Using Affinity to Lay out a Children's Book

[Charla Perry]

Hello,

I am new to the world of graphic design and using design software. Thanks to the informative videos I have found via this site, YouTube and Lynda.com., I am slowing learning. I have purchased Affinity Designer and the text book. I have illustrated and written a children's book, "The Exciting Travels of Tuffie and Giuseppe" (www.tuffieandgiuseppe.com) and used Microsoft Publisher to lay it out. I would now like to try and lay out my next book using Affinity Designer. My first book has 25 pages of about 30 paintings. I use 8.5 x 11 inch mixed media paper with acrylic ink. This is so that I can scan my artwork using a home scanner. I would love to hear any advice or about other experiences using Affinity Designer to lay out something like a very visual children's book. I also bought a Huion 1060 drawing pad which I am currently learning how to use. Thank you Ronnie McBride for your many informative tutorials.

Thanks, Charla Perry 

[Callum]

Hi Charla Perry,

 

Another person on the forums has actually created and published a children's book in Affinity Designer! I'm hoping @mystrawberrymonkey will drop by and give you some tips!

 

Thanks

Callum

[My Strawberry Monkey]

Thanks @Callum

 

Hi Charla,

 

I have also created a book or two inside of Designer. All my stuff is vector, can't draw by hand unfortunately, but slowly learning. My book size was based on the Hey Duggee, Peppa Pig books as mine is a very similar style. So I created 35 or so artboards (inc spine, front and back cover and blank inside cover) for the layout once I knew the size I wanted to print at with 3mm margins (acting as bleeds) so I knew what would be cut off when printed and what would be safe.

 

Here is a link to the site http://www.mystrawberrymonkey.com 

 

If you have any questions, feel free to ask and I will do my best to answer. 

 

 

Allan

[A_B_C]

I also created a few print jobs with Affinity Designer, and I can say it worked pretty well. Though I must admit, I always set up my bleed areas manually. That means, I used a larger document size and placed my crop marks etc. on the larger canvas as needed. I believe somebody had posted a description of how to do so, but unfortunately, I cannot find it at the moment … 

 

As Allan said, feel free to ask if you have any additional questions …

Alex 

[Alfred]

38 minutes ago, A_B_C said:

I also created a few print jobs with Affinity Designer, and I can say it worked pretty well. Though I must admit, I always set up my bleed areas manually. That means, I used a larger document size and placed my crop marks etc. on the larger canvas as needed. I believe somebody had posted a description of how to do so, but unfortunately, I cannot find it at the moment … 

 

As Allan said, feel free to ask if you have any additional questions …

Alex 

 

Allan himself put up a video tutorial on YouTube a couple of years ago. You can see it here.

[A_B_C]

Ha, that’s funny …