Affinity’s New Design Platform Combines Everything Into One App

Affinity Designer, Photo, and Publisher are now an all-in-one platform.

After acquiring Serif past year, Canva is now relaunching its Adobe-rivalling Affinity imaginative suite arsenic a caller all-in-one app for photograph editing, vector illustration, and page layouts. Unlike Affinity’s erstwhile Designer, Photo, and Publisher software, which were a one-time $70 purchase, Canva’s announcement stresses that nan caller Affinity app is “free forever” and won’t require a subscription. 

It’s presently disposable connected Windows and Mac, and will beryllium coming to iPad astatine immoderate constituent successful nan future. Affinity now uses “one cosmopolitan record type” according to Canva, and includes integrations that let users to quickly export designs to their Canva account. Canva Premium subscribers will besides beryllium capable to usage AI-powered Canva editing devices for illustration image generation, photograph cleanup, and instant transcript straight wrong nan Affinity app.

The older versions of standalone Affinity apps will still activity for anyone who has antecedently purchased them, and those users won’t beryllium forcibly moved to nan caller platform. The V2 editions of Designer, Photo, and Publisher were each pulled from nan Affinity website respective weeks ago, however, and Canva hasn’t mentioned if existing users will proceed receiving support updates.

Affinity’s one-time-purchase exemplary was 1 of nan astir appealing things astir its older package offerings, opinionated successful stark opposition to Adobe’s arguable subscription-based imaginative suite. While Canva’s ain creation level tin beryllium utilized for free, it besides locks astir of its capabilities down subscription paywalls, which raised concerns that Affinity would adopt Canva’s subscription-based approach pursuing nan acquisition. The institution is trying to put those fears to remainder for bully by many times mentioning really “free” nan caller Affinity app is, but nan AI integrations will apt beryllium met pinch immoderate guidance by creatives who reason nan technology.