IS FREE AS GOOD AS PAID?
Kevin Slimp discusses software, not subscription plans
Peter Coleman – managing editor at GXpress Magazine – an Australian-based publication focused on the newspaper industry – sent this email to me yesterday:
"Hi Kevin, I hope you are well and doing well! I see an announcement today that our Aussie heroes Canva are bundling Affinity together and making it free (all but the AI bits). As my worldwide expert on such things, I'd be grateful for a comment on how this will work, for publication."
Peter, you sure know how to mess up a perfectly good schedule. Peter knows that this isn't such a simple request. To provide a comment means I'd spend hours downloading the new software, reviewing its tools and functions, and seeing what other commentators say about the product. Peter also knows I'm a sucker for anything related to design software, so I have no choice but to acquiesce.
For those not following the Affinity saga –probably most of you – Canva acquired the professional design company Serif, which makes the Affinity suite of creative software, in March 2024. Subsequently, Canva has relaunched Affinity as a free, all-in-one app called "Affinity by Canva" that combines Affinity Designer, Photo, and Publisher.
If you've been following my columns for a while, you might remember reviews I've written on Affinity Publisher just before and after the world was turned upside down by COVID. One of the biggest crowds I've ever had for a webinar was an introduction to Affinity Publisher, which drew more than 400 newspaper professionals. At the time, my advice was to give Affinity time. While a worthwhile design app, it had shortcomings that made it less than optimum for our work publishing newspapers.
Over the years, I've upgraded Affinity Publisher and other products in the Affinity suite and watched it improve in many areas. Still, when asked, my advice to publishers was to stick with their Adobe products, if for no other reason than not to convert everything from InDesign (or even QuarkXpress) to Affinity Publisher. My other issue with the Affinity suite was Photo, Affinity's photo-editing app. As hard as I tried, I couldn't get reliable results with CMYK images for pages going to print. I missed the color settings, control of dot gain, and ink colors I rely on from Photoshop.
So why all the hubbub about Affinity now? Canva – best known for its online tools allowing design and illustration online – recently acquired Affinity and released it for free to any user. Yes, free. That's mighty tempting for those of you who, like me, pay $29 (US) or more each month for InDesign or $69 for the entire Creative Cloud suite of applications. Why would Canva do this? Simply stated, they hope you'll eventually upgrade to paid tools related to the Affinity line.
There's nothing sinister going on here, at least as far as I know. Let's face it, Canva wants to siphon users away from Adobe, now the 10th largest software company in the world (Adobe had as few as 64 employees when I worked with them back on projects in the 1990s). Giving away software seems like a good way to do this.
Okay, let's get to the nitty-gritty. I could spend pages writing a full-scale review of Affinity by Canva, but I have neither the time nor inclination to do that today. I've downloaded the new software, which works pretty much like the Affinity software I've taught and used (only for research) over the past ten years. It is impressive in its abilities and rivals Adobe InDesign in many ways. Users can open and edit InDesign files (saved in IDML format) and export PDF files. However, the export capabilities of PDFs exported from InDesign aren't as intricate, nor do they include all of the functions. Having written that, it should be noted that many InDesign users aren't aware of these functions anyway.
Here's how we use Affinity in my publishing company, Market Square Books. Affinity Publisher is very good, but it has never had all the functionality we need in designing and publishing books. That's why I still spend $69 each month for each license of Adobe Creative Cloud. It's not worth the risk to save a few dollars. However, we do have staff members who don't need the full capabilities of InDesign, but still need to edit InDesign files from time to time. A perfect example is the person who sends boxes of books to vendors. These require a label with information about the book title, ISBN code, quantity, etc., that has been created in InDesign. Rather than purchase an Adobe license for this function, the staff member in the shipping department uses Affinity Publisher to open the InDesign file (previously created by a designer) and make the changes before printing the label.
I'm not in a hurry to upend our entire design process to save a few dollars each month. However, you might be. In that case, let me suggest you download a free version of Affinity by visiting:
https://www.canva.com/help/free-affinity-access/
After the holidays, I plan to do a detailed review of Affinity by Canva. In the meantime, let me know how you're using it and how it works at your newspaper.
Kevin Slimp has been a popular consultant and speaker in the newspaper industry since developing the PDF remote printing method in 1994. His upcoming webinars on design, circulation, and software can be found at newspaperacademy.com.
Kevin Slimp is former director of The University of Tennessee Newspaper Institute and founder of NewspaperAcademy.com.