KipV

I am starting to see a few posts asking Serif why Publisher hasn't been released yet. After just completing my first BASIC layout project with Designer and Photo it makes sense to me for at least some of the reasons why Publisher hasn't been released. The two currently available apps are still missing some very basic layout tools so Serif needs to get the basics put in those two apps before moving on to the more complex layout software. I wrote a lengthy piece about this in another thread but it was buried one hundred posts down. I just wanted people to be aware of these points so I am starting a new thread so that they can get more exposure. Original post: After doing my first layout project on Affinity I can understand why Serif isn't rushing Publisher out (even though I enjoyed using it for layouts.) There are still a number of basic layout features that need to be added to Designer and Photo to even work well as a basic one page layout software. Why rush out complex layout software before you even have the basics working right? This is the list I have come up with that Affinity should complete before moving to a layout program. - Visible bleeds in the program, not just after exporting the file. There was too much work trying to set up bleeds at a half an inch when I could see an object after it was dragged out into the bleed area. I basically had to draw a half inch box and then drag the object to the size of the box and then delete the box after I no longer needed it. - Adding and editing artboards needs to be done in Photo. If Photo let me edit artboards I could have done my entire book cover layout in Photo (I think) and not had to jump back to Designer each time I needed to make a slight revision. For an example the publisher I was working with said that my book spine needed to be .58" rather then what I previously had it set to which was .5". Such a small adjustment should not require me to go to another app. - I consider text wrap to be a basic tool so this needs to be done without having to rely on a workaround. There is also a feature from InDesign where the text follows along the side an object that I find to be very useful but I can't remember what it is called off the top of my head. - I should be able to select a shape that I want to import an object into. I know there is masking from the layers panel but with InDesign I have gotten used to selecting a shape, selecting place and then having an object get imported in. This object could then show up in the layers panel as a masked item. -The first version of Publisher should include some of the features that InDesign users have been clamoring for over the past several years and never get. The goal is not to just make a clone of InDesign but provide functionality it can't do or can't do well. I think Affinity got off to a good start as a basic layout tool but I really believe that all of these basics need to be done before Publisher comes out. Ideally Publisher should be a solid app right from the first version since so much polishing would have been done to layout tools in Designer and Photo already. This way the focus for Publisher can be placed entirely on things like long document features and ebooks rather then adding layout tools that have been available for decades now (those features should already be in Photo and Designer by release.) Another advantage of placing the focus on Designer and Photo is that people will get comfortable using those programs as solid basic editing apps so when Publisher comes out the transition to the more powerful long document tools will feel more natural since it will be so similar to the programs they already use. PS. I noticed as I was typing this that there is a shortcut for adjusting leading. That is a useful idea. Is anyone else getting this to work? It doesn't work for me. That seems like a much better idea then having to type numbers into a leading box.

Petar, if you did that the bleed marks wouldn't show up right on export. Serif just needs to add bleeds to the editable documents.

I don't think I had much need to use that feature when I was in FreeHand.

It seems like there was some program where you could view a layer but not print it (and maybe not export it either.) Was it FreeHand that did that? Not sure if InDesign can do that.

Artboards seem ok to me, I just feel that they need to advance a lot more. Simply moving the pre-existing artboard feature from Designer over to Photo (without even adding any features) would be a massive improvement to me. Artboards are still a pretty new feature for Affinity so I expect we will see some important improvements to them in upcoming versions. Is there a way to make your red bleed rectangles not show up when exporting? Some programs give you that option. Another feature I would like is the ability to export just a portion of an artboard. With the project I am currently working on I have a front and back cover on a single artboard but sometimes I just need to export just the front or just the back. I think this was possible with FreeHand.

After doing my first layout project on Affinity I can understand why Serif isn't rushing Publisher out (even though I enjoyed using it for layouts.) There are still a number of basic layout features that need to be added to Designer and Photo to even work well as a basic one page layout software. Why rush out complex layout software before you even have the basics working right? This is the list I have come up with that Affinity should complete before moving to a layout program. - Visible bleeds in the program, not just after exporting the file. There was too much work trying to set up bleeds at a half an inch when I could see an object after it was dragged out into the bleed area. I basically had to draw a half inch box and then drag the object to the size of the box and then delete the box after I no longer needed it. - Adding and editing artboards needs to be done in Photo. If Photo let me edit artboards I could have done my entire book cover layout in Photo (I think) and not had to jump back to Designer each time I needed to make a slight revision. For an example the publisher I was working with said that my book spine needed to be .58" rather then what I previously had it set to which was .5". Such a small adjustment should not require me to go to another app. - I consider text wrap to be a basic tool so this needs to be done without having to rely on a workaround. There is also a feature from InDesign where the text follows along the side an object that I find to be very useful but I can't remember what it is called off the top of my head. - I should be able to select a shape that I want to import an object into. I know there is masking from the layers panel but with InDesign I have gotten used to selecting a shape, selecting place and then having an object get imported in. This object could then show up in the layers panel as a masked item. I think Affinity got off to a good start as a basic layout tool but I really believe that all of these basics need to be done before Publisher comes out. Ideally Publisher should be a solid app right from the first version since so much polishing would have been done to layout tools in Designer and Photo. This way the focus for Publisher can be placed entirely on things like long documents and ebooks rather then adding layout tools that have been out for decades now. Another advantage of placing the focus on Designer and Photo is that people will get comfortable using those programs as solid basic editing apps so when Publisher comes out the transition to the more powerful long document tools will feel more natural since it will be so similar to the programs they already use. PS. I noticed as I was typing this that there is a shortcut for adjusting leading. That is a useful idea. Is anyone else getting this to work? It doesn't work for me. That seems like a much better idea then having to type numbers into a leading box.

