Heitor

Updated for Publisher 2.4 (February 2024)
This free in-depth manual is filled with steps, tips, and recommendations for:
Documents, Pages, Master Pages, Sections, and Baseline Grid Character and Paragraph Formatting Text Styles (paragraph and character) Text Frames, Text Flow, and Stories Images and Picture Frames Books and Chapters Cross-References, Table of Contents, and Index Notes - including Footnotes, Sidenotes, and Endnotes Fields - including Page Numbering, Running Headers, and Custom Variables Anchors and Hyperlinks Printing and Exporting Settings This manual does not cover objects, drawing, photo editing, or the other artistic features.
Download:
Publisher Manual Feb 26 2024.pdf
Q&A
Is this really free? Yes, I'm making it available free of charge. It's copyrighted to prevent others from publishing it as their own. Is there a longer manual I can purchase? No, this is it. Is there an iPad version? No, the steps and screenshots are for the macOS and Windows versions. Is there a version for Designer or Photo? No, but many of the features are the same so you should still find it useful. Why does it use a print layout if it's a PDF? It's a demonstration of how to use the features it describes to create a print book. Previous version for 2.3:
Publisher Manual Nov 29 2023.pdf

* Attachments updated Apr 22, 2024 with minor edits and the addition of a Dutch version
I've made a chart of the Special Character symbols shown when you choose Show Special Characters in Affinity Publisher, Designer, and Photo, including some characters that can't be inserted from the Text menu and which must be entered as Unicode and some that aren't mentioned on the Affinity Help page for special characters. Please let me know of any errors so I can update the chart. I apologize for any translation errors.
I've attached the original afpub file so that others can use the embedded images of the special characters for other training materials or purposes.
Special Characters.pdf - English
Caracteres speciaux.pdf - Français
Sonderzeichen.pdf - Deutsch
Speciale tekens.pdf - Nederlands
Special Characters.afpub - editable version
 

After banging on about tables for years in this forum, I had hoped that Publisher version 2 would have addressed the glaring issues. Alas no text to table, no table to text, no flowing tables. And no span columns. These are essential tools.
It's hard to see what is that different. I am beyond disappointed. This is a dot update, not a version upgrade.
I said recently I would wait for a major upgrade before passing further judgement, and have wanted to support Affinity by giving them the benefit of my 35 years experience in DTP. Sorry folks, this is not yet a serious publishing tool, it is still just a flyer app. Hey Ho, can't ditch Adobe yet I'm afraid.

Seems like some welcome improvements all round... and a welcome bundle - so well done!
However in Designer the new measurement tool:
"Measurements are not permanently displayed, are non-printable and are not saved with your document."
So close and yet so far!! Please make them permanent and graphically customisable, + angle measurements + secondary units (ie -mm and inches)
Thanks in advance,

Hello
This still happens in 1.10.0.1127 / windows 10

Please add the ability to add pure vector based vector brushes based on vector objects for texture instead of PNGs.
For now we can only add pixel based vector brushes.
Being able to add pure vector brushes based on vector objects would allow us to create vector based textures and designs, which would be much easier to handle for any kind of (print) production.
For example I tried to separate the colours to a spot colour PDF for screen print from this awesome work by Pierre Kleinhouse made for the Affinity Work from home series
https://youtu.be/lL6gc8Oi2uw  .afdesign file on DropBox:  https://affin.co/LD2020PierreKleinhouse 
It was sort of a nightmare. I couldn't find a way to create a vector based spray texture within the Affinity Suite like in the second screen shot with the chimney.
Expand stroke, working with spot colours, working with boolean operations ... a lot would be easier.
 

