Is anyone getting sick of Clip Studio's treatment of the perpetual licenses?

Long time Clip Studio user, its my favorite art app and does everything I need.

But dear lord, the pricing and upgrades is getting ridiculous

Aside from being forced into the Subscription method of iPad/Android devices, the perpetual licenses for Windows/Mac are just a mess.

Since I have had many...many devices I have multiple licenses. I have like three Version 1.0 licenses, that I can only update to current 3.2 build for 1 year only at $10.99 for each license, and even my 3.0 license doesn't work on the current 3.2 version, and 4.0 is hitting this spring. Its just become an annoying mess keeping all my licenses in order. Its obvious they are purposely trying to make "perpetual licenses" a pain to get people on board with the subscriptions, but its just such a headache every time I jump devices or have to install it on something new. Even photoshop isn't this much of a headache.

Is anyone else getting just as annoyed with CELSYS as I am?

7 comments

Comments (7)

willadams

-4 j

Issues like this are why I am trying very hard to limit myself to opensource software, and why I am hoping to finally find the time to make the hybrid vector drawing/programming design tool I've been dreaming of since first reading about METAFONT in high school.

james!

-3 j

Replying to

I hate Adobe for all their evil ways, but Fresco is probably the best Vector/Raster art program I've ever tried. I would love for someone to clone it. I don't know that my programming chops are up to snuff for that level of work but it's definitely a dream of mine as well.

willadams

-3 j

Replying to

The program I envision is far simpler:

2D only
no colour, b/w only
fills/strokes are based on applying a 2D shape/movement to the length/path of a stroke
when a curve/object is made, the equivalent METAFONT/POST code appears
if the METAFONT/POST code is edited the drawing updates
if the drawing is edited, the METAFONT/POST code updates

The problem of course is resolving overlaps --- that would be worth a PhD, or require licensing an expensive commercial library --- fortunately, my initial usage doesn't need it: I want to design a series of "single-line" fonts for use on a CNC. I almost have my current project to the point that it will need them.

Kumabjorn

-4 j

Don’t know if this will help anyone. With my Galaxy Tab 9 FE I seem to have received som version of Clip Studio Pro. Since I don’t do art I haven’t activated it. But if anyone believe they can have som use for it I’ll be happy to open an account that you specify for me.

darkmagistric

-3 j

Replying to

Usually with Samsung devices, sometimes Clip Studio is pre-installed and you get a free 6-month trial.

they used to have a Free-ish version as part of Samsungs Galaxy apps. Not sure if they still offer that, but its only for Android devices.

Insult to injury, they have a build of Clip Studio for "Phones" and I bought the license for the ZFold 5, apparently the cheaper "Phone" version doesn't support pressure sensitivity, so I had to rebuy the proper full Tablet version for my Z Fold.

james!

-4 j

I only have th iPad Pro now for art, so I just have the subscription. I do agree though the blended options and what you can upgrade to are a pain. I am not sure how much of it is purposely trying to be a pain versus not quite knowing how to handle the differences properly. Either way, not great for the end user. If I ever get a pen display for my Mac, I'll probably just go with the subscription because it's honestly still not that expensive and I just won't have to worry about it. I would have spent about the same in deciding to upgrade to a perpetual license for version 3 anyway, which I would have done if I kept my old Windows tablet with version 1 on it.

darkmagistric

-3 j

Replying to

Its especially a pain when you jump an art file over devices. Like if I try jumping a 1.0 CSP file from my Desktop to a Surface Pro 11 with 3.0, it won't open the file and vice versa. I could understand if a feature or a layer not working, but they don't even let you open files between versions. Super annoying.