Bad_Wolf

Just to be clear, I don't read or subscribe to the New York Times either. It is just that the NYT crossword is available to other newspapers via syndication, & as several other newspapers do, my local paper publishes it in its own editions. Will Shortz is the longtime (in)famous editor of the NYT puzzles, but the puzzles themselves are submitted by other people. The commuter puzzles come from the Tribune Content Agency.
AFAIK, the separate monthly puzzle book does not include crossword puzzles from either of those sources but since there is no info about where they come from in the book I'm not sure where they do come from.

Re errors, I downloaded a crossword puzzle app and on puzzle 1 of the app I noticed an error in the clue based on the answer. I requested they change it...
“Derogatory term for a non-country dweller” answer : Townie
To… 
“Derogatory term for a non-countryside dweller” 
Answer: Townie
Reply from app dev was "That first puzzle has been played by many tens of thousands of people, and nobody has brought it our notice before.
Sometimes you see what you want to see, and not what's actually written." Amazing how we fill in detail based on past knowledge and logic.

FWIW, the local newspaper publishes a daily "Comics & Puzzles" section with comics, the NYT daily crossword edited by Will Shortz, a much easier 'commuter' crossword from a different source, a Sudoku puzzle, & several other non-crossword puzzles. The NYT & Sudoku puzzles get harder each day of the week; the commuter one does not, except for the Sunday edition where like the NYT puzzle it is much larger than 15x15 & has harder clues.
The monthly puzzle book is in addition to that, with different crosswords & more types of puzzles from a variety of other sources.
I think all this is in large part an attempt to keep subscribers from abandoning newspapers for online sources -- as you noted, physical printed puzzles are still preferred by many people compared to the electronic versions.

FWIW, my local newspaper publishes a separate newsprint puzzle book delivered once a month to subscribers like me. Among the 90+ puzzles in it are crossword puzzles in several sizes. The larger "Sunday" ones with their clues fill a page & typically vary from 22 x 22 to 24 x 24 cells. The smaller ones are published two to a page & are all (usually?) 15 x 15. They come from different sources so there is a slight difference in cell size but you would have to look very closely to notice that.
Slightly more noticeable, a few of them sometimes have slightly rectangular cells, a bit wider than tall or visa versa, I guess to maintain the same margins or gutters.
None of this bothers me because I am just interesting in solving as many of the clues as possible.

15 and 23 aren't sizes but numbers only. Without mentioning any physical unit the acceptance may be even larger, e.g. 50 or 100 cells for a crossword puzzle, actually it could have an unlimited number of cells to work with, for instance as an online 'book' (e.g. editable PDF form) where the screen view allows scrolling/panning and zooming.

As a just aesthetical question (= taste) you may get tons of opinions without detecting what the readers of your product would want or possibly appreciate as a new invention or surprising development.
Personally I prefer to avoid using any 'decorative filler' object and prefer white space instead (or larger cells in case of a crossword grid with less cells). To me one of the worst design decision are books with a coloured bar on every page (maybe with the idea 'colour is friendly' or 'page numbers are too naked without a background').

The page size and margins would be the limiting factor and pretty much dictate the grid size, so I'd work it out from there, what could you comfortably fit within the margins of a given page size.

Still I'd say a cell size of e.g. 7 or 9 mm isn't sufficient to answer your question … if we don't know whether this cells include the questions/descriptions, their text lengths and font size.
For crossword puzzles you might generally consider the age of your target group, e.g. a possibly preferred use by older people with possibly reduced eye sight. The acceptance also will vary with the individual size of handwriting which can be quite different. I'd recommend a little research of existing crossword books to get an idea of an acceptable min/max cell size. Or print out sample layouts / cells and let a few people fill the form – or let them write some words in capitals without any visible cell or line grid to get an idea of their 'native' handwriting size (although this is often larger than common crossword cells or in the limited space on a postcard for instance where the handwriting size may get 'automatically' smaller to the end/edge to add more text).
Note that a common cell size on school material / chequered exercise book is 5 mm. (while I don't know whether there is a global standard).
Another clue could be the common text size on product packaging in their ingredient tables. (Personally, I wonder why their tiny sizes are legal given the legal requirement for this information.)

