Jump to content
You must now use your email address to sign in [click for more info] ×

Seneca

Members
  • Posts

    1,318
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by Seneca

  1. It's up to you what are you going to do next, but if you decide to make changes it is not so important which type of character/paragraph styles you will choose -- InDesign's or Quark's. If you don't make any changes then I am not interested in buying Publisher.

     

    Hi Peter_MK

    The difference between the Character Styles and Paragraph Styles are subtle as you know. You may argue that the distinction is very clear.

    I explored the Text Styles options in Designer extensively. As a matter of fact they are more powerful than any of the 2 you mentioned in your post.

    You have the power to keep the distinction between the Paragraph Styles and Character Styles as in inDesign or QX or you can share certain characteristics between Character and Paragraph Styles if you so wish.

     

    What I'm saying is that you can model the inDesign/QX styles quite easily and you can choose to model another approach that shares certain characteristics across text and character styles. This is something new and if you don't want to use it you don't have to. 

     

    Best regards

  2. I think that it is refreshing that Tony is being upfront with the users.

     

    I usually agree with your posts Hokusai but this time I strongly disagree. Serif folks have held a carrot in front of our eyes for the last 3 years. So there is nothing refreshing about it. They've know for a long time that the revealed timeframe for the Publisher won't be met. I know it wasn't a deadline or a promise but nevertheless.

     

    Also, the only reliable way to get quality programmers to augment the Serif engineering team is to poach them. I'm sure they (the Serif team) are aware of that too.

    Best regards

  3. I think we are going in circles here.

     

    I agree that there is no substitute for real talent and no amount of studies will compensate for that.

    However, most of us use various programs to do a given job as quickly as possible and as professionally as possible to be competitive and to pay for the overhead incurred, etc.

     

    We can argue what professional means but let's take it at face value here.

     

    In case of Affinity Designer I expect to find the tools that can facilitate my job as a desktop publisher.

     

    We can argue what an average desktop publisher is and what tools he/she needs.

     

    This forum here represents a vast array of users. Those who want to design simple flyers and whose who design books, magazines, catalogues, etc.

    These two groups of people need completely different set of tools. I doubt whether Affinity can satisfy both types of users keeping the program closed, that is without allowing others to develop solutions, etc. All this however is pure speculation because we simply don't know what to expect.

     

    Yes, I can use other programs to achieve similar results but at what cost. And yes, I expect Affinity Publisher to compete head to head with Quark and inDesign.

     

    Regards

  4. For years there was only the "PLUS" programs available in Windows and I would suggest that with the Windows user base this was a very profitable and limited line.  Now that they have moved into the Mac arena they appear not to care about the needs of their former supporters.  Pushed back until the end of 2017?  How simply ridiculous.

     

    Hello Yogi9409,

    Unfortunately, you are wrong. This SerifPlus line was actually not profitable at all. That's why the decision was made to start a new product Affinity.

    If you search these forums a bit you will find that (by their own admission) the new line is at 10 times as much profitable and that was even before they decided to develop the Affinity Products for windows.

     

    Another reason to not develop the SerifPlus line any longer was a very old code-base, meaning, too much effort would have to be spent to modernise it, so better start from scratch. And so the decision was made to start afresh.

     

    Everybody is a bit impatient regarding the Publisher but there is nothing we can do except wait.

    Regards

  5. Welcome ucb to this forum as it is your first post, it seems.

     

    I'm not sure what your workflow is but as far as I am concerned Designer has almost zero features for what I would consider publishing. Of course, you can combine text and graphics on a page or artboard but you can't even centre text vertically in a text box. Heck, you can't even see the non-printing characters in a typed text. Let me be clear, I am not bashing Serif here at all. They've decided that Designer is not an application meant for publishing. That's why they are developing Publisher for that.

     

    As to inDesign, unlike you, I use a lot if not most of the features that inDesign offers. Text variables, automation through JavaScript, nested styles, grep, etc, you name it, as long as it helps produce my documents quicker. I use it for leaflets and long documents like books, catalogues, etc. But is it perfect, absolutely not.

     

    And that's why when I heard that Serif was coming out with a new professional publishing software I was very excited. However, my excitement has been tempered of recent by how much their timetable has slipped and by the fact that realistically, for Publisher to compete with inDesign, it may take the Affinity team year (5 or more, a wild guess) before I can use it professionally, I mean fitting it into my workflow. My only hope is that it will be worth the wait.

     

    Of course, like everyone else here in this forum, I will be the first to take it for a spin when the beta shows up. I also look forward to contributing my few cents towards making Publisher better and bugs free (in as far as it is possible).

     

    Best regards

  6. Also, our plan is to release Publisher as soon as it has enough to be useful to someone. 

     

    I don't at all agree with the title of this whole discussion. I think that it should be released as soon as possible and I like Dave's pragmatic approach quoted above. 

    I also happen to think that an early beta release would put an end to a lot of unnecessary speculations and would allow us to just get on with it as we have with the Designer and Photo. :huh:  

  7. Any news on the visual bleed. Until we have that feature, we are unable to use AD for any print designs.

     

     

    Why not?

     

    First create your document.

    Then enable the bleed from the Document Setup. Specify your bleeds.

     

    You can then disable Clip to Canvas to see object going outside of your document. Create a spare layer and create a rectangle the size of your bleed and lock it.

    Once finished your artwork disable the spare layer for bleeds and create a PDF with your bleeds enabled during the PDF creation. 

    Does that make sense?

    Regards

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Guidelines | We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.