how can I export from affinity publisher to indesign

[`a.m.a]

so I know that I cannot export as indd or idml but I want to export to a file format that will open on adobe indesign because I am in a team and they all use indesign so are there any free software that will convert affinity publisher files to indesign files were they can edit it. or can I use one of the file formats to export it.

[walt.farrell]

There are no converters for the Affinity file formats, so you will have to Export.

Try one of the PDF formats, but be careful about what gets rasterized.

If you regularly need to share your work with a team that's using InDesign you may be better off using InDesign yourself. That's the only way to be sure things will work smoothly.

[ashlenn]

On 1/25/2021 at 6:41 AM, walt.farrell said:

There are no converters for the Affinity file formats, so you will have to Export.

Try one of the PDF formats, but be careful about what gets rasterized.

If you regularly need to share your work with a team that's using InDesign you may be better off using InDesign yourself. That's the only way to be sure things will work smoothly.

This saddens me. I'm completing a huge project with Publisher and the printer now needs it packaged - which Publisher cannot do - and I can't get it into InDesign to package it. I love Affinity but this may be the nail in the coffin for me.  

[walt.farrell]

15 minutes ago, ashlenn said:

This saddens me. I'm completing a huge project with Publisher and the printer now needs it packaged - which Publisher cannot do - and I can't get it into InDesign to package it. I love Affinity but this may be the nail in the coffin for me.  

1.9 will be able to package it for you, and should be available soon if you don't want to try using the beta for it.

[ashlenn]

1 minute ago, walt.farrell said:

1.9 will be able to package it for you, and should be available soon if you don't want to try using the beta for it.

Unfortunately I have a project I have to get to a printer today and they need it packaged and the beta isn’t working and I haven’t found a solution as to why. 

[walt.farrell]

6 minutes ago, ashlenn said:

Unfortunately I have a project I have to get to a printer today and they need it packaged and the beta isn’t working and I haven’t found a solution as to why. 

That's unfortunate.

It does lead me to wonder, though, what it is that your printer really wants when they say they want a package.

If you give them a PDF they have a file with the images and the fonts, which would seem to be everything they need. So if that is not enough, and they are specifically saying "package" (as opposed to PDF) then they may mean "an InDesign file and images and fonts packaged as InDesign would package them." And in that case your only choice is to use InDesign, because even if 1.9 were working for you the packages it produces are not InDesign files, and they require Publisher.

[ashlenn]

I had a past beta version. Thank heavens. I love this new update and will include a PDF in the package. That’s the best I can do right now. In the future I’ll just have to revert to InDesifn Trials to complete these huge projects until Publisher can talk to InDesign. 

[Old Bruce]

4 minutes ago, ashlenn said:

until Publisher can talk to InDesign. 

In my opinion that will likely never happen.

[ashlenn]

3 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

In my opinion that will likely never happen.

And if it doesn't it's going to be a huge issue for a portion of users. I can't help what programers do and don't do just as I can't help what printers will and won't accept. The unfortunate reality of the industry. 

[wonderings]

58 minutes ago, ashlenn said:

This saddens me. I'm completing a huge project with Publisher and the printer now needs it packaged - which Publisher cannot do - and I can't get it into InDesign to package it. I love Affinity but this may be the nail in the coffin for me.  

Are you sure your printer can even use a Publisher file? I don't know any print or design house that uses any of the Affinity software. Adobe is the standard here and I am assuming they would be asking for a packaged Indesign file. I would check with them if they can use Publisher as you may be wasting your time trying to get Publisher to package. 

On 1/25/2021 at 10:14 AM, `a.m.a said:

so I know that I cannot export as indd or idml but I want to export to a file format that will open on adobe indesign because I am in a team and they all use indesign so are there any free software that will convert affinity publisher files to indesign files were they can edit it. or can I use one of the file formats to export it.

If you are collaborating you should all be using the same software. You will create nothing but headaches trying to make something work as it will never be 100% and only create more work for the team. 

Affinity has some great software, powerful and extremely affordable, but it is not a replacement for Adobe in a collaborative environment. Make life easy on yourself and everyone else and stick to what the team is using.

[ashlenn]

Just now, wonderings said:

Are you sure your printer can even use a Publisher file? I don't know any print or design house that uses any of the Affinity software. Adobe is the standard here and I am assuming they would be asking for a packaged Indesign file. I would check with them if they can use Publisher as you may be wasting your time trying to get Publisher to package. 

If you are collaborating you should all be using the same software. You will create nothing but headaches trying to make something work as it will never be 100% and only create more work for the team. 

Affinity has some great software, powerful and extremely affordable, but it is not a replacement for Adobe in a collaborative environment. Make life easy on yourself and everyone else and stick to what the team is using.

If you look at my other comments I addressed this. They get a PDF this time and hopefully they can use it. I will not be able to use Publisher in the future for large projects unless this is addressed. It saddens me because I much prefer this software and don’t care for Adobe in general. 

[wonderings]

8 minutes ago, ashlenn said:

If you look at my other comments I addressed this. They get a PDF this time and hopefully they can use it. I will not be able to use Publisher in the future for large projects unless this is addressed. It saddens me because I much prefer this software and don’t care for Adobe in general. 

you addressed supplying them a PDF, which is something I know we prefer here as do other local printers. Personally I only want working files if I need to make serious changes or alterations. A properly made PDF with crops and bleeds gets things moving much faster then opening a working file and preparing a PDF after that for print. Cutting out a middle step that is really not needed.

