Rodi

So Arsh, why does file Publisher file size matter to you? How does it impact your workflow? I am very interested in this. I have in my mind some scenarios where it would be a difference, especially as a file gets larger, meaning complexity and number of pages. Are you in a workgroup or some sort of collaboration? I think of Publisher more in terms of quick and low volume, where you need to check folios, folding panels, open or import a pdf for adjustment when there is no other way. I find I do use it a lot and sometimes I get a big question mark. For instance, I love the zoom on it for panels, but sometimes it doesn't work exactly as I would hope so. I have had high hopes for Publisher especially and I want it to continue to mature. I can't replace the rental scheme software but Affinity Suite is priced where I can afford to upgrade as needed (plus lots of extras). For my purposes it saves me lots of time on otherwise impossible situations. PDFs that need a lot of editing beyond the scope of Acrobat or Pitstop, files that will be updated in the future too, where you pay in time once and then it is much easier. I have regular "issues" with Publisher, but it has not deterred me in using it. Importing a one color spot document and adjusting for panels exports as Process, rgghhh. I have regular issues with InDesign, no select similar fill/stroke? C'mon! Importing pdfs is so 90s compared to Publisher. Multiple size pages in a document? Freehand did that, Publisher does that, InDesign, no go. InDesign no longer accepts Postscript Type 1 fonts. I have a huge library of bought Type 1 fonts. I still use InDesign.

Leslie, what difference does the size of the AFpub file make for you?

I was asking Leslie A as she seems to have a similar workflow as I do. I would add if I need to shrink files I use two programs to reduce file size, Qoppa PDF Studio has a great optimize feature that gets most files shrunk in size... when that doesn't work I go to Callas PDFToolbox, and it will really shrink the worst of em. That is mostly for emailing I understand that, I but I also regularly download large pdfs (hobby stuff) and waiting doesn't bother me in this day and age. Dial up, paging dial up. I remember when sending a one page document to service bureau took a couple hours or more!

Can you tell us why large pdf is not acceptable for you? Have you exported an IDML or packaged the InDesign file and opened the IDML in Publisher? I would make sure all the parameters of export are the same or close. Personally, I make all pdfs as large as possible with no compression, I find for my RIP systems (Founder Elecroc, Prinergy, Fiery) not having to decompress files works quicker at the time of ripping.

Thanks so much!! Just a quick look around and I am already being helped out. I do have to comment (positively) about the fonts, Postscript Type 1! Yay, try that in that other program!! I really think that is one thing that makes me happy to use Publisher even with it's little issues, Pantone Libraries and Type 1 fonts!!

I do not watch TV at all, not in the slightest. Today, at Grand Central Station in NYC, I saw some Canva ads and I can't say it moved me to even consider their products. I would say getting Affinity Suit into schools for free could be amazing!

Ya know, I use Publisher daily. It's got great features not found in InDesign that allows me to get work done faster, better and more efficiently. Would I recommend for other pros to use? YES! The suite has many cool great features that help artists to get work done. Would I recommend for other pros to leave Creative Suite for it now? No. It's not yet mature enough to handle the myriad of tasks that are required for graphic arts (print in my case). I think we are all here because we care about the whole environment of Serif/Affinity, and I think you are wholesale selling the whole community as unserious is quite fitting. Perhaps you are the one who is missing out on what drives this community, and in part it's not what drives other communities. So @Bit Disappointed what makes the suite not professional to you? Also what are the features and things you really dig?

In fact the whole industry was no more by 1995. So from 1992-1998 I had no job within the graphic arts industry. I still use many elements of those days. I do really miss the strength of that industry with proof readers, quality of fonts and cool equipment. Our camera department had distortion cameras and platen devices to distort type. We used punches to knock type out of black elements. Our typesetting equipment did some cool things, but essentially we did type that could be laid down on a mechanical easily for artists, they paid for that. We sent glassine copies (see through 16#, iirc) of the type for them to overlay before they commited to spray/wax the galleys to put on the boards.

LOL, outside of being thrown of of the typesetting industry (there was one, once, lol) I have been in print a long time! Each season brings new challenges, and as an artist I like to make clients work look as good as it can. I worked at a label shop that was spot color shop, I converted them to process work and after a few years of photoshop work for total ink, we got a new rip. Welp, first job, without adjustment gets done. Boss throws the label roll at me, "what am I gonna tell them, we didn't know what we were doing before this?" Everything went back to the way it was, lol.

