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Metin Seven ๐ŸŽจ

๐Ÿงต [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.

finance.yahoo.com/news/canva-a

26 March at 6:40 | Open on graphics.social
86 comments
Metin Seven ๐ŸŽจ

๐Ÿงต [2/3]

My favorite Affinity alternatives are:

Photoscape X, a surprisingly versatile image editor. I use this nearly all the time. It's free, and you can support the developer with a useful in-app purchase:

x.photoscape.org

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

gimp.org

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

inkscape.org

26 March at 6:48 | Open on graphics.social
Dr. Daniel Dizdarevic

@metin Oh no, I really like Affinity... I hope they don't ruin it completely ๐Ÿ˜”

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!

26 March at 7:07 | Open on social.dhelonious.de
Metin Seven ๐ŸŽจ

@daniel ๐Ÿ‘ 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.

26 March at 7:48 | Open on graphics.social
Dr. Daniel Dizdarevic

@metin Thanks for the tip! I did and was quite surprised to see that it supports basic 3D objects ๐Ÿ˜ฎ

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?

26 March at 13:10 | Open on social.dhelonious.de
Metin Seven ๐ŸŽจ

@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.
26 March at 14:06 | Open on graphics.social
Dr. Daniel Dizdarevic

@metin Haha, I was going to mention @inkscape in another post, but you beat me to it ๐Ÿ˜…

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

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

26 March at 7:13 | Open on social.dhelonious.de
Metin Seven ๐ŸŽจ

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

26 March at 7:46 | Open on graphics.social
eobet

@metin @GIMP @inkscape Noooooooo! I was a happy customer of Affinity, and I just canโ€™t get into the UX of Inkscape (and I donโ€™t want to go near that other one). ๐Ÿ˜ญ๐Ÿ˜ญ๐Ÿ˜ญ

26 March at 7:16 | Open on oldbytes.space
Martin Owens :inkscape:

@eobet @metin

What would you change in Inkscape's ux if you could change one thing to make it better?

26 March at 7:51 | Open on floss.social
Metin Seven ๐ŸŽจ

@doctormo @eobet I would love more easy editing of PDF documents, such as dragging and dropping a PDF into Inkscape, easily choose if you want the background to be transparent or white, then easily drag and drop a PNG into one of the pages, position it and export the result as a proper PDF again. Last time I tried this, it wasn't intuitive and I switched to Affinity Designer.

26 March at 8:05 | Open on graphics.social
Martin Owens :inkscape:

@metin @eobet

Oh, sorry about that. Everything you've mentioned should be pretty much like that.

Though PDFs either have a background shape or don't. It only makes sense to select one on opening for raster images, rather than vector images.

What was the version you were last using?

26 March at 8:14 | Open on floss.social
Metin Seven ๐ŸŽจ

@doctormo I used a reasonably new version, about a few months ago. Don't know the details anymore, but I remember getting the multi-page canvas after importing a PDF, then a dropped PNG got lost under hundreds of vector layers in one of the pages, and I believe adding a white layer to the transparent background also failed because of the layer mess.

Maybe auto-grouping of the vector layers of each imported page would help.

26 March at 12:54 | Open on graphics.social
Stephen Thomas

@doctormo @eobet @metin
I ended up buying Affinity Designer because the UX bugs on the Mac version make it barely useable ๐Ÿ˜‘ Submitted this bug a while back, still not fixed AFAIK:

gitlab.com/inkscape/inbox/-/is

Recently tried using it again to export an SVG as a png. The button to select the export directory wouldn't work (clicking did nothing), so I couldn't export. This was using the Inkscape snap on Ubuntu, so I guess it's not just Mac.

Addressing these core UX issues would be a good start ๐Ÿ˜ฉ

@doctormo @eobet @metin
I ended up buying Affinity Designer because the UX bugs on the Mac version make it barely useable ๐Ÿ˜‘ Submitted this bug a while back, still not fixed AFAIK:

gitlab.com/inkscape/inbox/-/is

Recently tried using it again to export an SVG as a png. The button to select the export directory wouldn't work (clicking did nothing), so I couldn't export. This was using the Inkscape snap on Ubuntu, so I guess it's not just Mac.

26 March at 11:38 | Open on mastodon.art
Martin Owens :inkscape:

@thecgnerd

Oh snaps, stay away from that junk.

