Canva Is Making Affinity Free and Launching a ‘Creative Operating System’

Adobe just finished its Max keynote, which means it’s time for its biggest free competitor to announce its own set of new features. While Adobe has done its best to follow Canva by adding its own free web tools to its lineup, the simple browser-based editor has become a key part of my creative routine. Now Adobe is going deeper into lunch by launching a “creative operating system,” which, while largely a rebranding of existing (but expanding) tools, is reminiscent of the “creative cloud” branding of Photoshop’s creators. As part of the update, Canva is introducing a number of AIs (say that with me) into its products, but is also taking a big turn by making the popular Photoshop alternative, Affinity, free for everyone.

AI will hold your hand during design

Credit: Canva

Adobe made its own AI promises during its Max keynote, the biggest being “AI Assistant in Adobe Express.” The feature essentially lets you create or refine entire designs from an AI chat box, all within the company’s free Canva-like web editor. Not to be outdone, Canva also offers an AI assistant for its browser-based designer, but it promises finer control than Adobe’s version.

AI Assistant in Adobe Express is a bit strange, in that enabling it removes your toolbar. The idea is to make things simple, but it also adds a bit of a barrier to asking for help. Meanwhile, Canva is trying to naturally integrate AI into its entire workflow by upgrading its existing Ask Canva chatbot.

Right now, Ask Canva just sits in a place on your screen, where you can ask it to generate text or images for you. Now, Canva says you can invoke it anywhere in your design and it will be able to give you feedback, make suggestions, or make changes for you, all related to specific design elements.

Along with an updated AI model, the idea is to make it a “true creative partner”, but personally I’m just happy that its accidental appearance won’t make my tools disappear.

Canva 2.0 video

Credit: Canva

Keeping with the AI ​​theme, Canva is also redesigning its video editor with a new mobile-friendly interface and expanded ability to instantly create a publishable video with a single prompt.

You’ll still be able to manually edit a timeline if you want, and you can still generate AI footage as separate clips to place alongside or overlay on top of your other footage, but the new system aims to make it easier to go from raw footage to posting a video to your timeline.

Called Magic Video, it works like the existing Magic Design feature, but Canva says it’s a bit more powerful. You’ll upload clips and tell the AI ​​what type of video you want, just like with Magic Design, but you’ll also need to select a tone for your video and an editing style from drop-down menus, then navigate a “new library of trendy templates” to get your final result. This should mean more control, but also more transition effects and title cards.

It’s all free and that reminds me of Adobe’s upcoming YouTube Shorts feature for Premiere, which is being added to the free Premiere app for iPhone as well as directly within YouTube. It’s not expected to be released for some time yet, but Adobe says it will come with “exclusive” effects, transitions, stickers, and templates, although no AI can put it all together for you. However, it will allow you to publish directly to YouTube without having to leave the application. Canva can do this with a few platforms, like Instagram, but doesn’t yet have direct integration with YouTube.

Whether you prefer to have an AI assistant and a more platform-agnostic approach, or an editor with a direct pipeline to publication, it’s up to you.

Affinity is now free for everyone, “forever”

Credit: Canva

Moving away from AI and browser-based editors, Canva also received news regarding the popular standalone Photoshop alternative, Affinity. As a downloadable tool, it offers more granular control than Canva’s web editor, including tools like vector editing, and that makes sense: it hasn’t always been part of the Canva family. Canva actually purchased Affinity in March of last year, and while acquiring a beloved tool isn’t always good news for existing users, Canva’s latest announcement should go a long way in gaining some goodwill.

Part of what sets Affinity apart is its buy-once-and-keep-forever price, making it very competitive with Photoshop’s subscription model. Now, Canva says Affinity is free for everyone, “forever.”

This is an improvement over previous free models of the app, which were limited to iPad spinoffs and Education accounts. It’s also a boost to the competition. Although Adobe has created lite, free versions of its main mobile and web apps over the past few years, it has yet to take the plunge with a free, full-featured desktop editor.

Besides the price, Canva also says it combines all of Affinity’s different functions into one program, so you’ll no longer need to switch between Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer, and Affinity Publisher depending on your needs.

Improvements for businesses

Credit: Canva

Although many Canva users are individuals using the free versions of its editors, the company offers an enterprise plan for businesses, and a few of today’s updates are tailor-made for them.

This includes Canva Grow, a new product for marketers to launch ads, as well as a “branding system” that will help teams stay consistent with the apps they use.

On a smaller scale, however, you can finally use Canva to design HTML elements for email, which could be useful for large and small businesses and individuals. Additionally, Canva has its own survey system called “Forms,” which can be added to websites or other designs and will deliver responses to your Canva sheets.

Speaking of Canva Sheets, it can now interact with Canva Code, which means you can use data from Sheets to power interactive widgets like live dashboards or calculators.

This is all a bit more intensive than what I use Canva for, but I’m sure some people are raising their hands in relief right now.

When will this all be posted online?

Compared to Adobe, where most of the features announced at Max are still in beta or development, Canva’s latest updates will begin rolling out today in their live versions, as part of the launch of its creative operating system.

Personally, I’m not a big fan of using AI in design, but the free Affinity could secure the launch for me alone. Add in these quality-of-life features for businesses, and it’s clear that Adobe will need to continue experimenting with its low-cost, browser-based editors to keep pace.