"Clip to canvas" doesn't seem to be working for me. When I activate clip to canvas all items on the artboard disappear. When I turn it off items are not visible.

Clip canvas is greyed out for me on both designer and photo. I know I did used the feature accidentally at one point so now I just have to figure out how to do it on purpose. Sometimes when I drag an object to the pasteboard it I can see it and other times it disappears. Strange, must be a bug. @Raymondo That is great that you got CS6 to work on Sierra but unfortunately others were not as successful. I will probably get Sierra a few months down the road.

I am a little uncertain how viewing and hiding the pasteboard works. A while ago I was trying to hide the pasteboard since there was a lot of clutter and now that I somehow got the pasteboard to show I can't figure out how to hide it again!

I had the picture as a different size since my client hasn't completely decided what the final size will be yet. When she decides I will scale the image down and place it so it doesn't go outside it's frame. Thanks for the help, it worked a bit differently then I thought it would have.

Ok, I see what was happening. I had a solid blue colored foreground that covered a photo with one opening in the center of the foreground to let the photo through. I thought that I could just apply the shadow (technically inner glow) to around the edge of the opening of the foreground and the shadow would show up on the photo. What was actually happening is I can only apply the glow to the outer part of the photo that was being covered up by the foreground. (The border in my attachment has opacity turned down so that you can see what is below it.) The part that is a whitish color shows the area that is usually covered by a solid color. I was trying to apply it to the black framed edge which I don't think works. In your framed picture it shows the entire painting so selecting the edges works; in my example trying to do the same thing hides the effect under that blue border. I guess this means if I want to do this effect I have to crop that inner photo down to the same size of the border?

Not quite, it would be more like if the shadow were to run across all four corners of the red border and only show up on the picture. Your example stays inside the frame but isn't on the top red line or the tops of the two red side lines. The effect I am looking for is just a subtle shadow right on the edges of the border; it won't take up so much of the image. I hope I explained that better.

Every time I try to do this with the effects the shadow goes both outside and inside the rectangle. I have a photo inside of the rectangle and I want for there to be a shadow coming from the rectangle onto the photo. I would think that I would go to "inner shadow" under effects to do this but it isn't working for some reason.

Oh wait, Affinity does have guide snapping features! I forgot about that! I was looking under preferences to turn it on which is I think where you turn it on with InDesign. This is the first time I have used Affinity as a layout tool so I forgot about some of those features. That's great you have that feature. So knowing that now the main basic layout features left to add is bringing artboards editing to Photo and text wrap (I realize there is a work around for text wrap but simplifying how this is done would help.)

I have to say I do miss the guide features from InDesign like snap to guides and telling me that something is aligned without even needing to lay out guides. I can still get the job done but those features are really nice touches for doing layouts.

I have a bug where Photo crashes every time I try to export.

The Affinity PDF opens really weird in Apple Preview. There is a football player on the cover of the book and for some reason there are squares around his head and chest and his face is covered with something. When I open the same file in Acrobat everything is fine. I suppose the publisher would use a pro tool like Acrobat instead Preview. I wonder why that happened?

I think I am using the wrong term. What I am trying to do is take the existing pixels and move them closer together without adding to the pixel count. I am just trying to increase the density. In this case the pixel size of 1.5 x 2.5 is enough for what I need.

Interesting, when I exported that image it exported as 300 DPI with the dimensions of the image reduced to account for apparently increasing the pixel density!? So maybe it did increase the density? If a staff member is reading this like MEB could they give me an idea what is going on with how resolution works?

I am a little confused as to how Affinity's resize image works also. When you click resample and then increase the DPI the number of pixels starts increasing along with the DPI. It is as if I am upscaling the image rather then increasing the pixel density (which is what I want to do.)

They said right from the offset that everything had to be 300 DPI. If I have to re-edit the photo isn't not a big deal. It will only take me 10 minutes. The reason I asked if there was a way to change it is because there is another image that took me days to edit and if I had not checked the resolution beforehand this would have been a much bigger problem (that image I know was imported at at 300 DPI.) With InDesign I just click the open in Photoshop button, adjust the image resolution, and then update once I am back in InDesign. Affinity should have something similar it seems.

I can't go to "resize document" since it is greyed out. It seems like you would be able to do that. Just select the image and go to resize document.

302 DPI

Oh that's too bad. Is there a way to resample the image to 300 DPI after if has been embedded into Designer? I did some photo touch up work on the 72 DPI image so reimporting it would lose my editing work.

Thanks Mike, it is a huge help to have someone who has worked in the field! I haven't explored the PDF or bleed features at all yet. I was just about ready to watch a YouTube video on bleeds in Affinity but I just didn't have the time yet as I have been so focused on the layout and working with the client at this point.