whitewolf7070

Still hoping for the option to have paragraphs span across columns without having to create a separate text box, with all the text wrap settings and all. The ability to do this is about the only thing keeping me with InDesign.

Thanks Adriandw.

We are launching a new newsmagazine-style pub in March and having a big debate on using inDesign or AP. We would like to standardize on Affinity. However, this is a “must have” feature for our type of publication. Even the old Ventura Publisher, circa 2000, had this feature. Surprised it’s missing so far.

FWIW: I designed a staff box in InDesign and then decided to move the publication to APub. I didn't want to rekey all the text, so I just did a select all and copy in Indesign. Then, I went to the box in APub just to paste in the text. To my surprise, the text came in all formatted and the paragraph styles imported, too. Nice surprise. Maybe this is part of the planned ID import feature that Affinity just isn't publicizing yet. Anyway, made my work easier today. FWIW.

Thanks.

I also spent quite a bit of time searching for how to create a column and gutter grid. I ended up just creating a master page with the guides I needed. that will have to work for now.

I have this question too.

Corel Draw has several useful features that I cannot find in Affinity Designer. Am I just missing them? When you click on an image, in Corel Draw you get information about the image, including the color profile, size and dimensions. The color profile is particularly important when trying to locate all the RGB images in a document, for example. Corel Draw allows the user to convert the color profile of an image in the document on the fly, from RGB to CMYK or vice versa. Does Designer have this feature? If you double-click on an image in Corel Draw, it will open in Corel Paint, allowing for quick image editing. However, it appears you can only open the whole document in Affinity Photo (when you have both, as I do). Am I missing something? In Corel Draw, you can use search or search and replace to find objects, colors, color profiles, font styles, as well as text. Very, very useful. These are very useful features. Any help with finding these features in Affinity Designer, if they are there, would be appreciated. I have moved from Windows to Mac, so Corel Draw is not a good option for me any longer.

Not even arguing that point. However, much of the functionality must be similar, i.e., cropping, paste inside, adjusting transparency, etc. Text flowing around objects is a no-brainer and is a vital function for any serious drawing program.

The issue is not that “Illustrator and CorelDraw are seasoned programs with many years of dev behind them.” The issue is that people who apparently represent the company on this thread have said that the failure to include these fundamental features is a deliberate choice. Again, in my view, to deliberate cripple a product to force users who need that functionality to buy another product — which does not yet exist — is a poor customer relations decision, and thus business decision, in my opinion. On the other hand, giving customers what they need to make money themselves both locks them into your eco-system AND assures them that your company is there to help them and knows the market it serves. You bring up cost. It would be disingenuous for Affinity to advocate the equivalent professional functionality of their products on the one hand and then complain that their financial model prevents them from achieving that functional equivalency. The bottom line is that these Affinity products are either professional grade, or they are not. People who need professional grade functionality are willing to pay for that functionality even if they don't like the business model, as evidenced by the ongoing prosperity of Adobe and the continued existence of Corel.

Frankly, IMHO, it is crazy and denigrating to loyal users (I bought some Affinity products not because I needed them, but just to support the company) to deliberately cripple a product for the purpose of compelling users to buy a future product, that so far is vaporware. I wanted to move away from CorelDraw (because it is Windows only) and use Designer exclusively. The attitude of Affinity seems to be that Designer is just for drawing pretty pictures. However, some of us do real commercial work and use illustration programs to create text-heavy flyers, forms, and signage. The (apparently) deliberate failure of Affinity to provide basic text handling ability in Designer that is present in both Illustrator and CorelDraw, primarily the abilities to flow text around objects and to do automatic numbering and bulleting is, in my mind, inexcusable. Even more so when they do it from a naked profit motive (though I have nothing against profits :-)). This limited, but vital, text handling functionality would not stop users from buying Publisher (should it ever arrive). I hope Affinity gets a clue and changes this short-sighted strategy.

I used it from version 1.1, used it to build a media business, and made lots of $$$ with it :-). Never had the problem you mention. Once you understood that everything was in frames, you could just make frames and place anything anywhere. You could have multi-columns on the on underlying page or not. Text in one frame could flow around another frame, or even objects in the frame. It was pretty amazing. Loved the way it created captions and made Paragraph tagging a breeze. You could make style tags for frames, text, paragraphs, most anything and applying them was quick and intuitive. If I hadn't moved to Mac, I would still be using it. Still am tempted, but would have to install a virtual machine and buy Windows. Ventura should get a lot more credit than it does. I hear that it is still used quite a bit in Europe. (sigh)

Corel Ventura Publisher was an amazing program, far ahead of its time. Intuitive, powerful, full-featured. Sadly, PC only. Corel let it die. Not updated since 2002. So sad. Hope AP draws some inspiration from this once-great program.

The "Flood Select Tool" (which is what the Tool Tip names it), does not work on an image until I rasterize it, even though it is already "rasterized" as an image. If I use the FST once, and then click off of it, I seem to have to "rasterize" the image AGAIN to get it to get the tool to work on the image. Why is this?

Definitely think that Text Wrapping needs to be in Designer, too. It is vital for use with flyers and advertisements, which is a huge part of the work flow of most pro designers.