Affinity Photo for Windows

Affinity Photo for Windows

Affinity Photo for Windows is a professional photo editing and image manipulation solution from Canva, now included in the free Affinity desktop application for Windows 10 and Windows 11. The software provides advanced raster editing through Pixel Studio, with tools for RAW photo development, retouching, image compositing, color correction, and non-destructive editing. Users can work with multiple layers, adjustment layers, masks, live filters, selections, and precision editing tools to create professional photographs and digital artwork. Affinity also combines photo editing with vector illustration and page layout capabilities, allowing users to complete complex creative projects without switching applications. Optional Canva AI Studio features provide generative image editing, image expansion, and AI-powered visual creation for users with eligible premium Canva subscriptions. Available as a free Windows download, Affinity provides professional editing functionality without requiring a paid subscription for its core Pixel, Vector, and Layout tools.

Professional photo editing highlights

• Edit and develop RAW photographs using advanced color correction, exposure adjustments, lens corrections, and noise reduction tools.
• Create detailed image composites with layers, masks, selections, adjustment layers, and non-destructive live filters.
• Retouch portraits and photographs using healing, cloning, inpainting, frequency separation, and liquify tools.
• Combine multiple exposures, focus distances, and compatible image sequences using HDR, focus stacking, and other specialized workflows.
• Access integrated Pixel, Vector, and Layout studios for photo editing, illustration, graphic design, and page composition.
• Import PSD and other professional formats, export finished artwork, and optionally access Canva AI tools through an eligible premium subscription.

Professional photo editing for Windows

Affinity Photo provides professional raster image editing capabilities within the Affinity desktop application for Windows. Its Pixel Studio includes tools for developing photographs, correcting imperfections, manipulating images, and building detailed visual compositions.

The software is useful for photographers, graphic designers, digital artists, marketers, and creative professionals. Users can perform everyday photo corrections or develop complex, multilayered artwork using a desktop editing environment.

Pixel Studio

Pixel Studio is Affinity's dedicated workspace for raster image editing and photo manipulation. It brings together selection tools, brushes, adjustment layers, filters, masks, and other image editing features.

Users can customize the workspace to suit different projects and editing preferences. Pixel Studio can also be combined with tools from Affinity's Vector and Layout studios, providing flexibility for multidisciplinary creative work.

RAW photo development

Affinity supports RAW image processing for photographers who want greater control over image quality. Users can develop supported camera RAW files and adjust exposure, white balance, contrast, highlights, shadows, and other photographic properties.

RAW development is useful for preserving detail and correcting photographs captured under challenging lighting conditions. Supported lens corrections and noise reduction tools help improve image quality before further editing.

Non-destructive photo editing

Affinity provides non-destructive editing features that allow users to experiment without permanently changing original image content. Adjustment layers, masks, and live filters can be modified or removed as a project evolves.

Non-destructive workflows are useful for professional photography, client revisions, and complex compositions. Users can revisit earlier adjustments without rebuilding an entire image.

Layer-based image editing

Affinity supports multilayered documents containing photographs, graphics, text, masks, and adjustment layers. Users can organize elements into groups, adjust blending behavior, and modify individual parts of a composition.

Layer-based editing is essential for photo composites, advertising graphics, digital artwork, and professional retouching. It allows users to maintain control over complex projects.

Adjustment layers

Affinity includes adjustment layers for modifying image properties such as brightness, contrast, curves, levels, hue, saturation, and color balance. These adjustments can be applied without permanently altering underlying image pixels.

Adjustment layers are useful for refining photographs and maintaining consistent color treatments. Users can combine multiple adjustments and control where each effect appears through masks.

Live filters

Affinity provides live filters that apply editable effects to images and layers. Users can experiment with blur, sharpening, distortion, and other effects while preserving the ability to change their settings.

Live filters support flexible editing workflows because adjustments remain reversible. They are useful for creative effects, image correction, and complex compositions.

Selection tools

Affinity includes precision selection tools for isolating subjects, objects, and specific image areas. Users can create selections based on shapes, colors, edges, and manual editing techniques.

Selections are useful for background removal, targeted adjustments, retouching, and compositing. Users can refine selections and convert them into masks for continued editing.

Layer masks

Layer masks allow users to control which parts of an image or layer remain visible. Masks can be edited independently of the underlying image, supporting reversible compositing and targeted adjustments.

Masking is useful for blending photographs, isolating subjects, and creating sophisticated visual effects. It provides greater flexibility than permanently deleting unwanted pixels.

Background removal

Affinity provides selection and masking tools for removing or replacing photograph backgrounds. Users can isolate subjects and place them against transparent, solid-color, or photographic backgrounds.

Background removal is useful for product photography, promotional graphics, and image compositing. Precision selection tools help users work with challenging edges and detailed subjects.

Photo retouching

Affinity includes professional retouching tools for correcting blemishes, unwanted objects, and other image imperfections. Users can work with healing, cloning, and inpainting tools to modify specific areas.

Retouching is useful for portraits, product photography, and commercial imagery. Combining these tools with layers and masks helps preserve editing flexibility.

Frequency separation

Affinity supports frequency separation workflows for separating image texture from broader color and tonal information. This technique is particularly useful for detailed portrait retouching.

Photographers can adjust skin texture and tonal transitions independently while maintaining greater control over the final appearance. Frequency separation is also useful for selected restoration and image correction tasks.

Liquify tools

Affinity includes liquify tools for reshaping and distorting image areas. Users can push, pull, and manipulate pixels to create corrections or artistic transformations.

Liquify is useful for portrait editing, creative photography, and digital artwork. Users should review the results carefully to avoid unwanted distortion.

