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Affinity Publisher - Sneak Preview


TonyB

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7 hours ago, LibreTraining said:

What is the best way to follow Affinity Publisher status updates?

Is there an RSS feed? Email list?

I want to be on the Publisher beta (or alpha) testing team.

 

Welcome to the forums!

You are too early, I suspect, as this thread reveals the earliest glimpse seen outside the in-house development team.

 

In the first post TonyB states "expect the beta next summer" (Windows and Mac, by my understanding, if there's an iPad equivalent it will come considerably later), and Serif states on Twitter "It will be an open beta". The Twitter post also adds the hashtag #patience :D 

Regarding an iPad version, "We are not currently developing Affinity Publisher for IOS." It's not impossible "but we'd be looking at 2019 at the earliest."

 

"All the info that we currently have is what you can see in video. We do not have any other publicly available information available. As soon as we have any news, we'll be sure to let everyone through our Newsletter, Blog, and social media channels." [RSS for the blog].

Regarding signing up for the beta, "There will be a link on our website nearer to the time."

 

There is an RSS feed icon at the bottom right corner of this News and Information sub-forum, but it is not Publisher-specific, it will probably include any Publisher information amongst other news and information.

Likewise, similar Publisher news will probably be included in the Serif Affinity Twitter feed, but it is not Publisher-specific.

No Affinity Publisher specific feed (that I know of), and possibly no reason to have a public feed until a public beta is released (assuming there will be a public beta).

 

When there is a public beta, I would expect a Beta sub-forum similar to what exists for the other public or customer beta versions, each with their own RSS feed.

 

(Incorrectly added links, unclear phrasing, and misinterpretations, are all mine).

 

Note: in the meantime, if you are a Windows user with an urgent project, I believe Serif's older PagePlus can create ebooks in both ePub and ePub 3 fixed-layout formats.

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Thanks obtusity!

I guess I will subscribe to both those RSS feeds, set some keyword alarms, and go back to my cave.

It appears there is a lot of anticipation for this product.

Be happy to do some video tutorials when it is available to help others like me make the transition from CaptiveCloud.

 

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I've been checking the Affinity site since publisher was announced, back in 2006 (:) slight exaggeration, but it feels like it). And now a video showing it actually exists !!!!, it looks really slick !!

I can't wait for the Beta version. Finally, I may be able to buy a new Mac (been holding back because newer MacOS doesn't work well with CS6). I keep getting calls from Adobe asking me to "please come back", after using their software for over 25 years. Not a chance !!

 

I've already switched over to Photo and Designer. If the iPad version of Photo worked on my model of the iPad, I'd buy that too. Keep up the good work !!

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On 1/4/2018 at 10:44 AM, Gaz said:

I've been checking the Affinity site since publisher was announced, back in 2006 (:) slight exaggeration, but it feels like it). And now a video showing it actually exists !!!!, it looks really slick !!

I can't wait for the Beta version. Finally, I may be able to buy a new Mac (been holding back because newer MacOS doesn't work well with CS6). I keep getting calls from Adobe asking me to "please come back", after using their software for over 25 years. Not a chance !!

 

I've already switched over to Photo and Designer. If the iPad version of Photo worked on my model of the iPad, I'd buy that too. Keep up the good work !!

 

Hehe, Adobe is getting mighty nervous. When the Affinity Suite reaches its full potential through updates, the majority of graphic designers and digital artists will probably shift over and put a noticeable dent in Adobe's profits for creative cloud. I don't like paying for software I don't use. The only separate plan Adobe has is for photographers, not for graphic designers. I got both Workbooks on my desk right now. Since Digital art is a hobby right now, I am not required to use photoshop. Thank to the Serif Team I can export as a photoshop file when I decide to do digital art full time.

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I doubt that the feeling Adobe has is nervousness. I would suspect they are watching and making plans, though. 

