It’s Free

Adobe Creative Suite requires a monthly subscription. Affinity Studio is free in perpetuity. It’s owned by Canva, who is committed to keeping it free for everyone. Jess explained how this is possible on Threads when the announcement was first made.

One App vs. Multiple Apps

Adobe Creative Suite is a suite of individual apps. Affinity Studio is a single app that combines all of the features of the individual apps into one. You can achieve the feeling of working in multiple apps by using different “studios” (workspaces) in Affinity Studio (like Vector, Pixel, and Layout). But the real magic happens when you create a custom studio that combines the tools and panels you use in your specific workflow.

No AI Tools by Default

Generative AI tools are not included by default in Affinity Studio. You can purchase a Canva Pro subscription to access the generative AI tools, and the monthly fee is $12 for an annual plan or $15 for a monthly plan. (I don’t mean for this to sound like a commercial to sign up; just passing along the info in case it’s of interest.)

File Compatibility

Affinity’s file format is .af. You cannot open a .af file in Adobe Creative Suite but you can open most Adobe formats in Affinity (.ai, .eps, .pdf, .psd, .svg, .idml, etc.). Affinity allows you to export files to Adobe friendly formats (.eps for layered Illustrator files, .psd for Photoshop, and generic flat vector and raster file extensions). This means you can open and edit your existing Adobe files in Affinity or save files from Affinity to Adobe-friendly formats to share with clients or vendors. Because the underlying technology is different in Affinity, some complex objects may not be exported with the full editability (like gradients).

InDesign Compatibility

InDesign is the only file format that is a little tricky. Affinity is more richly featured than InDesign as page layout software—photo and illustration assets are fully editable and non-destructive in Affinity vs. placed/linked in InDesign. This makes cross-platform compatibility difficult. You can package fonts and linked files just like with InDesign and generate print-ready PDFs with advanced options, but the layout file is .af vs .indd. Because Affinity is free for everyone (including printers and companies of any size), vendors can download Affinity and access working files exactly as they would Adobe InDesign files without paying for a subscription.

Layers

The concept of layers is a little different in Affinity. In Adobe Creative Suite, a layer is a container for objects. In Affinity, a layer is an individual object which can be either vector or raster, since both file formats can exist in the same file. You can create “layers” (in the Adobe sense of the word) by creating groups of these objects. An artboard is also a “layer” in Affinity, with all objects on the artboard being contained within that layer.

Pages vs. Artboards

Because Affinity can be used as a page layout program exactly like InDesign, they conceptually separate the concept of pages from artboards. They have slightly different behaviors and properties, and you can convert a page to an artboard and vice versa.

Artboard View Modes

When you are working on an artboard, you can “clip to canvas” to hide objects outside of the artboard or uncheck that setting to show objects outside of the artboard. “Preview Mode” is a way to quickly hide all margins, guides, and gridlines and clip to canvas at the same time.

Non-Destructive Editing

Affinity is non-destructive by default. Adobe uses the concept of “smart objects” for working non-destructively. Affinity uses a similar concept, but it’s implemented in a much more intuitive way. When adding filters, adjusting color levels, etc., the original object is preserved, and the changes are applied as an adjustment layer. This means you can easily disable or adjust changes without affecting the original objects. If you place a photo in a file, the original resolution is retained when you scale the photo up and down. In the history palette, you can scrub through all of your work and edits and even create forks if you add new updates to an earlier version of the file.

Fill Mode

The default settings for Fill Mode (Vector setting) is “Alternate” which creates holes when a path overlaps itself. Switch to “Winding” to make these holes go away.

Masking and Clipping

Layer order and layer nesting is important in Affinity. To create a clipping mask, you simply drag a layer onto another layer. For example, if you drag Layer A onto Layer B, Layer A will act as the clipping mask for Layer B. You can also use this masking technique with groups. When dragging Layer A on top of a group, you will be given the choice to place it inside of a group OR “use as clipping mask”. This masking behavior gets especially interesting when combining vector and raster layers. You can use a vector shape to clip a raster image or a raster image to clip a vector shape. This makes adding raster textures to vector artwork incredibly easy.

