GIMP has been in development since 1996, and still can't handle basic features like CMYK; meaning any attempt to reproduce colors on a professional printer is doomed. We're not even talking Pantone yet.
The reality is all those GIMP haters can either get over it or enjoy paying increasingly high subscription fees for their increasingly enshittified creative suite subscription.
I may have to give it a go, is drawing a rectangle still a transformation done on a rectangular selection?
It’s fine if you don’t want GIMP to change to meet the needs of a different group (after all these years I suppose the GIMP team agrees). But to people who want to be paid for their product, this is valuable feedback.
Open source principles are nice but unlike Affinity, GIMP was not made with graphics professionals in mind. I don’t love proprietary formats but it doesn’t matter as much for print projects which have a lifespan and revenue.
People are mourning Affinity because it was a great functional tool with no strings attached. We’ve seen this story before. It’s fine; someone else will step in with an alternative when necessary.
Prior to 2025, Affinity used a
perpetual license model. In 2025,
new owner Canva (which purchased.
Serif in 2024) released a new
version of Designer that
integrates the functionality of
Photo and Publisher into a
singular application, and switched
the program to a freemium model
monetized by artificial
intelligence features exclusive to
Canva Pro subscribers.