Why is the preview so small?

Affinity stores a preview of at most 512 pixels across, for file browsers to show a thumbnail. That is all of the finished document that can be read without Affinity. It is enough to tell files apart and see what each one is, not to print or publish.

Can I get the original photos back out of an Affinity file?

Often, yes. Pictures placed into a design are kept inside the file as ordinary PNG or JPEG images, and this page lists each one at its own size with a button to save it. Pictures that were painted or edited in Affinity's own pixel layers can be stored in its private format instead, and then do not appear.

How do I convert .afphoto or .afdesign to PDF or PNG?

For a full-size conversion, open the file in Affinity and use File, then Export. Since Canva made Affinity free in 2025, that needs only a free Canva account. This page saves the preview and the placed pictures as they are.

Is my Affinity file uploaded?

No. The file is read by this browser tab on your own device, and nothing is sent anywhere.

Stays on your computer How this works

Free Affinity file viewer: see .afphoto, .afdesign and .afpub files online

See the preview inside an Affinity Photo, Designer or Publisher file, and save the pictures placed in it, without Affinity installed. The file is opened in your browser and is not uploaded.

Drop a .afphoto file here, or click to choose oneIt is opened by your browser, on this computer. Nothing is uploaded.

About the Affinity file viewer

Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer and Affinity Publisher, made by Serif and now part of Canva, save their work as .afphoto, .afdesign and .afpub files, and the newest Affinity app as .af. The format is Affinity's own, unpublished and compressed, and no other program can open it: not Photoshop, not GIMP, not Windows or a Mac's preview. Sent one by a designer, or finding them in an old backup, there is no way to tell what is in each file without installing Affinity.

Two kinds of picture are stored inside an Affinity file in a form that can be read without Affinity: a small preview of the whole document, and the photos and images that were placed into the design. This page finds both. It is free to use, with no account and no upload limit, and it runs entirely in your browser: nothing is uploaded, and once you have used it, it keeps working offline.

What this viewer shows, and what it does not

The preview of the whole document Affinity saved in the file, up to 512 pixels across
Every photo or image placed in the design, at the size it was placed, each of which can be saved unchanged
Save the preview as a PNG
Reads files from Affinity Photo, Designer and Publisher, versions 1 and 2, and takes .af files from the newest Affinity app too

It cannot show the document at full size, its layers, text or vector shapes: those are in Affinity's private format, which nobody outside Serif has documented. To work with them, open the file in Affinity, which Canva now gives away free, and export it as PNG, PDF, PSD or SVG.

How to open an Affinity file

Drop the .afphoto, .afdesign, .afpub or .af file on the box above, or click the box and choose it.
The preview appears, with the pictures placed in the design below it.
Save the preview, or any placed picture, with its button.

Questions

Why is the preview so small?: Affinity stores a preview of at most 512 pixels across, for file browsers to show a thumbnail. That is all of the finished document that can be read without Affinity. It is enough to tell files apart and see what each one is, not to print or publish.
Can I get the original photos back out of an Affinity file?: Often, yes. Pictures placed into a design are kept inside the file as ordinary PNG or JPEG images, and this page lists each one at its own size with a button to save it. Pictures that were painted or edited in Affinity's own pixel layers can be stored in its private format instead, and then do not appear.
How do I convert .afphoto or .afdesign to PDF or PNG?: For a full-size conversion, open the file in Affinity and use File, then Export. Since Canva made Affinity free in 2025, that needs only a free Canva account. This page saves the preview and the placed pictures as they are.
Is my Affinity file uploaded?: No. The file is read by this browser tab on your own device, and nothing is sent anywhere.

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