[Total Disregard for the Printing Industry]

PageMaker was king, but then Quark Xpress came along and pushed PageMaker into near obscurity. InDesign came along and knocked Quark off that mountain. Why is it many of you who have defended Affinity of my harsh criticism of V.2 don't think they could do the same to Adobe? Affinity is very good software, but needs to make itself a viable production tool to do just that.

 

This thread was started in the V.2 feedback forum, and all I did was provide that. It generated some positive discussions and some not so positive. I don't think Affinity wanted only praise for the work they did. Also, I don't think I am the only one that is going to stick with V.1.x for awhile.

[Total Disregard for the Printing Industry]

19 hours ago, tudor said:

Let me translate this to designers: no matter what software you use (Adobe, Affinity, whatever), if you're doing print stuff, do not send source files to the printers. They will find any reason to charge you fees for anything they don't like. Instead, learn how to prepare a proper print-ready PDF. Talk to your printer about this. If they don't accept PDFs then find a printer from the 21st century.

Printers will charge fees for anything that takes extra time. And yes, communicate with your printer BEFORE starting a project. Every print process has it's own set of variables. You can't expect designers to provide all those variations, that is the job of the prepress department. Often it is faster to manipulate files in native applications, but if the tools are not there it will cost more.

If you've used Adobe apps for 40 years, learn the differences between their apps and Affinity's. Don't just assume that everything must work the same. For example:

Adobe apps have not been around for 40 years, but converting paste up, camera, film and assembly to a digital workflow occurred in that time. Every major application accomplished the same result, but had different approaches and terminology. I have worked with Affinity's apps for 2 years now and have a pretty good handle on what it can and cannot do. The Affinity suite just cannot accomplish some basic functions because it still lacks the tools.

When printing multiple spot colors, some trapping must be applied to individual stokes and fills. A global overprint will not always work.

Mouse clicks are faster than keyboard shortcuts, IMHO.

Spot color die lines knock out the image under it unless the layer is turned off before the PDF is created, but then the die line is not available for post processing.

I will continue to use my Affinity 1.x apps at home because they are elegant and powerful, I just won't invest in an update that doesn't add anything that I need. When I work on print projects, I will just reboot into an older OS and use my paid for Adobe CS apps.

 

 

[Total Disregard for the Printing Industry]

How about simple up/down arrows on the menu bar or pallets for quick mouse clicks? Way faster to make adjustments! (in addition to the existing pull downs, sliders, keyboard shortcuts and direct entry)

[Total Disregard for the Printing Industry]

Super excited when I got an email about V2 and even downloaded the free trials, but after looking at the lack of added features, it's a big pass. I'll wait for V3 or V6 or V9, what ever it takes to make this software compatible with the printing industry (Almost 1 Trillion Dollar (US$) industry worldwide).

There is still no support for overprint fills and strokes for ink trapping and color mixing, spot or CMYK color separations, non-printable layers for die cut rules or digital finishing equipment. Let's not even mention the still clunky interface. It's not workflow, it's work stoppage. Need to pull down menus to change stroke weights and type sizes, really???

I have worked in the graphic arts industry for over 40 years from paste up and film to digital prepress and digital printing, and every major graphic software package since the original Pagemaker. I know a thing or two about the industry. The reason professionals use Adobe products is because they support this kind of work. Our designers and prepress technicians agree that Affinity files are challenging to work with, and the only thing worse is Canva crap. We charge extra for such files because of the time it takes to make them work with our equipment.

Bottom line is if your like me and don't want to pay for subscription software, be prepared to pay for it on the back end.

[Print Color Separations From Affinity Publisher]

2 hours ago, MikeW said:

What Illustrator does since version 10 or so is save a copy of it's own format into the pdf.

 

MikeW,

Thank you, I did not know that. We really like Affinity apps and will continue to use them for design work, just wish we could use them for our prepress needs. What we don't like is subscription software.

[Print Color Separations From Affinity Publisher]

2 hours ago, MikeW said:

Adobe Illustrator cannot keep layers that are in a pdf intact. It's a known limitation of Illustrator.  

Known limitation??? Having used Illustrator on a Mac since version 5, I have saved Illustrator layered PDFs, reopened them in other apps and sent them to RIPs and the layers have remained intact. The point is that Designer does not handle layers in a way consistent with conventional prepress methods and need some changes to become competitive with Adobe.

[Print Color Separations From Affinity Publisher]

On 3/19/2022 at 11:03 AM, walt.farrell said:

You can create Layers in the Affinity applications, either via the icon at the bottom of the Layers menu, or via the menu Layer > New Layer. This will create a container layer, shown as a (Layer) with a capital L in the Layers panel.

You can put objects into such Layers.

Then, during Export, the More button will give you additional settings, one of which is to include the Layers.

I am not sure about your points 2 or 4. I think you're right about #3, printing separations.

Walt, 

"Include layers" is on by default. I tried this as you suggested, but when I brought the PDF file into my RIP and AI, the layers are collapsed into a single layer with every character and object combined into a group in that layer. Layer names are lost as well. See attached images.

As far as overprinting, the die cut line in this example will knock out of the yellow background leaving a white line where the die cut rule will cut. If it is out of register by a little the the line will show on the final product.

Separation proofs would show this defect before making plates.

There is no way to use Affinity as a production tool. I still require Adobe to send jobs to press, and need serious layer manipulation to do so.

[Print Color Separations From Affinity Publisher]

I am a 40+ year veteran in the printing industry and there are some indispensable tools missing that leave the Infinity Suite inadequate for print production, thus requiring Adobe software. If these issues could be addressed in future releases, Affinity could become the next Swiss Army Knife in the professional prepress arsenal.

 

1. Layers are not maintained when exporting as PDFs, or bringing print files into a RIP. Often die cut rules, color bars, and registration marks, etc. must be on separate layers, but become combined into a single layer with images and text upon import.

    

2. Overprints are not supported. When printing multi color (spot or cmyk), images and text need to trap under or over objects or strokes. Sometimes, spot colors need to overprint other spot colors to create an additional color. 

    

3. Separations cannot be output with the existing print driver. Separation proofs are required before film production. Sign and t-shirt shops need to print film positives on clear inkjet film for screen production.

    

4. Export Adobe Illustrator and InDesign format files so printers using Adobe workflows can work with Affinity users. This is a moot point if the above 3 issues are addressed and Print Shops add Affinity work flows.