Graphic charter

[Pyanepsion]

Hi, everybody,

My firm follows a graphic charter that specifies the dimensions, spacing between objects, fonts, character styles, paragraph styles, and colour palette used.

How do I proceed with Affinity Publisher and, more generally, with the Affinity suite, so that I don’t have to rebuild it for each document?

Thank you for your explanations.

[sfriedberg]

I would construct a dummy document with the appropriate sizing, general layout and style definitions (etc.) then save it as a template.  Or even just save it, and make sure to Save As a different file when opening it to start a new document.

[Added in edit] Spacing between objects is a bit harder to capture, but if you routinely put the objects in frames, you could pre-define some assets with appropriate insets to handle part of the requirement.

[Old Bruce]

10 hours ago, Pyanepsion said:

My firm follows a graphic charter that specifies the dimensions, spacing between objects, fonts, character styles, paragraph styles, and colour palette used.

How do I proceed with Affinity Publisher and, more generally, with the Affinity suite, so that I don’t have to rebuild it for each document?

I would use a set of Templates for the various paper sizes but include in each: At least one Document Swatch Palette with global colours. I would have Guides set up via the Guides Mangaer and the same for the Grid. I would go so far as to include Group, Paragraph and Character Styles for the text with things like the  language set for spelling along with some Sample text using fonts the style guide/graphic charter want to be used.

Templates really can be your friend here.

[thomaso]

On 8/13/2022 at 5:46 AM, Pyanepsion said:

fonts, character styles, paragraph styles, and colour palette used.

Text Styles: Once the required styles are set-up use the option "Save Styles as Default". They occur in every new document. – While "Import…" is interesting for existing documents.

Colour Palette: Create it as Application Palette. It occurs in every new and existing document. (+ can get exported / imported, too).
To make a palette the default palette (when the app launches): Name every palette as wanted (maybe with numbers in front) –> export –> delete from the panel –> import. The 1st imported remains on top.

Assets: Note that assets do not transfer colour swatches between documents. Objects maintain their colours but no swatch gets created. So make sure the receiving document contains a palette with the wanted swatch, especially for global colours.
Also, assets do not allow linked resources (e.g. a company logo) but always embed them. Additionally, container file formats (e.g. Affinity documents, PDF, EPS) may not be used in assets.
 

On 8/13/2022 at 5:46 AM, Pyanepsion said:

the dimensions, spacing between objects,

Sounds like a layout / column grid, doesn't it?

Constraints panel: More complex and only for certain use, but helpful for scaling a layout, respectively changing its aspect ratio. Depending on your specific needs + an according set-up it can be quite helpful to maintain certain relations between objects when a layout (or a group within) gets new dimensions.