After acquiring Serif last year, Canva is now launching its Adobe-rival creative suite Affinity as a new all-in-one app for photo editing, vector illustration and page layouts. Unlike Affinity’s previous Designer, Photo and Publisher software, which cost a one-time purchase of $70, Canva’s announcement highlights that the new Affinity app is “free forever” and does not require a subscription.
It is currently available on Windows and Mac, and will come to the iPad in the future. Affinity now uses “one universal file type” according to Canva, and includes integrations that allow users to quickly export designs to their Canva account. Canva Premium subscribers can also use AI-powered Canva editing tools, such as image generation, photo cleaning and instant copying, right in the Affinity app.
The older versions of standalone Affinity apps will still work for anyone who previously purchased them, and those users won’t be forcibly moved to the new platform. However, the V2 editions of Designer, Photo, and Publisher were all pulled from the Affinity website several weeks ago, and Canva has not stated whether existing users will continue to receive support updates.
Affinity’s one-time purchase model was one of the most attractive features of the older software offering and stood in stark contrast to Adobe’s controversial subscription-based creative suite. While Canva’s proprietary design platform is free to use, it also locks most of its capabilities behind subscription paywalls, raising concerns that Affinity would adopt Canva’s subscription-based approach after the acquisition. The company is trying to allay these fears for good by repeatedly mentioning how “free” the new Affinity app is, but the AI integrations will likely meet some resistance from creatives opposed to the technology.
#Affinitys #design #platform #combines #app