Written Tutorial Issue 002

by Carl Surry
Nov 2025

First Look At The New Affinity - pt 02

Hello and welcome to this written tutorial for It does though mean, that you will end up
Affinity by Canva. As you will all no doubt with 100's and maybe 1000's of fonts listed in
know, Canva brought Serif and their products the Apps font menu. You can 'Favourite' fonts
- Affinity Photo, Designer and Publisher. though to make it easier to find the fonts you
like.
On Oct 30th 2025, Canva released a new
version, I guess you can call it version 3. But A few months ago, I brought a new Windows
now where there were three programs, now 11 PC and downloaded my versions of Affinity
there's just one and that one is just called Photo, Publisher and Designer. I have been
Affinity. slowly re-installing all my Brushes, Assets,
Macro's etc. The most boring job, was going
through the fonts I wanted to mark as a
Favourite. Now I have had to do it all again
with this new version of Affinity.
The most important thing about Affinity, is
that it is FREE. There are a couple of AI I am doing this in the Pixel Studio, but you
features thet you need to have a Canva Pro could do it any of them (I assume). I opened
account to use, but all the rest is free. a blank document, selected one of the Text
Tools, and drew out a box to put text into.
This first few of my Affinity tutorials, will be a The text options are then added to the
look at what you need to do to set-up Affinity Context Bar above the image area.
to look and work like your older Affinity Apps.
For those that have never used the older
Affinity Apps, you can use these tutorials to
see what the new Affinity can do.

In issue 001 of these new tutorials, I looked

at changing the User Interface, be it, its
colouring or its layout. In this issue I want to
continue on the same theme, starting with
fonts.

Fonts are one of the few 'Extra' things you do

not have to install into Affinity Apps old and
new. On a PC they are installed into the Fonts
folder of Windows, I assume Mac's do a
similar thing(?). So, any fonts you or any
other App installs onto your computer, will be
in the Fonts folder. This makes life easy, as
you have to do very little for Affinity to find
your fonts.
By default, at least for me, the first font listed Moving on to the Studio's. I have been seeing
is Arial. on-line that some people have been unhappy
that Canva have renamed Affinity Photo to
In the image below, you can see the Arial font Pixel, Affinity Designer to Vector and Affinity
in the Context Bar. Next to its name a small Publisher to Layout. I personally am not that
downward arrow. If you click on this, the list bothered, but can show you how to make the
of fonts will be displayed. changes.

The listing is in alphabetical order and I have In the top left of the User Interface, you will
used arrows to show the Arial font in that see the active Studio's listed. To the right
listing. On the right of each fonts name is a there is a three dot icon.
heart, clicking on that heart will turn it blue
and make it a Favourite.
If you click on this icon the list of current
Studio's will be shown.

As you can see in the

image on the left, I
have already made
Affinity Designer and
Publisher Studios.
Even though I haven't
got them turned on,
as I will delete them
later, and stick with
Pixel, Vector and
Layout. Another
reason to stick with
the new Studio names
is when you add new
Studio's, the list gets longer. Unfortunately,
that list doesn't scroll, it must be a bug that
will get sorted in a later update. Because it
There are 4 tabs in the font panel. All, shows doesn't scroll, I can not access the Studio at
all available fonts, Recent, shows all fonts the top of the listing, and I guess if I add
recently in any document, Used, shows fonts more, even more Studios will become
used in the current document and Favourite, unavailable.
shows those fonts you have made a
Favourite. Which in my case was quite a few At the bottom of the Studio list, is a blue
and very boring to do. button called Create Studio. If you click on
this a new panel will open.

I gave the new

Studio the name
Affinity Photo.

I selected the Pixel

Studio to clone
from.

The icon for the

Studio is set with a
camera, which I am
happy with, but you
can change it. The
icon colour is Cyan,
I want an Affinity
Photo purple colour
though.
 I just clicked on the I did not know
purple looking that the new
swatch to change Studio icon
the icons colour. was missing,
even though
If you don't like the it looked like
swatch colours, you it was there.
can click on the
currently selected I re-opened
colour (above the the Studio
swatches) to open listing, using
the Colour Chooser. the three dot
Where you can icon.
select whatever
colour you like. I found the
Affinity Photo
All you need to do option and
now is click on the right clicked it
Create button at the bottom of this panel. to get a small sub-menu. From this I selected
Edit Affinity Photo. The edit menu opened up
As you can see in the image below, a new and I selected the camera icon and then
'Affinity Photo' Studio has been added to the clicked on the Update Studio button. As you
Context Bar and the list of Studio's. can see in the image above, the camera icon
is now there, when it isn't there in the image
I did note that with this new Studio added, at the bottom of the previous column.
the middle mouse wheel could now scroll the
listing, to access those at the top of the list. As you can see in the image above, the sub-
menu you get when you right click a Studio
has the options to Import, Export and Delete
Studio's.

