1 (edited by JAmedia 2025-10-29 10:11:34)

Topic: Canva-Affinity Announcement

I found this on an affinity FB page  on 29/10/2025  It wouldn't let me post it in one block so I did it in 4. Then messed about because I wanted to do 4 mosts in less than a couple of minutes. I think I upset the forum Sw. somewhere. :-(

In a recent interview with Liam Fisher, Head of Pro Design Marketing at Canva.

The current climate is one of uncertainty. The strategic acquisition of Affinity by Canva, coupled with the temporary suspension of the official website until October 30th, has generated significant doubt within the community. This interview with Liam Fisher aims to alleviate these fears and present a clear vision.
1. Current Situation: What is Happening NOW?

    Strategic Acquisition: Canva acquired Affinity with a clear plan, not on a whim. Their objective is to create a complete and powerful alternative to Adobe.
    Community Concerns: There is a genuine concern that Canva will replicate Adobe's model: forcing a subscription, killing the product, or integrating it in a way that dilutes its professional essence.
    Silence and Speculation: The Affinity website being offline reinforces this uncertainty, although it is highly probable that this is to prepare for the new launch

www.JAmedia.uk, primarily an Affinity Publisher V2 user for books and magazines.
[ Win 11 home | AMD Ryzen 5950X 16 Core CPU ]
[128GB Ram | NVIDIA 3080TI 2GB | MB ASUS ProArt B550| ]

2 (edited by JAmedia 2025-10-29 09:58:36)

Re: Canva-Affinity Announcement

Part 2
2. Immediate Future (What will happen after October 30th?)
This section addresses the core of Canva's promises to alleviate these fears.

    Affinity is NOT being discontinued; it will remain the PRO suite.
        "Affinity will continue to be the PRO part."
        Affinity Photo, Designer, and Publisher will continue to be the tools for serious work: true vector illustration, advanced photo retouching, and print-ready layouts (CMYK, PDF/X, etc.). They will not become a simpler version of Canva.
    Canva COMPLEMENTS Affinity; it does not replace it.
        "Canva will come in as the scaling and collaboration layer."
        The workflow will be: you create the master file in Affinity, then export it to Canva so that marketing or non-design teams can adapt it (for social media, ads, presentations) without damaging the original and without constantly interrupting the lead designer.
    The One-Time Purchase Model (The KEY and most anticipated point).
        "That's not the idea... on 10/30 people will be reassured/'pleased'."
        Fisher strongly hints that they will not eliminate the one-time purchase model. The October 30th date is crucial because, presumably with the launch of the new version (Affinity 2.2 or 3.0), they will definitively clarify the business model and promise that the community will be pleased. This is the most important promise for the majority of users.

www.JAmedia.uk, primarily an Affinity Publisher V2 user for books and magazines.
[ Win 11 home | AMD Ryzen 5950X 16 Core CPU ]
[128GB Ram | NVIDIA 3080TI 2GB | MB ASUS ProArt B550| ]

Re: Canva-Affinity Announcement

Part 3
3. Long-Term Vision: The Grand Strategy
This section explains the "why" behind the merger.

    Breaking Adobe's Closed Ecosystem.
        "Canva/Affinity wants to break that."
        The great promise is "creative freedom." They don't want you to feel trapped in their ecosystem just to be able to open your own files. They want to offer interoperability without the "lock-in" that characterizes Adobe.
    AI for Professionals, Not for Replacement.
        "AI designed for the professional designer, not AI that aims to replace you."
        The AI they will integrate will not be for generating generic posts, but for accelerating the professional's work: cleanly vectorizing logos, reformatting layouts (e.g., converting a flyer to a story format), or improving intelligent retouching. It is an assistant, not a replacement.

www.JAmedia.uk, primarily an Affinity Publisher V2 user for books and magazines.
[ Win 11 home | AMD Ryzen 5950X 16 Core CPU ]
[128GB Ram | NVIDIA 3080TI 2GB | MB ASUS ProArt B550| ]

Re: Canva-Affinity Announcement

In Summary: What You Need to Remember

    Affinity will live on as the professional, standalone tool.
    The one-time purchase model is likely here to stay. Major news is expected on October 30th.
    Canva is the partner for collaboration and scaling, not a replacement for Affinity.
    The ultimate goal is to provide freedom and options, not to lock you into an ecosystem.

Canva's strategy is highly intelligent: positioning Affinity as the professional stronghold and Canva as the collaboration tool that, unlike Adobe's competition, does not force you to use their entire suite for teams to work together.

Source: https://www.marketingdirecto.com/market … egia-retos

www.JAmedia.uk, primarily an Affinity Publisher V2 user for books and magazines.
[ Win 11 home | AMD Ryzen 5950X 16 Core CPU ]
[128GB Ram | NVIDIA 3080TI 2GB | MB ASUS ProArt B550| ]

Re: Canva-Affinity Announcement

Thank you for posting this. It resonates closely with my own expectations, so hopefully it's close to the truth!

Re: Canva-Affinity Announcement

Ali wrote:

Thank you for posting this. It resonates closely with my own expectations, so hopefully it's close to the truth!

That's good. People who have been close to Affinity do tend to agree.  Though I am not sure how many are still close to Affinity post the Canva takeover.   

The thing is I have seen these sorts of take-overs before, and 12/24 months on the new owner does a clean sweep and the old ways and ethos are gone.

