Canva Acquires Affinity To Fill the Adobe-Sized Holes In Its Design Suite (theverge.com) 31
Web-based design platform Canva has acquired the Affinity creative software suite for an undisclosed sum, though Bloomberg reports that it's valued at "several hundred million [British] pounds." The Verge reports that the acquisition helps the company "[position] itself as a challenger to Adobe's grip over the digital design industry." From the report: Canva announced the deal on Tuesday, which gives the company ownership over Affinity Designer, Photo, and Publisher -- three popular creative applications for Windows, Mac, and iPad that provide similar features to Adobe's Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign software, respectively. [T]he acquisition makes sense as the Australian-based company tries to attract more creative professionals. As of January this year, Canva's design platform attracted around 170 million monthly global users. That's a lot of people who probably aren't using equivalent Adobe software like Express, but unlike Adobe, Canva doesn't have its own design applications that target creative professionals like illustrators, photographers, and video editors.
Affinity apps are used by over three million global users according to Canva -- that's a fraction of Adobe's user base, but Affinity shouldn't be underestimated here. The decision to make its Affinity applications a one-time-purchase with no ongoing subscription fees has earned it a loyal fanbase, especially with creatives who are actively looking for alternatives to Adobe's subscription-based design ecosystem. 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.
Affinity apps are used by over three million global users according to Canva -- that's a fraction of Adobe's user base, but Affinity shouldn't be underestimated here. The decision to make its Affinity applications a one-time-purchase with no ongoing subscription fees has earned it a loyal fanbase, especially with creatives who are actively looking for alternatives to Adobe's subscription-based design ecosystem. 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.
Will Canva change pricing to subscription? (Score:2, Insightful)
I sure hope not! They'd immediately lose me as a customer.
Re: Will Canva change pricing to subscription? (Score:2)
Canva is a web based app. If anything Affinity was just competition in the low end designer market. Off course they are going to kill it off and tell you to subsidize their garbage JavaScript platform as they have the same features.
Affinity had the chance to open source and they didnâ(TM)t several years ago, had they done so, they wouldâ(TM)ve broken in the market and actually capable of challenging Adobe. Instead they created a decent product and then sat on their behinds to count the money.
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No web based app could ever replace a native app, especially something as mature as photoshop.
Please say this much louder for the stupid fucking executives who only see dollar signs in the back. Also Adobe.
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You should be able to get just Photoshop for $20/mon. I believe $90/mon is for all the Creative Suite products.
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For individual use, all the Creative Cloud apps are only $59.99 a month. Photoshop by itself is only $22.99
For business use, all the Creative Cloud apps are $89.99 a month, but any single app can be licensed for $37.99.
https://www.adobe.com/creative... [adobe.com]
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Krita might be a good option, depending on what you need to do: https://krita.org/en/ [krita.org]
I'm still not really used to the UI, but I'm a super-light user of this sort of thing (mostly use it for resizing desktop wallpapers and editing pixel art for games).
The Affinity applications are fantastic though, as long as Canva doesn't make them awful, or port them to Electron or something. Although a terrible Electron version might give us a port to Linux...
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If all you want is Photoshop, tou can just get the "Photography Plan" for $10/mo. It comes with Photoshop and Lightroom.
https://www.adobe.com/creative... [adobe.com]
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They most certainly will. Everything Canva currently offers is subscription-based.
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Same here.
Screw with the devs / pricing models, and I am gone in a flash.
So sad. (Score:2)
We see this story again and again. A company innovates, gets swallowed up by a richer company and the lights go out.
As an Affinity customer, I'm just waiting for the end now.
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The cycle of enshittification continues.
Re: So sad. (Score:3)
I truly wish there was a worthwhile and widely-accepted creative suite (photo, design, publish) on Linux. I think that's one of a very few gaps holding the platform back on the desktop.
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There is a very basic image editor called Pix on Mint, which is fine for basic crops and touchups but if I want to do anything really in depth there's GIMP.
GIMP is still awful by the way.
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Different user bases. I'm a Linux fan, a couple Linux projects have my name in it. All my servers are Debian. But my notebook and desktop are Macs. Because when I need to get desktop things done, that's the platform that works best.
I waited a decade for the Linux desktop to get there and it didn't. Then I stopped waiting and started being productive.
Would I want to have a Linux desktop and application choices equal to what I have on the Mac? Absolutely. Do I expect it'll happen anytime soon? Absolutely not.
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I mean, there are options:
Finding the one(s) that meet your needs might be annoying. Personally, I'm using Krita for what little photoshoppery I do. I haven't had luck working with Inkscape, but I almost never use things like Illustrator, so I haven't looked for something else. Scribus looked good, but I get by with LibreOffice Writer (that is to say, I don't usually need "real" DTP).
Re: So sad. (Score:2)
"The best Adobe Photoshop alternative on Linux is GIMP"
Stopped reading there. GIMP is not in any real way a realistic Photoshop alternative.
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LOL you know, I've never read that text at the top, I skip straight to the list of applications and start digging.
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Correction: By an American company.
Australian corporations suffer this too: Once they get some international attention, they're bought by US money, then downgraded to homogenized American culture.
Re: So sad. (Score:2)
Canva, from all I've read, is an Australian company.
Loved Affinity (Score:2)
Hope Canva doesn't f it up.
Incoming enshitification (Score:1)
Oh how times change (Score:3)
Affinity 2022 ... "Ain't nobody acquiring us."
Affinity 2024 ... "I am thrilled to announce that Affinity is joining the Canva family."
I left Adobe back at C3 or so when they went subscription after using Adobe products since Illustrator was called Illustrator 88. I'll leave Affinity the minute they do as well.
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CS6 was the last non-subscription version, and it's a pretty good product.
But I believe they've turned off the activation servers, so even if you have a legit copy, it won't activate on a new install.
So I've written all my physical hard drives to VHD images, I can can run those under a VM forever.
Affinity works (Score:1)
subscriptions (Score:2)
The decision to make its Affinity applications a one-time-purchase with no ongoing subscription fees has earned it a loyal fanbase
That is putting it mildly.
I am an occasional user. Once or twice a year I create something that needs proper DTP software. To pay for a subscription is complete nonsense, so for the past decade or so I made do with an ancient version of InDesign purchased before they switched everything to subscription. Obviously, that's not working too well anymore.
So I use the 30-day trial of Affinity Publisher, found it does 95% of what I did with InDesign and most of it equally well and some things even better. I'll fin
To pay for a subscription is complete nonsense (Score:2)
>>"To pay for a subscription is complete nonsense"
Yes. Broken model.
Don't get any subscription for Software.
There goes the neighborhood (Score:2)
This whole "big company buys little company with neat product and fucks it" needs to stop. Capitalism is broken. Why are these not triggering antitrust investigations on a weekly basis?