wonderings
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Posts posted by wonderings
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12 hours ago, MattyWS said:
A +1 here for the Linux crowd. I Main POP!_OS and the only image manipulation applications worthy are Krita and Gimp... A proper package like the affinity line would be a hit IMO. Linux is no longer for the one or two nerds in the crowd, it's becoming more and more mainstream.
If the developers need a reason, I would like to use Affinity as an example. Windows is the current King, so why use Linux? Photoshop is the current King, so why use Affinity Photo? The similarities are great IMO. A solid alternative OS deserves a solid alternative photo editing package. And just look at how professional this OS is, and how lovely Affinity would look on this! (screenshot from my pc)
So yea, I think there's a market for it and a hefty gap that Affinity could jump into as well. Substance Designer/Painter, Blender, Unity engine, Maya, Unreal engine etc etc they all have native linux versions.
Is that how the OS looks by default or did you make it look pretty much identical to MacOS?
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34 minutes ago, thedrumdoctor said:
To be fair, you could ask the same question of the company who produce Insync cloud syncing software. They are 'closed' yet they support Linux which allows users to sync data with Microsoft, Google and Dropbox. Similarly, Cockos who make the incredibly popular music creation DAW, Reaper, port for Windows, Mac and Linux. There does seem to be an increase in software vendors bothering to make versions of their software for Linux, but the creative world is still poorly served in this area of development. I do take on the principle of your point though, in as much as the roots of Linux are not embedded in the commercial world and have different goals.
Looking at other replies on this thread, there may be some sort of agreement between Affinity and Microsoft and Apple not to port Affinity products to any other platforms. Affinity don't port to Android either yet there are plenty of large Android tablets with pen support. Clearly, there is potential revenue from both Android and Linux users, but it has to be either ROI or fall-out with the market desktop-dominators which prevent them from developing.
I was replying to a post that said Affinity and Linux would be a great pare. I do not know why they would be a great pare, it would be great if Affinity and every other software company made their products for Linux to give users more options for computers, but there is nothing specific that would make them a "perfect" pare.
I can't see Microsoft or Apple making any sort of exclusivity deal to keep away from Linux. I could see one of them going after exclusivity for their platform, but Affinity is pretty small potatoes and would not be a selling point for any OS to say they alone have Affinity. If there is money to be made someone will find it and capitalize on it. Adobe looked at it years ago and opted out, and they are a multi billion dollar company and if anyone has the resources and money to burn on testing the waters it would be them. It does not mean Adobe could be wrong, but I would guess they did some very real research on the potential of getting their money back from Linux users if they released their software on that platform.
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17 hours ago, warzmanda said:
That's the point. In 2025 they're dropping support for Win10. If my box is still working well at that point, I'll either have to upgrade Win11 and deal with the crappy performance, buy a new computer and run Win11 on that, or...
...just use Linux, which is usually free with the option of donating to the distributor of whichever Linux OS was picked. But Affinity doesn't run natively on Linux, and I need it for my personal work. I could just go back to using GIMP or some other free/open source solution, but I'd rather not.
Honestly Affinity would be a great pairing with Linux - breaking with the Adobe model they've done, why not break with with the Mac/Windows OS model and offer a Linux option as well? (Not denying it could be a ton of extra work to do it, and last I checked they're strapped for programmers as it is).
I'm at the point where I'm just going to nab another ssd to throw POP! on and start dual booting again. Throw the 10-day Photo demo on WINE and see what happens.Why would Affinity and Linux be a great pair? One is closed the other is open, I don't really see anything that says these companies are like minded.
I think that it is always the balance of need vs want. If I needed to do certain things the OS would be less important to me as I would care more about the software I need to use. I would use the OS that supports the software that lets me get the job done.
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If you really want to get into the imposition end of things I would recommend Imposition Studio Pro. This is software for imposing as the name suggests and is very flexible. If you are doing this a lot it is worth looking into
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You should be able to copy and paste but for imposition I would not do that, you are opening yourself up for a world of headaches if something changes when pasted into the new document.
Are you trying to impose it for print?
