26, 2024

@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.

Jan Starzak Mar 26, 2024

@metin do you know of any Affinity Designer alternatives that have a vector-to-pixel mode? Designer was my life raft after Fireworks was discontinued.

Metin Seven 🎨Mar 26, 2024

@jstarpl I guess the best thing to do is to check out the other alternatives:

https://graphics.social/@metin/112161063870638895

Metin Seven 🎨 (@[email protected])

🧵 [3/3] Some more Affinity alternatives (also see previous post)... @[email protected]: https://krita.org Photoline: https://www.pl32.com VectorStyler https://vectorstyler.com Photopea (online): https://www.photopea.com Vectorpea (online): https://www.vectorpea.com Graphite (online): https://graphite.rs Scribus (Affinity Publisher alternative): http://www.scribus.us Acorn (macOS only): https://flyingmeat.com/acorn/ #affinity #canva #adobe #software #design #art #illustration #OpenSource #tip

Graphics.social

Mel Mar 27, 2024

@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.“

(via @theverge)

Metin Seven 🎨Mar 27, 2024

@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.

Mel Mar 27, 2024

@metin I‘m afraid you‘re right there. 😔