Have you looked at other physical examples of puzzle books to see how they deal with this, Chris? Or even if they do it? All the crossword books I have seem to use a consistent size.
In any case, I think your question may get better answers from a crossword design forum, rather than this one. Sounds like a fun project, though.

Same editor? This makes me wonder whether the OP's question concerns consistency (maintained cell sizes) within one book or rather a minimal size.
Consistency: Interestingly the cells in number square puzzles are often larger than those of crossword puzzles – although they could be read in a smaller size easier than multi-celled crossword puzzles.

I’ve just looked at a variety of puzzle books and each seems to have selected a cell size which consistently accommodates pretty much all the puzzles in the book, except for a few outliers if any.
In other words, they seem to have looked at all of the puzzles, found the one with the largest grid (they don't differ too much), sized the cells of that puzzle to nicely fit the page, and then used that cell size for (pretty much) all the other puzzles.
This seems reasonable to me as the reader can get used to having the cell sizes of a certain size and can, when they first pick the book up, quickly see if they are comfortable using cells of that size (will their writing fit in the cells?).
If there is sometimes too much space around a puzzle you can always quickly add a ‘fancy flourish graphic’, or something to fill the gaps.
Having said that, from what I remember, puzzle books for kids use different sizes of grid and other things to keep the layout ‘fresh’ across different pages, so what’s best will probably depend on the intended audience.

Thank you, Lacerto and Bures,
I tried forcing anti-aliasing, even forcing it on, but it had no positive effect. The result remains the same. Even an SVG export, which should be vector, is pixelated. Even with a document and export resolution of 300 dpi, the result is terrible.
I tried it on another laptop, but the result was poor. The zoom factor is 100%, so it is not magnified. Even when I import it into C3, the pixels are visible.
I did a little bit more research without mentioning Affinity Designer in the search string and found out that it is a Google Chrome bug. Because the images are too small (20 px), Google Chrome renders them poorly. In Firefox, those 20 px images render fine. Chrome requires a minimum of 24 px; otherwise, everything gets pixelated.
Thank you all for your replies, which are highly appreciated.
I wish you all a great day!
Chris

Hi all,
Please, can I create a feature request for adding folders to the Layers panel. In this way we can create folders and organize the layers in a much cleaner way.
Thank you.
Chris
 

Hi guys, thank you for trying. Its never happened before so it's just unfortunate, I thought it might have to do with version control. Again thank you for trying. Appreciate your time.

I use Scirra Construct 3 (C3), where my live project files are saved in the cloud on Google Drive. C3 works entirely in the browser. However, the project you are working on is stored in memory.
Because I store my files with Google Drive, I use the following method:
You copy your Affinity file from the cloud to your local hard drive. Open the local file with your Affinity application of choice. You work and make modifications to that local file. You save it to your local hard drive. Close the document in your Affinity application. You copy your local file to the cloud (Google Drive, Dropbox). I think it is safe, and document corruption should not occur. The method described above differs from working directly from the cloud, which is always wrong because of network errors. I never had any file corruption problems with the way I used above. Also, in C3, I never lost any project, but as Lee mentioned, the project is saved to the cloud, and the project you are working on is stored in memory.
My knowledge about this subject is limited. Can I ask if the above method is safe, or is storing the backup files on an external SSD better?
Thank you for your help which I appreciate.
Chris

I've chased this up for you and unfortunately this file is corrupted beyond recovery.
We advise not working from files stored on Google Drive as the live syncing can cause issues like this unfortunately.
We are currently working on new ways to deal with this issue so it may be worth signing up to the beta here to follow this progress:
https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/affinity-beta-program/
Lee

