Good evenin' everyone. The spook month's over. How'd Halloween go for ya? Hope ya had sum treats, maybe even coupla li'l tricks that made a positive smile.
So, ya know Affinity? They a suite of professional one-time-fee alternatives to Adobe's subscription-based apps for photographers 'n' designers. Y'know, for most visual arts people.
They got three products: Photo to replace the photo editin' tool Photoshop, Designer to replace the art 'n' graphics app Illustrator, 'n' Publisher to replace the print production solution InDesign. They been real good tools lemme tell ya, for my style of hobby 'n' professional work 'tleast.
Three apps; that they used to be anyway. On October 30th, Serif Europe, the company behind the Affinity line, offered sum of their own spooks. They announced a brand new app, a studio of sorts that combines all their three tools into a single thing.
Dat not the scary part tho, but the price: it's totally, completely free!
Yea, professional grade stuff, all free. Wat?!
Sumthin's real fishy here, ain't it? We've seen this before. We take the free, use it for free, all happy 'n' the like. Then down the line we realize: they been sellin' my data?! Or: they've trained the AI with my stuff?! Nothin's ever truly free lemme tell ya. There always, always a catch.
So I've done a bit of diggin' to see what's up. Now understand only a few days've gone by since the announcement, so things'll surely change more or less since this me ramble. But here's what I've gathered at this point.
Ya know the big question here: now their stuff all free, how Serif gonna sustain their business?
They released a video to explain their move, but the short answer is: It's thanks to Canva's, their parent company's, successfully profitable business model. Canva bought Serif sum time ago y'see.
Big corpo ownin' a smaller company... Hmm... Dunno 'bout that. Tho the bright side here's that Canva ain't a public company. They don't got shareholders breathin' down their necks, so they ain't tied to maximisin' their monies at all costs. The situation might change later of course.
I think Canva's goal here's obvious. They wanna funnel customers to their actual business model: A whoppin' huge ecosystem of tools, templates, assets 'n' online collaboration for any visualisation stuff ya can think of. All behind a subscription fee. (Tho they got a pretty useful free plan too.)
Subscription... now that's freezin' cold chills right down yer spine ain't it? Tho the truth is, their prices're real reasonable for whatcha get. Frankly, ya ain't needin' Canva's paid service unless ya knee deep in visual arts business yerself.
Canva account tho? That one they shovin' in our faces if we wanna use Affinity now. Couldna even download the thing until I signed in! Real corpo move for sure. Tho understandable, given what they goin' for here.
That right there's the catch, my friend. Get us register a Canva account; funnel a number of us to their paid services. They've said they not gonna sell our data, or train AI with our content, or anythin' else – other than get us comfortable to havin' an account on their site. But like said, it all could change later. Ya be the judge if ya willin' to take the step for a free pro suite.
Me? I signed in 'n' got the spankin' new app. Testin' it right now, by puttin' together an art book. I'm actually happy it's all a single thing now, 'cause the three separate apps felt like they were same but with artificially restricted features. Heck, I could even open 'n' edit one app's file on the other two apps no problem!
Moreover, I welcome this slap to Adobe's face. Competent free equivalents to Photoshop, Illustrator 'n' InDesign'll be a no-brainer to many buddin' entrepreneurs, 'specially students.
Canva's kinda followin' their competition's moves here: Adobe used to sell their suites real cheap to the studyin' folks. Make many of 'em as possible used to yer apps, they'll take 'em to their startups 'n' employers. Canva wants to take that road too. Let's hope they don't follow it too closely, to where Adobe's gone.
Oki hey, thanks for readin'! Catcha later!