I do know one company owner who dropped over  €1Million on the sale price for guarantees for the 15 staff, but that was only for a certain period of years. He was an unusual person anyway. A decade on and all bets are off and so is the company.  The name has all but gone, let alone the ethos.

However, as the answer is only 24(?) hours away, let's wait and see.  I hope to be pleasantly surprised or just about contented, whilst fearing the worst.

Let's discuss tomorrow :-)

www.JAmedia.uk, primarily an Affinity Publisher V2 user for books and magazines.
[ Win 11 home | AMD Ryzen 5950X 16 Core CPU ]
[128GB Ram | NVIDIA 3080TI 2GB | MB ASUS ProArt B550| ]

Re: Canva-Affinity Announcement

It's going to be livestreamed on Insta (as I understand it) at 1700 GMT.

Re: Canva-Affinity Announcement

Ali wrote:

It's going to be livestreamed on Insta (as I understand it) at 1700 GMT.

No idea about that I haven't seen anything from Affinity-Canva as, I don't normally do insta FB or TikTok.

Will it be on YouTube or Linked in?

www.JAmedia.uk, primarily an Affinity Publisher V2 user for books and magazines.
[ Win 11 home | AMD Ryzen 5950X 16 Core CPU ]
[128GB Ram | NVIDIA 3080TI 2GB | MB ASUS ProArt B550| ]

Re: Canva-Affinity Announcement

There is a big announcement on Canva's YouTube channel at the same time (probably not a coincidence):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnqOzxpWHNA

Re: Canva-Affinity Announcement

Ali wrote:

There is a big announcement on Canva's YouTube channel at the same time (probably not a coincidence):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnqOzxpWHNA


Thanks, but not on the Affinity YouTube channel, which now has no visible videos.
It seems it is Canva now and if you are not already part of the Canva family then you are left behind.

I am thankful that Alfred is running this forum for the pro's adults and me. :-)

www.JAmedia.uk, primarily an Affinity Publisher V2 user for books and magazines.
[ Win 11 home | AMD Ryzen 5950X 16 Core CPU ]
[128GB Ram | NVIDIA 3080TI 2GB | MB ASUS ProArt B550| ]

11

Re: Canva-Affinity Announcement

It's doubtful, but I would not be surprised if the next version of the Affinity suite is free.

From what I recall, Canva was much bigger than Serif.  Affinity sales are probably a drop in the bucket for Canva.  With a free software suite, that would really help break Adobe's system.  Plus, if files can be shared with Canva users or there's more integration such that Affinity users will subscribe to some of Canva's services, there's probably more money for Canva there than in selling one-off licenses.

Plus, why stop sales of Affinity v2 if v3 will be a one-time license too?  People that purchased in the last 30 days could have been given a free upgrade to v3.  If v3 is free, it makes sense to stop sales because you wouldn't want to refund buyers.

Again, it's doubtful and I will be happy with a one-time license purchase and, hopefully, there will be a non-Internet activation version available like there was with v1 and v2.

Re: Canva-Affinity Announcement

Ouch – I'll be out at the time of the presentation. Will everyone that doesn't attend be excluded forever?

Just imagine this guy trying to find a good spot to get the signal on the smartphone…

Re: Canva-Affinity Announcement

dcr wrote:

It's doubtful, but I would not be surprised if the next version of the Affinity suite is free.

Plus, if files can be shared with Canva users or there's more integration such that Affinity users will subscribe to some of Canva's services, there's probably more money for Canva there than in selling one-off licenses.

A free suite, with Canva as the collaboration back end would certainly be an interesting proposition.

Much in the same way as "pirated creative suite" was the way a lot of people paying for creative cloud now attained a position in life where they could afford it.

I'd almost bet on "free and open source" except that the first thing I suspect would happen is for the open source community to largely ignore the apps, and try to make replacements for Canva's service.

Re: Canva-Affinity Announcement

PaoloT wrote:

Ouch – I'll be out at the time of the presentation. Will everyone that doesn't attend be excluded forever?

Just imagine this guy trying to find a good spot to get the signal on the smartphone…

You can simply watch it later, on the Canva YouTube channel, or at canva.com/canva-world-tour

Re: Canva-Affinity Announcement

walt.farrell wrote:
PaoloT wrote:

Ouch – I'll be out at the time of the presentation. Will everyone that doesn't attend be excluded forever?

Just imagine this guy trying to find a good spot to get the signal on the smartphone…

You can simply watch it later, on the Canva YouTube channel, or at canva.com/canva-world-tour

Welcome, Walt! Thanks for joining us here, and thanks for your helpful first post.

“Welcome to the present moment. Here. Now. The only moment there ever is.”
― Eckhart Tolle

Re: Canva-Affinity Announcement

walt.farrell wrote:
PaoloT wrote:

Ouch – I'll be out at the time of the presentation. Will everyone that doesn't attend be excluded forever?

Just imagine this guy trying to find a good spot to get the signal on the smartphone…

You can simply watch it later, on the Canva YouTube channel, or at canva.com/canva-world-tour

Hi Walter, good to see another "name" from the Affinity Forum!
This could develop in to a good place for serious affinity users. 

Chris

www.JAmedia.uk, primarily an Affinity Publisher V2 user for books and magazines.
[ Win 11 home | AMD Ryzen 5950X 16 Core CPU ]
[128GB Ram | NVIDIA 3080TI 2GB | MB ASUS ProArt B550| ]

Re: Canva-Affinity Announcement

walt.farrell wrote:

You can simply watch it later

Hey, and the hype of the moment???