xmarc999

I do a fair amount of photo editing, to support a small business with a web site. I use an iPad Air with an Apple Pencil, and a Luna Display adapter. Meets all my needs, though I can't say how it compares to a dedicated graphics tablet. If you already have an iPad that supports either of the Apple Pencil models, this should be a much less expensive way to go as you build up your experience.

If I color correct two photos, and they are intended to be shown together (in my case, a product shoot), the two photos' color needs to be in line with each other. So side by side viewing while editing one is very useful. PaulEC suggestion sounds good, though I don't see a "Float All" under Window. (There is a "Clean Up Floating Windows…" which implies you can float them.) What did work was Window/Separated Mode. Definitely "faffy" as each window, including the panels, float over whatever other app is open in the background. But it worked. I still wouldn't mind having a split view function. A DAM is fine for quickly reviewing a set of images to pick out the 3 or 4 you really want to work with, but does not solve the issue of adjusting 2 or more photos to share a desired look.

IMO, Vellum targets self-publishers and small publishers without a strong technical staff. I think it can work very well for an ebook designer working with writers and editors who are not going to be comfortable using InDesign. The base software is free and is WSYWIG, so you can have any number of people reviewing and editing ebooks, with one person designated to be the "publisher" (There is no cost until an ebook is produced.) It is limited, as Fixx noted, which is both its strength and weakness. I found my users who had excellent design sense (but not the technical ability to create ebooks) simply were not satisfied with the output. I ended up editing the ebooks with Sigil, which means the files are no longer readable by Vellum, and thus are no longer shareable. I might note that it took Adobe several releases (beginning with ID CS5.5) to get ebooks "right" so I recognize it may not be so easy for Affinity to implement this function. The problem is not simple HTML per se; it's "translating" more sophisticated design features to HTML. Also standard ebook features such as the navigational Table of Contents were Adobe's downfall for the longest time (e.g. not really fixed until ID CC). But perhaps Affinity could take a step by step path. Have an option noting that the final product is to be an ePub. Then turn off any features that are not readily exportable. Over time, keep adding additional features.

A little under 1/3 of Amazon book sales are ebooks, and it's becoming common for a print book to have a Kindle alternative. Having said that, it is also true that ebook sales as a percentage of overall sales are starting to flatten, so print is hardly going to go away. Independent publishers want to have one platform to output both print and ebooks. After all, the content is the same. i haven't seen any numbers on this, but with my own buying habits, I see the great majority of ebooks are simple text books, some with photo sections, but rarely with photos that have to be in a certain place in relation to the text (outside of the cover and some chapter "numbers" that are images). Fixed layout books are important to certain market segments (kids books, graphic novels, etc.) but IMO remain relatively limited overall. So reflowable ePub is very important. We should all remember the slow evolution of ePub support in ID, beginning with a very buggy implementation in CS5.5. Hopefully, we can expect better from Affinity/Serif (i.e. *not* buggy) and see solid ePub support roll-out in phases. I regularly edit ePubs using Sigil, fixing things ID did not get quite right. So if I had to do that with Publisher, I could live with it, particularly if I was taking care of things not yet supported by Publisher, rather than fixing buggy output. Yes, once you touch the ebook with Sigil, you basically lose the ability to do updates with ID or Publisher. So yeah, I would like to see everything in Publisher at some point.

Hello. Marc here. I'm located on the coast in northern California. I support an independent publisher who puts out both print books and ebooks. Currently using Photoshop and Indesign CS 6 running on Lion under Parallels. I'm fairly new to Affinity Photo, but was totally jazzed to open a PSD file and manipulate it with Affinity. I'm very actively moving away from PS. Also looking forward to someday moving away from ID to Affinity Publisher.