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No—not exactly. Affinity’s Scene Decomposition can turn a flattened PNG into a new Affinity document with separated, editable elements and an AI-inferred fill for areas hidden behind those elements. It does not recover the original live text, vector paths, masks, effects, layer boundaries, or obscured pixels that existed in the lost source file.
Think of it as an editable reconstruction that can save substantial selection work, not as restoration of the original design file. Any result intended for publication still needs inspection and cleanup.
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What Affinity Scene Decomposition actually does
A PNG normally contains the final raster appearance of a design, not the instructions used to create it. Once text, shapes, images and effects have been composited into one bitmap, the file no longer records which pixels belonged to which original layer. Scene Decomposition, introduced in Affinity’s September 2026 update, analyzes that composite and makes a new interpretation of its visible components.
Affinity describes the feature as separating a flattened image into editable elements directly in the document while filling the areas that were hidden behind those elements. A contemporary workflow guide labels the interface action Decompose Layer and describes the output as editable pixel layers. That label and output description come from the guide rather than an independently verified specification for every current build, so expect wording or placement to change as Affinity updates the application.
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The generated layers are useful for moving, masking, recoloring or rearranging parts of an old asset. They are not the same objects that existed in the missing source document. A rasterized headline remains pixels unless you type it again, and a detected shape is not automatically restored as the original vector path.
What cannot be recovered from a flat PNG
Original text objects
The bitmap may show the exact appearance of a headline, but it does not contain the font family, point size, tracking, paragraph settings or editable characters as a live text object. Scene Decomposition can isolate the lettering visually; it cannot promise that Affinity will recreate the original type layer. If copy must remain editable, identify the typeface and rebuild the text manually.
Original vectors and geometry
Logos, icons and geometric artwork may be separated as raster regions. The original Bézier curves, stroke alignment, corner settings, fills and snapping relationships are not encoded in the PNG. Recreate those elements with Affinity’s vector tools when brand or production requirements demand clean, scalable paths.
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Layer hierarchy, masks and effects
A flat export does not preserve the former stacking order as a documented hierarchy, nor does it reveal whether an edge came from a mask, blend mode, adjustment, clipping group or blur. The AI can make a plausible separation, but it cannot read back those authoring decisions.
Pixels hidden behind an object
When a subject is moved, the background that was covered by it has to be invented. Affinity says Scene Decomposition fills those regions; the fill is inferred from surrounding visual information, not recovered from the PNG. Reconstructed areas can therefore contain wrong textures, repeated details, bent lines or halos that only become obvious at native resolution.
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How to use Scene Decomposition safely
- Keep the original. Duplicate the PNG and work on the copy. Preserve the untouched export so you can compare every generated layer against the source.
- Open the copy in Affinity. Use the current Affinity build with access to Canva AI Studio. Interface names and the location of the decomposition command may change with updates.
- Run the decomposition action. In the AI workspace, choose the image-decomposition command. A contemporary guide calls it Decompose Layer; Affinity’s own feature description calls the capability Scene Decomposition.
- Inspect every generated layer. Toggle layers individually and in combination. Check whether hair, thin lines, shadows, semi-transparent objects and overlapping edges were assigned sensibly.
- Check the inferred background. Temporarily move the separated subject away from its original position and zoom to 100 percent or higher. Look for repeating textures, smears, missing details, bent perspective lines and color halos where the fill was generated.
- Repair the reconstruction. Refine masks, paint over artifacts on separate pixel layers, clone or heal visible defects, and rebuild important text or vectors instead of trusting a raster separation.
- Save an editable working file. Keep the Affinity document with its generated layers, masks and manual corrections. Name it as a reconstruction so nobody later mistakes it for the lost master file.
- Export only after review. Produce the required PNG or other delivery format from the corrected document. Keep the layered working file alongside the final flat export.
The exact control location is version-dependent. If the command is absent, check that the application is signed in to the qualifying Canva account and that the current release includes the feature.
How accurate is the result?
There is no official Scene Decomposition accuracy score, success rate, maximum layer count or processing-time benchmark in the cited Affinity material. Affinity’s September release announcement refers to “over 60 new features and improvements” across the whole update; that number is not a measurement of this tool.
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Judge the output by the intended edit, not by the number of layers produced. If you only need to shift a large foreground product and the background can tolerate minor reconstruction, the feature may be sufficient. If the deliverable requires exact typography, pristine logos or future multi-size reuse, treat the generated layers as a starting point and rebuild critical components.
Example: recovering an old campaign graphic
Suppose the original design file for a social campaign has disappeared. You have only a PNG and need to move the person to the right, replace the background and change the headline.
