Aloof
-
Posts
38 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Reputation Activity
-
Aloof got a reaction from Alexander Rutz in Cross reference support
Apart from the absence of object styles, this is the number 1 feature that keeps me from switching to Publisher. Please add it soon.
-
Aloof got a reaction from Karen001 in Object Styles
The power of InDesign are styles. Object styles are useful for so many things: Standardizing colors for icons and other graphics, making repeatable content with vertically aligned text in a box, etc. Because Affinity styles are so useless (you cannot overwrite them), this is a missing feature from all Designer, Photo and now Publisher.
-
Aloof got a reaction from PaoloT in Object Styles
The power of InDesign are styles. Object styles are useful for so many things: Standardizing colors for icons and other graphics, making repeatable content with vertically aligned text in a box, etc. Because Affinity styles are so useless (you cannot overwrite them), this is a missing feature from all Designer, Photo and now Publisher.
-
Aloof got a reaction from Colin_Fredericks in Cross reference support
Apart from the absence of object styles, this is the number 1 feature that keeps me from switching to Publisher. Please add it soon.
-
Aloof got a reaction from PaoloT in Cross reference support
Apart from the absence of object styles, this is the number 1 feature that keeps me from switching to Publisher. Please add it soon.
-
Aloof got a reaction from Dazmondo77 in 3 page spread
I need this feature as well. I use it often for book covers. The spine is a single page sandwiched between two of the regular pages. That way I can control the spine size easily as pages come or go during the design process. Another use: Folded covers. This just gives you precise controls, not fiddling with guides which are unreliable and error-prone.
-
Aloof got a reaction from HarryW in Object Styles
The power of InDesign are styles. Object styles are useful for so many things: Standardizing colors for icons and other graphics, making repeatable content with vertically aligned text in a box, etc. Because Affinity styles are so useless (you cannot overwrite them), this is a missing feature from all Designer, Photo and now Publisher.
-
Aloof got a reaction from mandrael in Cross reference support
Apart from the absence of object styles, this is the number 1 feature that keeps me from switching to Publisher. Please add it soon.
-
Aloof got a reaction from bdonovanw in Setting Margins & Columns w/ Gutters
This is one of the most essential features of a layout program. I recommend to have a look at Grid Calculator Pro for InDesign. This plugin calculates typographically correct grids based on a base line height of Body text, allows for modular and baseline grids, correct line-height-based margins, draws image alignment lines on x-height and many other features. Professionals use that plugin, not the rudimentary, but still not typographically sufficient InDesign features outlined here, even though that is a start. https://www.designersbookshop.com/grid-calculator-pro-edition.html
Also, conceptually, having a different grid on every page is a recipe for disaster visually. The purpose of a grid is to enable the designer to be consistent over vast amounts of pages. This is not a drawing program like Affinity Designer where I design a poster or small publications at best, this is a program meant for hundreds of pages. The focus must be on reusability, smart rescaling, snapping, grids, masters, styles (object styles are missing as well!), import features.
That Affinity is lacking ANY sort of grid calculator is dissapointing and a reason for me to stay away. This is the one thing that is a huge pain in InDesign.
-
Aloof got a reaction from simon.widmer in Multiple UI palette columns
Hi,
for layouting and big monitors it's helpful to have multiple UI palette colums. Since you already seem to have decided on this multitude of open palettes as opposed to a more contextual approach, you should allow us to stack them the way we want. I would use Pages, Paragraph and Character Styles (and hopefully soon Object and Table Styles) and everything else as columns.
This is a pretty significant limitation of your current UI in all Affinity programs.
-
Aloof got a reaction from Wosven in Inherited value in Text Styles should show the [set value] not [No Change]
Very quick usability advice: In order to set up correct parameter inheritence in text styles, it's good to show the actual value in the [No Change] parentheses. Use that space to show valuable info so we can track errors that get inherited (for example a very high spacing when inheriting from a headline style). If I am confronted with dozes of [no change] labels, I cannot see where something odd is happening. This forces me to think of all the possibilities for that increased spacing. It could be in leading, in could be in paragraph spacing, it could be somewhere else. Find a different way to highlight that no change is defined in the input fields. Set values in italic, write a small explanation at the bottom of the dialog what [] mean or similar.