Regarding Serif addressing Indesign and their file I don't think this is not something they really can do beyond what they have now with IDML files. Sure they may be able to improve things but it will never be 100% compatibility between the two. At the end of the day they are 2 page layout programs made by 2 different companies. You will never have a perfect conversion. So you really have 1 option if you do not want to use Indesign, you need need to supply print ready PDF's. If your printer still insists on packaged Indesign files then you can either use Indesign or find another printer. 

[ashlenn]

3 minutes ago, wonderings said:

you addressed supplying them a PDF, which is something I know we prefer here as do other local printers. Personally I only want working files if I need to make serious changes or alterations. A properly made PDF with crops and bleeds gets things moving much faster then opening a working file and preparing a PDF after that for print. Cutting out a middle step that is really not needed.

Regarding Serif addressing Indesign and their file I don't think this is not something they really can do beyond what they have now with IDML files. Sure they may be able to improve things but it will never be 100% compatibility between the two. At the end of the day they are 2 page layout programs made by 2 different companies. You will never have a perfect conversion. So you really have 1 option if you do not want to use Indesign, you need need to supply print ready PDF's. If your printer still insists on packaged Indesign files then you can either use Indesign or find another printer. 

I always supply print ready PDFs. They simply asked for working files this time. It’s not my first big project. It is, however, the first one with Affinity and I wasn’t expecting this hiccup. I’m hoping they can roll with it. 

[Silla]

@ashlenn Hi! How did it go, did you avoid hiccups in your collab? Did you have to surrender to the Adobe software (hoping not!). I love Affinity but I can't understand why Affinity can't talk back to adobe.. Are Affinity not going to offer that in the future? All the best!

[R C-R]

8 hours ago, Silla said:

I love Affinity but I can't understand why Affinity can't talk back to adobe..

To oversimplify a bit, it is because Adobe uses a proprietary native file format & has no interest in making it available to its competitors.

[PaoloT]

23 hours ago, R C-R said:

To oversimplify a bit, it is because Adobe uses a proprietary native file format & has no interest in making it available to its competitors.

Adobe supports an open interchange format like IDML. Its specs are freely available on the web. There is no need to use the proprietary, closed INDD format.

Paolo

 

[PaoloT]

On 1/25/2021 at 4:14 PM, `a.m.a said:

so I know that I cannot export as indd or idml but I want to export to a file format that will open on adobe indesign because I am in a team and they all use indesign

While being able to open an AfPub file in InDesign would be useful in many cases, opening it with InDesign the minute you go to the printer is not one of these. No inter-app conversion can be totally reliable, and you would risk all sorts of printing errors.

If the printer really needs the original files instead of a print-ready PDF, why not asking them to use AfPub to edit them?

Paolo

 

[Ron P.]

9 hours ago, PaoloT said:

While being able to open an AfPub file in InDesign would be useful in many cases

First, I don't use Afpub or InDesign (never have), however looking at this logically, I agree it would. So I think that as many as possible Afpub users should go make requests of Adobe to change that. Isn't the opposite happening here with Serif's apps? Just sayin' 😉

[PaoloT]

16 hours ago, Ron P. said:

So I think that as many as possible Afpub users should go make requests of Adobe to change that. Isn't the opposite happening here with Serif's apps? Just sayin' 😉

The fact is that one is by large the market leader, and at this stage can even ignore the existence of the other. While the other must live in an environment dominated by the other, and adapt to survive.

 

[AaronShep]

Publisher's lack of export to IDML is the main thing that prevents me from using it. There's no way I'm going to lock my book designs into a totally proprietary file format. (The other thing that stops me is the lack of a JPEG compression option on export to PDF, making the app impractical for graphics-heavy books.)

[Joachim_L]

1 hour ago, AaronShep said:

Publisher's lack of export to IDML is the main thing that prevents me from using it.

How should APu handle features not available in Indesign?

1 hour ago, AaronShep said:

The other thing that stops me is the lack of a JPEG compression option on export to PDF

The option is available.

[AaronShep]

Thanks for pointing out the JPEG compression option!

Are there Publisher output features not available in InDesign? No conversion between apps is ever perfect. You can run into feature differences even between versions of InDesign. So, you'd have to omit such features or approximate them, as long as you document it properly. I remember Microsoft producing long documents about the discrepancies you'd get from importing documents from other apps, like WordPerfect, into Word.

[Wosven]

5 hours ago, AaronShep said:

So, you'd have to omit such features or approximate them

That's what happened when switching from QXP to ID... and it was a temporary solution, until we had enough time to redo properly the files in ID.

Use the appropriate app if needed for complexe works, or just simple PDF to modify in Adobe reader if needed, but such exchanges, if they existed, would only give headaches at some end.

[Old Bruce]

7 hours ago, AaronShep said:

,,, There's no way I'm going to lock my book designs into a totally proprietary file format. ...

What?

For the record, InDesign uses a proprietary file format.

[AaronShep]

2 hours ago, Old Bruce said:

What?

For the record, InDesign uses a proprietary file format.

Bruce, InDesign exports to IDML, which Publisher can them import. I would like to be able to make the return trip, however imperfectly.