Affinity in the Time of Adobe Dominance

One of the most exploded topic on my social media feed is the recent announcement that Affinity is now free.

For those unfamiliar with Affinity, it is a popular alternative creative software to Adobe. As I mentioned in my previous post, Adobe is king when it comes to how powerful all its apps offer, but it also comes with a hefty subscription price – one that many creatives find hard to afford, especially in this economy.

Affinity has been a much more economical solution. In their previous versions, the apps were a one-time purchase, and their price was sensibly affordable. They are nowhere near as powerful as the Adobe’s apps, but most creatives don’t need many of those powerful features Adobe offers either.

Last year, Affinity was bought by Canva, a popular graphic design online-platform. At the time, many creatives got worried. Would Canva turn Affinity into a subscription-model, just like Adobe?

Turns out, Canva has a bigger plan. It’s making Affinity free!

By doing so, it is essentially inviting a new generation of young creatives to use their apps. Many already use Canva for their daily graphic design usage, a simpler interface with a much easier learning curve than Adobe. In the long run, they might indeed cut a deep slice of customers away from Adobe, who had monopolized the creative software industry for decades.

I gave Affinity a try in the past, back when it offered 7-day free trials. What I loved most was its smooth integration between Affinity Publisher (Affinity’s version of Adobe InDesign) and Affinity Photo (Affinity’s version of Photoshop). As someone who writes her comics in InDesign and draws in Photoshop, a smooth integration makes sense.

But I didn’t jump ship then. A lot of things were factored into why I stayed with Adobe (for now). This included things such as old habits (I have used Adobe since my college years, so muscle memory and keyboard shortcuts are huge assets). There were automated action scripts in Photoshop I use regularly that Affinity could not replace yet, and brushes that did not carry over well when I tried bringing them into Affinity.

I found Affinity Publisher a bit clunky when I was working on text layout. But that could also just be a matter of a learning curve that I never got over within the 7-day trail period.

Now that the app is free, I might give it another try.

The biggest problem I still have with Affinity is its integration with professional prints. Traditional publishing is drastically different from web publishing. In print, dozens of professional creative and production designers handle the files, from layouts, to color corrections, to fonts, to print production. Files need to be formatted a certain way for the baton to pass smoothly. What is the color profile? Are all formats at a reasonable dpi? Are all files in CMYK? Can the printer rip each file correctly? Etc, etc.

Professional creatives have been using Adobe for decades, so the Adobe system is well integrated into the production process. That is not that say things will never change, and they have been evolving. More and more illustrators have been submitting comics in Procreate, as investing in an iPad and installing Procreate are so much more economical. Is it more work for the in-house designer after receiving Procreate files? Absolutely. They need to configure the files back into Adobe and lay everything out in InDesign before sending the final files to the printers (so I was told).

I once asked an in-house designer friend if they’ve received Affinity files. That was last year, and my friend said she had not received any. I suspect that might change, now that Affinity is free. I wonder how those files would be converted. Keep in mind, each conversion is a mini-risk that something in the file got changed due to format changes. In a 200+ pages graphic novel, that risk adds up.

How well Affinity will integrate into the traditional publishing world is still up in the air.

As a side note, I am always a bit concerned when things go free. From experience, nothing in life is free, especially when offered from the corporate world. At the moment, Affinity promised our work would not be used to train their AI, and their income model seems to be that those who want their AI-features can upgrade to a paid version.

If you ask me, I think they are playing the long game. If enough young designers switch over to Affinity/Canva, then the next generation of designers will no longer depend on Adobe.

For now, Adobe is still king.

For now.

Do you use Affinity? If you work as a designer for traditional publishers, do you dread receiving files other than Adobe files? Or perhaps it is so much more common these days, it is no longer a problem? Share in the comments below on your thoughts.