I will use Export to save my three new

Studio's (as a test) and then use Delete to
remove them. If I ever need them again, I
will use the Import option.

As you delete a
Studio, it will ask
if you are sure,
just click on the
Yes button.

These are now

saved Studios,
which save in the
.afstudio file
format. I did use
the Import option
to test it worked, and it does. I also found
that if you right click the visible Studio icon,in
the Context Bar, you
Like I said earlier, I am not going to keep get an expanded
these three 'new' Studio's. Sub-menu.

But I will save them to test that function and Note though, that
to have them as a back-up if one day I want Delete is not an
them again. I doubt I will ever need them, option. That can only
but you never know. be done from three
dot Studio listing.
Importing your Assets, Macros, Brushes, More on this work around later. First though
Libraries etc. From Affinity Apps v2 to v3. let us look at what the Serif Account panel
should look like when you get there.
As you can imagine, in the time I have been
using Affinity Photo, Designer and Publisher
v1 up to the release of Affinity by Canva. I
had brought or made many extras like those
listed above in this sections title.

So, the first step is to link Affinity to your old

Serif Account. I had already done this on my
main PC before starting this tutorial. So, I
thought I'd install Affinity on to my wife's
Windows 10 laptop and do it again but this
time take screen grabs. read p5 first though.

The first thing to do is from the opening

welcome screen or from the ile menu's New
option screen, Find your Canva account
options.
Any brought Assets, Brushes, Overlays etc
will be listed. Beside each entry will be a
cloud icon, clicking on this icon will start the
download process. Once downloaded the
cloud icon will change to a green tick. Like
mine all have in the image above. This is my
main PC view as this is the one linked to the
account.

A couple of brought items, will not download

and install automatically. I think, it was some
fonts, that have to be downloaded to the PC
In the Advanced, sub-menu there is the and then installed manually. The rest will be
option to link to your Serif Affinity ID. Clicking installed where they are meant to be. Assets
on this option opens a new panel, into which and Overlays to the Assets panel, Macros into
you enter your Serif Account ID Email and the Libraries panel and so on.
Password.
Once your
Affinity App
is linked to
your Serif
Account, the
menu in the
Welcome
page, alters
slightly.

Instead of saying Link Affinity ID, it says

Manage purchased contents.

Clicking on the Managed purchased contents

option, will once more open the Serif Store
At this point, I ran into a problem. As my panel.
main PC was already linked to the account, it
wouldn't allow the laptop to also link to the So, if you have brought quite a bit of stuff
account. Even though the Serif licence means from Serif over the years, you can download
you could install onto multiple computers. It and install over a few visits, rather than all at
seems that Canva will not allow this, but once. That could take quite a while as some
there is a long winded work around. files are quite big indeed.
Before moving onto the long winded way to The second option in the Import Contents
install your Affinity v2 App files, there is sub-menu is probably the easiest option of
another quick way. A word of warning though, them all, From Affinity 2.
if you have installed via your Serif account
some stuff. If you do this next step, you will This option, I did test on my wife's laptop.
end up with duplicate files, that you will need Even though I have Affinity v2 App's on the
to uninstall. laptop I didn't have installed any extra files,
even more so after not being able to link it to
I wasn't sure in what order to place these two my Serif account.
ways to get files from v2 to v3. If you have
only ever brought files from Serif, linking your I installed a Palette, Style, Brush and two
account may be the best way to go. If you Marcos files in to the Affinity Photo v2 app on
have downloaded free items from the internet the laptop.
or made your own files, may be best to go
this route instead, to avoid making double I then went back to Affinity v3, and used the
entries. From Affinity2 option. It scanned for a very
short while and when I checked, all the files
If you click on the File menu, one of its menu were now in Affinity v3 and in the right
options is Import Content. In its sub-menu places.
you have two options, From File(s) and From
Affinity 2. Both options from the Import Contents
options, look to be very quick and easy to do.

Now to the long winded way, installing every

item one item at a time.

In the v2 Apps, you had a three lined icon,

with every panel, that when clicked, opened
that panels options. From these options you
would use the Import option to find and
install each item one at a time.

The first option when used will open up the In Affinity v3, the
PC's navigation window, I assume that on a three dot icon has
Mac it will do the same. changed to a
downward arrow
I didn't test this method, but looking at the (or a V, depending
file types it looks for, it should cover most if on your view
not all things you are looking for. It will look point).
for these file types: .afbrushes, .abr,
.afpalette, .ase, .clr, .pat, ,afstyles, In the image on
.afmacros, .afassets, .afluts, .affonts, .afshort the left, which is of
and .afstudio. the Brushes panel
menu options.