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I would not try and impose working files. Not sure exactly what you are trying to do but any manual imposition, or any imposition at all, should be done with PDF's. Nothing will reflow, nothing missed when trying to select all. Export as a PDF then impose on the document size you are trying to do.
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as Old Bruce said it is best to leave for whoever is printing your file. If you are printing yourself then it is worth figuring it out, if you are sending it out I can say from experience you are probably creating a headache for whoever is printing it. Imposition is simple and easy if you send the file with bleed and crop marks, sized to what you want.
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Linked text created in the document is not going to grow the document size by any significant number, certainly not by 100 mb. What is the size of a PDF when you export? Personally I would not be so concerned with the working document size. When you are all done package the file. This should only package what is in the document, not out on the pasteboard... unless of course Affinity works differently in this case compared to Indesign.
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1 hour ago, Bryan Rieger said:
Unlike the majority of physical products (toasters, sofas, automobiles, etc) we've developed a very different relationship to software products. We expect software (especially creative and professional tools) to change, to evolve over time, to keep pace with trends, and to enable us to easily accomplish things that were difficult or impossible before. And yes, when you decide to purchase software you are primarily basing your decision on what that software enables you today. However, the investment many of us make in our software (learning, workflows, actual work/products, etc) tends to be magnitudes greater than whatever the initial purchase price may have been. We often spend months, or even years learning the intricacies of our tools, and devising new workflows—not to mention the time we invest in actually creating our work/products in these tools and formats.
As your experience grows in these tools you'll often find issues that might range from simple, everyday annoyances, to complete blockers. You'll find yourself looking at what's possible (and often has been possible for YEARS) in other, similar tools wondering why you can't do those things in your preferred tools. You watch as new releases come out, with new features and bug fixes, but few of which are relevant to your work, or (going by the forums) the work of others. You look for any indications of when some of the issues or feature gaps might be addressed only to encounter a 'we don't talk about our future plans' policy. Sure, we could ALL contact Serif directly asking them to convince us to believe in their direction, but I suspect having thousands of users do this would cause more problems than it might solve for Serif.
So, that leaves us with "you will see it is not what you are after" which after 7+ years of investment in Affinity for me does seem like a very sad end to this journey.
When Affinity Designer was first released in 2014 with the promise to "set the new industry standard in the world of design" I was skeptical, but more importantly I was excited. Here was a company creating the first real, modern design software in years. It combined vectors and bitmaps (like my beloved, but dead Fireworks), and being a Freehand (also dead via Adobe) user I've never really had a huge warm fuzzy for Illustrator. I knew it wouldn't be able to replace Illustrator for me on day one, but I was excited to see where all this was going, and more importantly I wanted to support Serif in anyway I could (also buying other apps, books, brushes, spreading the word, etc).
After 7+ years (InDesign ate Quark's lunch in that time), and having to continue to invest in the very company/products/workflows that I've been wanting to get away from, I came to realization that the promise to "set the new industry standard in the world of design" is still a long way off.
I don't share this because I hate Serif or their products, but rather because I care and I'm saddened that at least for me, at this point in time, the Affinity suite of products is no longer an alternative that I feel confident continuing to significantly invest in. YMMV.
I think we expect a little too much and generally people feel a little to entitled to having all their wishes fulfilled. Not saying this is you, but in general there is an entitled attitude online. The expectation might be there for new features but it is never promised. I was pretty amazed at the things they added FREE, like variable data and PDF pass through among other things. So there are features being added and bugs being fixed, but you can't please everyone and there will be people still wanting their specific issues resolved.
I completely agree as experience you find things you would not have looked for when you started, but unless these things were promised you really are not owed this simply because others can do it and you want to be able to. Who should Serif listen to when people contact? Should they simply go with the loudest voices and follow their direction? Ultimately you hope and want leadership in a company that understands the industry and the client base and creates their roadmap based on that. They also know what is feasible and not feasible with their software, so they can tackle what is attainable for the moment. I would imagine they have a list of things that are more complicated to add but are on the road map for eventual integration, they are just picking their battles and unfortunately it is not working for you.
