affinity suite New Books

[Sam Neil]

Here is my latest project. In the works for the past 4 years and produced using Affinity. I must say this was a monumental effort thanks to myself and NO thanks to Serif for their lack of interest or support in adding RTL to their products and I had to jump through hoops to get this working - Each book is about 700 pages and there are more than 8000 adverts between them. This will be a mammoth 32 volume collection which 3 are complete. The posters were produced using Designer and the books with Publisher. For producing the pages in the correct RTL output alone a script was written which goes to show how determined I was and am to stick to Affinity and take on the challenges that it presented me. 

I do hope Ash & team will start to support RTL in the very near future and not the usual response "Not at the moment"

[MikeTO]

A great looking book!

I love vintage ads like these

[DonC123]

I am curious if the ads are copied from somewhere else and placed in the books, or if you also recreated them from scratch based on the original using Affinity?

What language is the non-English there? Arabic?

I assume RTL is right to left text?

Either way, a lot of work for sure, and probably a lot of fun to create.

[Sam Neil]

17 hours ago, MikeTO said:

A great looking book!

I love vintage ads like these

Thank you Mike 

[Sam Neil]

17 hours ago, DonC123 said:

I am curious if the ads are copied from somewhere else and placed in the books, or if you also recreated them from scratch based on the original using Affinity?

What language is the non-English there? Arabic?

I assume RTL is right to left text?

Either way, a lot of work for sure, and probably a lot of fun to create.

The images were scanned and retouched using Photoshop & Photos The covers were created in Designer and the book itself was created in Publisher.

It is Farsi

The book is Bilingual  

I'll be honest with you - It was NOT fun to create as there were a lot technical challenges namely the lack of support for RTL based languages in Affinity. 

[HighTime]

The lack of RTL support is just ruining this software for me.

[wonderings]

I really don't get why you would go about doing it this way when Indesign supports RTL. Use the software that gets the job done for you. No clue why you would be committed to a company that does not make software that handles something that seems pretty core for any layout. All that being said, design looks great, fresh and classic all mixed in. 

[DonC123]

51 minutes ago, wonderings said:

I really don't get why you would go about doing it this way when Indesign supports RTL. Use the software that gets the job done for you. No clue why you would be committed to a company that does not make software that handles something that seems pretty core for any layout. All that being said, design looks great, fresh and classic all mixed in. 

I don't know about the original poster, but I use Affinity because it is affordable. I used Adobe since early CC days (CC3 I think it was) and upgraded every year and switched to subscription when they changed. It was costing me $75.00 CAD per month by the time I retired and didn't have the extra income for such things. Even a single app was costing just over $20.00 CAD  per month when I got rid of everything but Photoshop. When I got rid of all Adobe product I was left with nothing but a strong hatred for Adobe, even after paying thousands of dollars over the years. One doesn't really think about subscription costs until one quits their job or retires. Perhaps not everyone has to worry about money when they retire, but I found it was a must. Finding the Affinity products was a fantastic opportunity to continue doing what I love, at a reasonable one time cost. Even updating to v2 was reasonable at their full price which I paid, so even if it doesn't do everything as easy, I can at least afford it and usually find workarounds. Granted, I don't need RTL, but I would certainly try to find a workaround that would never include Adobe.

As you said, ideally one should use the right tool, but in my opinion, that is not always an option.

[wonderings]

5 minutes ago, DonC123 said:

I don't know about the original poster, but I use Affinity because it is affordable. I used Adobe since early CC days (CC3 I think it was) and upgraded every year and switched to subscription when they changed. It was costing me $75.00 CAD per month by the time I retired and didn't have the extra income for such things. Even a single app was costing just over $20.00 CAD  per month when I got rid of everything but Photoshop. When I got rid of all Adobe product I was left with nothing but a strong hatred for Adobe, even after paying thousands of dollars over the years. One doesn't really think about subscription costs until one quits their job or retires. Perhaps not everyone has to worry about money when they retire, but I found it was a must. Finding the Affinity products was a fantastic opportunity to continue doing what I love, at a reasonable one time cost. Even updating to v2 was reasonable at their full price which I paid, so even if it doesn't do everything as easy, I can at least afford it and usually find workarounds. Granted, I don't need RTL, but I would certainly try to find a workaround that would never include Adobe.

As you said, ideally one should use the right tool, but in my opinion, that is not always an option.

Adobe is not marketing their software towards the retired but the pro user. I do agree though there should be something you can keep after a year. Personally I think after a year of paying you should be able to keep that past years version. This is where Affinity fits in very well, powerful software for a really good price. Does way more then I would think any software would do at the price point, especially if you buy it on sale. My post was geared towards the OP. I would never even start on a job this size with software that could not handle the basics of what I needed, especially when there is an obvious alternative that does what you need and more.  

[DonC123]

37 minutes ago, wonderings said:

 I do agree though there should be something you can keep after a year. Personally I think after a year of paying you should be able to keep that past years version.

Your statement about keeping the last one would have been exactly what I would have liked, as it is a very reasonable expectation and makes sense.

[Sam Neil]

2 hours ago, wonderings said:

I really don't get why you would go about doing it this way when Indesign supports RTL. Use the software that gets the job done for you. No clue why you would be committed to a company that does not make software that handles something that seems pretty core for any layout. All that being said, design looks great, fresh and classic all mixed in. 

