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Please keep Design, Photo and Publisher separate, focused apps.


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I see lots of typography-based feature requests for Affinity Designer. This is not surprising since a lot of us are designers using very mature Adobe software and text wrap, linked text boxes, bullets, columns etc are all essential features for layout.

 

However, we have Photo for photo editing, Designer for illustration and [hopefully soon] Publisher for layout.

 

I think a lot of these "essential" typo features are being requested because Publisher has not yet been released. Designer should not get these advanced type features because they are aimed at layout, not illustration. Typo features that should be in Designer, should be limited to artistic effects like envelope distortions for warping and advanced text on path. My rule of thumb would be "if I can use the feature to design a logo, then it should be in Designer, if it's needed for a brochure, then it should be in Publisher".

 

If we look at the Adobe line-up... sure Illustrator has got a truckload of text features that allow you to do typographic layouts, but I think that's part of Adobe's failings. I have designers who work for me who make me tear my hair out when they insist on using Illustrator for a 20 page brochure – it's possible but it's not the right tool for the job. Then they go and design a logo in PhotoShop – again, possible, but not the tool for the job. (Illustrator REALLY lost the plot when they added multiple pages/artboards)

 

I think this comes from the fact that for many years, Adobe has been adding features from other applications and calling them "upgrades". Instead of innovation and reworking old tools, we just get shared feature sets. This is exactly what I consider to be "application bloat".

 

I hope the developers at Affinity don't give in to all the requests to add missing features to Designer, when these missing features are actually a request for a missing application.

 

Please Affinity, keep your apps focussed, efficient, streamlined and well-considered. Please don't turn all of them into a Jack-of-all-trades. Your pricing is low enough to force me by Publisher if I need typographic features.

 

I'm concerned that when Publisher comes out, customers will pick and choose which, single app they want based on a collection of broad features that satisfy 70% of their needs, and then complain that it's missing features. Rather, we should buy the suite and get all the features we need, than try to get one app upgraded to the point where we don't need the others.

 

I guess my post could also read "Please speed up delivery of Publisher", or at least give us a few more  teasers – even just a full feature list of version 1.0 so we can stop asking for what is already on its way.

 

Thanks guys for great software. I'm very optimistic for the future – a future without the need to have Adobe software on my computer. (and great typographic tools in Publisher is the last stepping stone to that future)

 

:)

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  • 2 years later...

I totally agree with the sentiment of keeping the different packages efficient and streamlined and being (for example) the best Design Software possible, the best Photo Editing Software possible and the best Publishing Software possible with interoperability between packages.. I guess that is what you are doing so don't give in to every feature request for the different Applications. Multifunction tools in any sphere of activity end up not doing anything brilliantly. 

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