My interest in true vector-based brushes is not to emulate 'painterly' strokes, but to more powerfully leverage the base purpose and advantage of vector-based drawing in the first place.
As always, this is definitely not exactly what I have in mind, because I want something better.
Shown are just two of my own Pattern Brushes collections; hex head bolts and springs. Each Brush can turn a single-segment straight path into a bolt or spring of any diameter and any length with a single click.
However, building such constructs is much more tedious than it should be for several simple reasons:
Note that I have a separate Brush for each orientation (5° increments of rotation about an isometric axis). What makes all that setup work necessary boils down to a couple of simple geometric transforms that could and should be built into the Brush feature's options. (Think of the parameter adjustment handles in Affinity's various live Shapes for a general idea of what I'm talking about.) A better implementation would make this whole array possible with just 2 brushes instead of with 36. Note that the size of Illustrator's vector brushes (therefore, the diameter of the bolts) is controlled by adjusting the stroke weight setting of the spine path. But there is no option for leaving the stroke weight of its Brushes' base artwork alone. So in order to have consistent stroke weight in an overall drawing that has multiple differently-sized bolts or springs, one has to 'Expand' the 'Appearance' and then apply previously-defined Styles. This is a typical example of Illustrator's failure to integrate separate features with each other. Illustrator's Symbols do provide the much needed option to toggle off "Scale Stroke Weight When Scaling". So why isn't that option provided in its vector brushes? And why can't Symbols be uses as the base artwork in Brushes? Again, these are just two such collections. I have similar vector-based Pattern Brushes for "lasso arrows",  insulated wires with color banding, wire rope, wire loom, square tubing, piping, and more. To someone who does a good bit of technical drawing, the tedious bother is 'worth it' in the long run. But it could be done so much easier for users with a better thought-out implementation. Just more 'low hanging fruit' opportunity to beat Illustrator, rather than just mimic it.
 

 
JET

Having paid full price for the apps as an early adopter I find late-comers getting it half price galling! No incentive to pay the full price in future just wait and you can have it discounted! Not really a good way to support existing long term loyal customers is it!
So advertising to loyal customers that late-comers get it at a knock down price is hardly good promotion!

Someone in your marketing department needs a promotion
 
Please keep sending me emails like this. 50% off everything in the Affinity store is a great way to reward your customers. Especially so, during the pandemic.

I have just received your completely unnecessary email of 19 January "We’re here to help – use our apps free for 90 days" WHY I am a registered used of all three apps plus add ons. I do not need to be offered a 90  Day Free Trial, and 50% off all apps etc.
Unnecessary emails clog up email in boxes and will tend in the future to just dump email from affinity without reading them.
Someone in your marketing departments needs to be sacked.
Please put a stop on this type of email to existing customers.

When drawing a line from my tablet I very often get a strange mark as follow:

 
AD 1.8.5
XP- PEN Artist 12
Windows 10
Tablet Drivers v 3.0.8.201225
Windows ink on/off in the drivers makes no difference
FROM OBSERVATIONS:
It seems the final node is for no reason rotated at quite a large angle, say 60 degrees
Also the pressure of the 2nd last node is strange.. Moving it and putting it back to where it already is seems to fix it.. Also changing brush variance after the fact to the value it already is fixes it. But new lines are still not working

When you create a new doc in AD etc. you either use a "new" template from the WEB category (SVGA, WSVGA, WXGA ... etc., or instead via own defined sizes and the orientation to use) or some other preset category. That choice or setup there is usually also the size then at which an SVG will be export here as whole doc. So a ...
1024 x 600 px doc at 72DPI is exported as those 1024 x 600 px then When you export with NO checked "set viewbox option" setting (see the export "more" option button and the associated more options panel then) the exported/generated SVG code will not contain any viewbox settings, thus only setup width/height px values. Aka ...
<svg width="1024px" height="600px" version="1.1" ... ... with the "set viewbox option" setting enabled, it will instead export/generate viewbox settings into the SVG code ...
<svg width="100%" height="100%" viewBox="0 0 1024 600" version="1.1" ... if you alter the DPI setting on export, let's say from 72 DPI to 300 DPI, then it will export the initoal doc size of 1024 x 600 px then as 4267 x 2500 px (factor 4.2).
Generally after exporting an SVG file, one can also always open that SVG file inside any "text editor" and inspect the generated SVG code then (which is just plain text and sometimes also some additional base64 encoded bitmap data, as far as embedded image parts are used in an exported doc).
 

