• From: Tamworth Staffs UK
  • Registered: 2025-10-04
  • Posts: 136

Topic: Is Serif in trouble?

I note that JPMORGAN CHASE BANK, N.A. has put a Charge on Serif (Europe) Limited   The 10-page document has appeared at Companies House.   Normally, a charge is put on when money is owed to the bank. 

Sometimes, rarely, it is put on when a company wants to borrow money from a bank. Though I can't see why Canva would want to do it this way

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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| ]

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2 Reply by Twolane (edited by Twolane 2026-08-07 11:03:04)

  • Registered: 2025-10-04
  • Posts: 42

Re: Is Serif in trouble?

Well, whatever is going on, I do hope my v2 software keeps working with the Apple OS upgrades. I can certainly recreate my covers with v2, but it will be a pain.

I've tried using that abomination Apple has called Pixelmator Pro for my book covers, but as i said, abomination.

However, Scribus is available for print book interiors, but still...

It would seem the work never ends.

Edited to add the following speculation, because what the hell do I know:

I now have my extended 'free' user base in v3. I think I'll hie off to a bank to see if i can talk the bank into using those numbers as a commitment to begin charging for v3's services. Allow me to present a spreadsheet on projected annual revenue with present users paying their annual subscription fees. Now then, how much can I borrow when the ca$h begins to roll in?

Might I have it right?

Or, they're off to buy Adobe. Bwaaaaahahahahaha. Like that would ever happen.

Or, have we seen the last free update?

Or...

And on and on.

A 14-inch MacBook M3 Pro happily running Golden Gate in its current version.
Ditto for a 13-inch M4 Air.
  • From: Tamworth Staffs UK
  • Registered: 2025-10-04
  • Posts: 136

Re: Is Serif in trouble?

Twolane wrote:

Well, whatever is going on, I do hope my v2 software keeps working with the Apple OS upgrades.

I can certainly recreate my covers with v2, but it will be a pain.

I would suggest you keep backups of the las V2 software somewhere safe. I have back up CD's of obsolete software

I assume your last line is recreating covers with V3, i.e. Canva Studio?  That is always an escape route.but I don't know any professionals who are moving to Canva Studio, whereas many printers were certainly getting Affinity V2 licence to run alongside their Adobe suites.

The other answer is to save all your work as layered PDFs?

The bigger problem is Apple compatibility.  Apple have a very nasty habit of requiring apps in their app store to work to the latest OS and they manipulate things that means older versions of apps won't work on the newer OS and hardware. One of the many reasons I moved to a PC for a lot of my work.  I still have a Mac Pro under the desk as I still use Dreamweaver for websites.


Back to the original point: the only time I have seen charges like this put on a company is when the company owes the bank a lot of money and the bank are no longer certain of getting their money, or there is some sort of problem.

If it is money for expansion then I would expect that Canva would perfer to do that in house rather than have a Charge on Serif as it sends out the wrong sort of signal.

Just make sure you are on the latest version of V2 they are still all available here
https://store.serif.com/en-us/update/universal-licence/
.

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| ]

JAmedia's Website

4 Reply by Twolane (edited by Twolane 2026-08-07 11:38:03)

  • Registered: 2025-10-04
  • Posts: 42

Re: Is Serif in trouble?

I do have multiple backup copies of all my v2 software. All three are installed and running on my Macs. Thanks for the reminder, though.

I went all-in on the free Affinity v3 a couple of months after it came out. As it was time for a cover refresh, they're all now residing on my backups as Affinity v3 covers. If I must go back to v2, it won't be a big deal. I'm comfortable working in both v2 and v3, having done +60 e-book and +30 print book covers over a span of years. Cover updates are simple in either version.

If there is trouble on the horizon, it was a good run while it lasted. I wonder what might come along to replace it if v3 begins circling the drain with subscriptions? I know from user experience and testing cover building that Apple can't do it with their software.

A 14-inch MacBook M3 Pro happily running Golden Gate in its current version.
Ditto for a 13-inch M4 Air.