Affinity by Canva at a glance:

• Free
• Premium Canva AI £13 / $15 a month, £100 / $120 a year
• Three-in-one software
• Full photo editing studio
• Mac & Windows
• www.affinity.studio

Nothing stays still in imaging for long with a never-ending conveyor belt of new kit and firmware updates part and parcel of a photographer’s life. It’s no different for the best photo editing software where we see new features and improvements every few months.

A huge shake-up in the world of software saw Serif acquired in 2024 by Canva, an Australian software company known for its online design platform, for a reported US $380million. Serif was a British company that published Affinity Photo, Designer and Publisher, three packages that rivalled Adobe’s Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign respectively, and very capable they were too. Being available for outright purchase rather than on subscription gave Affinity’s trio an extra appeal.

Things moved quickly after the acquisition. Sales of the Affinity apps stopped in early October 2025 and at the end of that month Affinity by Canva was revealed. Also known as Affinity Studio, the former Designer, Photo and Publisher have been rolled into one software package and it’s available for the all-in price of nothing. That’s right, Affinity Studio for Mac and Windows with the iPad version on the way is free to everyone. 

It’s worth saying that Affinity V2 app owners are not left out in the cold and can carry on as normal and the software remains available for download if required, but they won’t be updated so new Raw formats won’t be supported.

Canon EOS R5 · f/13 · 1/500s · 104mm · ISO200

To get started go to www.affinity.studio, sign up and download the software. It is simple as that, no credit card, no subscription, no strings attached. In truth, however, Affinity Studio is based on the freemium strategy so while the basic package is free with 5GB of cloud storage, the premium AI-driven features come at a cost. Our focus in this review is on the free software.

Affinity – Studio selection

Open the software and in the default Context Toolbar, you’ll see the three ‘studios’, Vector, Layout and Pixel, which represent the three previous apps, Designer, Publisher and Photo respectively. Navigating from one studio to the other is no more difficult than clicking on the appropriate icon which of course changes the toolbars and palettes to suit. It’s a neat and efficient way of working.

You might have noticed there hasn’t been any mention of Affinity’s cataloguing and keywording functions but that’s because they don’t exist. So, if you were hoping that Affinity would be a free Lightroom alternative, think again. 

Those functions excepted, Affinity is a fully featured image editing software, from Raw development to retouching, unlimited layer functionality with compatibility with Photoshop PSD files and skills such as HDR and focus merging.  

Existing Affinity Photo 2 users will feel immediately at home with the interface layout but one difference is that tool icons are all monochrome rather than colour, which seems a retrograde step as colour icons are nicer to work with, so perhaps that might change in time. 

Those new to Affinity might find it daunting initially especially as it’s so richly featured and getting familiar with it needs practice, practice and yet more practice. 

Naturally, there’s plenty of customisation potential to help and that includes the ability to create your own studios, and that was my first job. 

Apart from three app options the studio drop-down includes Slice, Canva AI, Retouching, Colour Grading, Typography and Compositing. What tasks you want to perform and how you like to work will govern which items feature in your personal studio and there’s nothing to stop you having dedicated studios for different subjects and techniques.

With our focus on Affinity’s photo editing skills, I created my studio without Vector and Layout because they weren’t needed and another option I left out was Canva AI. The extra tools in this studio are only active by paying a subscription. For information, the Canva premium service is currently £13 / $15 a month (50% off for the first three months) or £100 / $120 yearly which works out at £8.33 / $10 a month with a 30-day trial. Among the additional skills are AI-powered tools that include remove background, subject select, portrait lighting and several generative features. 

ILCE-1M2 · f/1.4 · 1/60s · 85mm · ISO400

I worked through the toolbars and the right panel palettes, which took more time and we’ll discuss these in detail later, and only selected stuff I was likely to use. 

Just like a working through a camera menu, don’t stress about getting it perfect because you can update or delete studios as you learn the software and get to know its potential. For the newcomer, the benefit of organising your workspace is that each time you open the software you’re greeted by a familiar face with everything arranged to suit.

Affinity – Raw processing

Let’s start working with Affinity by exploring Raw processing and for reference this test was done using Affinity by Canva v3.0.2 on a M2 Max Mac Studio with 32GB RAM.

Raw files are opened by dragging and dropping them onto the interface or icon, using File>Open or accessing files via the Welcome splash page and the software automatically changes the Pixel icon to Develop. Fujifilm shooters will be delighted to hear that Affinity is fully compatible with X-Trans CMOS sensor Raws.

Being very familiar with Adobe Camera Raw, particularly in Lightroom, I did notice some differences in Affinity and it started with the imported images. In my test the same Raw image in Affinity looked darker and much lower in contrast and saturation compared with Adobe (with the same colour space) which showed a much brighter, altogether snappier image.

This meant that Affinity’s controls needed more aggressive adjusting to get a comparable result. Of course, you’ll end up with broadly similar images but those familiar with Adobe’s processing should be aware of this and it’s a matter of getting used to Affinity’s characteristics. 