Symbols in Affinity Designer
 
 
 
 
 

Are you sure you're using the same colour profiles when comparing conversions from app to app? If, for example, I use sRGB and FOGRA39 in both Designer and Illustrator, I get consistent conversions (aside from a bit of rounding).
I beg to differ. For photos, sure. But for something like print logos, I never switched to an RGB (or even a Lab) workflow. When Pantone switched their Pantone Solid definitions over to Lab some years ago, I started using the Pantone Color Bridge library instead. Why? Because I'd much rather know and control what CMYK breakdown I'm getting for print, especially when I need a solid process ink in there for sharpness and legibility. Call me old school, but that level of control works for me, and I reckon I get less surprises that way.

Click on "More" in the export options and unchecking Set Viewbox.

Imagine hundreds and hundreds of duplicates you need in varied sizes and rotation angles etc. as VECTOR objects in a VECTOR illustration!

So it exports fine but what you are talking about is which thing are you exporting (the objects or the whole artboard) and the display size in a browser (whether it is a svg alone or a svg in an html doc)
For starters there is one thing you have to take in account (AI or AD): the artboard size.
AI, as far as I know (I only have CSS 5.1) only lets you "save as" SVG the whole artboard. And it saves the SVG with the exact width and height in pixels and the exact position (of the artboard, nor the objects in it) with x and y.
Something similar to your design. It's a 800px x 600px document in AI:

And this is a SVG generated with AI of the whole 800 x 600 px artboard:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <!-- Generator: Adobe Illustrator 15.1.0, SVG Export Plug-In . SVG Version: 6.00 Build 0) --> <!DOCTYPE svg PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD SVG 1.1//EN" "http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/1.1/DTD/svg11.dtd"> <svg version="1.1" id="Layer_1" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" x="0px" y="0px" width="800px" height="600px" viewBox="0 0 800 600" enable-background="new 0 0 800 600" xml:space="preserve"> <rect x="12" y="12" width="156" height="156"/> <rect x="12" y="174" width="156" height="30"/> <rect x="12" y="210" width="48" height="30"/> <rect x="120" y="210" width="48" height="30"/> <rect x="66" y="210" width="48" height="30"/> </svg> AI exports (x="0px" y="0px" width="800px" height="600px" viewBox="0 0 800 600") and it will be rendered in a browser with this exact size and position.

So if I want to export only the size of the elements you will have to resize the artboard accordingly:

But, what happens with Affinity Designer?
The same example (the 800 x 600 px artboard) exported with AD:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?> <!DOCTYPE svg PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD SVG 1.1//EN" "http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/1.1/DTD/svg11.dtd"> <svg width="100%" height="100%" viewBox="0 0 800 600" version="1.1" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xml:space="preserve" xmlns:serif="http://www.serif.com/" style="fill-rule:evenodd;clip-rule:evenodd;stroke-linejoin:round;stroke-miterlimit:2;"> <rect x="12" y="12" width="156" height="156"/> <rect x="12" y="174" width="156" height="30"/> <rect x="12" y="210" width="48" height="30"/> <rect x="120" y="210" width="48" height="30"/> <rect x="66" y="210" width="48" height="30"/> </svg> AD exports svg with the correct viewbox values but note the width="100%" and height="100%" and no X/Y position (it means that it will resize the SVG as wide and tall of the browser viewport and the content proportionally). More on this, the browser, without x / y position will render the svg centered (at least in firefox and chrome):
If we compare the two SVGs side by side in an HTML doc we can see the Illustrator svg sticking to its sizes (800x600px) and the AD filling the entire right column proportionally.

