Company Overview

Serif (Europe) Ltd was founded in 1987 by Mark J. R. Fenton and Roger K. Main, headquartered in Nottingham, UK. Serif is a long-established British software developer, originally known for its desktop publishing software. In 2014, it launched the Affinity creative suite, which rapidly became a formidable competitor to Adobe Creative Cloud through its perpetual license model and exceptional performance. Serif was acquired by Canva in 2024.

Related products: Affinity

Product Portfolio

✨ Affinity V2 Creative Suite

  • Affinity Designer — Professional vector graphic design software supporting hybrid vector/raster workflows, ideal for UI/UX design, branding, and illustration
  • Affinity Photo — Professional photo editing and raster graphics software supporting RAW processing, layer masks, HDR merging, panorama stitching, and more
  • Affinity Publisher — Professional desktop publishing software for books, magazines, brochures, and posters, with multi-page document support and master pages

💻 Platform Support

  • Windows — Full Windows 10/11 support
  • macOS — Native Mac support including Apple Silicon
  • iPad — iPad-optimized with Apple Pencil support
  • Universal License — Cross-platform license covering all platforms

Core Strengths

Perpetual License: One-time purchase, permanent use, no subscription — priced at roughly one-third of comparable Adobe products

High Performance: Hardware-accelerated via Metal (Mac) and DirectX (Windows) for smooth, responsive operation

Broad Format Compatibility: Import/export support for PSD, AI, PDF, SVG, EPS, and other major formats

Unified Cross-Platform Experience: Same file format works seamlessly across desktop and iPad

Key Milestones

  • 1987: Founded by Mark J. R. Fenton and Roger K. Main in Nottingham, UK
  • 2000s: Known for PagePlus, DrawPlus, PhotoPlus desktop publishing software
  • 2014: Launched Affinity Designer (first Affinity product)
  • 2015: Launched Affinity Photo
  • 2019: Launched Affinity Publisher, completing the Affinity V1 suite
  • 2022: Released Affinity V2 with major upgrades across all products
  • 2024: Acquired by Canva; continues to operate independently with perpetual licensing

Market Position

Serif (Affinity) competes in the creative software market against:

  • Adobe — Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign are the most direct competitors to the Affinity suite
  • Corel (Alludo) — CorelDRAW Graphics Suite competes in vector design and layout
  • Sketch — Vector UI/UX design tool, overlapping with Affinity Designer in the design market
  • Pixelmator — Mac/iOS image editing software, acquired by Apple in 2024
  • Figma — Cloud-based collaborative design tool, primary competitor in UI/UX design