As we suspected three weeks ago on www.slashcam.de/news/single/Affinity-Photo--Designer-und-Publisher---iPad-Vers-19578.html, Affinity is now making its entire suite for Mac and PC available for free. This means there is now a very powerful image editor, a vector graphics editor, and a complete publishing environment under one interface for free use.
Affinity Photo already has many fans due to its high format compatibility with Photoshop, but the program is not a direct Photoshop clone; instead, it requires users to learn alternative workflow concepts. However, the integration of vector and design tools is exemplary, enabling even demanding print projects.
Affinity now combines vector, pixel, and layout editing in one free application
Affinity already had a new owner in March 2024 through an acquisition by Canva (affinity.serif.com/de/press/newsroom/canva-press-release/), which brought a lot of AI expertise. And this is exactly how Affinity/Canva intends to make money in the future. Anyone who wants to use new AI functions in the program will have to purchase them via a subscription. Functions like Generative Fill or automatic background removal will only work after payment. However, the classic functions without AI support are guaranteed to remain free to use without restrictions "for all eternity."
In our view, this is a satisfactory deal, as in the medium term, users will have to pay for AI functions in some way with all other providers—provided they are calculated in the cloud and not locally. Currently, the smallest license costs 12 Euros per month or 110 Euros per year. Compared to individual open-source solutions like Gimp, Scribus, or Krita, the new Affinity app is significantly better integrated and even offers GPU acceleration and completely non-destructive workflows.
You can get a first impression in the following clip:
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