melriksdesign

Day 3: Quick form typesetting. Found the table properties Found the text frame properties Saw note in forum about both :) Table was quick to set-up and features similar to InDesign Sent form to desktop Xerox postscript printer without errors.

It's been an age since I sent native InDesign files to a print vendor. Nearly all of the print vendors I work with regularly just want a hi-res pdf with fonts embedded. I haven't tested it yet, but Publisher looks to have the right settings for a print pdf. Same for Illustrator. I've always sent EPS files when needed because of AI version problems. At the Publisher price point, I may ask my regular contractors to use Publisher too. Staff certainly will get their own copy. *************** There's a few threads already about file exchange between InDesign and Publisher. It looks like they are reviewing ways to work with the idml file. If successful, that works for me. We already use the idml file for clients who have older versions of InDesign.

I'm willing to take that risk. It worked out when I switched to InDesign years ago. Am I going to build a huge publication in Publisher? No. Will I finish today's form and send to my client for review. Yes.

Background: I've been using InDesign since version 1.0 jumping away from PageMaker and Quark 3.0. My studio uses InDesign six days a week and builds publications from one page to 50 regularly. I'm going to document my test of Affinity Publisher, and I would be interested in how it is going for other studios. Is anyone planning on making the switch before the beta ends? My reasons for looking at alternatives are price and cloud integration. Adobe increased the CC subscription price. Stinky, but what bothers me more is the constant need to integrate the cloud. Every day I wait for the InDesign font-sync to load. Grab a coffee and cookie. Before that was active hyperlink checking. It's a constant problem. My Adobe subscription renews in three weeks. Perfect time for a serious workflow test. Day 1: Download and test 14 page document test. Quickly learned that layers aren't right, but found out that layers will be adjusted in future versions. Day 2: Single page flier test Typesetting a quick color form. No layers. I enjoyed the experience. Good Tabs Alignment Paragraph styles Clip to canvas (love it; some of us like to use preview in InDesign. Some like regular view. This is a happy medium). Bad No padding in a text frame (I didn't see it) I didn't see a way to make a non-breaking space

Plus one on this topic. My first step with every new publication is to create a base set of global layers. Creating them page by page is impractical. I have a 14 page document I'm testing today. The global layers should also apply to the Master page. A check box for "page" or "global" under layer settings would solve the problem and keep the unique Affinity approach.

Plus one on this topic. Adobe InDesign is the glue that keeps our business running. Having replacements for Photoshop and Illustrator only gets us half of the way to ending monthly Adobe payments.

Maybe it's just me, but their Windows products look very prosumer. I'm not sure I'd turn my studio's production time over to something called Drawplus. I liked what I saw in this Affinity product. It was pushed on someone's Twitter feed and caught my eye. Maybe the two branches can come together and be marketed under the same brand. What their InDesign equivalent product will do will determine the success of the product line. Photoshop and Illustrator are great, but without InDesign (or Fireworks) to pull the parts together, the Adobe Cloud products are more limited. The Mac versus PC thing is what it is. I've used both. I enjoy both. I complain about both. :)

Are there plans to make a Windows 7 version of the Affinity products? Many designers use Windows rather than Macintosh computers to design every day. I was excited to see an alternative to Adobe's Creative Cloud product. Bummed to see it's only for Apple computers.