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Scene Decomposition can separate the person, headline area and other visible regions, then infer what was behind the person’s former position. That can reduce the initial selection work. However, the headline is still a raster image. Editing one word inside it will usually mean removing or covering the old pixels and creating a new live-text layer. The inferred background also needs inspection before it is used behind the moved subject.
For a one-off social post, this reconstruction may be a sensible compromise. For a brand master, packaging file or campaign system that must be edited repeatedly, manual rebuilding is safer because you control real text, vector artwork, masks and guides.
Which recovery path should you choose?
| Option | Best use | Editability and limits |
|---|---|---|
| Original Affinity or layered PSD file | Exact revision when the source still exists | Preserves the existing structure. Affinity states that it imports PSDs with layers. |
| Affinity Scene Decomposition | Only a flattened asset is available and you need a faster starting point | Creates new editable elements and inferred background content. It does not recover the original structure and requires qualifying Canva premium access. |
| Canva Magic Layers | Editing a flat single-page PNG or JPG in Canva | A separate Canva feature. Canva says distinct graphic elements work best and documents a 5,000-pixel longest-edge limit for Magic Layers. That limit must not be applied to Affinity Scene Decomposition. |
| Manual rebuilding in Affinity | Exact live type, vectors or brand-critical fidelity | Most labor-intensive, but it produces deliberate text, vector and mask structures rather than generated pixel approximations. |
Make the decision using five questions:
- Is the original Affinity or PSD source available?
- Do you need genuine live text or scalable vector artwork?
- Can the project tolerate AI-inferred pixels behind moved objects?
- Does your account include the required Canva premium access?
- How much cleanup can the schedule and budget accommodate?
Affinity and Canva access requirements
Affinity says Canva AI Studio features, including Scene Decomposition, require a qualifying Canva premium plan. The plans it names are Pro, Business, Enterprise and Education. The ordinary pixel, vector and layout tools remain available free with a Canva account, but that does not imply that the AI feature is included.
The available data does not establish a universal price, regional entitlement or permanent availability for those plans. Check the account’s current Canva and Affinity entitlement before promising the workflow to a team or client. Access and interface details can change after the September 2026 release.
If you are exporting from Canva
When the editable Canva design still exists, export an editable format instead of trying to reverse-engineer a PNG. Canva recommends SVG when preserving editability is important. Canva also warns that PDF and PNG exports may flatten layers, depending on the design and export path.
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If the only file you received is a PNG, ask the original designer or account owner for the source document before starting reconstruction. Recovering the master is preferable to separating a composite, especially when text, logos or repeated layouts are involved.
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Some elements stay fused together
Overlapping objects with similar colors, soft transparency and low contrast can be interpreted as one region. Use the generated result as a selection aid, then create additional masks or selections manually. There is no documented guarantee that every visible object will receive its own layer.
Edges show halos or missing pixels
Zoom to native size and inspect against both light and dark backgrounds. Refine the mask, remove contaminated edge pixels and repaint small gaps on a separate layer. Do not judge an edge only at the zoomed-out composition size.
The “new” background looks wrong
Move the foreground element away from its original position to expose the fill. If textures repeat or straight lines break, clone or paint a replacement from a clean nearby area, or rebuild the background manually. The fill is an inference, not hidden data recovered from the PNG.
The headline cannot be edited
That is expected when the lettering was rasterized in the export. Transcribe the copy, identify or approximate the typeface, and create a new live-text layer. Keep the separated raster lettering only as a visual reference while matching size, spacing and color.
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The command is unavailable
Confirm that you are signed in, that the account has Pro, Business, Enterprise or Education access, and that the installed Affinity version supports the September 2026 AI features. If access is still unavailable, use manual selections or rebuild the design rather than assuming a PNG contains recoverable layer metadata.
What “editable” means in this context
In Scene Decomposition, editable generally means that generated regions can be moved, hidden, masked, painted or rearranged as new content in the Affinity document. It does not mean that the document has regained the semantic objects of the source: a paragraph is not necessarily a paragraph object, a logo is not necessarily a vector, and a covered background is not necessarily authentic.
Affinity’s Benjamin Viney described the feature in the September 15, 2026 feature article with the phrase “Scene Decomposition brings that flattened image back to life.” That is an apt description of its reconstruction role, but it is product language rather than a guarantee of exact source recovery.
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Use Scene Decomposition when the original file is gone and a usable, partially editable reconstruction is more valuable than starting every selection from scratch. Plan for inspection, masking and repainting, and label the result as reconstructed. Rebuild text, logos and other brand-critical vectors manually. Whenever an original Affinity or layered PSD document exists, use it instead; it is the only route in this comparison that can preserve the source structure rather than infer a new one.
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