Rodi

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?

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?

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?

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?

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.

 

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.

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.

Does that mean you’re out of print now?
What does one do to get thrown off/out of the typesetting industry (or, indeed, any industry)? 

At the moment no plans to upgrade to V2, I just don't use V1 and have no plans of moving from Adobe at the moment. 
What I do with new spot colours? I use them. With unsupported fonts, which I have yet to come up one that I could not simply replace with a newer font. Also pretty rare for a file that old to come up of a reprint. 
I would not say people were not using software because they were afraid they would not be respected, at least not the good and profitable shops. Why does it matter what you use as long as the job gets done efficiently without breaking the bank. I found plenty of cheap work arounds to do what the big shops with expensive top of the line RIPS and other software would do. Pride comes before the fall, and if you are letting your image in the community come before what the quality of your work is telling people, then you will not last long. 
 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

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!!

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!!

Hi Canva, Affinity for Android devices maybe? 🤔

I'm embarrassed to admit that I was not confusing historical figures (which I didn't even know about, ouch,   )... it's waay less sophisticated. In Spanish it's written "Sídney", so, that's why   😅 .

They once attempted to prevent other software from appropriating PostScript technology, a move that could be considered malevolent.

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.

As a devoted user and enthusiast, I've always shown immense loyalty to the apps I use, sticking with them through thick and thin. It took a significant amount of frustration for me to even consider switching platforms. My journey with Adobe began in 1994, but the introduction of Creative Cloud (CC) marked the beginning of my dissatisfaction. After a year of using CC, I was troubled by the realization that discontinuing my payment would mean losing access to all my cloud-saved documents and apps. This felt like Adobe was coercing me into a perpetual subscription, prompting me to explore alternatives.
I experimented with several apps like Graphic for vector work, Pixelmator for raster graphics, Rapidweaver for web development, and iStudio Publisher, but initially, they didn't quite measure up. However, when Adobe bluntly announced a price increase, essentially forcing users to accept the hike or lose their data, it was the last straw for me. I canceled my subscription and began a frantic search for replacements. Options ranged from CorelDraw to running Adobe CS6 on older Macs—I was desperate. Serif, at the time, had a tarnished reputation, known for dated design apps that seemed more suited for crafting clipart or printing business cards on home printers. Everything changed with the debut of Affinity Designer.
Though I approached it with skepticism, it became clear that this was the lifeline my business needed. Affinity Designer, alongside Pixelmator, allowed me to continue servicing my clients, gradually integrating other Affinity tools until my business regained its footing. While many flock to Canva, viewing it as user-friendly, I find it lacks the professional robustness necessary for serious design work, often yielding amateurish, uniform results. The acquisition of Affinity by Canva was an astonishing development, raising concerns that the excellence I had come to rely on might be diluted by Canva's more populist, less professional approach. Yet, part of me hopes that perhaps Affinity's influence could steer Canva towards becoming a formidable contender to Adobe, reshaping the landscape of design tools.
Despite these uncertainties, my commitment to Affinity remains unwavering. These tools have been indispensable to my livelihood, and I'm prepared to stand by them until given a reason to do otherwise, much like my eventual departure from Adobe.

I lived and breathed Quark for years, my muscle memory for that was the most developed for any other software I’ve used! I remember though when my boss bought a new version (nearly a grand, I think it cost) and try as we might, we couldn’t get it to install, even with hours of support from their staff. In the end they said they’d turn a blind-eye to us using a cracked version, but we stuck with our old one. Then about a year later it came out free - on a computer mag cover disk!
Publisher isn’t even close, for me, but I use it to create basic documentation for clients.
The latest update from Ash has reassured me a bit, but it’d be naive to expect Canva not to capitalise on their investment eventually, and make subscriptions for those of us that want to use it professionally as the most viable option.
Not for me though, I don’t do subscriptions if I can help it. I’m banking on 6 months, maybe a year of decent use from the V2 suite I bought 3 months ago, anything after that is a bonus. If the pledges stick, I’ll stay with Affinity.

I doubt anyone will decide at this exact moment. I am sure I am good with Affinity for couple of years. What future will bring nobody really knows. I do not trust promises cause I heard many in past, and things went opposite way. Did not witness that promises were kept, yet. Might be different with Affinity. Hope is there.