Thanks for reporting the issue, it does help. Even if resources are prioritised and it takes time to get seen.

I'm actually looking forward to the bug accelerator program, we got three people some money to fix some of these issues for 1.4. So some resources are moving towards the biggest needs.

26 March at 11:44 | Open on floss.social
Stephen Thomas

@doctormo Looking forward to giving 1.4 a whirl then ๐Ÿ˜Š Aye, have found snaps to be very hit and miss... I like how they're automatically updated but when the snap doesn't let you access your file system it's all a bit pointless ๐Ÿ˜…

26 March at 11:54 | Open on mastodon.art
Koen Martens

@metin @Krita is nice too, I tend to use that a lot instead of gimp these days (not that I am in any way a graphics artist btw)

26 March at 8:18 | Open on chasmcity.net
Metin Seven ๐ŸŽจ

@gmc @Krita Krita is definitely great as well. I'll include that in some more alternatives I'm going to post in a moment.

26 March at 8:24 | Open on graphics.social
Terrance Albrecht

@metin @gmc @Krita
Krita is fantastic, I use it for drawing and some image editing - very happy so far. It does everything I'd need a digital drawing/painting application to do out of the box and more :)
I discovered the smart rulers and I was very happy. Can't wait to see the future of this app!! It's already amasing.

26 March at 8:49 | Open on mastodon.art
Metin Seven ๐ŸŽจ

๐Ÿงต [3/3]

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

@Krita:
krita.org

Photoline:
pl32.com

VectorStyler
vectorstyler.com

Photopea (online):
photopea.com

Vectorpea (online):
vectorpea.com

Graphite (online):
graphite.rs

Scribus (Affinity Publisher alternative):
scribus.us

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

๐Ÿงต [3/3]

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

@Krita:
krita.org

Photoline:
pl32.com

VectorStyler
vectorstyler.com

Photopea (online):
photopea.com

Vectorpea (online):
vectorpea.com

Graphite (online):
graphite.rs

Scribus (Affinity Publisher alternative):
scribus.us

26 March at 8:33 | Open on graphics.social
EaterOfSnacks

@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 (typst.app), which is a different way of working but you quickly get used to it.

26 March at 8:55 | Open on tilde.zone
lashman

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

26 March at 11:11 | Open on mastodon.social
Metin Seven ๐ŸŽจ
Jon

@metin @GIMP @inkscape Iโ€™m going to have to really buckle down and learn gimp properly I think, Iโ€™ve never given it the time it deserves.

26 March at 8:55 | Open on mastodon.social
Mel

@metin Dammit. I just read about the acquisition. I have the exact same concerns regarding the suite - sooner or later it will become subscription-based software.

I am currently using Affinity Photo in v2 but might switch to if they install a subscription model. If you are into , probably give it a go. Will also take a look at PhotoScape X, thanks for the recommendation. ๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿผ

pixelmator.com/pro/

26 March at 13:16 | Open on mastodon.social
Mark B Tomlinson

@Shkspr80 @metin I really like Pixelmator Pro too.

26 March at 13:22 | Open on fosstodon.org
Metin Seven ๐ŸŽจ

@mbt3d @Shkspr80 Yes, but I've deliberately left it out of my summary, as it's macOS-only, and because it's relatively well-known (featured in an Apple iPad presentation, etc.), I'm afraid sooner or later the commercial subscription shizzle will enter the building.

26 March at 13:57 | Open on graphics.social
Metin Seven ๐ŸŽจ

@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.

26 March at 14:01 | Open on graphics.social
Gynux

@metin f*ck ! ๐Ÿ™
Well, let's stay positive : I'm happy that I have not fallen for the universal licence during the v2 upgrade...
I wonder what will happen to activation servers when they'll switch to subscription. (I agree with you, that will happen).
Most probably they will just shut them off and offer a discount on subs for 1 year... ๐Ÿคฃ
I might be wrong, but despite the inherent quality of the suite, the biggest selling point was the licence model. Without that, it probably won't last long.

