Serif (Europe) Ltd (known as Roleage Ltd before 1988) is a British software developer and publisher, best known for its Affinity suite of professional graphic design, photo editing, and desktop publishing software. The company delivers products directly to consumers through its dedicated website and contact centre, as well as through various retailers.
In March 2024, it was acquired by Canva for US$380 million.
History
Serif was founded in 1987 by a small team of software engineers, with the objective of creating lower-cost alternatives to existing Desktop Publishing (DTP) software packages using the Microsoft Windows platform.[1][2]
The first Serif product to be released was called PageStar: a simple, low-cost advertisement layout program for Windows 2.0. This was expanded in 1990 with their follow-up, PagePlus (originally for Windows 3.0),[2]