I don't mind how AD exports, apart from the "standalone" declaration and those obscure style properties 🤔, in fact its more "responsive" behavior helps a lot when manipulating svg in html (better than AI imho).
But if you want to stick with how AI exports (meaning you want the exact size in px) then go with it. You always can manipulate the AD SVG changing the  width to 800px and height to 600px and add x and y values and, there you go, the same results .
Or...you can manipulate the sizes with CSS for the illustrator SVG to behave like the AD one:
.illustrator_svg { width: 100%; height: 100%; ]
Or hardcode the exact same sizes as the AI SVG for your AD css:
.designer_svg { width: 800px; height: 600px; }
Greets
(I feel I've over-explained this somehow, sorry about this)

I am old enough that my first experience with what would eventually become personal computers was when a couple of guys from MITS brought a prototype Altair into our electronics repair shop in Albuquerque to see what we thought about it. I am not sure but I think this was before Allen & Gates met with Ed Roberts, which eventually resulted in Altair BASIC, the first product of a company originally called Micro-Soft, which you may have heard of. 😋

Hi Juan, They are quite simple to do.
The actual image doesn’t have a green background, it is also an SVG file on the site and it’s size is 2667 x 840, the green gradient background is created in CSS I believe and the actual image doesn’t have the gradient background.
 
Take a look at this file to see how it was built: fontawesome hero.afdesign
This is how the banner was built for the Brave site: Brave.afdesign 

I get ya, have a symbol and disable sync on any element within that symbol, so disable sync on the text but everything else remains in sync.
At the moment you can't expand the symbol within the symbol panel to edit in this way but I think the symbol feature needs a major rework to put it on top.

Offset path or even more complex contour tool would very useful for many works. I found on this forum some old disscusion about these tool but it was long ago and still not happend and even not present on roadmap. So I just would like to make little reminder about it with a lot of hope to find it in future update.
 

