What is a .afdesign file?
Affinity Designer Document · Design · Serif (Canva) · 2014
An .afdesign file is a vector document from Affinity Designer, the one-time-purchase alternative to Adobe Illustrator. It keeps curves, artboards, text and effects fully editable.
What is a .afdesign file used for?
Affinity Designer spans vector and raster work in one app, and its .afdesign format stores both kinds of layers. The suite's files are interchangeable: Affinity Photo and Publisher open .afdesign directly, which is the trio's big workflow advantage.
Outside the Affinity suite the format is closed. For hand-off, export SVG or PDF for vector fidelity, EPS for legacy pipelines, or PNG for flat images; Illustrator opens the PDF route best.
How to open a .afdesign file
The .afdesign format opens in the following apps, grouped by operating system. If one app does not work, try another from the same list. For a step-by-step walkthrough, see how to open a .afdesign file.
Windows
- Affinity Designer
- Affinity Photo / Publisher
macOS
- Affinity Designer
- Affinity Photo / Publisher
Linux
- No native option; use exported SVG/PDF
How to convert a .afdesign file
You can convert a .afdesign file to svg, pdf, eps, png using a conversion tool or the export menu of an app that opens it.
.afdesign file signature (magic bytes)
Programs recognise a .afdesign file by the bytes at the start of the file, not by its name. These are the signatures for Affinity Designer.
| Hex signature | Offset | Note |
|---|---|---|
| (no fixed signature) | 0 | proprietary; no publicly documented fixed signature |
See the full magic-numbers reference for every format.
Frequently asked questions
What is a .afdesign file?
An .afdesign file is a vector document from Affinity Designer, the one-time-purchase alternative to Adobe Illustrator. It keeps curves, artboards, text and effects fully editable.
How do I open an .afdesign file without Affinity Designer?
Any Affinity app (Photo, Publisher) opens it. Without the suite, ask for an SVG or PDF export; there is no third-party reader for the native format.
Can Illustrator open .afdesign files?
Not directly. Export from Affinity Designer as PDF (best) or SVG and open that in Illustrator; most vector structure survives.
What is the difference between .afdesign and .afphoto?
.afdesign comes from Affinity Designer and leans vector; .afphoto comes from Affinity Photo and leans raster. The apps open each other's files seamlessly.
Related formats
Sources
Details on this page were checked against authoritative references: