Aphelon

A "Reader" could be a peace of software, that is completely free to use, but obviously would have very limited functionality in editing. A free light Version of Affinity Publisher would make it easier to exchange work in progress with a customer for example (that doesn't want to buy their own copy). Even thou Affinity Publisher is not that expensive, a "Reader" could have a really easy to understand and simple UI and just enough editing features to work with the customer on the same projekt together (for example could the customer edit text within the .afpub). There would be absolutly no reason to have an extra xml-format that is not compatible with other software, when a light version of Affinity Publisher or "Reader" could just open the .afpub. And if it is really just for "reading", there is no reason to not just send a PDF of the work in progress to your customer. So a Reader with limited editing funcionality is the only thing that makes some sence... I personally woul not see that as a Feature on my wanted-List, but I also wouldn't see it as completely useless... anyways - it would not be a real replacement for idml-export, since the reason why people would want that is compatibility with inDesign. And I dont think Adobe would implement an import option for an Affinity xml output.

But that's 1% of ALL People owning a Computer. Serif would probably be happy to have that many customers.

So why not even try a Kickstarter-Campaign? If you raise enough Money you'll keep it to make a Linux Version and if not you'll just pay the backers back. No Risk for you or the backers, no confidence needed. Lot's of people would probably even be willing to back a lot more than the List-Price of the Software just to see it happen. I don't think it's unlikely to get >1.000.000 out of the Linux Community for such a Suite.

The same counts for newer InDesign projects that are opened in older Versions of InDesign via idml export. It works rather well, because the idml-Format actually isn't that complicated...

+1 for idml export... being somewhat compatible with indesign/ the ability to exchange editable poject files would be great.

@Fixx sry, i must have overlooked that he uses a Mac ... a good Alternative for OSX might be PDFelement by wondershare ... you'd need the Pro-Licence though to create and edit forms ... I haven't used it myself (just heard about it), but theres a free trial that might be worth a look ... seems like it has some nice functionality with the forms ... I should take a better look at that myself

right now I'm using Nitro as an alternative to Acrobat ... I got it on Sale for ~100$ so it doesn't come cheap, but definitely cheaper than Adobe Subscription just for Acrobat... I haven't done much Form-Editing (especially non complex) with it, but it's imho no more or less painful than Acrobat ... best you try it for yourself (free Trial) btw. I'd really love to see that as a feature in Publisher...

+1 @AndyQ is right, it's extremely painful to work with Acrobat to create Forms - Please Serif make my life easier - sad there seem to be not that many people gasping for that feature...

thanks for the info ... that feature will help Publisher to be more of a competitor and is the reason some people have not made the switch yet... more so if they also implement idml export somewhere in the near future

I‘d like to give this topic a push because idml-support is also on my list of the most wanted features. Is there any update on this? any progress? Even more important for me would be a feature that would make it possible to create fillable PDFs forms in Publisher. (No DP-Software i know of does that just right and compfortable and so it could be one killer feature)