KipV

Depending upon the publisher, they may ask for a particular file format of some sort that is different from the application that created it. But in general it is because they are going to load the file into their own software to generate a PDF from which they will print the cover--but this is typically done when a proper PDF is not supplied.
 
We (I use to work at a service bureau once upon a time) would also ask for the native files simply because either the application being used to generate the PostScript or the PDF was incapable of producing a proper file, or, because we got tired of trying to walk the client through creating proper files and we just ate the cost of preparing a proper file ourselves in order to keep the press running full-time and their job ticket was coming up.
 
You'll do fine and if you get stuck on an aspect, just give a shout out. I or someone here will be able to aid you.
 
Mike

Kip,
 
PDFs are generally used for exterior and interior. You need to consult with whomever is doing the printing of the cover as to what the page width needs to be. In AD (or anything else) it'll be back cover on the left, the spine between the back/front covers, and the front cover on the right. The print establishment will give you the dimensions as what paper, the final page count, all matter as to the dimensions of the page size (trim size + bleed amount if bleed is used in the design).
 
I have never turned over design files and if asked for them I would find another print establishment.
 
Mike

Hi KipV,
We intended to release both Affinity Designer 1.5 and Photo 1.4.4 at the same time, but due to some issues/crash reports we received after Designer's release we decided to delay Photo 1.4.4 a little until we know what was going wrong to prevent similar issues with Photo. This was an exceptional situation for which we apologise. We are doing our best to fix it as soon as possible.
Meanwhile using the Betas of both applications (for those willing to do so) will allow users continue working until a new update is available in the Mac App Store.
Here's the links to Affinity Designer 1.5.2 Beta 2 Affinity Designer 1.5.2 Beta 3 and Affinity Photo 1.5 Beta 6 (on top of this thread). Just remember to keep the respective Mac App Store versions installed to be able to run the Betas.

HI Kip
 
In all fairness to Affinity the release nots for the the beta made it absolutely clear in advance that there was no backward compatibility and gave an equally clear advice not to use it for production work.
 
That being said here's a possible workaround. 1.5 has an excellent PSD export. Export your 1.5 beta files to PSD and then open these in 1.4.3. I have tried this on a couple of quite complex images and it seems to work fine with everything preserved intact. Inevitably there are probably going to be some incompatibilities with certain features but I haven't discovered them yet. I must however caution that I have only tried this with 8 bit images.
 
Worth a try maybe?

A couple of weeks? "It's beginning to look a lot like christmas..."

Ha! Good old auto-correct... *sigh*

The plan is that Affinity Photo will be kept 'in sync' with a simultaneous Photo 1.4.4 that can read Affinity Designer 1.5 files. Then when Affinity Photo 1.5 is ready to release there will probably be an equivalent simultaneous Designer 1.5.1 release to keep everything in sync again regarding supported features and files.
 
 
Bear with us, we are tweaking one or two things behind the scenes... When it's ready it will prompt.
 

I confess I only read a part of JGD's post but on the issue of the current state of development of Pub, it isn't as simple as what is done & working & what is left to do. Features do not exist in isolation; they interact & have consequences beyond the obvious, like how getting one thing working might require rethinking how several others that are already "done" would work best with it.
 
So even if they were willing to post periodic "done vs. to do" progress reports, it would not mean much because things "done" might well become "undone" as development progressed.

To me it seems like the ideal time to release the software is once it can do several things that ID and Quark can not do. InDesign generally works ok so just rushing out a competitor doesn't make sense to me. I think what will entice most people to get the software is when it is able to do many of the features that ID users have been asking for over the years that Adobe hasn't delivered. The fact that some people don't want to pay a subscription for ID probably isn't enough reason to rush out the software.

Their priorities should be to develop products that keep revenue flowing into the company. If they do not do that, the company will go out of business & everybody loses.
 
They have said the Serif line was no longer doing that. The Affinity line is. End of story.

Thanks for the suggestions.
 
Our PDF export already has an option to convert text to curves during the export. It's File > Export > PDF > More > Embed Fonts > Text as Curves. This will convert all text, rather than specific fonts.

Oh Publisher ! Where for art thou Publisher ? 

Expected to be in beta around the end of 2016 with a launch in 2017, from your own pages
 
​Are you now saying that this product has been pushed back, if so I have to express a degree of frustration as I have been waiting for this for some time?  IMHO Serif would have been better advised to get all the Mac products on line BEFORE introducing affinity to Windows which already has the benefit of other Serif products.

Hey - mentioned in dispatches!  :)
 
Although I haven't gone over the metadata with a fine-tooth comb yet, it looks like a fantastic improvement. A big thumbs-up - thanks!