This post is designed to be an aid to knowing if you are using the latest version on your platform.  The thread is now locked so if you "follow" it you will know then we release a new version on any platform. Version numbers are displayed on the About dialog (or preferences in iPad builds)
NOTE: I will update/edit this first post as new releases are added.
Product Name       | Purchase Store  | Platform   | Version | Trial | ====================|=================|=======================|==================|=============| Affinity Designer | Affinity Store | Windows 7,8.1,10,11 | 1.10.6 PK (1665)| 1.10.6 | Affinity Designer | Microsoft Store | Windows 10,11 | 1.10.6 (1665)| (as above) | Affinity Designer | Mac App Store | macOS 10.9 and above| 1.10.8 (1.10.319)| n/a | Affinity Designer | Affinity Store | macOS 10.9 and above| 1.10.8 PK | 1.10.8 | Affinity Designer | iPad Store | iPadOS 12 and above | 1.10.7 (1.10.24)| not possible| ____________________|_________________|_______________________|__________________|_____________| Affinity Photo | Affinity Store | Windows 7,8.1,10,11 | 1.10.6 PK (1665)| 1.10.6 | Affinity Photo | Microsoft Store | Windows 10,11 | 1.10.6 (1665)| (as above) | Affinity Photo | Mac App Store | macOS 10.9 and above| 1.10.8 (1.10.319)| n/a | Affinity Photo | Affinity Store | macOS 10.9 and above| 1.10.8 PK | 1.10.8 | Affinity Photo | iPad Store | iPadOS 12 and above | 1.10.7 (317)| not possible| ____________________|_________________|_______________________|__________________|_____________| Affinity Publisher | Affinity Store | Windows 7,8.1,10,11 | 1.10.6 PK (1665)| 1.10.6 | Affinity Publisher | Microsoft Store | Windows 10,11 | 1.10.6 (1665)| (as above) | Affinity Publisher | Mac App Store | macOS 10.9-11.5,12 | 1.10.8 (1345)| n/a | Affinity Publisher | Affinity Store | macOS 10.9 and above| 1.10.8 PK | 1.10.8 | Affinity Publisher | iPad Store | iPadOS 12,13,14,15  | n/a | n/a | ____________________|_________________|_______________________|__________________|_____________| [Please note that Microsoft Store presents the build number within the store differently so Affinity Store build 1.10.6.1665 appears as a Microsoft Store build number 11006.1665.0.0]
Release notes
Affinity Designer 1.10.6 for Windows
(previous releases: 1.10.5 1.10.4, 1.10.1, 1.10.0, 1.9.2, 1.9.1, 1.9.0, 1.8.5, 1.8.4, 1.8.3, 1.8.2, 1.8.0, 1.7.3, 1.7.2 , 1.7.1, 1.7.0, 1.6.5, 1.6.4, 1.6.3, 1.6.2, 1.6.1, 1.6.0 ) Affinity Designer 1.10.8 for macOS
(previous releases: 1.10.5, 1.10.4, 1.10.1, 1.10.0, 1.9.3, 1.9.2, 1.9.1, 1.9.0, 1.8.6,  1.8.4, 1.8.3, 1.8.2, 1.8.1, 1.7.3, 1.7.2, 1.7.1, 1.7.0, 1.6.1 (& 1.6.5 PK), 1.6.0 ) Affinity Designer 1.10.7 for iOS 
(previous releases: 1.10.5, 1.10.3 1.10.2, 1.10.1, 1.10.0, 1.9.2, 1.9.1, 1.9.0, 1.8.6, 1.8.4, 1.8.3, 1.8.2, 1.8.0, 1.7.3, 1.7.2, 1.7.1, 1.7.0, 1.6.4 & 3, 1.6.2, 1.6.1, 1.6.0 ) Affinity Photo 1.10.6 for Windows
(previous releases: 1.10.5, 1.10.4, 1.10.1, 1.10.0, 1.9.2, 1.9.1, 1.9.0, 1.8.5, 1.8.4, 1.8.3, 1.8.2, 1.8.0, 1.7.3, 1.7.2, 1.7.1, 1.7.0, 1.6.5, 1.6.4, 1.6.3, 1.6.2, 1.6.1, 1.6.0 ) Affinity Photo 1.10.8 for macOS
(previous releases: 1.10.5, 1.10.4, 1.10.1, 1.10.0, 1.9.3, 1.9.2, 1.9.1, 1.9.0, 1.8.6, 1.8.4, 1.8.3, 1.8.2, 1.8.1, 1.7.3, 1.7.2, 1.7.1, 1.7.0, 1.6.7 (& 1.6.11 PK), 1.6.6 ) Affinity Photo 1.10.7 for iOS
(previous releases: 1.10.5, 1.10.3, 1.10.2, 1.10.1, 1.10.0, 1.9.2, 1.9.1, 1.9.0, 1.8.6, 1.8.4, 1.8.3, 1.8.2, 1.8.0, 1.7.3, 1.7.2, 1.7.1, 1.7.0, 1.6.12-9, 1.6.8, 1.6.7, 1.6.5, 1.6.4, 1.6.3, 1.6.2, 1.6.1 ) Affinity Publisher 1.10.6 for Windows
(previous releases: 1.10.5, 1.10.4, 1.10.1, 1.10.0, 1.9.2, 1.9.1, 1.9.0, 1.8.5, 1.8.4, 1.8.3, 1.8.2, 1.8.0,  1.7.3, 1.7.2, 1.7.1 [launch] ) Affinity Publisher 1.10.8 for macOS
(previous releases: 1.10.5, 1.10.4, 1.10.1, 1.10.0, 1.9.3, 1.9.2, 1.9.1, 1.9.0, 1.8.6, 1.8.4, 1.8.3, 1.8.2, 1.8.1, 1.7.3, 1.7.2, 1.7.1 [launch] )  
Installation of Software and Updates
If you’ve purchased from the Affinity Store— each time you start the software it will check for updates and offer to download and install any available update. For the macOS release, in the application main menu there is an option "Check for Updates". Alternatively, you can download the latest installer by logging into the affinity store here and find the order in your account and use the "download" button in there. Updates are installed automatically (or manually by installing the new version over the old) Previous builds do not need uninstalling first. New installations of paid software downloaded from the Affinity Store requires a product key and email pair to use.
Software downloaded from the Mac App Store, Microsoft Store and iPad store do not require a product key and are updated through the relevant store: 
If you’ve purchased from the Mac App Store— updates are done automatically next time you run your software after it is available in the Mac App Store. However, you do need to be logged in with the same Apple ID you used to buy them. If this does not happen for you, open the Mac App Store app and go to the Updates page and then Store > Reload page or press CMD+R. This should hopefully force the update to show. Apple sometimes phase roll outs around the world which can mean it may take up to 72 hours for your update to be available.
If you’ve purchased from the Microsoft Store— Microsoft Store updates are done automatically by the operating system (each time you start the application). If this does not happen for you, open the Windows Store app and click the three dots in the top right corner of the app and then go to Downloads and Updates. Click Get Updates. This should hopefully force the update to show.
If you’ve purchased from the Pad Store— Your Affinity iPad apps should update automatically next time you run them. However, you do need to be logged in with the same Apple ID you used to buy them. If the automatic update does not happen for you, go to the iPad Store app and go to Updates. Once you’re there, tap near the top of the screen where it states 'Updates' and then hold, pull down and then release. This should manually refresh the updates page. However, don’t contact us if the updates are not available for you yet—Apple sometimes phase roll outs around the world and this can take up to 24 hours.
----------
This thread is locked and will only be posted to by Serif Staff as the released versions change.  Please follow this thread if you want to know about future version changes. If you think this post has got behind and needs updating please PM me.
If you are looking for the equivalent beta build numbers please refer to these threads
Affinity Range Mac Beta Release Notifications Affinity Range Windows Beta Release Notifications Affinity Range iPad Beta Release Notifications

