Affinity going free after being acquired by Canva was a major deal in the design community. People started canceling their Adobe subscriptions because we now have the old Affinity Photo, Designer, and Publisher in one unified free app - Affinity. For most people on Windows and Mac, it basically settled the endless “Adobe alternatives” hunt. However, Linux users were still left out, and there’s also the looming fear that Canva could paywall features, plus, some users might not want to create an account just to create basic graphics.

None of this makes Affinity bad. I personally think it’s the best free tool for design out there right now, but it does make it inaccessible or unattractive to some. And that’s where open-source fills the gap. I’ve covered plenty of open-source graphics apps, but not all of them are made equal or even available on Linux like you’d expect. So here are my top open-source recommendations that are cross–platform and actually handle the same things that Affinity does.

Affinity is free now, so why even bother with open-source?

It’s about accessibility and control

The most practical route for most people would simply be to cancel their Adobe subscriptions and move over to Affinity. But that’s not an option for Linux users, and it’s not particularly appealing if you don’t love the idea of needing a Canva account just to open your design software . Or trusting that “free forever” will stay that way especially when a company with investors is footing the bill.

Open-source doesn’t have that problem. Nobody can quietly move features behind a paywall, and the software runs whether the company behind it lives or dies. You also don’t typically need to worry about creating accounts or what data is being collected. And of course, the biggest win is that a lot of open-source tools are usually built by and for Linux users.

So for anyone who cares about transparency and accessibility, open-source is still the better move over Affinity. The question is just, are there actually tools that can hold a candle? I think I’ve found a few…

Pinta for basic graphics

A no-nonsense option for quick edits

Pinta is usually my first recommendation for anyone looking for an open-source alternative to any of the big players, whether Photoshop, Affinity, or even GIMP. I’d say it falls somewhere between Affinity and Canva in terms of usability because of the intuitive interface.

Pinta is an open-source, cross-platform digital painting and image editing app for raster work, and it was actually specifically developed as a Paint alternative for Mac and Linux users. It’s built for all the straightforward graphics tasks like adding text and cropping, but it’s also capable of some more advanced creative edits. You get layer-based non-destructive editing, selection tools, precise property adjustments, blend modes, color control, gradients, brushes, and filters and effects.

It effectively replaces the Pixel workspace in Affinity, which used to be Affinity Photo, for graphic designs and illustrations, photo touch-ups, simple composites, annotating screenshots, or adding text and shapes to images.

Graphite for vector edits

It does what Affinity does

You might wonder why I’m recommending this over Inkscape, which is a very mature and reliable vector editor that’s available on Linux. I’m recommending Graphite for its similarities to Affinity. For starters, the interface is more modern than Inkscape and quite similar to Affinity, so you’re getting the same vibe. But more importantly, Graphite is a hybrid vector-raster editor, same as Affinity.

Graphite is a browser-based progressive web app that can be accessed from any platform, and it’s in alpha development at this time, but already very impressive. You can edit raster and vector graphics on the same canvas, but its raster-specific tools are still a bit limited right now. The vector toolkit is everything you’d expect, however, and it can functionally replace Affinity’s Vector workspace. You get all the same node controls, pen tools, text, colors, gradients, and much more.

Another cool thing about Graphite is that it has layers, as well as a node graph. Editing with nodes gives you a non-destructive procedural workflow with more control over your elements and their properties.

Scribus for print work

It’s not pretty, but it gets the job done

Publishing and layout software is not really something I reach for often since I don’t work much with print, but I do still use Affinity’s Layout workspace for digital presentations. It’s the perfect InDesign alternative, unless you’re on Linux or want open-source. In that case, you can’t go wrong with Scribus.

Scribus is an open-source cross-platform desktop publishing tool for laying out your documents for print and publication. It’s quite different from Affinity in look and features, but this is all you need if you’re working on graphics for a newsletter, magazine, brochure, book, pitch deck, and so on.

It’s a genuinely capable tool. You get master pages, CMYK color support, ICC color profiles, proper typography controls, linked text frames, and PDF export with press-ready output. It supports OpenType fonts, has a built-in script editor, and handles multi-page documents really well.

You’ve got options

When Affinity became free, I was ecstatic. It finally meant no more endless digging for the perfect free Photoshop alternative, because it was here. But the open-source crowd was never going to be satisfied with a free Canva-owned tool, and I honestly can’t blame them. I actually still have the same fear that one day we’ll open Affinity and all the good stuff will be locked behind a Pro subscription. And then there’s Linux users, for whom the free Affinity basically means nothing.

Thankfully, the open-source ecosystem doesn’t wait for Canva’s permission. And if you're dead set on trying Affinity on Linux, there's a community project that's worth checking out.