Moving to the right panel, Affinity has a full array of tools with the Basic, Lens and Details palettes the ones holding the most used tools. So, in the Basic palette there’s Exposure, Blackpoint, White Balance and Shadows & Highlights and on the Lens Palette there are lens aberration correction tools. In default, many of the controls in each palette are only active if the tick box is checked. You can speed the process up by making presets of your favoured tools and you’ll have to do this in each palette.

AI noise reduction is a popular and important feature with Adobe, DxO and Topaz leading the way. Affinity has noise reduction with five sliders to fine-tune luminance and colour and it performs reasonably well, but there’s no single click option and it’s not AI-powered. Putting the same high ISO Raws through Affinity and denoising in Adobe Camera Raw showed that both did well but the latter’s NR skills were significantly superior. If you frequently shoot at high ISOs and want top results, a separate denoising app such as DxO PureRaw is worth considering.

Canon EOS R5m2 · f/2.8 · 1/250s · 86mm · ISO400

I use masks in Raw processing a great deal especially as AI does the heavy lifting which speeds up workflow enormously. Masks are important tools and there are options in Affinity’s Raw Develop studio and in the Pixel Studio too, but there are no single-click subject-focused masks in this free software. 

In the Develop studio, there are two ways of accessing masks, either via the left tool bar or with the Masks palette where there are two options, Brush and Gradient with opacity available to control mask density. It’s in this palette that created masks are shown and each mask as well as the master image is made active by clicking on it. 

In the left toolbar there’s the Mask Paint (shortcut B), Mask Erase (E) and Mask Gradient (G) tools and these are supported in the top toolbar with Edge Aware and Show Mask tick boxes. Ticking the Edge Aware box is worthwhile and it produced decently accurate masks even with less strongly defined subjects including birds. The Show Mask option is worth using too so you can see the mask itself but oddly the box must be unticked to allow any editing changes to be made. Auto switchover would make the masking process more streamlined.

Once a mask is created, click on the appropriate palette to make adjustments. Adjust a slider and its impact on the preview is shown in real time provided that the Show Mask box is unticked. Masks in this studio can’t be renamed and all you see in the Mask palette is the type of mask applied, Brush or Gradient, and clicking on each shows the masked area. This slows down workflow slightly if multiple masks in Raw is your preferred way of working.

However, a handy feature is the ability to compare ‘before’ and ‘after’ previews either mirrored side by side at the same magnification or in split view.

Affinity’s Raw editing masks work well but need slightly more user input compared with AI generated masks which are available with the premium subscription. As it is, however, having the various tools in different areas of the interface seems disjointed and all the masking tools and options in one palette would give a more streamlined experience. 

Affinity – Post Raw editing

Once you have edited the Raw to your satisfaction click on the Develop icon and a second or two later you’re in the Pixel Studio and the toolbars and palettes change. 

Affinity is blessed with an extensive collection of editing tools from basic cloning and healing to layers, layer masks and selection tools. 

Affinity’s Studio toolbar comes into its own in editing and the way relevant tools are grouped together in the Retouching and Colour Grading studios is really cool. Click on either and a long list of editing functions appear in a drop-down menu. In Retouching, for example, among the 24 options on show are Black & white, HSL and Exposure. Click on the tool’s heading and you see a range of preview thumbnails showing the effect of the various settings and if you then click on a thumbnail the main preview image updates to show the effect and a palette appears to allow you to tweak the preview. 

To take a practical example, click on HSL (hue, saturation, luminance) and then on one of the presets, the preview updates and the HSL palette appears so you can fine-tune the image to taste. I thought this a neat way to make image edits quickly with the thumbnails giving an accurate guide to the effect and there’s still the ability to fine-tune the result.

The left toolbar has, among many others, healing, cloning and selection tools and if the default arrangement doesn’t suit, it can be customised. Left click on the three dots at the base of the bar and the Customise Tools dialogue box appears. The greyed-out tools are those already in the toolbar and highlighted ones are those available to add and all you do is click and drag to add or remove items and to change their running order.

Right-clicking on the tool bar also brings up the option of opening the Customise Tools dialogue box and in addition there are Sub Tools menu items and Rich Tooltips. For inexperienced Affinity users Rich Tooltips is especially useful and by hovering over each tool there’s a brief explanation of what it does plus a tip on two. This tool bar can also be undocked, organised up to eight columns and placed wherever you want on the interface.

Affinity – The Adjustment Brush

One tool I found myself calling on regularly was the Adjustment Brush. Select this and click on the image and a new layer mask is automatically created that you can go back to later if you need to revisit the effect. The Adjustment Brush is set to Exposure as default but in the Context Toolbar drop-down menu, there are no fewer than 17 other options that include Curves, Vibrance and HSL. Opacity, flow, size and hardness are available to adjust the way the brush works and clicking on the More menu for the Brush – Selection dialogue box gives even greater brush control. Finally, there’s also a blend mode drop-down menu, so the layer is created in the preferred mode with Normal being the default. 

