this post was submitted on 30 Oct 2025
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195
Affinity Studio is now free (www.affinity.studio)
submitted 2 days ago by simple@piefed.social to c/technology@lemmy.world
103 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

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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[–] rirus@feddit.org 2 points 7 hours ago

Not free as in freedom! 🙁

[–] golden_zealot@lemmy.ml 2 points 8 hours ago

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.

[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 10 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

So when will the ads start to pop up?

[–] rob_t_firefly@lemmy.world 6 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

It's already functionally an ad for Canva's premium services.

[–] woelkchen@lemmy.world 2 points 8 hours ago

The "ad" is a single button that you can turn off. For now it's fine.

[–] sonofearth@lemmy.world 9 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Still no Linux support.

I will stick with FOSS stuff and when needed, Black Flag Adobe in Windows VM.

[–] bagelberger@lemmy.world 1 points 14 hours ago

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

[–] ClydapusGotwald@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Once canva bought affinity it was going to just go downhill eventually.

[–] fodor@lemmy.zip 1 points 8 hours ago

Oh I think eventually will arrive fairly soon.

[–] cupcakezealot@piefed.blahaj.zone 27 points 1 day ago (6 children)

never support anything by canva

[–] woelkchen@lemmy.world 2 points 8 hours ago

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.)

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[–] fakeplastic@lemmy.dbzer0.com 94 points 2 days ago (1 children)

If you have to sign up to use it, it isn't free.

[–] shyguyblue@lemmy.world 37 points 2 days ago (2 children)

AI training?

[–] woelkchen@lemmy.world 2 points 8 hours ago

AI training?

When created a Canva account for Affinity 3, the setting "train AI using information about your general usage which includes fonts, colours, search queries and instructions you input. This does NOT include any of your uploaded images, videos, or designs" was on, "Allow your content to improve AI" was off.

For now it's configurable at https://www.canva.com/account/privacy-preferences and I think they'll have a hard landing on the face if they ever change it.

[–] fakeplastic@lemmy.dbzer0.com 55 points 2 days ago (5 children)

Probably, and also the first step towards adopting Adobe's shitty business model.

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[–] SnoringEarthworm@sh.itjust.works 79 points 2 days ago (1 children)

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[–] woelkchen@lemmy.world 17 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

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

[–] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 54 points 2 days ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Cethin@lemmy.zip 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

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.

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[–] FireWire400@lemmy.world 26 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (4 children)

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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[–] isVeryLoud@lemmy.ca 35 points 2 days ago (9 children)

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?

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[–] SatyrSack@quokk.au 37 points 2 days ago (6 children)

I was really hoping for Linux support some day. Now, I am totally fine sticking with GIMP.

[–] woelkchen@lemmy.world 1 points 7 hours ago

I was really hoping for Linux support some day.

I hope with easy access to Affinity V3, someone in the FOSS world will now reverse engineer the Affinity file format. The only 3rd party solution for Affinity files I'm aware of is Photopea but that may just as well be a version of Affinity Photo running in some VM on the server to convert the files to PSD to then edit the files from there.

[–] tonytins@pawb.social 33 points 2 days ago (10 children)

Krita is also another good alternative, imo.

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[–] BroBot9000@lemmy.world 35 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Enshittification countdown begins now

[–] Master@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 day ago

It started when they bought affinity.

[–] xcjs@programming.dev 29 points 2 days ago

"Free"

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