duckrabbit

I have been meaning to comment on this for a few days since the idea occurred to me from another thread. I am posting my thoughts in this thread because this is where the feature is being discussed.
There seems to be a misconception among some that a paragraph composer only benefits justified text, but this is not true. In fact, it smoothes out the ragged right even in left-aligned text. To illustrate, consider the screenshot below, where I have made a text box in InDesign with filler text and duplicated it (so that it is the same size, same format). In the box on the right, I changed the composer from the default "Adobe Paragraph Composer" to the "Adobe Single-line Composer" (roughly similar to output in Publisher).

I highlighted the ragged section in each specimen with red dashed lines, where I have aligned them to the shortest and longest lines of text. This illustrates how ragged each approach is.
Now to be fair, I do want to admit that one could find examples where the difference is less pronounced (or even more pronounced)—or even examples where the result is identical. The paragraph composer considers several options and attempts to choose the one that is least ragged, while the single line composer just fits as much text on each line as possible and lets the text fall where it may. Sometimes the natural flow is in fact the best choice. The point is that the paragraph composer on average has better (narrower) gaps, as it tries to give the best results possible given the column width and text formatting.
The results can be improved by turning on hyphenation when it is appropriate to the design, and this is equally true whether text is left-aligned or justified. But there is a difference between left-aligned and justified text in this: justified text suffers particularly in narrow columns. The wider the column, the more room there is to average out the extra space across the whole line, to a point where it looks quite acceptable. But on left-aligned text, the entire space is kept at the end of the line rather than averaged out across the whole line, to the effect that the absolute width of the ragged gaps (the portions I highlighted) can appear just as drastic on wide columns as on narrow columns.
I hope by this example to point out that the benefit of a multiline/paragraph composer has broader application than narrow-column justified text.

I did not realize that it is in fact planned as a future feature except for Peter's comment above:
Going by the date on that post, "a few months ago" would have been well before the public beta was released. I don't remember seeing any comment by Serif about whether this feature is planned. If any of them were able to comment that it is a feature planned for "someday," I could rest easy knowing that it will eventually be available, even if it has to wait for other priorities to be sorted out first.

And that is still true. I really wish this would got more attention. I still keep all longer text projects in Indesign CS6 as it has much better paragraph composing results with much less effort.
+1

I’m surprised how little discussion there has been around the forum about this. This is not exactly a workflow problem is as it is a more fundamental issue of quality of output. In cases where paragraph justification is required, InDesign and others like it will simply produce superior results in this regard than software that does not have some sort of multiline composer.
I’m surprised more people haven’t requested this feature. For me, as I do plenty of justified text, often in narrower columns with nonbreaking spaces (that is, where a basic single line composer shows its weaknesses), I could not recommend taking such a step backward from what we are able to do now in InDesign.
I would have thought that this kind of thing would be priority for professional layout software: naturally the first version of any software will have fewer features, but one would hope that it would do its few things well. As far as justification, it is more like Word than InDesign**. However, I can be patient with the developers in this: whereas I would think this to be a core feature when starting a new app of its kind from scratch, I suppose the reality is that Publisher is not truly starting from scratch: it is building on the foundation of Affinity Designer and perhaps to a lesser extent Affinity Photo, and clearly a multiline composer is far from a priority in those apps. With those as its foundation, I can understand that a multiline composer might not come right away. I just hope Serif understands how important it is for the quality to truly shine. Without it, I don’t think I could use Publisher for work requiring significant amounts of justification.
**To be fair, Publisher does currently handle justification at least somewhat better than Word, in that it has customizable word spacing and letter-spacing, so it’s got at least part of the solution, but the gappy spacing still remains.

+1

Also bumping. This thread must be kept alive, and every time a new Publisher update/beta comes out we should be checking in the release notes whether this feature is finally being put to its paces.

Bumping! Pleasing text composition is one cornerstone that sets professional typesetting apart. 

+1. Came across this today. This is a basic typography feature, not something worth some kind of workaround. Looks like the more I use Publisher, the more I ran into those "missing basic typography features".

So, QuarkXPress 3 apparently wasn't ready for "professional typesetting" either, right?
And yet, thousands of professionals have been using it professionally for a whole decade, including yours truly… (Not to speak of thousands of wannabe professionals who never bothered to change QXP's abysmal default settings…)
In other words:
While APu lacks some of the automatic tools we've been used to from InDesign, and which I, for one, am missing as well, it's got a plenty of manual tools to fix the most of any typographic issues if needed. All it requires is the eye of a professional designer to recognize those issues in the first place.
In other other words:
APu may not be the best tool for every job, but it is ready if you're ready.
That all said…
Serif, please give us the advanced word underline features already!

Hello.  
Yes, I am aware of that, but that is also not the topic of this thread. Or maybe I did not understand you well.
What I am talking about is the underline option of the word / selection and the possibility of tweaking its parameters (stroke, offset etc.).
Anyway, thanks for the response  

I agree with this request, as I discussed in a similar post:
 
 
This was the only official response:
That was very early in the public beta phase. Also, although we were confused by the statement that "there is no way to override them," since both InDesign and Quark are able to do that, I now assume the meaning was that there was then no way to override these attributes in Publisher as it currently existed.
I am not aware of whether the developers have ever stated that it is something they would like to implement in the future.