 

It will take some years for APub to compete competently. And some time once APub is competitive for many creatives to switch. Even then it will take other factors to achieve market penetration that would make Adobe feel nervous. 

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9 hours ago, MikeW said:

I doubt that the feeling Adobe has is nervousness. I would suspect they are watching and making plans, though. 

I Feel the same, Adobe is for long time on the market and peoples used it for years, and simply they will not switch to learn new ways to do stuff, and for last - this is a big suite, nowdays graphic designer is NOT just a graphic designer, it's more obvious to be motion designer also (After Effects, Animate CC) or Video Editor (Premiere Pro). Adobe has solutions for that and for that simple reason switching is a such problem. My freelance worklfolw right now looks like so: AD and AP for graphic design, Davinci Resolve for video editing but Adobe with his After Effects and InDesign still remains. And those two last program keeping me to continue beign screwd by ~63E per month subscription.

If You know any good alternative to AE, please let me know.

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Yes, people are used to Adobe, but no one is used to "blackmailing". So, maybe not all of them, but a great percentage are searching for appropriate alternatives, for sure.

All the latest releases of Designer, Photo and Publisher (retail and beta) on MacOS and Windows.
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Obviously Adobe has a good suite of programs, very complete. But there are some things that are not really good.

 

Until the CC a graphic designer had the opportunity to buy a part of the suite dedicated to him, Illustrator, Photoshop, in design and Acrobat pro. This could keep it since a designer could choose other products for video, for example Final cut, or for web graphics other applications that you like more ... today you are forced to use only Adobe because you already pay for it !!!

 

Often the main updates bring little news, I understand that they are mature products but if you ask me for the money I have to have something in return. too often Adobe products are slow.

 

Affinity products are young and do not yet have all the features of Adobe but they are very fast. For example, AD allows you to draw directly within the program, for the construction of the graphics is a very important thing and you do not have to go from one application to another.

For many designers AD can be almost a unique application.

 

Seeing the three icons on the Publisher I have the feeling that tomorrow we could create a unique creative work without ever leaving our program ... this is an old dream of almost 30 years of graphic work!

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I think the “good” people at Abode are very happy with us believing we have no choice and that the future is subscription only for all software.

 

I don’t believe that.

 

I ditched Master Suite CS6 for Davinci Resolve, Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer, Master PDF Editor Pro and Microsoft Publisher.
Adobe are better in some cases but not all. Davinci is better than Premiere IMO but in other cases I can deal with a few “shortcomings” to break free from Shantanu Narayen and his “vision”.

 

Adobe has bought some great software over the years to make a solid suite but they are not immune to falling from grace.

 

Quark was number one for years but look what happened to them.

 

Think about this:

  • Quark

  • Blackberry

  • Finale Cut

At one point they were all untouchable.

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2 hours ago, Filo63 said:

Affinity products are young and do not yet have all the features of Adobe but they are very fast. For example, AD allows you to draw directly within the program, for the construction of the graphics is a very important thing and you do not have to go from one application to another.

For many designers AD can be almost a unique application.

 

This.

 

To top a company like Adobe, it will take time not just to deliver the features but also to incorporate them in a certain way and to continue to be loyal to the customers. In a fast paced business world, workers may not always take the time to look for easier software. The people look for simplicity and user friendliness, but recognition can help get word out there. And I think we former Illustrator users know how long it can take for effects to load compared to Affinity. It will take small baby steps to get up there, but Affinity is doing a great job and got rewards and much recognition so early in their business. That is a powerful indication that they are on the right track. And I also noticed that a greedy Adobe employee grew pointy ears.

The website is still a work in progress. The "Comics" and "Shop" sections are not yet ready. Feel free to connect with me and let me know what you like or what can be improved. You can contact me here, on my contact page, YouTube channel, or Twitter account. Thanks and have a great day!