Are you having a laugh? Pay for my licence and I will move to ID but then again I don't like Adobe - I am an EX PagePlus user so my association with Serif goes back to my college days...

I have done it and am quite happy with it. 

[Sam Neil]

1 hour ago, DonC123 said:

I don't know about the original poster, but I use Affinity because it is affordable. I used Adobe since early CC days (CC3 I think it was) and upgraded every year and switched to subscription when they changed. It was costing me $75.00 CAD per month by the time I retired and didn't have the extra income for such things. Even a single app was costing just over $20.00 CAD  per month when I got rid of everything but Photoshop. When I got rid of all Adobe product I was left with nothing but a strong hatred for Adobe, even after paying thousands of dollars over the years. One doesn't really think about subscription costs until one quits their job or retires. Perhaps not everyone has to worry about money when they retire, but I found it was a must. Finding the Affinity products was a fantastic opportunity to continue doing what I love, at a reasonable one time cost. Even updating to v2 was reasonable at their full price which I paid, so even if it doesn't do everything as easy, I can at least afford it and usually find workarounds. Granted, I don't need RTL, but I would certainly try to find a workaround that would never include Adobe.

As you said, ideally one should use the right tool, but in my opinion, that is not always an option.

Money talks my friend - I am not willing to pay for Adobe - Full Stop - So this is the BEST alt software imho

[wonderings]

15 minutes ago, Sam Neil said:

Are you having a laugh? Pay for my licence and I will move to ID but then again I don't like Adobe - I am an EX PagePlus user so my association with Serif goes back to my college days...

I have done it and am quite happy with it. 

Having a laugh at what? I make a living with Adobe apps. I would not use them if they did not allow me to get the job done. I would also not go through the headaches of trying to use Indesign if there was a better app suitable for the job. I don't have emotional attachments with my software. A single days orders easily covers our 5 licenses with plenty to spare. Even if I was in a smaller company, if I was not making more then enough in a day to cover my months subscription to Adobe I would think there are bigger things to worry about then what software I am using. I would be curious to know how much time was put into making Publisher work with RTL opposed to how easily it could have been done using an app that supports RTL like Indesign or Quark. 

 

[Alfred]

22 minutes ago, wonderings said:

I would be curious to know how much time was put into making Publisher work with RTL opposed to how easily it could have been done using an app that supports RTL like Indesign or Quark.

For a seasoned user of InDesign it’s a no-brainer, since even if you don’t have a current Adobe CC subscription you can rent a couple of apps for a month or two, but if — like @Sam Neil and me — you would face a steep learning curve with ID, it can make more sense to stick with what you know.

[MikeW]

Viva Designer supports rtl. It is reasonable cost (especially cross-upgrades) and the upgrades to new versions are inexpensive (about $80). Updates are 18 to 24 months apart with incremental updates about every 4 months or so.

[Twolane]

Unless I'm mistaken, Viva Designer costs $U399 if someone wants to use it for creating book covers on their novels. The free version can't be used to do that. I can create a lot of covers for what I paid for Affinity's threesome.

And while Affinity might be good for me, as MikeW suggests below, Viva Designer is not good for me at 399 bucks. I'm sure it's a steal for many others, though. So carry on, regardless.

Edited to add that I use Publisher for my POD book products exclusively. The interiors rival that of the Big 5 publishers. Judging by what Sam Neil produces, I'd say he too has an excellent product. Obvi a labor of love, give the work he must do to produce his final product.

[MikeW]

2 hours ago, Twolane said:

Unless I'm mistaken, Viva Designer costs $U399 if someone wants to use it for creating book covers on their novels. The free version can't be used to do that. I can create a lot of covers for what I paid for Affinity's threesome.

Good for you. 

[Sam Neil]

21 hours ago, wonderings said:

Having a laugh at what? I make a living with Adobe apps. I would not use them if they did not allow me to get the job done. I would also not go through the headaches of trying to use Indesign if there was a better app suitable for the job. I don't have emotional attachments with my software. A single days orders easily covers our 5 licenses with plenty to spare. Even if I was in a smaller company, if I was not making more then enough in a day to cover my months subscription to Adobe I would think there are bigger things to worry about then what software I am using. I would be curious to know how much time was put into making Publisher work with RTL opposed to how easily it could have been done using an app that supports RTL like Indesign or Quark. 

 

Well we have two different paths - I don't want to have anything to do with Adobe. Affinity despite its issues is a damn easy to use software and I would stick to it as now I have a work around for my RTL projects - So no thank you Adobe! You many be supporting RTL but you are still NOT the right tool for me!

[wonderings]

55 minutes ago, Sam Neil said:

Well we have two different paths - I don't want to have anything to do with Adobe. Affinity despite its issues is a damn easy to use software and I would stick to it as now I have a work around for my RTL projects - So no thank you Adobe! You many be supporting RTL but you are still NOT the right tool for me!

did Adobe hurt your kids? Not sure I could ever be that angry or passionate about not wanting to use a particular piece of software. I have preferences for sure, but nothing that would block me from trying something new, or old. End of the day I want whatever is going to make my life easiest and get the job done right. Each to their own though.