WE NEED TO BE TALKING ABOUT THIS!

For years, when artists in Long Beach and beyond asked for a graphic design and digital art suite recommendation, the answer was always Affinity. We recommended it for one simple reason: it was a one-time purchase. While Adobe locked users into a subscription model, Affinity offered a powerful, affordable alternative for a single, upfront fee.

For example, purchasing Affinity Designer—their version of Adobe Illustrator for iPad—would have cost you no more than $20. One time. With free upgrades included.

But something major has changed recently, and it seems the art community, especially here in Long Beach, California, hasn’t gotten the news.

The entire Affinity suite is now completely free.

It doesn’t matter if you’re using it on desktop or on an iPad tablet. (Hopefully, an Android version is coming soon.) This move has the potential to seriously disrupt Adobe’s market base while empowering artists to fully control their craft and their costs.

From Three Apps to One Super App

Having used Affinity since version 1, through version 2, and now into what you could call version 3—”Affinity by Canva”—I’ve seen the evolution. The coolest change in this new iteration is consolidation.

Previously, the suite had three separate apps:

• Affinity Publisher: For creating page layouts (magazines, posters, etc.)
• Affinity Photo: The equivalent to Adobe Photoshop for raster images and photo editing.
• Affinity Designer: The equivalent to Adobe Illustrator for vector-based graphic design and art.

In versions 1 and 2, if you owned all three, you could use Publisher as a “hub” to access tools from Designer and Photo. Now, that concept is streamlined: you just download one single program.

This new all-in-one application houses everything under different “studios”:

• Vector: The vector graphics editor (formerly Designer).
• Photo: The raster graphics editor (formerly Affinity Photo).
• Layout: The page layout tool (formerly Publisher).
• Plus additional studios like Typography for advanced text and layout control.

A Long-Awaited Feature Arrives

One significant caveat in previous Affinity versions was the lack of an automatic image trace function, a staple in Illustrator for converting images into vector graphics. Everything had to be traced manually.

That’s now history.

The new Image Trace tool allows you to automatically vectorize images directly in your document, a massive improvement that streamlines workflows for illustrators and designers.

A Note on AI and Ethics

The program does include AI features, which can be a point of contention for some artists. However, during the launch, Canva explicitly ensured that user artwork would not be used to sell AI services or train their AI models. This commitment to artist ownership and data privacy is a crucial distinction in today’s digital landscape.

Familiar, Powerful, and Now Free

If you’re familiar with Adobe’s ecosystem, you’ll feel right at home. The interface and tools are recognizably professional, making the adjustment smooth.

The bottom line is transformative: artists no longer need to factor in a monthly subscription fee to access top-tier creative software. You can now create professional artwork on your computer or iPad (and soon, hopefully, Android tablets) for free.

You can download the new, free Affinity suite directly from the Affinity website.

It’s time to revamp your art techniques, expand your toolkit, and take full control of your creative craft in 2026.