It is a bold claim to say you are going to set a new industry standard, I certainly would not have believed that slogan. Adobe has done a fantastic job of unifying the majority of creators in the world creating the standard and just about everyone is using Adobe CC so everyone has, or can have without no extra cost to them, the same version. That makes working together so very nice and is incredibly valuable. Pretty much all print issues for me come from people who use different options for their creative, things like Gimp, Office, Canva and others. You talk of the investment of time put into Affinity, think of the time put into Adobe and the billions of files for the big 3 Indesign, Illustrator and Photoshop, no industry is going to just drop Adobe, it would need to be something truly different, something that would as they say "change everything". Affinity does some good things, but there is no game changing features. It has a great market for those who the monthly cost of Adobe is an issue. I would say Affinity has a different market, they have a great product for a great price that anyone can afford.
It was a huge shift from Quark to Adobe, I remember those days and was the driving force for it here. Adobe offered so much more value than Quark. Quark was one piece in the tool belt of apps you needed. Adobe for Illustrator and Photoshop were necessary so when they offered Indesign it was a no brainer. Indesign really made a huge change in layout software. Quark with its low res previews and general quirkiness were gladly set aside for Indesign, which played well with all the native Adobe formats, handled and exported PDF's beautifully and full res preview and working in full res! That along with other things really did change how we all worked in the industry and it did it for the better. Now with Affinity they have come with competing software for a fraction of the cost, but it does not really change all that much or bring anything revolutionary to the game, nothing that would make the millions of users who make their living with Adobe want to ditch it for an alternative.
While I don't use Serif professionally (bought all 3), I do see it as a great alternative for those with a budget or those who need to do some graphically work but it is not their focus. The affinity apps are great for that. When you start needing to collaborate or work with others in the industry the Affinity apps start losing appeal.
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13 hours ago, CM0 said:
I agree, this why you don't use a forum for this kind of interaction.
One of my past jobs was to evaluate software for purchase for the company. We would consider the companies momentum as far as features and time to resolve issues. The number of open issues and how long they have been open. Roadmaps were very important for understanding future direction and investment. When buying software, it is not just the software, but time investment into learning and training. Confidence the company is on solid financial grounds etc.
I realize not everyone evaluates software by these terms, but don't discount that there are many who do. However, when your content creators who are instrumental in marketing your product start complaining, then you have an issue that needs to be addressed.
You can clearly see Serif has been working and updating the Affinity applications, that should tell you something about their momentum. Lots of software out there you will see years or more without updates. In those cases you know what you are getting from the company and know not to expect a lot or any updates. Again though you buy based on what the software can do now, if you are looking for growth and development in the apps and buying large volumes of licenses you can connect with Serif directly and I am sure they will either convince you of their direction or you will see it is not what you are after. For individual users, which I would say is safe to say the vast majority are none of this is important (or should not be). You have ample time to demo, test and with the software to ensure it does what you want.
With Adobe it was forum based and email. I did not even know it existed till I was invited to participate. Serif for all we know could have the same thing but are just tight lipped about it. I don't see the value of opening it up for everyone. I liken it to working on a design project and having 12 clients all commenting and they all have different ideas and wants from the project. It becomes a sea of chaotic noise. Now talking with a small selection of people with experience in the industries they are hitting is a smart idea and again they may be doing that already.
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39 minutes ago, CM0 said:
It is not a call for Affinity being open source. It is about open transparent development with the community. This isn't just about benefit to the community, but about benefit to Affinity as well. Many companies have more open transparent development and are not open source. Take a look at Vector Styler as an example of a competitor.
The companies I've worked for are closed source, yet they still have open feature and defect tracking in which the the company engages with the community for better understanding of not only priorities, but refinement of feature requests. Also, there are often invitations from selected customers to join round table discussions to be involved with future development and solicit feedback. I'm not proposing Affinity has to take on exactly any of these methods. I'm simply proposing Affinity finds a method to be more open by a method of their own choosing. Why? because I have bought into many products in the past where the rate of development declines as a precursor to that product essentially going into a long slow death spiral.
As far as buying software, it is about what competing software I might not buy or heavily invest into. Furthermore, the most important aspect is that when users feel confident in a product they voluntarily promote it.
