Canva Makes Affinity Free and Launches ‘Creative Operating System’
Adobe just wrapped up its Max keynote , meaning it’s time for its biggest free-to-use competitor to announce its own set of new features . While Adobe has struggled to keep up with Canva by adding free web tools to its lineup, the simple browser-based editor has become an integral part of my creative life. Now, it’s poised to take even more of Adobe’s space with the release of a “creative operating system” that, while essentially a rebranding of existing (but expanding) tools, smacks of the “creative cloud” branding of Photoshop’s creators. As part of the update, Canva is introducing a number of—say it with me—AI features into its products, but it’s also taking the plunge by making its popular Photoshop alternative, Affinity, free for everyone.
AI will hold your hand while you design
Adobe made its own AI promises during its Max keynote, the most significant of which was the “AI Assistant in Adobe Express.” This feature essentially allows you to create or refine entire projects directly from an AI chat window, all within the company’s free web editor, similar to Canva. Not to be outdone, Canva is also adding an AI Assistant to its browser editor, but promises more precise control than Adobe’s version.
Adobe Express’s AI assistant is a bit odd, as it hides the toolbar when enabled. The idea is to simplify workflow, but this also creates a barrier to asking for help. Meanwhile, Canva is trying to naturally integrate AI into its entire workflow by updating its existing Ask Canva chatbot.
Currently, Ask Canva simply resides on the screen where you can ask it to generate text or images. Canva claims that you can now invoke it at any point in your design, where it can provide feedback, suggestions, or edits related to specific design elements.
Along with the updated AI model, the idea is to make it a “true creative partner,” but personally, I’m just glad that a casual mention of that won’t cancel my tools.
Canva Video 2.0
Continuing with the AI theme, Canva has also revamped its video editor with a new mobile-friendly interface and enhanced capabilities for instantly creating ready-to-publish videos with a single click.
You’ll still be able to manually edit your timeline and generate AI footage as individual clips that can be placed side by side or overlaid on top of other footage, but the new system aims to make it easier to move from raw footage to publishing video to your timeline.
The Magic Video feature works similarly to the existingMagic Design feature, but, according to Canva, it’s slightly more powerful. You upload clips and tell the AI what type of video you want, just like in Magic Design, but you also choose the video’s tone and editing style from drop-down menus, and then navigate through a “new library of trendy templates” to achieve the final result. This should give you more control, but also more transition effects and titles.
All of this is free and reminds me of Adobe’s upcoming YouTube Shorts for Premiere feature, which will be added to the free Premiere iPhone app and directly to YouTube. While it’s not scheduled for release yet, Adobe says it will include “exclusive” effects, transitions, stickers, and templates, though without the AI to put it all together. It will, however, allow you to publish videos directly to YouTube without leaving the app. Canva supports this on several platforms, such as Instagram , but doesn’t yet have direct integration with YouTube.
Whether you prefer an AI-powered assistant and a more platform-agnostic approach or an editor with direct access to your publication is up to you.
Affinity is now free for everyone, “forever”
Moving away from AI and browser-based editors, Canva also shared news about its popular standalone Photoshop alternative, Affinity. As a downloadable tool, it offers more precise customization than Canva’s web editor, including tools like vector editing, which makes sense as it wasn’t always part of the Canva family. Canva acquired Affinity last March, and while the acquisition of a beloved tool isn’t always a welcome change for existing users, Canva’s latest announcement should go a long way toward building trust.
Affinity stood out, in part , due to its “buy once, use forever” pricing , making it highly competitive with Photoshop’s subscription model. Canva now says it’s making Affinity free for everyone, “forever.” This is an improvement over the app’s previous free models, which were limited to iPad spinoffs and educational accounts. It’s also a direct blow to competitors. While Adobe has been releasing free, lightweight versions of its core mobile and web apps for the past few years, the company hasn’t yet committed to a fully free desktop editor.
Beyond pricing, Canva also claims to combine all of Affinity’s diverse features into one program, so you no longer have to switch between Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer, and Affinity Publisher depending on your needs.
Improvements for business
While many Canva users are individuals using free versions of the editors, the company does have an Enterprise plan for businesses, and some of today’s updates are designed specifically for them.
This includes Canva Grow, a new product designed for marketers to run ads, and a “brand system” to help teams stay consistent in the apps they use.
However, you can now finally use Canva to design HTML elements for emails, which can be useful for both large and small businesses, as well as individuals. Canva is also launching its own survey system called “Forms,” which can be added to websites or other sites and will upload responses to your Canva spreadsheets.
Speaking of Canva Sheets, it can now interact with Canva Code, meaning you can use data from Sheets to power interactive widgets like dynamic dashboards or calculators.
It’s all a little more complicated than what I use Canva for, but I’m sure some people are throwing up their hands in relief right now.
When will all this start?
Unlike Adobe, where most of the features announced for Max are still in beta or development, Canva’s latest updates will begin rolling out to its production versions today as part of the Creative Operating System launch.
Personally, I’m not a big fan of using AI in design , but Affinity’s free pricing could be a deciding factor for me. Add to that its convenient business features, and it’s clear Adobe will have to continue experimenting with its low-cost browser-based editors to keep up.