Creating a Compound Path

To create a compound path (in the Adobe sense of the word), select both shapes and then hold option while clicking the subtract icon in the top right of the toolbar. Compound paths behave differently in Affinity and do not subtract a top shape from a bottom shape.

Shape Tools vs. Curves

In Affinity, a curve is a vector object with nodes and handles that you can edit. Curves are different from shapes. When you create a shape using the various shape tools (the rectangle tool, circle tool, etc.), you can adjust settings of the shape (like how many points a star has) but you cannot edit the nodes or handles without first converting the shape to a curve. Once a shape is converted to a curve, you can edit the nodes and handles of its paths just like you would a curve.

Swatches

In Affinity, you can have Document, Application, and System swatch palettes. Only a Document swatch palette can contain global swatches (swatches that behave like spot colors but are process colors). Affinity does have Pantone swatch palettes built into the program, unlike Adobe, who dropped their PMS library support. You can export palettes to save / share them or to import them into other documents.

Fonts

Affinity allows you to use any font installed on your computer. Affinity does not come with a large licensed library of fonts like Adobe Creative Suite—part of an Adobe subscription goes toward compensating type foundries and, as mentioned above, Affinity is free for everyone. They did share a collection of fonts with Affinity V1 and V2 users as a thank you for their early support. These only work in earlier paid versions of Affinity. You can license fonts directly from independent type foundries (or go to the big distributors) and install them on your computer, or you can download/install free fonts through services like Google Fonts.

Live Trace

Live trace does exist and has neat features like being able to see side-by-side before and afters of the objects you are live-tracing. What it doesn’t have is an ability to live-trace as a “black and white image” like you can in Adobe Illustrator. You have to adjust the source image to be as close as possible to black and white before live tracing for a similar effect. I have sent feedback along to Canva that an enhancement to live-trace that includes a “black and white” setting would be very valuable to creatives.

Effects & Filters

You can add effects and filters non-destructively to layers and groups when using the “live” versions of the tools accessible in the layers panel. Effects includes things like Bevel/Emboss, Inner/Outer Shadow, etc. Filters are more complex and include blurs, distortions, diffusions, lighting, and all kinds of other things. You can apply them to the full document or drag the effect / filter on top of a group or individual layer so it only applies to that object.

Exporting Multiple Artboards

The easiest way to export multiple artboards is to turn on the Slices studio and export from within that studio. You can confirm / adjust setting for each artboard in the export panel to whatever format / resolution you need.

Select a Line Segment

There isn’t a way to directly select a line segment on its own (if you touch the segment with the node tool, you will add a point to the path). To select a line segment, select the nodes at the start and end of the segment.

Delete a Line Segment

To delete a line segment, while using the node tool, hold the control key while clicking the segment.

Adding a Node to a Path

Rather than using the pen tool to add a new node to a path, in Affinity you use the node tool. When you click on the path with the node tool, a new node will be added where you clicked.

Delete a Node

To delete a node, select it and click the delete key. If you hold down option while deleting the node, it better maintains the original path / curve.

Editing Nodes

Use the node tool to edit nodes on a path. If you double click a node with the node tool, it will add two handlebars or delete them entirely and is a easy wan to cycle through node styles.

Delete a Single Handlebar

Double click on the end of the bezier handle with the node tool to delete the handle.

Joining Two Different Paths

To join two separate paths, select the two nodes you want to join and click “Join Curves”in the top toolbar. This will create one continuous path on the same layer.You cannot join two different paths with the just the pen tool like you can in Illustrator. This is meant to prevent accidentally joining shapes, but it’s not something Illustrator folks are used to and can create friction when you’re just starting out.

Add a Single Bezier Handle

To add a single bezier handle from a node, click and drag on the path right near the anchor point while holding the command key to create the handle.

Closing a Path

You can drag points on top of one another from the same path to close the path.

Continue Drawing from an Existing Path

To add to a path, select the ode you want to start drawing from with the node tool first before switching to the pen tool. Make sure the node itself is selected, and not the full path.