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Affinity Studio now free

(www.affinity.studio)
1199 points dagmx | 4 comments | 30 Oct 25 15:54 UTC | HN request time: 1.478s | source
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pentagrama ◴[30 Oct 25 17:21 UTC] No.45762521[source]▶
I used Affinity for several years, so to add some background here:

Serif is the company that originally built this software.

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2014–2024

Serif developed the Affinity suite, a collection of three independent desktop apps sold with a one-time payment model:

- Affinity Designer: vector graphic design (Adobe Illustrator equivalent)

- Affinity Photo: digital image editing (Adobe Photoshop equivalent)

- Affinity Publisher: print and layout design (Adobe InDesign equivalent)

They were solid, professional tools without subscriptions like Adobe, a big reason why many designers loved them.

-------

2024

Canva acquired Serif.

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2025 (today)

The product has been relaunched. The three apps are now merged into a single app, simply called Affinity, and it follows a freemium model.

From what I’ve tested, you need a Canva account to download and open the app (you can opt out of some telemetry during setup).

The new app has four tabs:

- Vector: formerly Affinity Designer

- Pixel: formerly Affinity Photo

- Layout: formerly Affinity Publisher

- Canva AI: a new, paid AI-powered section

Screenshot https://imgur.com/a/h1S6fcK

Hope can help!

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alt227 ◴[30 Oct 25 18:19 UTC] No.45763276[source]▶
This is such a shame IMO. The Serif suite was great, and I used to try to get every designer I could to dump adobe and switch to serif.

Now that it has switched to a freemium model trying to get you to subscribe to AI, I wont be using this or telling other people about it any more. Their priorities have changed. No longer are they trying to to beat adobe at their own game, they are just chasing AI money like everyone else.

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1. Razengan ◴[30 Oct 25 21:15 UTC] No.45765466[source]▶
Man. This is another case in favor of open source. OSS may take years to get there but it doesn't go poof in one sudden day either.
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2. unreal37 ◴[30 Oct 25 21:25 UTC] No.45765581[source]▶
Open Source absolutely stops being maintained. And worse.
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3. fsloth ◴[30 Oct 25 21:52 UTC] No.45765814[source]▶
Yup, source code does not stay maintainable automatically. Just that code is open does not mean anyone can or wants to do any reasonable development.

The only ”safer” bets are the biggest projects providing critical infra for segments of economy like python for example.

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4. alt227 ◴[31 Oct 25 19:53 UTC] No.45776015{3}[source]▶
At least if you care about it enough then if it dies you can pick it up yourself and maintain it.