davidg2020

Did you ever find a suitable replacement? Lots of people have advocated photo-centric applications but I'm still looking for an app that previews other graphics type files (i.e. PDFs, vector files, etc). I'd love to find an app that previews Affinity documents rather than showing a generic app icon as the preview.

There is one stumbling block... as alluded to earlier in this thread (or maybe I read it elsewhere) of an "asset" is placed multiple times in one Publisher document it collects multiple instances of that asset in the "collect" folder (and you do have to manually create a new folder - Publisher doesn't automatically create a folder in your destination, but that's not a deal-breaker). I realise you can manually select the assets to collect (and thereby exclude multiple instances) in the resource manager but this is painstaking for large documents with lots of placed images. Am I missing something? If not, I hope Affinity fine tune this so it only collects one instance of each asset (without me having to exclude the other instances manually). This would make life so much simpler.

WooHoo... I found it. For the benefit of those following along I went to "Document>Resource Manager" and there was a "Collect" button at the bottom of the panel. This is a bit of a breakthrough for me... I'm now a big step closer towards making the switch from InDesign to Publisher.

I have just installed Publisher 1.8.2 (which presumably is NOT a beta version)... I cannot see how to collect all linked files in a document into a single folder. Does anyone know how to do this? Also, I have created a test document and placed some files into it - a couple of vector files (.ai) and a Photoshop file but I can't see any way of knowing if these are linked or embedded. How do I do this. The ability (or rather inability) to link (not just embed) files and collect them for archival or distribution purposes is the biggest reason I haven't switched from InDesign to Publisher. I'm dying to tell Adobe where they can stick their monthly subscription fee!

I've been unable to find any other users having similar problems, which probably explains why Adobe haven't fixed it... it's just too rare a problem to invest a lot of time in.

I have had it over several different MacBook Pros and many different Mac operating systems. I thought it may be a conflict with a third party piece of software but have completely erased my hard drive and installed only Mac OS and CC apps and it still persists. It doesn't seem to occur on my Windows machine, fortunately.

Bridge is the biggest problem I have with all Adobe CC apps... it crashes frequently and exhibits unusual behaviour in that when switching from another CC app to Bridge, Bridge is unresponsive to mouse clicks - I then have to go to another app and back to Bridge before clicking my mouse anywhere on the Bridge window elicits some form of response. I have had this issue for ages and have had contacted Adobe many times, have had many open cases that keep getting marked as "closed" or "resolved" even though the problem still exists. That's why I wish somebody else would come up with a product that offers similar functionality (and I don't mean an Aperture or Lightroom alternative - I mean a true DAM).

I made the mistake of purchasing the latest ACDSee. Made an even bigger mistake by buying a multipack that included ACDSee for Mac and Windows (I use both) along with some video editing programs. It turns out ACDSee doesn't support the latest compressed Canon RAW format (that my EOS RP saves in) and they don't seem interested in fixing it. After several emails to them the trail just went cold so I pretty much wasted my money. Seems Adobe aren't the only software company that don't care about their customers (they've got so many, so what if they lose a few now and then!).

I'm using a Mac but I also have a HP Spectre360 which - ironically - outperforms my MacBook Pro. I'm just "at home" in the Mac environment so I tend to stay there. I am trying to make a conscious effort to use the HP more often but old habits die hard. )-:

Unfortunately it is Adobe Bridge, out of all the Creative Cloud apps, that gives me the most grief. It regularly crashes and has this unusual quirk that, when you click on a part of the Bridge window that is visible while you're in another app (my usual method for switching apps) it will bring Bridge to the foreground (i.e. make it the active app) but it won't respond to any mouse clicks. You then have to make any other app active, then go back to Bridge before it will respond. After many hours on the phone with Adobe tech support (who were probably thinking I was a nutter) we finally narrowed it down to one particular scenario... it occurred when you saved an Illustrator document, closed that document and went to Bridge. If you saved the document but left it open, the problem did not occur. Go figure! Anyway, you make a valid point that Bridge is free to use even if you don't have an active CC subscription (at least I hope you're right in this... I've always had a subscription). At least if I'm not paying for it the issue is more tolerable. I did purchase ACDSee Photo Editor but it turns out that doesn't support CR3. )-: ...and it's a photo editor, not a DAM. I wouldn't be so certain about them discontinuing it... I, like many thousands of others, invested a lot of time and effort learning and constructing websites in Muse, then Adobe decided they were going to ditch the app, leaving us all in the lurch. I'm not saying they ARE going to ditch Bridge... just that they have done this sort of thing in the past.

Thanks to everyone for their comments and suggestions but from all the posts I've read everyone is approaching this from a photographer's perspective. I am not a photographer though, I am a graphic designer. Whilst some of the digital assets I am managing are image files - RAW, JPEG, Photoshop and the like - these are not the only files that qualify as digital assets. I currently use Bridge to view these files plus InDesign, Illustrator and PDF documents, which is does quite well showing document previews for quick and easy visual identification of each file. Unfortunately Bridge only shows generic icons for Affinity Designer and Publisher files which makes it useless for my purposes. Even the Mac Finder does a better job, in that it is able to show previews of Designer and Publisher files, but the Finder has very few of the cataloging tools that a program like Bridge offers.