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On 14/12/2017 at 4:03 PM, TonyB said:

Affinity Publisher sneak peek! Just to prove we're not making the whole thing up, check out this early build of our DTP app. Still lots of perfecting to do; expect the beta next summer. Enjoy.

 

We will try and answer any questions here.

 

 

 

Teasers!

iMac: iMac (Retina 4K, 21.5-inch, 2017)  -   3.4 GHz Intel Core i5   -   8 GB 2400 MHz DDR4  -  Radeon Pro 560 4096 MB 

Windows: Nvidia GTX 960m 4k UHD 2gb ram video (Windows 10 Pro) -  Laptop screen (resolution 3840x2160 magnified 300%)

2nd Monitor: Phillips 226E9Q HD 1920 x 1080 (125%)

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Edited by myself . Too large wall of text, being also a bit off topic with the thread.

 

Summary would have been: No, I don't think they're nervous. But yep, I'm positive and sure they see it like a threat (and that line smoothing feature...Hmmm... I'm sure they are watching these forums and Serifs developments, and also Nezumi utility, CSP... (totally reigning in comic field for a lot of pros)), and not enjoying loosing a portion of sells, like with the other alternatives. Corel and Xara were not also "nice to have" as competitors (corel Painter was always  better for painting, even if I preferred always PS for its versatility), they indeed have an important portion of the market, but not big enough, neither covering the range of features needed so fully. And now is not a good time, with latest huge performance issues in the brush engine and in general usage, memory, resources, etc, in PS CC 2018 (just check a bazillion forums, including oficial ones, on internet...), that plus some other issues, often introduced in every CC version. Not nervous, but they shouldn't feel too confident, specially mid/long term. And in the meantime till that, they are loosing a nice number of customers. Even if one does not loose the hegemonic domination due to that, is not nice for marketing/sells teams and business owners, investors, etc.

 

IMO, Affinity covers a niche not so well attended till now : Really angry with the forced renting  individuals, but who also want/need an essential range of pro features, required by the market,  and pro workflows covered, specially in photography, general image editing (putting in this group also a ton of professional uses of even non related to image editing professions)  and in print jobs area (my main worry for raster and vector tools. I can do just fine painting in other tools, I like and have many others, need Affinity for the profesional editing and output (for me, A.Designer is already a full solution)). And judging by what I have been reading and detecting over some years, this group of people is... quite large. Not the majority, but very big in numbers of non converted, lost money.

AD, AP and APub. V1.10.6 and V2.4 Windows 10 and Windows 11. 
Ryzen 9 3900X, 32 GB RAM,  RTX 3060 12GB, Wacom Intuos XL, Wacom L. Eizo ColorEdge CS 2420 monitor. Windows 10 Pro.
(Laptop) HP Omen 16-b1010ns 12700H, 32GB DDR5, nVidia RTX 3060 6GB + Huion Kamvas 22 pen display, Windows 11 Pro.

 

 

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Well competition is generally stimulating the business and hopefully also again the joy of development.

However I pretty doubt that this giant in the graphics domain has to fear something or to get easily nervous at all. They have a pretty strong source code pool with solutions for mostly everything in these segments, add to that huge resources and manpower (in contrast to their much smaller competitors). Over the years they also established the defacto industry format standards here, which all other have to fight with. If they really would loose much sells and customers to their competitors, they for sure would rethink to change their distribution models or then would maybe drive double-railed here.

BTW for people who dislike cloud based software leasing models, the actual CPU known security vulnerabilities will pretty much show, aka if that leaves it's marks to clouds and servers based computing at all or not.

Related to APublisher, the whole here sounds to me somehow like David vs Goliath, let's hope that David will make his way well...

