Inserting video into Affinity Publisher

[Furry]

How can I insert a video into an Affinity Publisher document so that, when exported as a PDF, ther video will appear with controls? I am using AffPub v1.10.8 on a Mojave (OSX.10.14.6) iMac.

[GarryP]

You can’t; none of the Affinity applications have video-related functionalities.

[Furry]

Thanks, GarryP. I was afraid that might be the case. I will have to work out another way.

[GarryP]

It’s something which comes up every now and again – try searching the forums for publisher embed video – but I can’t see it happening anytime soon.

[Furry]

OK. It gets to a point where one concludes, "Is it worth the extra effort?"

[iconoclast]

Publisher is a print oriented app. As you can't print videos, Publisher doesn't need to support stuff like that. I think HTML, CSS and JavaScript would be a good way to do that. Probably also apps like Dream Weaver or Xara WebDesigner can. But I'm not an expert in such things. Does InDesign support videos? I'm not up to date, concerning InDesign. Probably there are Open Source solutions too.

[Furry]

Yes, I am getting that message.

I was joping there was some way as I frequently (every week) dedign a newssheet in AffPub and then export it as a PDF. There is no probem with inserting live URLs and email links and it seemed to me only a small step from there to include video. It is so long since I used InDesign (when they adopted the subscription model which doesn't make sense to me since the software does no0t earn me an income) that I can't remember whether it enambled the insertion of videos.

I accept that Pubisher's focus is print. But its provision for URLs and email links seems as if its scope is a little wider than that. Maybe in a future revision? 🤔

[iconoclast]

Yes, the Adobe subscription model sucks. For this reason I turned my back to them too. As many did.

I think, to implement video functionality in a software is a much more complex step than to implement hyperlink functionality. But I can't really judge that.

It would be cool if Publisher could also be used to create sophisticated websites. But I think that would need really a lot of development. Even to keep the software up to date, because even webdesign software works with Html, CSS, JavaScript and other codes, websites are constituted of. And they are all in progress. But that is not my métier. Hope I don't go out on the limb with my comments.

[Furry]

Not with me, you haven't. I can appreciate that creating  a website would be a huge leap for Publisher (I have built websites with Dreamweaver in the past) and I have no ambition to do that (at least not at the moment) with Publisher. Maybe in the future I will, but right now all I want us set out in this thread. And I accept it is not going to happen for a while yet, if ever.

[jimrome]

PDFs can accept videos, so Affinity needs to also. Printing on paper is so dead. PDFs are the norm.

 

[iconoclast]

2 hours ago, jimrome said:

PDFs can accept videos, so Affinity needs to also. Printing on paper is so dead. PDFs are the norm.

 

Hm, interesting, as far as I remember, I never saw a video inside a PDF document. What should it be good for?

[jimrome]

scientific documents. I just saw a talk with many animations, and want that talk in my pdf journal.

[iconoclast]

"PDF journal"? On the web? Why PDF? I can't see any advantages for presentation on the web.

[R C-R]

9 hours ago, jimrome said:

Printing on paper is so dead.

Really? 

https://wordsrated.com/number-of-books-published-per-year-2021/#:~:text=The total number of new,are considered to be produced.

Then of course there are countless ad flyers, posters, local newspapers, & many other things all still printed on paper.

[mopperle]

15 hours ago, jimrome said:

Printing on paper is so dead.

The opposite is the case:

https://www.statista.com/outlook/amo/media/books/physical-books/worldwide

And in Scandinavia schools start going back to paper. After years of digital learning, they realized learning competence is dropping.

[jimrome]

Affinity needs to do both. I publish to PDF for an international journal.

[iconoclast]

1 hour ago, jimrome said:

Affinity needs to do both. I publish to PDF for an international journal.

OK, but it is still not clear to me why. PDFs have rigid layout. That's not very convenient for usage on web, because websites can be shown on very different displays of very different sizes and aspect ratio. From big Full -HD-Displays to Smartphone Displays. PDF is a good choice if you need a print version of some kinds of websites. But in that case it wouldn't make sense to support videos for it too, because you can't print out videos anyway. Possibly I'm not up to date, and there is some good reason to support videos in PDFs. In that case, please explain where and why.

The PDF format was initially developed exclusively for print. It's purpose was to offer a reliable file format to be able to transfer layouts from the graphics studios to the printers, without the danger of changing settings of the layout, by accident during the transfer. In the last decades, there have been a lot of inventions that changed the PDF format to a more versatile and very popular format. But it still produces rigid layouts. And I can't see any good reason why it should support videos.

[Furry]

How interesting that a post way back in December should suddenly spring into life again.