26 March at 7:16 | Open on the.goofs.space
Metin Seven ๐ŸŽจ

@Gynux Fully agreed. I did fall for the universal version 2 upgrade though. ๐Ÿ˜– And in practice I use PhotoScape X 90% of the time. ๐Ÿ™„

26 March at 7:40 | Open on graphics.social
Mitch M

@metin Aw ffs. Serif Draw Plus and the rest of the OG Serif suite is what I learned digital art in. I only recently picked up Affinity and felt really at home. Bummer

26 March at 7:21 | Open on mastodon.gamedev.place
Roodbaerd

@metin Oh no! And I was just looking into Affinity as an Adobe alternativeโ€ฆ
Thanks for the other recommendations!

26 March at 8:09 | Open on mastodon.art
Metin Seven ๐ŸŽจ

@Roodbaard ๐Ÿ‘ I'll post some more recommendations soon.

26 March at 8:09 | Open on graphics.social
Mark B Tomlinson

@metin This doesn't bode well, reminds me of Allegorithmic, zBrush and many more great tool, bought out and changed to subscriptions.
A. Designer is a great tool and if that goes I am dreading Inkscape, I know, but I tried it so often and it is a UI mess.

26 March at 8:19 | Open on fosstodon.org
David

@mbt3d @metin

Problem with is that if the UI gets updated to something like Illustrator, Designer or Corel, long time users will rise in arms against it, because of potatoes... Potatoes meaning "lose of familiarity" .

Blender is a great example of what a good change in UI can do to get more users and financing.

26 March at 9:16 | Open on masto.es
Mark B Tomlinson

@DBG3D @metin Yea and there was enough moaning about the changes in their UI even though it is fully customiseble and Right Click select is still an option.

I wish Ton and team took the helm for Inkscape and Gimp, or at least the stearing group.

26 March at 11:06 | Open on fosstodon.org
David

@mbt3d @metin

Aside the awful decision to use Qt as its GUI Library, is another example of a better UI than .

26 March at 11:12 | Open on masto.es
MARCO HAYEK

@metin Oh dear, I've never really used the Affinity products, but I know a few people who enjoy using them, and now this. The software market is so broken due to huge corporate profiteering that it's getting harder and harder to enjoy using it. With the business model Canva is using, they will probably drive Affinity products to the wall in the future.

26 March at 8:26 | Open on mastodon.art
Metin Seven ๐ŸŽจ

@marcohayek Yes, wholeheartedly agreed. ๐Ÿ˜”

26 March at 8:44 | Open on graphics.social
Alastair Temple

@marcohayek @metin I switched to them gradually over the last two years and while they aren't perfect, they are pretty good and I paid in total for all of v2 about the same as 1 and a half months of an Adobe CC subscription. Was totally worth it.

Seems very unlikely that the same will be true by the time v3 comes around. I hope they just don't ruin v2 in the process and so at least I will have that to work with.

Sigh.

26 March at 10:44 | Open on mastodon.art
Metin Seven ๐ŸŽจ

@smilingdemon @marcohayek I've also bought the V2 suite. Ironically, I'm still using PhotoScape X (Pro) 90% of the time. Once you really dig into it, it turns out to be very versatile. You can also do batch processing, create animated GIFs and much more with it.

26 March at 11:41 | Open on graphics.social
Alastair Temple

@metin @marcohayek fair enough, maybe they just need some better presentation of its capabilities because whenever I have looked at it it has seemed fairly limited. I guess it also depends on what you are doing as well, but often for a lot of things we could all actually manage with simpler programs than we end up using.

26 March at 12:32 | Open on mastodon.art
Terrance Albrecht

@metin Such a shame :(
I am not so much effected as I'm on linux, but when I was on Windows, Affinity was my go-to.

26 March at 8:52 | Open on mastodon.art
Mark B Tomlinson
Metin Seven ๐ŸŽจ

@mbt3d The Affinity press release shows exactly the same "We're so excited and grateful" bullshit as Pixologic wrote when they sold themselves to Maxon. It's all commercial self-interest, as usual.

The FAQ is also reminiscent of the ZBrush FAQ after the Maxon take-over: there's no explicit "There won't be a subscription". ๐Ÿ˜–

Maxon introduced subscriptions faster than you could process the Pixologic take-over.