tl;dr - I would like some reassurance that fixing bugs / improving performance of existing features is a priority.
I just want to say this, because it's in the back of my mind, every time I contemplate using Affinity Designer for a new project. First off, I have/had high hopes for Affinity Designer, its ambition and feature set make it a really powerful and versatile design tool. To be frank, it feels like a potential Illustrator replacement, which is also geared towards layout. I think for a lot of us, that goes a long way towards the dream of cancelling our Adobe contracts (which I think is why everyone is desperate for the final piece of the puzzle - Affinity Publisher).
Having said that, I'm starting to feel like the experience of using Affinity Designer is destined to be one of compromise, or giving up and switching to a competitor's product. There are a lot of bugs and shortcomings, some bigger than others. It's great that we have this forum to discuss them, but the responses often don't go beyond "we are aware".  Workarounds are welcome in the short term, but without knowing when a bug will be fixed, or having the confidence at least that it will be within a short time frame, it's difficult to invest in Affinity as a viable option for the future.
To give a little context, I guess the issues I'm thinking about here are those around vector operations - the problems with booleans, and outline stroke. I don't think there's any dispute that these things don't work well currently. I'm concerned that issues like these are considered "would be nice to fix", rather than "shit, out app is fundamentally broken". If Affinity Designer is serious about being a vector drawing tool (which I think it is), then I feel like the response should be the latter. In my opinion, these convenient ways of doing complex operations are not bells and whistles, but central to why we buy sophisticated apps for doing this stuff.
Beyond these well documented problems, there have also been one of two issues that I have raised, that were dismissed as (rightly or wrongly) just me not understanding the intention of a feature, or something. This is also concerning.
As an outsider, I obviously have no idea what priorities Serif has, what resources, or where they are being used. I can give my impression from this perspective however, and that is that Serif is doing a great job of delivering a range of feature rich apps across multiple platforms; but not such a great job of making at least one of those apps, live up to (my) expectations.
I hope this feedback is useful, and is taken in the spirit of wanting the Affinity products to succeed.

You can always try scribus https://www.scribus.net/
Not too bad compared to inDesign... but hey, at least is Open Source and for Linux, Win and Mac OS X.