HDR merging

Affinity supports high dynamic range imaging workflows that combine multiple exposures into a single image. Users can merge compatible photographs captured at different exposure levels to preserve additional highlight and shadow detail.

HDR merging is useful for landscapes, architecture, and scenes with challenging lighting conditions. Users can refine the merged image using Affinity's adjustment and editing tools.

Focus stacking

Affinity provides focus merging capabilities that combine multiple photographs captured at different focus distances. The software can produce a composite image with a greater apparent depth of field.

Focus stacking is useful for macro photography, product photography, and other situations where a single exposure cannot keep every important detail sharp. Users can refine the resulting composite as needed.

Panorama stitching

Affinity supports panorama creation by combining overlapping photographs into wider compositions. Users can merge compatible images to capture landscapes, architecture, and other expansive scenes.

Panorama tools are useful when a single photograph cannot capture the desired field of view. The resulting image can be cropped and refined with Affinity's editing tools.

Astrophotography stacking

Affinity includes astrophotography stacking capabilities for combining multiple exposures of night-sky subjects. Stacking can help improve detail and reduce noise in compatible astronomical images.

This functionality is useful for photographers capturing stars, nebulae, and other celestial subjects. The resulting images can be refined through color adjustments, sharpening, and other editing tools.

Color correction and grading

Affinity provides advanced color correction tools for adjusting exposure, contrast, white balance, and tonal relationships. Users can work with curves, levels, color adjustments, and supported color management features.

Color grading is useful for developing a consistent visual style across photographs and creative projects. Non-destructive adjustments allow users to refine their choices throughout the editing process.

Digital painting and brushes

Affinity includes raster painting tools for creating illustrations and modifying images. Users can work with customizable brushes, drawing tools, and pressure-sensitive input devices.

Digital painting is useful for concept art, photo manipulation, texture creation, and artistic projects. Brush-based editing can be combined with selections, masks, and layers.

Image compositing

Affinity allows users to combine multiple photographs, illustrations, and graphical elements into a single composition. Layer blending, masking, and adjustment tools provide control over how different elements interact.

Image compositing is useful for advertisements, digital artwork, posters, and promotional imagery. Users can build sophisticated visual scenes while preserving the ability to edit individual components.

Vector and graphic design integration

Affinity combines photo editing with vector design tools in a single application. Users can create shapes, illustrations, logos, and other scalable graphics alongside raster images.

The integration is useful for projects that combine photography with typography and illustration. Users can move between Pixel and Vector tools without exporting files to a separate application.

Page layout tools

Affinity includes Layout Studio for creating multipage documents and print-oriented designs. Users can combine edited photographs with text, graphics, and structured page compositions.

Layout tools are useful for brochures, magazines, marketing materials, and other publication projects. Integrating photo editing and page layout reduces the need to transfer assets between separate applications.

Canva AI Studio

Affinity provides optional access to Canva AI Studio for users with eligible premium Canva subscriptions. Supported capabilities include Generative Fill, Generative Expand, and AI-powered image or vector generation.

These tools can accelerate creative workflows by generating new content and modifying existing images through AI. The standard Pixel, Vector, and Layout editing tools remain free without a premium subscription.

Adobe file compatibility

Affinity supports importing professional file formats such as Adobe Photoshop PSD, Adobe Illustrator AI, and Adobe InDesign IDML. Users can open supported files and preserve compatible document structures, layers, and creative elements.

Adobe file compatibility is useful for designers working with existing projects or collaborating across different software environments. Some specialized effects and proprietary features may require adjustments after import.

Export formats

Affinity supports exporting finished artwork in multiple formats for digital publishing, professional workflows, and printing. Supported formats include common image and document types such as PNG, JPEG, TIFF, PDF, and SVG, depending on the document and export workflow.

Users can control supported export settings and work with slices or individual elements where appropriate. Export flexibility helps prepare designs for websites, marketing materials, and production.

Canva integration

Affinity allows users to export supported creative projects directly into Canva. This integration provides a way to move detailed desktop artwork into Canva's collaborative design environment.

The workflow is useful for teams that create complex graphics in Affinity and then adapt them for presentations, marketing campaigns, and shared projects. Available collaboration features depend on the Canva account and subscription.

Customizable workspace

Affinity provides customizable studios that allow users to organize tools and panels according to their workflow. Users can combine photo editing, vector design, and layout tools into personalized workspaces.

Workspace customization is useful for professionals who regularly switch between different creative tasks. It helps reduce interface clutter and makes frequently used tools easier to access.

Offline editing

Affinity can operate offline after the application has been downloaded and activated with a Canva account. Users can continue working on local projects without maintaining a constant internet connection.

Certain features, including Canva AI Studio, online resources, and connected services, require internet access. Offline functionality is useful for photographers and designers working while traveling or in environments with limited connectivity.

Windows compatibility and pricing

Affinity for Windows supports Windows 10 and Windows 11, 64-bit, with installer options for Intel/AMD and ARM-based systems. Published requirements include at least 4 GB of RAM, 2.5 GB of available storage, and a minimum display resolution of 1280 × 768. A dedicated or compatible GPU and at least 8 GB of RAM are recommended for more demanding work.

Affinity is free to download and use with a free Canva account. All standard Pixel, Vector, and Layout tools are included without a paid subscription. Canva AI Studio requires an eligible premium Canva plan. The older standalone Affinity Photo 2 remains available to existing license holders, but the new Affinity application is the recommended current release.

Alternative to consider

• Adobe Photoshop — a professional image editing and digital art application for Windows that provides advanced raster editing, RAW processing workflows, layer-based compositing, retouching, and generative AI tools.