Affinity Publisher Beta?

[sharabba]

Does anyone know when Affinity Publisher will come out for a beta. Seeing there are 1.6 betas for both Designer and Photo, is there going to be a Publisher beta sometime soon?

 

Thanks

[MEB]

Hi sharabba,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

No, it will still take some time until Publisher becomes available as a Beta. Currently there's no definite eta.

[Alfred]

On 06/06/2017 at 0:49 AM, MEB said:

Currently there's no definite eta.

 

That's an interesting concept, Miguel! An ETA is an "Estimated Time of Arrival", so since it's estimated it can never be definite.

[MEB]

Time to take a break....!

[Alfred]

Excellent advice, which I'm just about to follow. G'night!  

[Zbigg]

On 6.06.2017 at 1:49 AM, MEB said:

Hi sharabba,

Welcome to Affinity Forums

No, it will still take some time until Publisher becomes available as a Beta. Currently there's no definite eta.

Hi guys!

 

Any news in terms of Publisher?

[MEB]

Hi Zbigg,

No, not yet. We will let everyone know as soon as there's news (it will be announced here in the forums and on social media).

[fdelaneau]

The more we wait the more our expectations are building. Be wary 

[despin]

World you be so kind to keep me up to date please with the beta. I am anxious to dump the whole Adobe thing.

I don't check here often because nothing is happening (that we can see...  give us a sneek peek please. Even a screenshot will make us go wild

info@despin.be

[000]

You can simply sign up to Affinitys newsletter – I'm sure they are going to announce it when there's something to announce.

[fdelaneau]

Random thought : Since all Affinity apps share the same file format, Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo needs to be able to handle linked text blocks. Otherwise, you won't be able to resize a linked text block.

 

At that point what are the features that would make Affinity Publisher different from AD ?

 

Pages and spreads for sure… but what else ?

Note that the features problem is the same, since you need to be able to edit the file in AD or AP so both need to support pages and spreads.

[Alfred]

On 19/09/2017 at 1:26 PM, fdelaneau said:

Random thought : Since all Affinity apps share the same file format, Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo needs to be able to handle linked text blocks. Otherwise, you won't be able to resize a linked text block.

 

The crucial point is that Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo only need to be able to understand and to modify linked text blocks: they don't need to (and apparently won't ever) be able to create them. This is no different from being able to change live filter settings in AD or edit artboards in APh.

 

[fdelaneau]

Yes but that means that appart from the button itself, most of the code that runs the behaviour must be implemented in all 3 apps.

 

I didn’t thought of that initially and this feels like something that might potentially cramp an app development as each app team need to wait for the others to implement their new feature before they can release it to the public.

[R C-R]

4 hours ago, Alfred said:

The crucial point is that Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo only need to be able to understand and to modify linked text blocks: they don't need to (and apparently won't ever) be able to create them.

Perhaps more significant is that the native Affinity file format must include provisions to include the link data in the files, so unless the changes made to the format made for the 1.6 versions already include that capability, yet another updated version of the native file format will be required.

[fdelaneau]

Has can be expected, the file format will evolve, I’m not too much worried by that... as Long as the older files can still be opened. 

 

By the way, I’m still amazed at how much more efficient the file format is compared to PSD.

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, fdelaneau said:

Has can be expected, the file format will evolve, I’m not too much worried by that... as Long as the older files can still be opened. 

Judging by the prior change(s) to the format, that should not be a problem, but it won't work the other way, which has sometimes been a problem for users creating files on the iPad version (which uses the 1.6 format) & wanting to work on them in the 1.5.x desktop versions.

1 hour ago, fdelaneau said:

By the way, I’m still amazed at how much more efficient the file format is compared to PSD.

For me, this has been true -- I have converted a lot of old PSD files created in PhotoShop Elements to Affinity's native format & see as much as 50% or so reduction in file sizes -- but some users are reporting either no significant reductions or sometimes an increase, so I do not know what to make of that.

[Dave Harris]

21 hours ago, fdelaneau said:

Yes but that means that appart from the button itself, most of the code that runs the behaviour must be implemented in all 3 apps.

 

I didn’t thought of that initially and this feels like something that might potentially cramp an app development as each app team need to wait for the others to implement their new feature before they can release it to the public.

Yes, that's how it works. It's not as bad as it sounds because the apps share a common code base and we work closely together. It's less work to update other apps on the same platform than it is to update the same app on a different platform, so having Publisher doesn't increase that burden much. Whenever a new apps is released or an app changes, the other apps will be updated shortly after. These updates are free.

[fdelaneau]

@Dave Harris That is a good news indeed. I completely understand why you Launched the Windows versions quickly but the trade-off is a few more constraints.

 

PS. I wonder if you plan to exploit Apple Core ML or if you don’t even try since it would be Mac only feature ?

 

PPS. I think we can assume that everyone here knows that the upgrades are free and we are all so so grateful for that. Thanks !

[Alfred]

2 hours ago, fdelaneau said:

PPS. I think we can assume that everyone here knows that the upgrades are free and we are all so so grateful for that. Thanks !

 

I think we can assume that most of us are grateful that the point releases are free, but I don't think it's safe to assume that everyone knows this! There are frequent questions about the pricing structure, and plenty of confusion about the difference between point releases (free updates) and major releases (paid-for upgrades).

[fdelaneau]

I don’t know… I might be too used to the shareware price model where you pay for major releases and "minor" updates are free.

For me it still seems like the norm and subscriptions are a few exceptions.

 

Anyway, I can’t wait to send them my money in exchange for Affinity Publisher 

[Bri-Toon]

On 9/20/2017 at 10:11 AM, fdelaneau said:

Yes but that means that appart from the button itself, most of the code that runs the behaviour must be implemented in all 3 apps.

 

Keep in mind that the implementations may need to use a certain approach. When you transfer a file over to another program, like from Designer to Photo, the structure does change slightly. Layers will turn to groups, but once you transfer the file back over to the program it originated from, you will have it in the same format it started with. Just be careful with what tools you use on a file made in another application.

 

On 9/19/2017 at 8:26 AM, fdelaneau said:

At that point what are the features that would make Affinity Publisher different from AD ?

 

Pages and spreads for sure… but what else ?

 

Actually, pages are planned to come to Designer as well.

[R C-R]

6 minutes ago, Bri-Toon said:

When you transfer a file over to another program, like from Designer to Photo, the structure does change slightly. Layers will turn to groups ...

??? Maybe I am misunderstanding what you mean, but this is not happening for me when switching between editing an Affinity document in AP & AD. Layers remain layers, groups remain groups, & so on.

 

Anything destructive, like flattening a multilayer AD document in AP, is permanently destructive if the file is saved in that form, but one of the nicer features of the suite is you can switch between the two apps using the File menu > Edit in AD or AP item & the history is retained, so even that is undoable.

[fdelaneau]

@Bri-Toon Like R C-R, I never noticed such a behavior. It feels more like a bug to me then something intentional. 

[Bri-Toon]

And obviously, it's been a while since I used Photo for such a task. 

 

I confused Photo's New Group button thinking it substituted for Designer's New Layer button since I don't think nested vector layers can be created through Photo. I just learned adult layers stay the same when being transferred over. In other words, take me with a grain of salt.

[Dave Harris]

21 hours ago, fdelaneau said:

PPS. I think we can assume that everyone here knows that the upgrades are free and we are all so so grateful for that. Thanks !

The reason I mention it is that it's a crucial part of the plan to keep all three apps in sync across all three platforms. We feel we can add new Publisher features that will prevent old versions of Designer from loading Publisher files, if you can update to the version of Designer that will load them without friction.