Since this is a more or less current thread, here are my 2 cents. I'm a primarily print designer in the US, and CorelDraw is my primary design program (use CS4/CS6 as well). It is driving me insane that there is no way to force Affinity Designer to default to CMYK -- and, yes, I'm setting up presets, but it's still annoying as hell.
I ALWAYS design in CMYK, even where there will be a web or PMS color use of a logo, for instance (which there almost always is). I'd much rather start with what is possible in print, and for almost every client I then create a file with the logo in every possible color use -- RGB/PMS/grey scale and CMYK.
And, I don't rely on the screen, or my CMYKRG inkjet printer, because they're irrelevant. I have printed color books that I reference when I need them (been doing this a long time and have standard palettes, so don't need to do it that much). The printed books aren't always perfect, and because ink on paper is a VERY imprecise "science" (more art), no matter what you do colors will shift a little bit. But, by relying on printed samples, I get much closer to what I want as an end result, for CMYK and PMS. The two most useful CMYK books for me are Process Color Manual and the 1995 PMS swatch book, just FYI.
I'm barely into trying to figure AD out, and may well have a fit about color palettes when I get that far. Hoping that AD will let me set up a standard CMYK color palette that is in EVERY document. Sigh. (Further annoyed about the grid not being able to be the default for all documents, and rounding my desired .0625 grid (1/16" of an inch) to .063, plus not being able to toggle snap to grid on and off....another item on my wish list.)
But glad you all are out there, so I can try to figure AD out!