You can see

highlighted the
Import Brushes
option.

Selecting this
option will open a
navigation window,
so you can find
your .abr or
So, if you place all your needed files into a
.afbrushes files.
folder. Then use the From File(s) option,
Doing one file at a
navigate to the folder. Select all the files, click
time is slow and
open or OK (whichever), it should in theory
boring though.
install all the files in the right place for you.
 These comments are from the Facebook
Group

Affinity For Desktop Users Group

[Link]
AffinityPhoto

Andrew Betty

For those of you that are interested in

plugins/filters I can confirm the following
work:

Google Nik Collection

Legacy Topaz Labs (from before the AI

versions)

Portrait Pro Studio (I have 23 Max version)

Luminar Neo (available now in Humble

Bundle, finishes today)

Vision FX (in the Corel bundle on Humble

Bundle 90p/$1)

Above are the views of the Import menu I am running Windows 11 pro, Intel i9,
options for Palette's, Styles and Macro GTX2080 Super Max Q (Lenovo Legion
Libraries. All options accessed by the laptop)
downward arrow icon on each panel.
So far no glitches or crashes, fingers crossed.
Before moving onto the next topic, may I just
point out that Canva have just released an Chris Jordan
update to version 3.0.1.3808. Nik7 and 8 don't work on mac (and i believe
I doubt it will affect anything I have typed so that there's also a problem with win11)
far. I am fairly certain it is just bug fixes, but Legacy nik works on win11, but not on mac
if anything doesn't work the way I have said,
I'm sorry. Anything after this point is done on ON1 and Topaz photo ai 4 seem ok
the newer version.

Photoshop Plug-In's
So, you can see the fact is not all Photoshop
A Plug-In, is a special App that has been Plug-Ins work in Affinity Photo or Affinity. Plus
designed to run within Adobe Photoshop and from these comments and others I have read,
in most cases Adobe Elements. The most it seems Mac users have more problems than
famous of these is the NIK Collection, which PC users.
was originally made by Google but is now
owned by DxO. Let us look at installing a Plug-In into Affinity.
As the only one I have that works, is the NIK
There are some, and in my experience, it is Collection v5, I will use that as my example.
very few of these Plug-In's that work in
Affinity. Affinity does have a dedicated folder for Plug-
Ins to go into, but it can use any folder or
I currently have version 5 of the NIK folders you want to nominate. The dedicated
Collection and it works OK in Affinity. I do folder for me is below. Yours may have a
have some Plug-Ins made by Redfield, they different drive letter and will have a different
do not work in Affinity, so I run them in user name.
Adobe Elements.
C:\Users\Carl Surry\AppData\Roaming\Affinity\Affinity\3.0\Plugins
If you go to the Edit menu and then its option I opened an image of a seal I took and then
to open the Settings. You will get the Settings used the Pixel>Filters option to open the
panel to open. Then select the Photoshop image into the NIK Collection Silver Efex Pro
Plugins option in this panel. 3. This has many preset Black and White
Filters.

Once I have selected my preset or made

adjustments, when I click on the Apply
button, the image will be returned to Affinty
altered by the Plug-In.
At the top of the right side of this panel, it
lists the default folder, plus a button to take
you to that folder.

Below that is the window that lists the folder

or folders that you have added, that Affinity
will also look into to find Plug-Ins. In my case
it's the NIK Collection in the DxO folder.

All you need to do is, click on the ADD button,

navigate to the folder that has your Plug-In,
in it. Then once that is done you will be Where I can Export it or continue to edit it
prompted to restart Affinity to make the new and then Export it.
Plug-In appear. So, close down the App and
restart it. You can, I hope see, how to install and use a
Plug-In. 'But' and it is a big but, do be aware
Go back to the Settings screen and the new not all Photoshop Plug-ins work in any version
Plug-In should be listed in the bottom of Affinity.
window. Some (in theNIK Collection) are
marked as Unknown, so you need to put a This is why I have shyed away from updating
tick in the small box called Allow 'Unknown' my NIK Collection from v5 (plus its cost).
plugins to be used.
Some Photoshop Plug-Ins obviously use
You can then close the Settings panel and command or filters only availble in Adobe
open an image. Then in the Pixel menu, then products. So, they won't work in Affinity at
use Filters>Plugins>your named plugin and all. Like I said I have a few made by Redfield,
then its sub-menu. like Barbie Doll and Fractalius, which did used
to run in Serif's old PhotoPlus program but
not in the Affinity Apps that followed it. I now
run these in Adobe Elements.

I think that will do for this second tutorial.

Hopefully it has been helpful. Check out my
Facebook Group.

Fans of Serif/Affinity Software

[Link]
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