Want a free Photoshop alternative on Linux? How to get Affinity today: 2 ways

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One of the loudest cries centered around the Linux OS for years has been the need for Photoshop. Well, Adobe is never going to capitulate on that, so users have had to make do with the likes of GIMP .

Although GIMP is my go-to for image creation and editing, a lot of people can't seem to get on board with it (either because of the learning curve or the UI). Because of that, alternatives have popped up now and then, most of which failed to garner enough attention to become serious players in the image editing space.

Also: 10 Linux apps I install on every new machine (and why you should, too)

However, in 2024, Canva acquired Affinity, which is considered the " next generation of professional photo, design, and layout tools built for creative freedom ." Canva has a huge range of editing tools and outstanding color management. Affinity is not just for image creation and editing, but it's also a full photo editing studio. And unlike GIMP, as soon as you open Affinity, you immediately see how serious it is.

This tool oozes power and usability, with a UI that shouldn't challenge many. On top of that, Affinity has all the features that could easily make for a solid alternative to Photoshop. With Affinity, you can create vector, pixel, and layout graphics, as well as make use of AI.

Affinity offers a complete toolset for image editing and design, raw support, HDR support, merging tools, comprehensive layering, brush customization, and even publication layout. And it's free.

But how do you get it on Linux, and does it work as expected?

There are a couple of ways to install Affinity on Linux.

First, I'll show you the easy way, which is via AppImage. Fortunately, some clever developers have created an AppImage for Affinity that contains everything necessary to run the app.

The downfall of this method is that Affinity runs rather slowly, and the GUI tends to suffer from screen tearing.

Also: How to create a gradient transparency in GIMP

To simplify using the AppImage, I would recommend installing Gear Lever, which I've demonstrated in " How to add AppImages to your Linux desktop menu - this tool makes it a snap ."

With Gear Lever, all you have to do is download the latest version of the Affinity AppImage , open Gear Lever, click Open, locate the downloaded file, click Move to Menu, and then click Launch. You can then close Gear Lever because there will now be an Affinity launcher in your desktop menu.