Round up: Using Canva and Photopea for covers and Affinity Serif IS NOW FREE! How will it generate an income.

Change in circumstances, meant I no longer had access to Photoshop and I was dithering about whether to buy Affinity but I decided to wait for the Black Friday sales. 

I tried Canva, too clunky and tedious. Then  I found out about Photopea which for a light user isn't bad (see below). So I used that instead. I could have subscribed but I'm a very light user only using it when I needed to do a book cover, therefore it didn't maks sense. But I think it's okay. 

Using Canva and Photopea

While trying Canva for my cover I got a seven free pass to Canva premium so I used it. I've been a member for years, but for occasional and light use, when I'm doing books. 

 It has some good premium templates though the layering is clunky, maybe that's why the integrating with Affinity. Who knows. However I was able to get some good ideas. The main issue with me was licensing because I heard Amazon was terminating accounts over copyright infringements, and there was no clear documentation regarding Canva elements. 

Normally, I use stock pictures from Deposit Photos https://depositphotos.com/ who supplies a invoice with the licensing terms attached.

This is Canva mock up image with my working title and I've removed the pen name. Then only image from Canva was the background, the bracelet is from Deposit pictures and the font is open source but I wasn't taking risks. Another risk is Canva has proprietary fonts  - not sure. Something to note is that if a user downgrades their membership the premium elements are watermarked and I'm not sure they can be downloaded.

 Having a copy of the agreement or invoice with a statement of terms etc is important in an industry where a lot of people use the same images, from corporate design departments who don't want to spend much on a cover, to a shoe string budget self publisher. 

Then I discovered Photopea. I've heard of this but there was no need to engage. However I took the plug, signed off all my personal data in terms of allowing cookies and ads and used it. So far so good. The pictures were from Deposits again. Once in a while they have special offer for 50 or 100 credits which don't expire. My first picture, I bought a pack which expired in a year. 

Photopea was easy to use and very much like Photoshop and for what I didn't know I used Youtube. In terms of performance, I recommend saving frequently since I lost a few copies. Also it depends on the internet connection.  It is free so there are some Photoshop things that can't be done, but so it did the job, and I was very happy with the results.

Affinity Serif IS NOW FREE!

Affinity Serif was taken over Canva and is now free.  https://www.affinity.studio/download

The first thing is before downing loading this 'freebie' you need to have a Canva account. Okay, it means the good boys and girls are tracking this. As I said above I'm an occasional light Canva user so it wasn't an issue. 

So I've downloaded it, and fired it up only to get anot her sign up. Okay. Easily done.

My mac isn't impressed so asks if it's okay. I click yes. Then some fancy dialogue box playing stuff from youtube. 

Then more stuff. Tutorials or just creating stuff. 

How will Canva Make It's Money Back from Affinity

Let's take a wild guess! Yes! It will be for those who want to use the AI generative element.  This might sound stupid but it means even stuff like removing marks, objects etc, which will take ages doing it the old fashioned way. 

There may be some features in Photoshop or even old Affinity the use AI, some of the touching up features but all these will need to be paid for.  I think this is where it may give Adobe a run for it's money. There is also appears to be a monthly or annual subscription rate.

They have a long terms strategy and it may be appealing to those fed up with Adobe and it's prices. It's also going after smaller organisations as the more affordable alternative. 

If I try it out, I'll do a blog copy on what my findings are.