Technology

never support anything by canva

So when will the ads start to pop up?

I found this video today from Michael Janda: HOT TAKE - Affinity is NOT "Free".

Although I do not agree with all the points he comes up with, he has some good explanation, while being speculative, why Affinity is going this route. In short: Affinty is now a loss leader, hoping that people will sign up eventually for a Canva subscriptipn for using AI tools in order to compete with Adobe who still is the leader in the professional field.

Still no Linux support.

I will stick with FOSS stuff and when needed, Black Flag Adobe in Windows VM.

It's weird that I can't just login using my existing Affinity ID, also Canva's privacy policy states clear as day under section 2 that they'll use your data to train AI models, and that policy applies to Affinity.

Edit: Data collection within Affinity seems to be opt-in for now.

If you’re on a Canva premium plan, you’ll also be able to unlock Canva’s powerful AI tools within Affinity.

So freemium, not free. Which is also fine, just saying.

Edit: Needs new Canva account. My Serif account didn't migrate. Be sure to turn off BS under https://www.canva.com/account/privacy-preferences

Once canva bought affinity it was going to just go downhill eventually.

Not free as in freedom! 🙁

Affinity is one of the things i lost in moving from windows to Linux, but I've been getting by.

I bought a license before canva acquired it and quite enjoyed the software.

Really sad to see canva doing what everyone knew they would do to it.

I use this at a center I volunteer at that works with the mentally disabled. Unsurprisingly, a lot of those people are old. Surprisingly, Canva is simple enough that I've been able to train the elderly, of all people, to use the program to make fliers or three-fold pamphlets for themselves. It's a good program for what it does, and the center pays for a premium subscription, so it's not something I personally need to worry much about.

Honestly, I'm fine with this in terms of the program's functionality, as long as Canva does't fuck with its user interface. It is pretty simple and intuitive, and I'd argue that the UI is quite possibly one of its strongest assets, seconded only by the massive amount of options/elements you can add to your project. And it's already apparent what AI is mostly used for within the program: making more graphic elements to slap onto your page, and more ready-made templates you can still go in and alter everything in at-will. And honestly, I'm fine with that.

At first glance, this all sounds positive, especially for users without an affinity for AI.

However, time will tell whether the program will become less appealing if it turns out that the majority of Affinity users are not persuaded to sign up for a Canvas subscription for AI editing.

Either certain tools and functions will disappear behind a paywall, or compatibility will be restricted by no longer allowing free import and export to certain file formats.