In the Layers menu, masks can be edited by clicking on the mask icon together with the Option key (Mac) or Alt (Windows) and you can refine the layer mask with the brush tool. 

Layer visibility and opacity can be fine-tuned too so you have total control of the effect and of course if you don’t like your efforts, the History palette means you can take a step or two backwards or the layer can be deleted so you can start again.

Creating masks with the Adjustment Brush is fast but for intricate work, such as masking a sky against a detailed horizon, you need to take your time and zoom into the image and work carefully with small brushes. If you’re used to working with AI generated masks which can be very good in such scenarios and need little manual input, masking in Affinity demands a more work and patience but it’s not arduous. The option of Edge Aware that is available in the Develop Studio would have been handy here too, but this is a free software so you can’t have everything. 

Equally useful and working in a similar way is the Filter Brush where you can selectively add blur with options that include Diffuse Glow, Gaussian Blur and Motion Blur. Noise, Clarity and High Pass are other options available. 

Another tool to highlight is the Inpainting Brush. The Clone Brush can be used to tidy up small areas but if you’re looking to remove larger parts of the image the Inpainting Brush can do the job very well with a single click. Just brush over the area you want to edit and a few seconds later it’s gone. I thought this tool worked impressively on the images I tried and the edit was seamless and only on the odd occasion did I have to undo the result and try again. 

The Adjustment Brush and Filter Brush tools are quick and convenient but if you prefer, using selection tools and layers can be more precise.

Layers are essential for more involved image editing and Affinity is well blessed in this respect. For working non-destructively, there’s Mask Layer, 24 types of adjustment layer and even more filter layers. There’s also the choice of Pixel Layer.

Layer location

The layers panel by default lives on the right side of the interface and just like the toolbars, it can be moved to sit wherever required. Click on the downward arrow at the top of the layer panel brings up working options and access to what panels you want to have on show. With Affinity’s multiple skills, it’s no surprise that there are over 60 to choose from.

Affinity – There’s more

We’ve concentrated on Affinity’s photo editing skills and taken a brief look at what’s available, but this is an extensive software with massive potential, and it’ll probably satisfy the needs of most photographers, designers and illustrators.

To finish off our review, Affinity Studio has retained from Affinity Photo V2 a selection of image processes that include panorama stitching, focus stack merging, HDR merge and astrophotography stacking. Using them is straightforward and an Affinity .af format file is produced. 

For panoramas I tried five and eight shot Raw sequences shot handheld and Affinity stitched them accurately without any obvious join lines or tonal changes. There are no projection options on offer, but you do get a preview of the finished stitch before you click ok.

Focus bracketing is a common camera feature but of course a software with merging skills is needed to finish the job. Photoshop is capable and specialist focus stacking software is also available but most cost money. Having that merging ability for free is very much a good thing and Affinity delivered fine results with my focus brackets, made on Canon EOS R and OM System cameras.

After you’ve finished editing your images they can be saved as an Affinity file with file extension .af. When it comes to exporting there are the usual JPEG (best, high, medium and low) and TIFF (8-bit, 16-bit, RGB, Greyscale, CMYK and LAB) options as well as PSD (Photoshop), HDR and plenty more to cover design, web and graphic options. 

Affinity – Our Verdict

Not much in the world of imaging comes free so Affinity by Canva should be lauded from the rooftops for that simple fact alone. 

However, there are two ‘inevitables’ to be discussed. The first is AI and do you need it. On one hand AI edited images are not universally welcome, depending on what’s been done, in competitions and photo distinctions, for example. On the other, AI can save hours of pain-staking graft, plus it can rescue or create images that would be difficult or even impossible without its help.

The beauty of Affinity Studio is that there’s the choice and while the free version is very impressive, if AI appeals the Canva AI premium subscription costs £13 / $15 a month.

The second inevitable is the comparison between Affinity and Adobe. You’ll need Adobe’s Creative Cloud Pro subscription which is hefty £66.49 / $69.99 a month on an annual deal to match Affinity’s functionality. Photographers using their work for flyers, posters, brochures and the like, Affinity Studio is a compelling solution.

Sticking just with photo editing, the cheapest way of getting Photoshop is with Adobe’s Photography package which comes with Lightroom and is currently £19.97 / $19.98 a month on an annual deal; Photoshop on its own is £21.98 / $22.99 a month. Lightroom, with cataloguing and keywording, offers skills that Affinity can’t match.

Comparing image editor for image editor, Affinity Studio, with or without the AI option has an obvious appeal that will attract disillusioned Photoshop-users, Adobe-haters, the budget-conscious and anyone looking for a hugely capable editing software. 

Ultimately, you have simply got to try Affinity by Canva. Theres no commitment, it’s free so there’s nothing to lose apart from time trying it.

Related reading:

• Best Photoshop alternatives – no-subscription photo editing software
• Opinion: Photographers, it’s time to boycott Adobe
• Lightroom Classic vs Lightroom CC – which is best?

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