Creation of Greeting Cards

[mistertimman]

I use to use Serif's Page Plus 9 for the creation of Greeting Cards. It was really excellent for that purpose. I was hoping to find a preset or document of a folded card nature, that I could use in Affinity Publisher. After an exhaustive search both in Publisher and the FAQ's I have not found anything. Has anyone any suggestions or do I still have to continue with Page Plus 9? If there is something in FAQ' that I have missed then I offer my sincere apologies. - Tim

[Pšenda]

 

[mistertimman]

Pšenda Thank you for your response. That sounds interesting. I don't know how to isolate a template in Page Plus, or to convert it to pdf and transfer it to Affinity Publisher. The two templates concerned are in Page Plus 9 under Publication Setup, tagged in Folded publications and are entitled Card and Tent Card. They are the ones I would like in Affinity Publisher. I feel it a bit of a cheek asking you for further help, but if you or anyone else can offer me further help I will be very grateful.

Cheers,

Tim

[Pšenda]

Hi Tim, I personally don't use PagePlus, but let's try @Alfred if he can't help 🙂

[Old Bruce]

Do you still have Page Plus? If yes then you could open the template and export the empty file to a PDF, if Page Plus exports to PDF. If no you don't have Page Plus then I don't know if there is anything we can do.

[Pšenda]

39 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

if Page Plus exports to PDF

Transferring documents from Plus to Affinity using PDF was directly recommended by Serif.

So I assumed the following procedure:

- PagePlus, create New document via GreetingCard template

- PagePlus, export to GreetingCard.pdf

- APublisher, Open GreetingCard.pdf

- APublisher, menu File, Export as Template GreetingCard.aftemplate

- APublisher, create New document via GreetingCard.aftemplate

[Old Bruce]

Yes, but I would most likely open the PDF and make a new Document with those dimensions and make guides and place holders on that new file according to the PDF's setup. Then Export as a Template.

[Alfred]

1 hour ago, mistertimman said:

I don't know how to isolate a template in Page Plus, or to convert it to pdf and transfer it to Affinity Publisher.

There’s a ‘Publish as PDF’ option on the File menu in PagePlus.

1 hour ago, Pšenda said:

Hi Tim, I personally don't use PagePlus, but let's try @Alfred if he can't help 🙂

Apart from confirming that PagePlus can export to PDF, I don’t think I can help any more than you and @Old Bruce have already done.

[Pšenda]

1 hour ago, Alfred said:

I don’t think I can help any more than you and @Old Bruce have already done.

Because OP has not been able to deal with this problem for quite some time (https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/86237-creating-greeting-cards/), I thought that as an expert and owner of PagePlus you could help him with the conversion of the template. He would certainly appreciate it.

P.S. It might not be out of place if these original templates, popular among users, were translated into aftemplate by Serif himself.

Edited December 10, 2021 by Pšenda

[MikeW]

16 minutes ago, Pšenda said:

Because OP has not been able to deal with this problem for quite some time (https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/86237-creating-greeting-cards/), I thought that as an expert and owner of PagePlus you could help him with the conversion of the template. He would certainly appreciate it.

P.S. It might not be out of place if these original templates, popular among users, were translated into aftemplate by Serif himself.

There is nothing at this time that Serif can do to replicate how the Plus application handles folded cards. Not until page sizes can be mixed and matched and imposed together properly.

Here's the Publication choice for a folded card:

Then, after creation, this is how the Page panel looks:

One would simply need to create a publication of the main page size (labeled Inside above), two pages and deal with what needs to go upside-down manually.

[mistertimman]

Hi all, thanks to you all for becoming involved. I carried out the steps that Psenda had indicated, but something must have gone wrong as when I got to the last step (- APublisher, create New document via GreetingCard.aftemplate) . The document that appeared was a single page document named as untitled. As you can probably tell I am not a tech wiz kid, but I will give anything a shot. It looks like for the time being I will have to stick with Page Plus.

[Alfred]

26 minutes ago, mistertimman said:

when I got to the last step (- APublisher, create New document via GreetingCard.aftemplate) . The document that appeared was a single page document named as untitled.

Please go back two steps:

15 hours ago, Pšenda said:

- APublisher, Open GreetingCard.pdf

How many pages are there? If there are three, there should be three pages in the *.aftemplate file that you create (but if there’s only one then it stands to reason that the template will only have one). As in PagePlus, opening a template file always results in the creation of an untitled document.

[PaulEC]

I don't think it's actually possible to do what I think you are trying to do! In PagePlus the "pages" for a card are displayed as a front page, the inside (two page) spread and a back page, but that is only how they are displayed. When printed the front page and back page are printed on one side of a single sheet, and the inside pages on the other side of the sheet. AFAIK, PagePlus would also turn pages through 180 deg. if necessary (eg for top fold cards). If you try to make a PDF it will be the same as printing the card, not as the template is displayed in PP.

I don't really see the point in having a template, all you need is a two page document, double the size of the card you want. Put a guide up the centre of the page (or across, for a top fold card). Design each "page" (i.e. two, side by side) on each actual page. If any of the "pages" needs to be upside down on the final card, select everything on the "page" (or group them) and rotate it through 180 deg. Print the document, double-sided, fold, and you have your card. 

 

 

[Alfred]

10 minutes ago, PaulEC said:

In PagePlus the "pages" for a card are displayed as a front page, the inside (two page) spread and a back page, but that is only how they are displayed.

That’s a good point! We’ve been talking about three pages, but there should be two spreads. However, the OP’s template file seems to have only one page or spread.