Did you ever work on V1 or InDesign or Illustrator or v3 Pagemaker? LOL, every program needs time to mature to get professional. Quark took to V3 and it was so good they forgot to make it better in good ways and v4 was terrible. Have you opened a PDF with InDesign to edit it? Can't do it. You can with Affinity Publisher. It's terrifying at times, but once you work out a system, it's pretty nice.. I have edited text and extended bleeds to files that would have otherwise been total failures. Can you explain the lack of accesibility in PDFS means? I do think they should have an acrobat type of program, but since they don't I use Qoppa PDF Studio and Callas PDF Toolbox desktop and an old (7) of Acrobat. I have identified issues with Publisher but it still does a good job on a number of items that Adobe will never address. Try this, import a PDF to InDesign, say 24 pages with bleed. Do the same in Publisher. In ID you have to set each page up in the right place each page... it's work. Affinity, make 24 pages bring first page in on first page of doc, set, then copy and past and just switch the page numbers, it's very robust. On Adobe, well they are the kingpin, everyone should gun for them if they intend to dethrone them. If Affinity went after Quark... well I think you get what I mean. I really like Affinity programs even though I can't use them all 100% of the time, yet. I hope they continue to mature them and can compete. LetraStudio, ColorStudio, FontStudio, FreeHand, Quark, Corel, Canvas, Scribus, Inkscape, Gimp, Ready Set Go, Live Picture, Painter, Typestry . . . and a host of many others I have used to get jobs done. Sometimes the top dogs are great, but they don't have all the answers for all the problems. Adobe, in my, and many other's opinion are too expensive for a good amount of the design community. Affinity is trying to alleviate that problem and we salute them, but we don't give them an easy pass for short falls.

upgrade to Affinity v2 totally worth it, I have found it more stable and usable on every front and the little updates aren't as quircky as some 1.x versions were. What do you do about new spot colors or changes to files with Postcript type 1 fonts? As far as the past, graphic designers were not content but frightened that if they didn't use particular software that was top dog at the time they would not be respected... I used Illustrator and Freehand, Quark (later InDesign, but that was 2005) Photoshop, Live Picture. I also used cool little programs for vectors LetraStudio. I hated Corel, but I was able to make color bars with slurs for a place I worked at. I try to find what works. The only adobe product I can say I need professionally is Acrobat, but that's because Pitstop don't stand alone like Callas PDFToolbox that I use. I still have Freehand 10 (the best version) on Windows 10 machine. Canva has been a thorn in my professional bottom, I told my bosses these customers are so cheap they should buy Affinity! IT's so much better! LOL...

This is partly true and partly an issue within the graphic arts community, which is very conservative (much like the guitar community) in their choices. No one wants to make a mistake. Aldus/Macromedia Freehand was a great program that did three things very well, .ps fidelity, vector art and page layout. It had a way to make word spaces tighter than the letter spaces, which we used in old typesetting systems. Very nice. It's nowhere in Illustrator but made its way into InDesign. I am a pro and I use Affinity Publisher a lot, but not exclusively because it has a few nagging issues, one of which is importing spot color pdfs from other programs, most of the time (especially having more than one of the same page to adjust for panels) it processes out. If I worked in an all digital shop, I would def swap out some adobe licenses for Affinity. I know hi end boutique guys state the type engine will never work with new font technology, but they are crowing in rare air, I have only seen a few files that have those multiple weight fonts. I do a lot of varied work, including with one of the larges printers in the world. Affinity was never going to smash Adobe because the scale in comparison is crazy! Adobe is huge. Affinity is like Robin Hood and his merry men!! I found my use for the Affinity suite in professional arena. It's a super capable PDF editor and opens IDML files from InDesign pretty darn well. I live with the shortfalls because I have no choice and there is no other viable alternative.

Hi, Did you send a pre separated file? 6 pdfs per color? I have some use for that in a certain subfield, but it's been a while since they can be used with modern rips architecture, you lose a way to trap. Yes on Picas! When I was a camera man and did not need to know about sheet size I used picas forever! My only issue with picas is real picas vs picas on computer are not equal (digital picas are exactly 1/72", whereas regular picas on my Plankcs Typographic ruler is slightly larger 72.3 or so per inch. I have one thing that kills me in printing. PANTONE Color books are not numerical anymore. Some genius's decided to put them numerically at the index and by hue on the printed page. Well that's just a pain somewhere... I get files in that have the same issues as in the 1980's, RGB/missing fonts... just had a canva job yesterday where a maroon red was picked from two different online colors that look similar I am sure, but they converted to cmyk and it was light years different. I blame schools for hiring poor teachers in graphic arts programs. I would love to teach a class on production values of printing. Type, Color and Bleed. I regularly run into experienced designer who don't bleed out items... I would teach about quality font choices on a budget, PANTONE Color to Process, document size!! How about a class how not use photoshop as a pagelayout program!!

Canvas was a program that promised integration between page, vector raster and web. It failed. Theversions I tried were buggy. It had great fonts though! 2540 quality URW fonts. I always think historically that Affinity accomplished what was promised on the dawn of the DTP revolution (1980s!!) of an all in one program. No double clicking from Q to P, you just worked in it. Now there are two programs that can do this pretty well, PDF Tuner from CGS and Affinity. PDF Tuner is free! You have to have one of their other programs/plans to get it and it's pretty expensive!

Adobe, in the font world, got a patent (due to being chummy with the then President) for a font that is historically well known (Garamond) and honestly, a pilfering of Berthold Garamond by Günter Gerhard Langes revival of Garamond in the early 70s... Then what they did with the ScannGraphic font Today Sans (a beautiful font!) and made it an Adobe exclulsive named Kronos... What they did with Ares Font products (Font Chameleon, Font Monger, Fonthopper, Font Studio) was buy and can. Then what they did Freehand... that was the death knell of competition in DTP on that level. Adobe has a bad rep in my mind for most everything.