-
Aloof got a reaction from qwz in Placing images from Affinity Designer file should link to artboards
Hey,
so I thought that if I use Affinity Designer to design assets, I can simply place them into the Affinity Publisher document. Then when I make changes to the assets, I simply need to update the links with one click and it's done. Apparently, there is no such support available, which is very dissapointing. First of all, there is no vector file format that Affinity Designer exports without errors, even in the simplest cases if masks are used. No SVG nor PDF setting work. Second, Affinity Publisher does not allow to select and link to a particular artboard or asset from Designer.
The only way to do this is to use rasterized files – for a print document, this is a no go.
Work on this, please. The fragmentation in Adobe is solved better with linking from Illustrator artboards to InDesign files.
-
Aloof got a reaction from SDLeary in Setting Margins & Columns w/ Gutters
This is one of the most essential features of a layout program. I recommend to have a look at Grid Calculator Pro for InDesign. This plugin calculates typographically correct grids based on a base line height of Body text, allows for modular and baseline grids, correct line-height-based margins, draws image alignment lines on x-height and many other features. Professionals use that plugin, not the rudimentary, but still not typographically sufficient InDesign features outlined here, even though that is a start. https://www.designersbookshop.com/grid-calculator-pro-edition.html
Also, conceptually, having a different grid on every page is a recipe for disaster visually. The purpose of a grid is to enable the designer to be consistent over vast amounts of pages. This is not a drawing program like Affinity Designer where I design a poster or small publications at best, this is a program meant for hundreds of pages. The focus must be on reusability, smart rescaling, snapping, grids, masters, styles (object styles are missing as well!), import features.
That Affinity is lacking ANY sort of grid calculator is dissapointing and a reason for me to stay away. This is the one thing that is a huge pain in InDesign.
-
Aloof reacted to thomasbricker in Adding a hyperlink in Affinity Publisher?
I would like to make a hyperlinked table of contents in my Publisher document so that when I generate out a PDF, the appropriate page listing or icon in the table of contents will jump to the desired page within the PDF document.
Can I do this in Publisher or would I need to do this in a PDF editor after the fact?
Please let me know.
Thanks.
-
Aloof reacted to anweid in Dangerous GUI for master page layers
Affinity Publisher 1.7.0.139 on Windows 7 (64 bit, German) behaves as follows:
The attached screenshot shows parts of the Layers panel of a document page (not a master page). The used master page (plus its own objects) are also visible in the page layers. The master page 'layer' is locked and cannot be selected on the page with the mouse. Fine. If the master page layer is unlocked, this page's master page layer can be selected, deleted (both fine) and moved, rotated, scaled (the latter three seem strange to me). Apart from deleting the master page layer, I would never want to do any of the other things, but, well, it probably doesn't hurt to be able to do the other things. The master page itself is not changed by any of these actions, which is wonderful. But, whether or not the master page layer is locked, I can select the objects of the master page layer from within the document page Layer panel and do moving, deleting, rotating etc. with them, and this is not only page-local, but directly affects the contents of the master page itself. This is highly dangerous, because this makes it possible to completely ruin the master page contents by wrong clicking on some document page layers. I therefore recommend changing this behaviour in one (or more) of the following ways:
When attaching a master to a document page, do not only lock the master page layer itself, but also all its sublayers. When changing any object from within the master page layer, do not reflect these changes into the original master page, but work only with page-local copies and leave the master page completely unaltered. This way, it would also be possible to override (or delete) some master page objects at a local page level, similar to what can already be done in PagePlus. Inhibit any transformations of the master page layer, as this seems to be jolly useless and quite unintuitive. E.g., rotating the master page layer wreaks havoc with guides defined on the master. Another possible solution would be to not display any master page layers in the document page Layer panel at all. This would loose you some functionality suggested in (2), but if you don't plan to add that functionality, anyway, it would be better (and much less dangerous) than the current implementation. Of course, all actions must still be possible with the layers of the master page itself - I'm only talking about the master page layer which is visible from within a document page...