26 March at 8:57 | Open on graphics.social
Mark B Tomlinson

@metin Absolutely, nothing will change, except everything ๐Ÿ˜‚

26 March at 9:00 | Open on fosstodon.org
Kaiern
Jim Postier

@mbt3d @metin And I wonder if this was the plan all along: secretly planning for a takeover (and luxury yacht) as they smiled at our social media posts which promoted Afinity as a moral alternative to that gluttony which is adobe. Affinity even had a sweet little โ€œSpring Saleโ€ last week. I will now commence to uninstallโ€ฆ.

26 March at 14:37 | Open on mastodon.social
Mark B Tomlinson

@JimPostier @metin Totally I did it with Alegorithmic too, promoting the small studio against the big guys.
Even more so with Serif, a bad taste for sure.

26 March at 15:04 | Open on fosstodon.org
Metin Seven ๐ŸŽจ

@JimPostier @mbt3d I couldn't have said it better, Jim.

26 March at 15:41 | Open on graphics.social
hauleth ๐Ÿ‡ต๐Ÿ‡ฑโค๏ธ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ฆ

@metin yeah, I am happy user of Affinity v2 (I also have v1 as I bought it via AppStore) and I really hope that they will not move fully into subscription. If they will provide subscription for some stuff (like generative AI, which can be sometimes useful for human artists, but as an addition to human work, not just "slap prompt and you made ~art~ shit"), then it will be ok. But I want my application to stay mine, it is one of the reasons why I have gave up Adobe and I encourage my wife to do so

26 March at 9:02 | Open on fosstodon.org
hauleth ๐Ÿ‡ต๐Ÿ‡ฑโค๏ธ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ฆ

@metin and hell, I am no graphic designer or anything (TBH I suck at anything art related, though I am trying). Affinity with their "buy once" was a breath of the fresh air in the waves of subscription models. You can suck all the money in the world from AI-generated-shit crowd, you are more than welcome to, just leave simple people like me, who want to edit some stuff from time to time alone. I paid literally only for that reason.

26 March at 9:10 | Open on fosstodon.org
Metin Seven ๐ŸŽจ

@hauleth I fully understand. Have a look at the thread for some alternatives, in case things get really bad with Affinity in the near future.

26 March at 9:14 | Open on graphics.social
hauleth ๐Ÿ‡ต๐Ÿ‡ฑโค๏ธ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ฆ

@metin I know them, the thing is that @GIMP is still missing features like non-destructive editing. I was user of GIMP for quite some time before I switched to macOS and it works pretty well, but when you meander into semi-advanced stuff, then it starts to shows some rough edges.

26 March at 9:16 | Open on fosstodon.org
Metin Seven ๐ŸŽจ
GIMP

@hauleth @metin Hi! Just in case you missed this, we've got non-destructive layer effects in our dev builds now. You can even test the feature with our last development version (GIMP 2.99.18). This will be in the stable GIMP 3 which should be released within a few months. ๐Ÿ˜„

gimp.org/news/2024/02/21/gimp-

26 March at 13:04 | Open on floss.social
Bowreality
David

@metin
I bought v 1.0 Since then i've been able to avoid to buy the update.

Now is a no go.

The stuff I got done is not much, I will see to export it to formats the open source apps support and proceed to uninstall it.

Thankfully was not a great expense. ๐Ÿ˜’

26 March at 9:13 | Open on masto.es
Telmo ๐Ÿฆ•

@metin we canโ€™t have anything nice ๐Ÿ˜”

26 March at 9:16 | Open on masto.pt
elFlashor

@metin This sucks :(

But to be honest, before switching to Affinity, I was still using old Adobe suite software, versions from before the subscription model... Even if Affinity goes to the subscription model, you probably don't need the all new super fancy version. If you bought the v2 just keep it, use it for 5-10+ years, until another competitor rises and the cycle starts anew! ๐Ÿ˜…

26 March at 9:30 | Open on mastodon.gamedev.place
Metin Seven ๐ŸŽจ

@elFlashor Agreed. I'm also sticking to my last non-subscription update of ZBrush, since the take-over of Pixologic by Maxon.

26 March at 9:33 | Open on graphics.social
LiquidParasyte

@metin Fuck. Can't ever have too much of a good thing.

Man, why can't we have a single good Vector/Publisher/photomanip that doesn't enshittify?

26 March at 18:05 | Open on pawb.fun
The1goit #RedInstead

@metin why do I feel lucky that I never bought something from them and stuck with open source.

26 March at 21:57 | Open on fedia.social
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