Affinity by Canva remains free for astrophotography after Serif acquisition - Forums

Topic starter

Nov 25, 2025

Hello Affinity users,

Affinity by Canva,

the British company Serif has very recently sold Affinity Photo to the Australian (large) company Cava (30. Oct. 2025).

Everybody was afraid that Affinity would get more expensive and/or switched over to an Abo model similar to other programms.

But … so far nothing bad happend. Affinty by Canva has a very similar design and looks like o 3rd version of Affinity Photo with some optical changes. Also the fine astro macros by James Ritson can fully be use.

So far, Affinity by Canva is completely free of charge and can be downloaded via Canva after registration.

In November, all my new pictures (see my galerie, I m new in Astrobin) are finalized using Affinity by Canva.

Greetings Peter

Tareq Abdulla

Nov 26, 2025

Peter Nielsen · Nov 25, 2025, 01:58 PM
Hello Affinity users,
Affinity by Canva,
the British company Serif has very recently sold Affinity Photo to the Australian (large) company Cava (30. Oct. 2025).
Everybody was afraid that Affinity would get more expensive and/or switched over to an Abo model similar to other programms.
But … so far nothing bad happend. Affinty by Canva has a very similar design and looks like o 3rd version of Affinity Photo with some optical changes. Also the fine astro macros by James Ritson can fully be use.
So far, Affinity by Canva is completely free of charge and can be downloaded via Canva after registration.
In November, all my new pictures (see my galerie, I m new in Astrobin) are finalized using Affinity by Canva.
Greetings Peter

How easy or how good to use Affinity compared to Photoshop for example?

So what happened to those who ordered Affinity Photo previously?

David Jones

Nov 26, 2025

@Tareq Abdulla On YouTube, Nico Carver (Nebula Photos) recently went over his impressions of the software. I’ll try giving the link https://youtu.be/NbQq19ycVZU?si=LQEFLe7OROvNO2yB

Dave

Ian McIntyre

Nov 26, 2025 · Edited: Nov 26, 2025

Interesting.

I used to do lots of processing with Affinity. Since starting Pixinsight, I only use it for batch conversions. The lack of Linux install has always been disappointing Still, great program.

Peter Nielsen

Topic starter

Nov 26, 2025

Tareq Abdulla · Nov 26, 2025, 01:54 AM
How easy or how good to use Affinity compared to Photoshop for example?
So what happened to those who ordered Affinity Photo previously?

Hello Tareq,

I do not know much about Photoshop because the abo feature has always offended me.

Affinity has a modern design, is a fully 32 bit and all steps can be reversed. The handling is very easy and elegant, optimal for finetunig of files in different complicated level combinations. The macros coming from the astro developer James Ritson are also very helpful.

For me the combination between Astropixelprocessor for stacking, Pixinsight for correcting and working on linear files and stretching and then Affinity for finetuning is optimal. I am not looking for better programms anymore.

The original Version of Affinity Photo from Serif had two updates, the last V2. Between updates, all the files before could be loaded but not vice verse. This is now also the case. The Affinity Photo Version 2 is fully functioning but does not get support anly longer (?), as far as I know. Affinity by Canva can read the older “.afphoto” files but modifies them to “.af” and the older version cannot used the new files.

The great thing (at the moment?) ist that this powerful program is absolutely free of charge, the last version of Affinity was about 70€

Greetings Peter

Helpful

Tareq Abdulla

Nov 26, 2025

David Jones · Nov 26, 2025, 02:08 AM
@Tareq Abdulla On YouTube, Nico Carver (Nebula Photos) recently went over his impressions of the software. I’ll try giving the link https://youtu.be/NbQq19ycVZU?si=LQEFLe7OROvNO2yB
Dave

Nice, thank you very much

Tareq Abdulla

Nov 26, 2025

Ian McIntyre · Nov 26, 2025, 06:02 AM
Interesting.

I used to do lots of processing with Affinity. Since starting Pixinsight, I only use it for batch conversions. The lack of Linux install has always been disappointing Still, great program.

That is a good point to be taken, because i am planning to use Linux only for Pixinsight or similar such as APP for stacking and initial processing before moving to Affinity, it will be a headache keep moving between Linux and Windows.

Tareq Abdulla

Nov 26, 2025

Peter Nielsen · Nov 26, 2025, 07:48 AM
Tareq Abdulla · Nov 26, 2025, 01:54 AM
How easy or how good to use Affinity compared to Photoshop for example?
So what happened to those who ordered Affinity Photo previously?
Hello Tareq,
I do not know much about Photoshop because the abo feature has always offended me.
Affinity has a modern design, is a fully 32 bit and all steps can be reversed. The handling is very easy and elegant, optimal for finetunig of files in different complicated level combinations. The macros coming from the astro developer James Ritson are also very helpful.
For me the combination between Astropixelprocessor for stacking, Pixinsight for correcting and working on linear files and stretching and then Affinity for finetuning is optimal. I am not looking for better programms anymore.
The original Version of Affinity Photo from Serif had two updates, the last V2. Between updates, all the files before could be loaded but not vice verse. This is now also the case. The Affinity Photo Version 2 is fully functioning but does not get support anly longer (?), as far as I know. Affinity by Canva can read the older “.afphoto” files but modifies them to “.af” and the older version cannot used the new files.
The great thing (at the moment?) ist that this powerful program is absolutely free of charge, the last version of Affinity was about 70€
Greetings Peter

Cool, i will give Affinity by CANVA more tests or use to see how it performs with me.

Peter Nielsen

Topic starter

Nov 30, 2025

Hello again with Affinity by Cava,

James Ritson, the astro developer of Affinity Photo, has send out an email, that his new Astro-macros

V19 for Affinity Photo V2 (by Serif) or the new Version (V20) (Affinity) by Canva are available from his homepage.

V20 cannot be used for Affinity Photo V2

https://jamesritson.co.uk/resources.html

These files represent an Astro-Macro-library with different macros for Affinity from stretching, scharpening, colour correction etc. etc (about 40 marcros). All these macros can be used at any place in the picture procession process on click, and many of them can also be modified or finetuned. The result is immediately shown on the monitor and can fully be taken back simply also on click.

My personal experiences with almost all of his different versions in the last year were extremely positiv.

These macros can be downloaded from his website for a donation between 0 (zero!) Pound and ….?, which is absolutely fair in my opinion.

A pdf files with pictures is also included as a short explanation what these macros do.

CS Peter

Helpful