Andreas Weidner
-
Aloof got a reaction from Old Bruce in Inherited value in Text Styles should show the [set value] not [No Change]
Very quick usability advice: In order to set up correct parameter inheritence in text styles, it's good to show the actual value in the [No Change] parentheses. Use that space to show valuable info so we can track errors that get inherited (for example a very high spacing when inheriting from a headline style). If I am confronted with dozes of [no change] labels, I cannot see where something odd is happening. This forces me to think of all the possibilities for that increased spacing. It could be in leading, in could be in paragraph spacing, it could be somewhere else. Find a different way to highlight that no change is defined in the input fields. Set values in italic, write a small explanation at the bottom of the dialog what [] mean or similar.
-
Aloof got a reaction from MikeW in Inherited value in Text Styles should show the [set value] not [No Change]
Very quick usability advice: In order to set up correct parameter inheritence in text styles, it's good to show the actual value in the [No Change] parentheses. Use that space to show valuable info so we can track errors that get inherited (for example a very high spacing when inheriting from a headline style). If I am confronted with dozes of [no change] labels, I cannot see where something odd is happening. This forces me to think of all the possibilities for that increased spacing. It could be in leading, in could be in paragraph spacing, it could be somewhere else. Find a different way to highlight that no change is defined in the input fields. Set values in italic, write a small explanation at the bottom of the dialog what [] mean or similar.
-
Aloof got a reaction from Wosven in Setting margins in master pages
Adding to this, a baseline grid is also not inherited!
This makes the entire grid system in Publisher unusable for what it is intended for: helping to align layout across hundres of pages. This needs to be top priority.
-
Aloof got a reaction from A_B_C in Setting Margins & Columns w/ Gutters
This is one of the most essential features of a layout program. I recommend to have a look at Grid Calculator Pro for InDesign. This plugin calculates typographically correct grids based on a base line height of Body text, allows for modular and baseline grids, correct line-height-based margins, draws image alignment lines on x-height and many other features. Professionals use that plugin, not the rudimentary, but still not typographically sufficient InDesign features outlined here, even though that is a start. https://www.designersbookshop.com/grid-calculator-pro-edition.html
Also, conceptually, having a different grid on every page is a recipe for disaster visually. The purpose of a grid is to enable the designer to be consistent over vast amounts of pages. This is not a drawing program like Affinity Designer where I design a poster or small publications at best, this is a program meant for hundreds of pages. The focus must be on reusability, smart rescaling, snapping, grids, masters, styles (object styles are missing as well!), import features.
That Affinity is lacking ANY sort of grid calculator is dissapointing and a reason for me to stay away. This is the one thing that is a huge pain in InDesign.
-
Aloof got a reaction from Matthias in Improve vectore drawing tools and get rid of Node tool
Hey Affinity team,
please have a thorough look at the Illustrator plugins from Astute graphics http://astutegraphics.com/to see why Illustrator is way ahead as a professional drawing tool. Their interfaces are astonishing. Especially, look at the tools included in VectorScribe to see how the interfaces for the Pen tool and Node tool can be merged in favor of direct manipulation instead of interfaces relying on modifier keys.
Honestly, I think the Astute graphics team has a great set of inspirational UI tweaks that make vector drawing such a more pleasant and precise experience. I wish Affinity would implement many of similar behaviours.
Kind regards
-
Aloof got a reaction from helderfcs in Features necessary for UI design
Hi,
I've just had a short glimpse at the trial but these things would make this tool great for UI design (forget Sketch because of performance):
Paragraph and character styles Automatic style updating or some easy-to-use alternative Different artboards in one view to design flows Easy-to-use symbols to complement the outsourced embedded files In the help it says:
Am I missing something or text attributes are not part of styles?
Please include this on the roadmap and the tool will finally destroy Adobe :P.