Question 1

Canva removed its duotone effect — is there a free alternative?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Duotone is one of the effects in the stack here: pick the shadow and highlight inks and it maps your image between them. It is free to use and runs in the browser.

Question 2

Do the effects carry into the other tools?

Accepted Answer

Yes. There is one effects stack, shared by every tool. Effects are applied to the artwork itself, so whatever you set here is what the halftone, pixel, dither and ASCII tools then render from.

Question 3

Does this use AI?

Accepted Answer

No. Every effect is a deterministic image operation, so the same settings always produce exactly the same result and nothing is generated on your behalf.