I have been involved in the some of this with Adobe in the past, beta testing new versions and giving feedback. This is very different than wide open road maps that every one on the forums is either going to complain about or praise. If you go through these forums the range is so wide of what people want and deem as necessary you would be spinning round and round. Defect tracking and refinement is far different than features to add in future updates. I still don't understand what Affinity gains by being more open, all they gain is criticism or support from people on the forums. They obviously have their own roadmap at the moment and understand what is reasonable and what is unreasonable to add at this moment and in this version. I have said this numerous times, buy the software based on what it does now, not on the potential of that software in the future. No software I have purchased has ever let me down in terms of features as it was all purchased knowing what it can do and cannot do. Yes there are bugs and issues with the software but again that is different then wanting and for some people, demanding, new functionality that was never promised.
I would say with Affinity the confidence should come from the 30 day (sometimes 90 day) full feature demo where they have plenty of time to test and try out their most complicated projects and see if the software is right for them.
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OldBruce had it right way back, if you have your text and logo the same colour there are few ways of making it stand out. The clearest and easiest way to read it is putting a white stroke around the text. You could put a white drop shadow behind but that is not going to be as clear and easy to read which is what you would want for something like this.
There is no opacity for a black that will stand out when it is going on top of black. Really not sure why you are making this that difficult with black on black when you could use colour to really have it stand out. At very least you could go with a gray to stand out as well. Your file is not 100% K so this is not something you are trying to accomplish for 1 colour printing.
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16 minutes ago, PaulEC said:
If you're talking about total sales, Publisher is probably behind Photo and Designer because it was released much later. I would also expect Photo to be more popular than the other apps, as (I'm pretty sure) there are more people who need to edit photos, than there are who are involved in (mainly) vector design or publishing.
Think you might want to redirect the quote to the original person who said that, I was just quoting them and replying.
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17 hours ago, cyberlizard said:
I am pretty certain that Affinity Photo and Designer are their biggest applications in that order when it comes to sales with Publisher coming in third. I have gone back to the dark side. I had wanted very much to make the switch but Publisher holds me back... in three words, "footnotes and endnotes".
There we are.
p.s. couldn't agree more about the lack of transparency. Even Scribus is more transparent than Affinity when it comes to being open (no pun intended).
What would change about Photo and Designer if you knew exactly what they were working on? Again would you buy software now with the hopes of features that may come in a months time, in a years time?
Scribus and Serif are not really the same thing. One is free and open source, the other costs and is not open source. There is no pressure with free software, at least not the same as there is with people paying and complaining they deserve more for their money. Affinity is not open source and I don't believe they have made any attempts at being open, their format is pretty locked down to Affinity apps only.
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On 9/24/2021 at 2:17 PM, Mohannad said:
why would you response to the post if you didn't read all the subjects releated to the same matter and see if affainity staff member have said "they will fix this issue but not on the sort term but might on the long term" every person will qoute this post will ask me the same question, if this problem doesn't concern you please go find better subject to discuss.
I am asking a question and would agree that if Affinity had promised they would have RTL by 2019 it would be something to complain about. Your quote has a key word "might". This is not a definitive "we will do this", this is a "we may do this". I would say welcome to the internet if the idea of someone talking about something that is not directly impacting them is new to you or it upsets you.
- Alfred, kenmcd and LondonSquirrel
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On 8/10/2021 at 2:52 PM, Hassan Hayastani said:
AFFINITY 1.10
The biggest update performance, but sadly still not support RTL.
As RTL native, surely this is still the major problems and feel very pains.
I will always support AFFINITY APPS but for a temporary need to switch to other platform because do not need to wasting more dollar and times, jump there, jump here, work there, work here, especially to convert RTL works to AFFINITY.
Please upgrade soonest possible!
Is it a problem? It is a feature they have not implemented and I would say you should always demo and try software before you buy to make sure it can do what you want it to do.
Not sure why you would support Affinity if the apps don't work for your needs, seems your money would be better spent elsewhere to get the features you need in order to be productive.
On 9/21/2021 at 7:50 AM, Mohannad said:lol dreams never come true with affinity, they said will fix it on 2019
Affinity said they would add RTL in 2019?
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Does not convert well, when I open in Illustrator it is a bit of a mess. I have exported as PDF as maybe that will be better to use for whatever you are doing with it.
