So when will the ads start to pop up?
this post was submitted on 30 Oct 2025
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It's already functionally an ad for Canva's premium services.
Still no Linux support.
I will stick with FOSS stuff and when needed, Black Flag Adobe in Windows VM.
Once canva bought affinity it was going to just go downhill eventually.
never support anything by canva
Why not?
they're a horrible ai slop company
Ah I see thanks for the heads up
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
.......I want free hugs!
If you have to sign up to use it, it isn't free.
AI training?
Probably, and also the first step towards adopting Adobe's shitty business model.
About a year ago, Canva tried to raise their prices significantly.
I forget exactly, but I pay for an account and can have 5 people on my team. They said they would start charging for each team member or something like that.
One person said their cot went up from like $100 to $600, maybe the numbers are off, but it’s close to how severe there increase was.
There was so much backlash over it that they decided to keep the old pricing structure.
So they're planning to hook people in with freebies then boil the frogs a little slower.
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.
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I’ve been a paying affinity customer for years, and I’m not signing up for Canva.
I get it’s “free”, but I’m sketched out.
I'm not buying that it's free unless it's FOSS almost ever. Maybe it's just a "create an account so we can collect data on you" deal, but that still isn't free.
Yes, you have to create an account in Canva and turn off a bunch of tracking that is set on by default. There's even a record setting that is off at the time of me discovering it, but that just made me nervous.
I recently downloaded it to try it out but i'm thinking of just torrenting adobe tbh.
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?
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.
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.
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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.
I was really hoping for Linux support some day. Now, I am totally fine sticking with GIMP.
Krita is also another good alternative, imo.
Isn't Krita more focused on digital painting than photo editing? I always end up going back to the GIMP because of that even though I use KDE.
Yep. It's 100% digital painting. All photo manipulation features are either minimal implementation or simply does not exist.
All the developement roadmap are often times trying to replicate Clip Studio Paint as it becomes the most used digital painting software for newer generation. Like comic/manga layout, integrated 3D pose, etc.
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Enshittification countdown begins now
It started when they bought affinity.
"Free"
Lovely. \s They got brought by Canva and went down the Adobe rabbit hole.
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Top ten answers on the board; we asked 100 users "How will Canva cover the costs of the software development if Affinity is free?"
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At first glance, this all sounds positive, especially for users without an affinity for AI.
However, time will tell whether the program will become less appealing if it turns out that the majority of Affinity users are not persuaded to sign up for a Canvas subscription for AI editing.
Either certain tools and functions will disappear behind a paywall, or compatibility will be restricted by no longer allowing free import and export to certain file formats.
Enshitification is inevitable. Ugh.
At least give us a Linux version.
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