I use Scirra Construct 3 (C3), where my live project files are saved in the cloud on Google Drive. C3 works entirely in the browser. However, the project you are working on is stored in memory.
Because I store my files with Google Drive, I use the following method:
You copy your Affinity file from the cloud to your local hard drive. Open the local file with your Affinity application of choice. You work and make modifications to that local file. You save it to your local hard drive. Close the document in your Affinity application. You copy your local file to the cloud (Google Drive, Dropbox). I think it is safe, and document corruption should not occur. The method described above differs from working directly from the cloud, which is always wrong because of network errors. I never had any file corruption problems with the way I used above. Also, in C3, I never lost any project, but as Lee mentioned, the project is saved to the cloud, and the project you are working on is stored in memory.
My knowledge about this subject is limited. Can I ask if the above method is safe, or is storing the backup files on an external SSD better?
Thank you for your help which I appreciate.
Chris

Sometimes, when things go wrong, I also have to forward files, which I worked on for a long time, to the software vendor. If we cannot trust Serif or those who create our software, then moving on to another vendor is better. I never had any negative experiences when sending a file to Serif or any other software creator when asked.
I am sure Serif will not illegally use your publication because when they do, they are finished! If that comes out, they lose their trust and customers.
If you want your publication recovered, you have to trust Serif. Your other option is starting all over again or using another tool.

Hi all,
I finally figured out how to set up a document in Publisher for Kindle Paperback printing. In case someone else is looking for the same information or has the same problems as myself, I give her the information.
Set the width and height exactly as you intend. For example, for a book 8.5" x 11", for the width, you set 8.5, and for the height, you set 11". For the bleed, you set a value of 0.125" for all sides of the page. 0.125" = 0,3175 cm.
When you export your document to PDF (for Kindle), select "Include bleed" in the export dialog. Export as PDF/X-1a:2003. This ensures that all transparencies (if any) are converted to white. It is forbidden to use transparency in your document for KDP. The PDF/X-1a:2003 type will flat your file.
It is hard to understand Amazon bleed. At one time, they say 0 bleed at the inner sides, then in another video, they say 0.125" on all sides.
Another problem I have is putting text on the spine in Affinity Publisher.
I am thinking about creating the whole cover in Designer with the total page width (0.125" (bleed) + 8.5" (page width) + 0.393" (1,27cm spindle width) + 8.5"(page width) + 0.125" bleed. I draw a rectangle from bleed edge to bleed edge and ensure I put "Snapping" on. I place a guide at the middle point of this rectangle so at least I have a reliable reference of the exact middle of the book. I take that vertical reference point as starting point for all my margins. This should hopefully lead to a perfect cover/interior.
My margins are outside, top, bottom: 0.472" (12mm) and inner margins 0.787" (20mm). This should give the intended results.
I still have to do a lot of research, but I slowly get where I wanted to be.
Thanks, everyone, for your help.
Chris
Ps: I include a screen-capture for a book of 150 pages, printed on white paper in standard color.

Same to you. 

Hello Firstdefence and Old Bruce,
Thank you both for your replies. Indeed, I will follow your advice and leave the page dimensions.
I looked at the information about KDP provided by Amazon. However, they contradict each other. In one place, Amazon states that at least 79 pages must be present for text on the cover spindle. In another place, they say at least 100 pages if you create the cover yourself and 130 pages if you use their cover creation tool.
So I will keep the document as it is, create my text styles and then create the content.
I wish you both a lovely weekend.
Chris
 

I will point out that I have no experience with KDP. The document you included is set up so the colours you have defined are what you want as are the page dimensions with the correct Margins and Bleed settings. In the Colour tab you have correctly chosen to have the Transparent background unchecked. So I would think this will pass.

Unfortunately you have to set the document up according to KDP guidelines and then you have to submit the document to KDP with one eye closed and gritted teeth and hope KDP is in a good mood lol!

Do not enlarge the page dimensions. 

And when A or B changes, the file formats are incompatible with releases that have a smaller A or B value.
Thus, we should expect that 2.1 won't be able to open 2.2 files.