Dear Affinity team,
I really like the software, the Publisher really has the opportunity to replace the Adobe package in typesetting and graphic design. I've already started making youtube tutorials for friends in Slovakia to make their transition to AP as easy as possible. On the other hand, I would like to ask about the availability of some features (or if you plan to add them in the near future).
The text underlining is currently limited to functionality that is not absolutely usable for typesetting (crossing out decenders/loops, different line width comparing to stroke etc.). Adjustment of the offset and line thickness are missing. Typically, the typographer will simply set them up to avoid these visual problems. Since these are essential requirements for using this tool, do you plan adding them?

No "tribal" reasoning here…
I have worked with Adobe Software since always, and always *have* preferred the InDesign UI over QXP (as a matter of aesthetics over power).
I have however *always* criticised the monopolist position of *any* software company, and the Adobe monopoly is a fact.
Any monopolist software has always chosen status quo & stagnation over pushing boundaries. I know some of this is perception (as nobody counts the non-monopolist status quo because they lose in the long run too), but I sense a misplaced disdain for what Affinity is actually capable of.
I have (since APub's anouncement several years ago) tried to decouple myself from the Adobe workspace for 3 specific reasons:
Their subscription model (and no guarantee they won't fix/manipulate prices) that was just too steep Their not even trying to solve *ancient* bugs with an impact on real world applications Their politics in handling Apple (as much Apple's fault, I know!) concerning their fullscreen compatibility, 64-bit handling, updates, Flash etc… which made me fear there might suddenly arrive a "break" between Apple (my hardware) and Adobe (my software) Since APub, I *can* go Adobe-free (and am doing it!). Professionally. NO other set of tools let me do this with confidence!
AS OF THIS YEAR I strictly work in Affinity tools *professionally*, even if I have to take some precautions (not promising stuff I could do in Adobe to clients who don't care how I did it, eg)
And concerning the insights into software development, *please* get some humility, because not all programmers/coders are like *you*, and not all projects resemble *your* projects. When asking the question "Why don't they…?" it is not always "Because they choose to (annoy people like me)". Sometimes it's just because there is something else at play. (reread my posts above)
Otherwise you end up like QXP, who wanted to rewrite their codebase, just kept on adding resources and people, and came out on the other side with a huge bloated, expensive tool nobody wanted anymore. I for one can't wait for a Post Mortem once Affinity becomes a wellknown Adobe alternative, in which all these choices get explained. But then that's my weird kind of interest…
Warp tools aren't the stuff that separates the pro tool from the amateur tool. There are amateur tools that have warp options.
Being confident about the output, so you can make sound promises and predictions to your clients (and have no sudden ripping issues with your print shop or printer) *is*. 

Color Wheel By Analogous Color A1  &  A2  ...Enjoy, - T V          Color Wheel By Analogous Color A1.afpalette                                                          Color Wheel By Analogous Color A2.afpalette                 
 

 
 

Color Wheel By Complimentary Color...Enjoy, T V
Color Wheel By Complimentary Color.afpalette
 

Creating a custom palette in AD is so simple stupid that this post should sound pleonastic...  :)
Anyway I'd like to share these two palettes.
 
The first one is the famous FlatUI color set.
The second one is the legacy Fractal Design Painter color palette, I'm carrying with me since I was sixteen  :D
palettes.zip

Here is an additional palette that I created in AD from Prismcolors.  Make sure to view as "show as list".  It will give a much cleaner look at what is available.  Hope you enjoy it...
 
TP
PREMIERE COLORS 150.afpalette.zip

Here's another palette. It is based on one from Concept Cookie http://cgcookie.com/concept/resource/color-palette-collection/
 
 
JB
Full Color Palette.tiff
Full Colour Palette.afpalette.zip

awaiting the addition of pantone Palette in a future build AD. I found it on AD forum ! 
 
https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/3442-color-palettes-incl-converter/?hl=pantone
 
It's not a real pantone color, i can usefull (when you have a color bridge). 

I've moved my RGB Skin Tone Palette over to AD, here you go!
Skin Tones.afpalette.zip

Hi,
maybe for some one intresting this palettes of markers: ALPHA, COPIC (imported from official for PS), MOLOTOW:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/jw734cneevcadnh/MARKERS%20AFpalette.zip?dl=0
ALPHA and MOLOTOW with full name and code from original colorchart.
 
ps sorry for bad english))

Here is the flat ui entire color palette as seen on this website by Design Hill.
http://www.flatcolorsui.com/
 
flatcolorsui.com.clr

Hello there...
I thought I'll share palette that I use daily.
It is designed to work in 15 columns.
Full spectrum in steps, 3 saturation levels, 5 brightness levels + grays.
It's intended use is to make illustrations using precise colour picks rather than guessing on the Colour tab.
Knowing the construction of the palette one can ride it to get all sorts of blends, gradients and contrasts.

KozalussColorAll.zip

Those dastardly scheming New Document dialogs! 🕵️‍♂️
…Before you know it, they'll take over the world 😉
 
Thx for all your efforts!
The new updates are amazing!
👏👏👏
🎉🎉🎉

Those dastardly scheming New Document dialogs! 🕵️‍♂️
…Before you know it, they'll take over the world 😉
 
Thx for all your efforts!
The new updates are amazing!
👏👏👏
🎉🎉🎉