As I said way back then, I publish a weekly newsletter. It goes out as a PDF via email and the vast majority of readers never print it out but read it in the PDF form. Those who do print it out are generally very much "old school" and don't really trust these new-fangled computer things! Sometimes I receive a video from someone further up the organisation tree (it was a Christmas greeting video that prompted my initial post baxk in December) and it would have been nice to have included that in the PDF.

However, the point has been made fairly forcefully in this thread that, at least in the foreseeable future, that is a pipe dream. The best I can manage is to find out if the video is already online somewhere, grab the URL and include that in the PDF so that readers can click it to see the video. Getting readers to overcome inertia and do that is another story.

[thomaso]

On 6/1/2024 at 11:30 PM, Furry said:

As I said way back then, I publish a weekly newsletter. It goes out as a PDF via email and the vast majority of readers never print it out but read it in the PDF form.

What advantage does the PDF file format have compared to an email newsletter as HTML/CSS ? Why do you prefer the requirement of opening an attached, separate file?

On 6/1/2024 at 11:30 PM, Furry said:

The best I can manage is to find out if the video is already online somewhere, grab the URL and include that in the PDF so that readers can click it to see the video.

Alternatively you could send the video inside your email, as separate attachment or inside an HTML/CSS mail layout.

Also, if you don't have an online instance of the video, with APub you can combine the video as link inside a PDF with the video file send together in your email.

Example: Download the attached .zip with two files, open the PDF and click on the video screenshot. If .pdf + .m4v are stored in the same parent folder, the link in the PDF appears to be auto-updated to this video on your disk.

Since the forum software forces a video to be displayed as video, not as a file, I packed the two files within a ZIP (per email the ZIP would not be required).

  Archiv.zip

[PaoloT]

On 12/4/2023 at 10:25 AM, iconoclast said:

Publisher is a print oriented app.

While this statement is basically true, it is also true that print has most often been supplanted by reading PDFs on a display.

In any case, I concur in thinking that releasing video content as embedded in PDF files would make little sense.

Paolo

 

[PaoloT]

On 12/4/2023 at 10:32 AM, Furry said:

There is no probem with inserting live URLs and email links and it seemed to me only a small step from there to include video.

Since videos would make the PDF grow in size, I would consider the opportunity of hosting the videos on an external site (it may be YouTube, or anything you prefer), and link to them from the PDF.

Paolo

 

[PaoloT]

On 5/31/2024 at 7:36 PM, iconoclast said:

I never saw a video inside a PDF document.

While InDesign can import video and audio file, it is not common to see this feature used to generated PDF files containing them. This is because it would simply make no sense, since:

- if the PDF has to be read online, one would make a web page;

- if the PDF has to be printed, no audio or video can be used.

Paolo

 

[thomaso]

4 minutes ago, PaoloT said:

print has most often been supplanted by reading PDFs on a display.

How do you get this "most often" ? In my experience it is fortunately not true. Most texts I read online are html/css formatted. They have advantages that PDF does not offer, such as:

– Adjust the layout to the monitor's aspect ratio + size.
– Allow a custom style for display (simplest: the "Reader" mode).
– Can be read out by a digital voice.
– Can get translated to another language via browser plug-in.
– Works with handicapped accessible devices more detailed than PDF.

[iconoclast]

17 minutes ago, PaoloT said:

While InDesign can import video and audio file, it is not common to see this feature used to generated PDF files containing them. This is because it would simply make no sense, since:

- if the PDF has to be read online, one would make a web page;

- if the PDF has to be printed, no audio or video can be used.

Paolo

 

That's what I said, isn't it? People use very different displays. Some may read your magazine on Desktop PC Displays or Notebooks with horizontal aspect ratio, many do it on Smartphone or iPhone displays with vertical aspect ratio. Even Smart- and iPhone displays have many different sizes, just like PC Monitors and Notebooks have too.. And PDF documents don't adapt to different screens, while websites written in HTML, CSS, Javascript... can do that (responsive Webdesign). So if you want your magazine to be read on the screen, write it in HTML, CSS, Javascript, JQuery etc., if you want it to be read on paper, create a PDF and give it to the printers. But videos will only work on screen. I don't know if InDesign really supports videos and why, but I think it wouldn't be worth it to develop this function for Publisher, because not many people will use it.

[LEB]

On 6/2/2024 at 8:15 PM, PaoloT said:

While InDesign can import video and audio file, it is not common to see this feature used to generated PDF files containing them. This is because it would simply make no sense, since:

- if the PDF has to be read online, one would make a web page;

- if the PDF has to be printed, no audio or video can be used.

Paolo

 

It can be useful from presentation means when you use PDF instead of PPT.