I would like to see a "collect for output" facility, not just for Publisher but for Designer too. This is one of the biggest stumbling blocks preventing me from switching from "those people with the huge monopoly" to Affinity.

I reiterate a point that I made earlier that, in my view, Adobe's Lightroom is not a digital asset management application but, rather, more of an image management application, in that it is primarily designed for the management (and editing) of files created in a camera. I am longing for a true digital asset management application - one that manages files regardless of their source. They may be camera RAW files, JPEGs or TIFFs but they may also be files from the likes of Affinity Designer and Publisher - offering previews of these files which Adobe Bridge doesn't do (not that I want to use Bridge... that's the whole reason I want Affinity to produce a program with similar functionality to Bridge - but better!). It should also be able to handle (and show previews for) Illustrator and InDesign files (because, like it or not, I have thousands of these files in my archives), video and audio files, HTML files, Word and Excel files and so on. In short, all types of digital assets. I do not seek nor expect it to have any sort of editing capabilities built in - it is simply a cataloguing application. If Affinity could nail this I'd dump Adobe in a flash!

We just have different priorities - and I respect that (and I would also love them to create an Aperture/Lightroom replacement). The main point is, the people at Affinity are hopefully reading this and will act one way or the other (or hopefully both).

I did say earlier in my post that 50% of Lightroom's (and by inference Aperture's) job was asset management but equally (and I realise I said "primary" - I should have said "equally") its purpose is also that of image editing. At the end of the day, it's a photographer's tool. I'm looking for a publisher's tool (i.e. one for graphic designers, art director and magazine/newspaper editors). And I hope Affinity will take on the challenge.

Just further to my previous "rant", here's a link to what are considered to be digital assets management tools: https://www.capterra.com/sem-compare/digital-asset-management-software?gclid=CjwKCAjw3azoBRAXEiwA-_64Og1F-Mf50xw10evLTYVCwOsfCd6qlcaI-dAj7UMKIPl6tIGt26EmQhoCdgwQAvD_BwE Most of these are aimed at corporate entities and are prohibitively expensive for individuals (I know... I've looked into this before) but they clearly fall into the DAM category and you'll note Lightroom, Aperture or Capture One don't appear on the list. I'm looking for a single user, relatively inexpensive application, along the lines of Adobe Bridge but without the buggy behaviour, ongoing subscription cost and questionable product support. Please, Affinity, come to the party!

I'm a little confused by this conversation. The question was "Do you need a DAM?" (i.e. a digital asset management system). Whilst I agree that 50% of Lightroom's job is the management of camera output files (primarily still images but I believe it also handles video), the other 50% of its job is image editing. The same also goes for Aperture (which has been mentioned in this trail) and possibly Capture One (though I'm not familiar with Capture One so I don't know if it has the database functionality). Because a large part of these program's functionality is image editing I don't consider them "asset managers"... the purpose of asset managers is to track digital assets and share them to stakeholders - not to modify them. And, when I say "digital assets", I mean the whole gamut of digital media... not just video and images but artwork and audio files - including the likes of PDF, EPS, AI, INDD and (importantly on an ongoing basis) Affinity files (Photo, Designer and Publisher). It should show preview images for all of the file formats it tracks so there is an immediate visual cue as to the file's contents, along with the ability to rate files and save virtual collections (I know Lightroom does that latter two functions but it is quite limited in the types of files it handles). Its primary purpose is to quickly and easily find files (digital assets) for use in other projects. Lightroom, Aperture and Capture One's primary purpose is to take raw files from a camera and process them to a final form. Yes, it's be great if Affinity produced something that does that, but I want a DAM first and foremost.

I posted a comment on YouTube about this just today. Something akin to Adobe Bridge would be great! There are lot's of "photo browser" type apps around (ala ACDSee) but they are all photo based... they show previews for RAW and JPEG files but no previews of PDFs or publishing-type files - dare I say like Illustrator or InDesign or more particularly, previews of Affinity files (Publisher, Designer and Photo).

Fixed! Mac App Store finally decided to show me that there were updates to Designer and Photo... I checked there several times and it didn't indicate an update was available until I checked again about 15 minutes ago. I'm happy again. (-:

I did that too but my Designer and Photo are version 1.7.0 (were before - still are) and I can see no way to update them - either from within the apps themselves or in the Mac App Store.

I have just purchased and installed Publisher and tried to get Studio Link to work. It doesn't and I'm guessing because I have version 1.7.0 of Designer and Photo. I thought "Simple... I'll go to the download section of Affinity's website and download the latest versions!"... except I purchased them through Apple's App Store and, upon checking there, there is no way to update... the button to download the software simply says "OPEN" (because they're already installed - albeit older versions). How to I update to version 1.7.1 (or whatever version is required to use Studio Link) without having to re-purchase the software from the Affinity store? If that's the only way, I'm going to be pretty peeved!