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5 hours ago, LondonSquirrel said:
At the same time, it would be good to have some idea about what Serif is actually working on.
I don't think it would be good to have some idea about what they are working on. You may like to know, I am sure we would all be curious, but it is not "good". Just serves peoples curiosity without any purpose and benefit to the user.
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4 hours ago, wtrmlnjuc said:
To add to my previous comment, I don’t like paying for Adobe but please, take a look at their apps’ uservoice forums. They have a section for active-indevelopment features. They never give dates, only a heads up to say, “Hey we have this feature in dev now.” or, “What is your workflow like?” That’s all that’s needed.
It can be interesting to see what they are working on, but it is by no means anything anyone needs to know. Don't buy software based on the hope it might do what you want in the future, buy for what it can do now. There is already a place for suggestions.
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On 9/21/2021 at 5:01 AM, Stephen_H said:
For years I've been wanting to move off Windows and onto Linux, but without pro apps for a graphic designer, I can't. I understand the chicken and egg situation - No designers using Linux because there's no apps for them. There are no apps for them because all the graphic designers are using Windows/Mac.
I truely do not care what OS I'm using. I started on Macs and loved the interface, but moved to Windows because Mac's hardware stopped giving me ports and storage. (When you live in Africa, we can't just fit in with first world thinking of "everything in the cloud" and just connect wirelessly. We barely have electricity, let alone always-on highsleed, affordable broadband) It was a hardware decision not an OS preference. I support Affinity because I've always been a sucker for the under dog. It's as much of a poke in Adobe's eye as it is a better financial choice. (I suspect that's the case for many Affinity users).
I apply the same attitude to Linux. It's the under dog and want to support it.
I don't even care what distro I have to use. If Affinity announced that their apps only ran on one speciffic Linux distro, eg: Mint KDE, I would choose that distro as my Linux OS. If they chose Manjaro or Suse... done.
Side note... I'd support a kickstarter fund - even if it's to guage the financial viability of Linux support.
I would never "support" a company just because they are the underdog. These are not charities or institutions helping change the world for the better, they are companies trying to make money, lots of money, by hopefully selling a product that lots of people will buy. I purchased all 3 because I was curious and the applications are cheap and it allows me to see what options are out there and to learn why I could or could not move away from Adobe. I could care less about who came to market first with what feature, just what is best for me at the end of the day. That company gets my money, for no other reason than they offer me the service and software I deem best for my uses. I am not donating money to any for profit companies.
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On 9/16/2021 at 10:13 AM, LondonSquirrel said:
It would lead to endless comments about why xyz and abc features are not on the roadmap and that they should be, and that other features on the roadmap are 'not necessary'. In other words we would probably not be any better off.
100% correct. I am guilty of it myself. There is no benefit to this and would only cause more people get upset and comment giving their opinion on how Serif should be running their multi million dollar company.
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I just did a quick test in Publisher. I made a layer and locked it. I could not select it or move it. I don't use layers a whole lot but I definitely think it is an important and simple feature. What is happening when you lock your layer? What is changing?
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I think you buy software for what it can do at the moment of release, if your intent when buying something and hoping they will continue to add and give you more then you are always taking a gamble. Yes it is common to get updates, but not a requirement. If you bought the software knowing what it does and does not then you should still either be happy it lets you achieve what you want or you took the risk that they would give you features and it has not paid off. Not sure how anyone can really complain about the software and lack of development or features. Unless these were promised to be added at launch and then never delivered I think it is just people grumbling and wanting more more more for less less less. I am amazed at the features they did add to V1 as I thought things like PDF passthrough and variable data would be features held out for V2 to give reason to pay for the update.
- ithacan, Frozen Death Knight, RNKLN and 1 other
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22 hours ago, Sam Neil said:
Do you mean this? (Attached)
Yes, you do not want to export threads. It can be made to work but it is always an extra step. Life is so much simpler when print time comes to go single pages.
Booklet exporting as PDF
in Feedback for Affinity Publisher V1 on Desktop
Posted
Not sure what you are talking about, you can export as PDF and have PDF options for quality. Go file>export and select PDF and change any settings there.