Yes, Affinity really is free. You can use every tool in the Pixel, Vector, and Layout studios, plus all of the customization and export features, as much as you want, with no restrictions or payment needed. If you’re on a Canva premium plan, you’ll also be able to unlock Canva’s powerful AI tools within Affinity.
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never support anything by canva
never support anything by canva
Getting Affinity without ever paying is hardly supporting them. At least it’s a stopgap until Krita finally fixes their text tool which is honestly the sole reason why I bought Affinity 1 and 2. (In case anyone wonders: Yes, I also donated to Krita.)
Why not?
they’re a horrible ai slop company
Ah I see thanks for the heads up
And how does that make a company horrible?
If you can ask that question you’re horrible yourself.
I am horrible in many ways, you are right about that :). But I don’t think it is fair for a company to be labelled as horrible just because they are adding AI to their services. AI is a technology, and most of what is done currently with this is truly horrible (I am talking about chatgpt, meta, microsoft). But I believe that it can be used for good, and I think Canva implementing AI in Affinity Studio will do good to beginners, amateurs. I say this because I have used Canva many times to create posters, and other things, which would have been pain in bum to do in Gimp. It is just convenient.
You’re willingly ignorant about the many negative aspects of using Ai. Being ignorant is fine, but making such a proud display of it is not pretty.
What the hell are you talking about? I just presented my view and you labelled it as being “proud” and me a “ignorant”. You first made a personal attack on me and you label me as arrogant!? You are a true example of circle jerk.
I found this video today from Michael Janda: HOT TAKE - Affinity is NOT “Free”.
Although I do not agree with all the points he comes up with, he has some good explanation, while being speculative, why Affinity is going this route. In short: Affinty is now a loss leader, hoping that people will sign up eventually for a Canva subscriptipn for using AI tools in order to compete with Adobe who still is the leader in the professional field.
So when will the ads start to pop up?
It’s already functionally an ad for Canva’s premium services.
The “ad” is a single button that you can turn off. For now it’s fine.
Oh god, how are they financing its development? Selling my personal data? Training AI on my data? Nagware? Not giving us a Linux version, ever?
The best possible scenario is that they’re just using it to entice people to pay for a premium subscription and will leave it that way. But the chances are that once they’ve pulled enough people in with the offer of free software, they’ll alter the deal.
Considering you can turn off telemetry and never need to connect it to the internet after activation, I’m assuming that - like how Adobe uses cheap education licenses to on-ramp people onto their platform - this is largely intended to drive professionals towards Canva and their various other products. They take a loss on this product to become the de-facto standard image/vector/publishing application.
They take a loss on this product to become the de-facto standard image/vector/publishing application.
For now they take the loss to break the Adobe monopoly.
Oh god, how are they financing its development?
Canva’s AI features are a subscription service. Existing Affinty features are now free.
What if not enough people pay for the AI features? Will Affinity enshittify?
Also, are these features going to be littered across the UI as greyed out buttons that show a popover prompting you to get a Canvas subscription when you hover them? That’s basically ads baked into the UI.
What if not enough people pay for the AI features? Will Affinity enshittify?
There’s always the option to go back to being a regular paid product.
Also, are these features going to be littered across the UI as greyed out buttons that show a popover prompting you to get a Canvas subscription when you hover them?
Not sure why you use future tense because the new version is out now and you can just take a look at it yourself.
It’s now an all in one UI and no longer different applications for vector graphics, photo editing, and layout. You can switch between different UIs on the fly and Canva AI is just one of those and one you can even disable:
I don’t own a Windows or Mac machine, I have no idea what the current product looks like, but I’ve been following Affinity for a while in the hopes that I can eventually buy their product with money.
Linux became so good at emulating windows apps, it now runs some of them better than windows itself (higher fps, lower power draw), so eventually their will be a port.
Given that these non native ports run in containers/bottles/whatever and internet access is often limited by default. However internet access is the key for their new business modell.
Basically Linux users will get the same or better product, without the drawbacks, which reminds me of pirated movies, where only the people actually buying it were made to sit through unskipable commercials.
Sadly Affinity Studio isn’t one of them - it runs barely, if at all in emulators and believe me we tried. Especially for larger files it’s still unusable.
