Lee N

As far as I remember, you don't want bleed enabled unless you have images in the book that stretch to the edges. PDF/X-1a is fine. Don't use PDF for print. The cover is a bit more tricky and requires bleed. Make sure you use their template for the book cover size you are using and run a few test prints yourself. Upload a draft when ready and order an author copy to double check everything looks OK. Just try to create your cover image that takes into account the bleed cut off will vary by a fraction during print runs.

Maybe, but it doesn't inspire loyalty. After all the problems caused by not including an MSI installer (to their credit they did U turn eventually) but they also said that discount was because they couldn't offer upgrade pricing. Fair enough, but then they finally release the MSIs at the same time the discount was removed. Now they are offering an upgrade price but it's higher than the discount price they were offering ... which they insisted was in place of upgrade pricing. I'm not too bothered as I'm in no hurry, but since the introduction of Affinity I feel like Serif have abandoned any loyalty they might have had for their older, long time customers.

.. and at the same time finally released the MSI installers. Can't help but get the feeling they were giving the finger to us that were waiting for it to become a reality before trusting them on the upgrade :)

Unfortunately, most developers are victims of trend. I personally am getting sick of people telling me what's good for me. My eyesight isn't great. Small fonts and very little contrast between font and background is a bad idea, end of! If that's what most people want then let them knock themselves out but please will they just stop treating the rest of us with so much contempt. Just give us the option to change it - it's not difficult.

This, for me, is the most important statement in the thread so far. It's something that developers should take more seriously because over time it just wears us down to the point we can no longer be bothered. I have many thousands of pounds worth of software that I use daily. Add to that all the other online accounts and various systems we use every single day as part of our work. All of these changes and aggravations added to our workflow can feel like it's becoming a full time job simply trying to deal with unnecessary nonsense. Over the past three years I have been slowly changing the way I work and slowly doing away with everything I use unless it's an absolute necessity. I have given up subscriptions, stopped upgrading software and even uninstalled some software (that I have spent a lot of money on over the years) that I like, and want to use, but can no longer deal with the accumulation of aggravation. A hundred small changes and annoyances to our daily routine ends up a very real, and very time consuming problem Companies and developers think we are being trivial and behaving irrational but they just don't see the other side of it because they treat every problem like it's the only thing we have to deal with. We get the same cr*p with all other software, dealing with banks,HMRC, Paypal, Stripe, email providers, forced updates, hardware ... the list just goes on and on. For this reason alone, I have been slowly changing how I work and even given up completely other smaller sources of revenue (and it's associated software, online accounts etc) because I can no longer continue dealing with the added workload. I've had weeks where I have literally spent more time with stuff like this than I have actually working. It gets you down and even ends up affecting your health. The end result is my typical behaviour now goes something like this ... I notice a software upgrade in email, I click the link and look at what it offers - I wait and then check forums to see what others are saying. I see this type of unnecessary added aggravation and I make my mind up before even trying, irrational or not, this is now just another company that has decided to go down the route of problem causing. I don't need the problems, I'll just add this to my ongoing list of software that I need to find alternatives. Maybe I'll calm down, maybe I won't, but whatever happens - Affinity is now on my list of "just like all the other companies - find alternative". Your software might be great, it might not, but I just don't need another problem in my life dragging me down if I can find a different solution. The most important decision factor in my work life and anything I purchase or sign up to has become one simple first-stop check - "how much unnecessary change or problems is this company prepared to inflict on its customer" ... anything above zero and I'm already questioning whether or not I can live without it.

Glad I see this before updating. I've not been a great fan of the Affinity products, just for the fact it went backwards from the old Page Plus versions but willing to wait for it to catch up and become more usable and less irritating. This however is just another step backwards so I guess my relationship with Serif has finally come to an end. Such a shame.