Status: Beta Release
Purpose: Fixes, improvements
Requirements: Purchased Affinity Photo
Mac App Store: Not Submitted
Download: 1.5 Beta 5 Here
 
This is an early beta of a substantial change to our codebase and as much as we have tried to ensure the quality of the code, it should be considered to be not suitable for production use. This means that you should not attempt to use it for commercial purposes or for any other activity in which you may be adversely affected by the application failing. In addition it is definitely worth noting that files created in Affinity 1.5 cannot be opened in 1.4 so always make a copy of your important documents before opening them in 1.5 to ensure you do not accidentally overwrite them and are unable to open them in your 1.4 version.
 
To use this beta, simply download the file from the link given above and double-click on the file to open the installer. Follow the instructions to install the beta version. The beta sits alongside the Mac App Store version and will not interfere with it.
 
Improvements & Fixes
 
- Improved focus merge - better results, faster processing and much faster "Sources" panel interactions. [Thanks to TheLostVertex]
- OpenColorIO support for 32-bit documents. You can now configure an an .ocio profile in preferences. - OpenEXR documents will now be converted to scene_linear on load - if the filename contains a valid OCIO colour space (the inverse applies when you export). - New OpenColorIO adjustment layer. - New options in 32-bit Preview panel - including hardware accelerated OpenColorIO display transforms. - New options in the Curves adjustments - allows you to specify the input range (handy in 32-bit documents). - New histogram options - allows you to specify the input range (handy in 32-bit documents). - The colour picker can now pick 32-bit unbounded, scene referred colours. - Recorded macros can now have their arguments marked as "visible" (eye icon). When playing back the macro, the user can interact with the arguments as if using a normal filter. - Macro library panel has been completely reworked (drag-drop, rename, etc.) - The macro recorder can now record interactions in the layers panel. [Thanks to MBd] - Improved Tone Mapping preset panel. - Most blend modes now work in 32-bit. - Completely rewritten our RAW metadata mining code. [Thanks to Goughy] - Fixed issues with 16bit PSD files. - Fixed various issues whereby documents would seem modified when they should not be. - Fixed crashes with a number of Live Filters. - Fix for Colour Picker Tool in macOS Sierra. - Fix for double-clicking the selected row in the Layers Panel causing the incorrect behaviour. - PDF export fixes (transparency usage and clipping issues) - hopefully also made CorelDraw-compatible PDFs. - SVG export fix for exporting transformed images. - Artistic Text creation is now more like the Mac App Store version. - Allow Pen Tool and Shape Tool to reinitialise the original mouse down position mid-drag by holding down Space. - Performance improvement for Node Tool when selecting an object with a large number of nodes. - Fix for SMB share issues. - Numerous other performance and stability improvements. - New splash screen!   We still have a lot to do before 1.5 can enter the RC phase - aside from improving all the new features, we aim to improve certain aspects of existing features as well as implementing Polygonal Selection Tool, Magnetic Selection Tool and Layer Linking. More to come..   Thanks again for taking the time to use this beta!   Affinity Photo Team     :ph34r:

Isn't the option to "resize just a frame, and all other content will stay locked" just the 'lock children' feature, available in AD 1.4.x?
 

By the way, KipV, in regards to my comment earlier...
 
 
 
...it was a video on the constraints feature which will be released in Designer 1.5. I may have not explained it well in my quote, but this certainly looks great for layouts.
 

Too often!  

All affinity apps share file format and even edit ability when the hosting app doesn't natively support the feature. So if u open a Photo file with Live Filters in Designer, you can edit the live filter even thought Designer doesn't let u apply them. That's VERY Badass and the Devs Rock for such an ingenious feature!

AD works great for postcards and brochures...

Works for me and I am doing similar things.

It would be surprising if Publisher didn't offer some vector and bitmap capabilities!

If you do not need to manage a lot of pages, like FreeHand, Affinity Designer is the perfect Application to do this kind of work.

When I looked at some of the typography features it seems similar to what you might use with InDesign. I haven't thought of a short coming to this kind of workflow yet.

jbrittonb,
 
Yes - go to File -> New Batch, then add your RAW files as you would normal files. If you mean batch process RAW using some sort of template made with the Develop Persona - we don't have this yet, but it's on our radar!
 
smadell,
 
We're trying to bring all the new features along at the same pace - and we still have some way to go with all of them.
 
Macros didn't get much time at all this week, but hopefully they will be improved somewhat for next week.
 
KipV,
 
Yes - it appears to be stable for me now. If you can still break it, please let me know..
 
Thanks,