Still no Linux support.
I will stick with FOSS stuff and when needed, Black Flag Adobe in Windows VM.
I was able to get the V2 suite working via Lutris, haven’t tried this new version though. Seems to be possible as documented here
It’s weird that I can’t just login using my existing Affinity ID, also Canva’s privacy policy states clear as day under section 2 that they’ll use your data to train AI models, and that policy applies to Affinity.
Edit: Data collection within Affinity seems to be opt-in for now.
I see someone on masto saying its sending something out to them over internet even when opted out
Just usage pings or actual data?
No full pcap or anakysis so no idea
Some switches were set to on for me under https://www.canva.com/account/privacy-preferences
If you’re on a Canva premium plan, you’ll also be able to unlock Canva’s powerful AI tools within Affinity.
So freemium, not free. Which is also fine, just saying.
Edit: Needs new Canva account. My Serif account didn’t migrate. Be sure to turn off BS under https://www.canva.com/account/privacy-preferences
Once canva bought affinity it was going to just go downhill eventually.
Oh I think eventually will arrive fairly soon.
Not free as in freedom! 🙁
Affinity is one of the things i lost in moving from windows to Linux, but I’ve been getting by.
I bought a license before canva acquired it and quite enjoyed the software.
Really sad to see canva doing what everyone knew they would do to it.
Top ten answers on the board; we asked 100 users “How will Canva cover the costs of the software development if Affinity is free?”
It has Ai features by subscription to Canva Premium.
don’t believe companies when they tell you they don’t want all the money on the planet by any means possible
I use this at a center I volunteer at that works with the mentally disabled. Unsurprisingly, a lot of those people are old. Surprisingly, Canva is simple enough that I’ve been able to train the elderly, of all people, to use the program to make fliers or three-fold pamphlets for themselves. It’s a good program for what it does, and the center pays for a premium subscription, so it’s not something I personally need to worry much about.
Honestly, I’m fine with this in terms of the program’s functionality, as long as Canva does’t fuck with its user interface. It is pretty simple and intuitive, and I’d argue that the UI is quite possibly one of its strongest assets, seconded only by the massive amount of options/elements you can add to your project. And it’s already apparent what AI is mostly used for within the program: making more graphic elements to slap onto your page, and more ready-made templates you can still go in and alter everything in at-will. And honestly, I’m fine with that.
If they are a registered non profit they shouldn’t have to pay for premium, and be eligible for a free subscription
We/they are. So maybe we don’t pay then. I’ve never asked. We just have the premium package, so I assumed we paid.
Enshitification is inevitable. Ugh.
At least give us a Linux version.
So this is basically v3, and they’re trying to gain critical mass adoption vs Adobe.
I’m happy with my v2 for now, but I have a hunch if I migrate to “3” I’ll be modifying my hosts file in the future.
This frustrates me so much.
I paid for v1 and v2 of the suite precisely because I’m willing to pay for a tool that works for me, predictably and reliably and with no compromise in goals. Now I’ll have to switch platforms yet again, because they’re going to monetize somehow, and if it’s not by taking my money, it’ll be by taking something else.
Is Inkscape a reasonable replacement for Illustrator yet? Is there an equivalent for InDesign?
I don’t want to get stuck in a Canvas walled garden, and I’m not going to pay rent to use software.
I hear you. I’m not as doom and gloom as everybody else, but its definitely a shift away from their model. I mean, technically they are keeping their word by keeping Affinity separate and not subscription based like Canva. But I still don’t like it nonetheless.
The problem though is that there isn’t an alternative. Affinity was the alternative. Inkscape and Gimp have their place, but they are not the same level of software. I guess I’m just going to run my v2 into the ground waiting for other software to step up.
At least V2 still works and won’t just disappear. You can still use those apps you bought.
But it’s just sad to see this new path. I used to buy all the apps just because I liked the business model. I don’t really ever use Publisher, but I bought it anyway.
Now…there’s nothing that’ll get me to use this “free” shit.
V2 files can be opened in Canva version but they are not backwards compatible.
Still no Linux support. As someone who purchased the Affinity Suite, I’m not sure I like this shift in model. If they keep to just fencing off AI in premium and keep investing in the whole app, fine, but I don’t have my hopes up.
