It's been 40 years since I first saw Serif Publisher. At the same time, I saw Timeworks Publisher, Ventura Publisher, and Adobe PageMaker. I ended up using Calamus on the Atari ST but I became familiar with practically any available graphics software and even designed some of my own.
Today, Affinity announced that they are combining everything into one application, including Canva AI. You can mix things a bit through Personas, but I don't know if it's going to be so capable. What I know of all-in-one graphics software is that it has never worked well enough.
I'm skeptical but I don't have any huge projects. After the announcement that they were to be acquired last year, it was obvious that changes were on the way. If you want the Premium version, there is a subscription, as I understand that there has been with Canva.
For typical users, it's free. When upgrades are available, what will happen?
Update 2025.11.18: I downloaded the Windows version. They actually had four different downloads and I downloaded one of the x64 versions. Hopefully, I got the correct one.
In any case, it's installed and I took a look at the first tutorial, which was way too small to be useful.
I tried to bring up a raw photo that I had and tried to re-size it after expanding the application's window. The frame for the photo went one way and the image stayed where it started when I tried to increase the magnification past 25%. Maybe, it will be ready in a few months.
Unfortunately, going back to Affinity Photo didn't work. I still have the version 2.x Affinity applications on my Mac, and Affinity Photo worked on that machine just fine.
Update 2025.12.19: Got the first update and it looks better. I'll make an effort to test and hopefully, I'll be able to transition to the new application.
Update 2026.02.01: There is a second update to the application and I'm sure it's safer to use now.
I've seen some videos talking about Adobe being afraid of the comparisons. They should have been afraid for several years. Serif's Affinity applications have been good. They're different and we used to have a lot of different graphical applications out there in the 1980s, including Serif Publisher.
Around that time, I was teaching an executive how to use Aldus Pagemaker on Windows 2.0. That was a trip. I had used many different applications, but for publishing, I was using Calamus SL on Atari ST. Pagemaker on Windows 2.0 was hobbled by not being on a Mac and the fact that Windows 2.0 was a bit of a joke for anything graphical. Sorry to go off track but I miss the days when we didn't depend solely on one software vendor. I'm a bit amused that 40 years later, I've got the descendant of Serif Publisher on my machine.
I was watching a video on using Affinity Designer to create motion graphics to be use in Davinci Resolve. It seemed a good way to remove Adobe from the workflow. Considering the prices for using Adobe products now, alternatives should be considered. I'm not sure Apple Creator Studio is enough for more than a "one man shop" kind of business but it's a possibility. Apple has not kept up since they dropped Aperture.
I'm not convinced that AI tools are completely helpful, but people seem to be freaking out about being replaced by them. Of course, once you're comfortable with them, you're stuck.
I'm wondering when/if Canva makes the Affinity application a subscription. Someone has to pay for the development work.
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