☛ Affinity Designer 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Photo 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Publisher 1.10.8 ◆ OSX El Capitan
☛ Affinity V2.3 apps ◆ MacOS Sonoma 14.2 ◆ iPad OS 17.2

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Still, I can't see it as a small thing... Kind of... I am not a very rare case. Maybe yes in the fact that I handle several profiles (but this is more common now than some years ago), but other than that, an old, er, kind of professional, and I don't see myself going back to PS due to the current renting model, having gone out of the Adobe bubble allowed me to know some really great alternative approaches, which I was ignoring, the better implementation of painting tools in certain other software, and realizing the excessive hardware resources usage currently happening in PS. And in each profile, am not too much different to other people working at this. I mean, I tend to go with the average Joe stats....While I firmly agree that anyone going for just working at companies, to fill specific very detailed profiles, there's absolutely no other route than going with the standards (PS, Max, Zbrush, Illustrator, etc), I have met and known a good number of small studios and freelancers opting for alternatives, in many fields, but specially 2D editing, video and 3D modeling/rendering, etc. I don't believe is going to be a matter of some isolated cases. We're not speaking here (indeed I've never thought so) that Adobe is going to loose its reign (but maybe yep step down to a less monopolistic position (even if slightly, tho the at least freedom to use other thing for an individual, is a giant step for many of us), that's my 2 cents of a suspicion) , but that the whole thing is going to gain a bit in diversity, and this bit, while small in percentage, could be large in absolute numbers (so, in money) and definitely in the quality of art and design produced with the alternatives (as I don't reduce it to the Affinity suite, though could be a major front).  I more  than just suspect that... Plus, I consider already quite a thing that you can -or will be able to do so-  realistically opt for doing all your work as a freelance with an alternative suite.(I've done so for a while with other alternatives/specific task tools, but I mean more for the masses of freelancers, with a bit less of the (old) "Mac Gyver type" attitude ;) (those who have done things this way are less common (doesn't mean better), I admit it)  , and more of ex employees making their own business, advanced hobbyists and small to mid size companies cutting expenses. ) . But again, not a world domination kind of thing, lol, just we all  -including those staying with Adobe, or specially those, we'd be making the dirty work for them, so several of their decades long petitions might start to be heard, just to mention one of the advantages for them- can/surely will gain in diversity of tools, surely in quality of each solution, and most probably, get a bit less of the monopolistic tactics.

AD, AP and APub. V1.10.6 and V2.4 Windows 10 and Windows 11. 
Ryzen 9 3900X, 32 GB RAM,  RTX 3060 12GB, Wacom Intuos XL, Wacom L. Eizo ColorEdge CS 2420 monitor. Windows 10 Pro.
(Laptop) HP Omen 16-b1010ns 12700H, 32GB DDR5, nVidia RTX 3060 6GB + Huion Kamvas 22 pen display, Windows 11 Pro.

 

 

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I just want invasive companies like Adobe out of my computers.

I had one computer where we installed only Acrobat Pro - and then we watched how many times per day it tried to connect to Abobe. We let it connect, but had the wirewall notify us each time. This was with all the cloud and acrobat.com crap turned-off.

It was ridiclous. No application needs to phone-home 6-8 times in an eight hour shift.

When I am not using an Adobe application I want all their apps off.

Stop all the Adobe processes and services, and they keep coming back.

They have secretly added tasks buried in the Windows Task Scheduler to restart all their crap.

Delete all those and you can actully run your system without Adobe processes running 24/7, and contacting Adobe multiple times per day.

Thank you to who ever mentioned QuarkXPress - have not looked at it in years - it appears it can replace InDesign for our epub needs. Even has unique features not in ID. Going to test and see if it has all other needs covered.

For PDF editing mostly we use PDF X-Change Editor. Just got some other PDF editors to test. One has a built-in feature to add links to index entries (currently using an Acrobat plug-in to do this).

So the only thing we need Acrobat for is to edit the page numbers to match the page text. Once we find another tool to do this - Acrobat is gone. Anyone know of an alternative with that feature?

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QuarkXPress does the same here, especially their update checking tool.

☛ Affinity Designer 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Photo 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Publisher 1.10.8 ◆ OSX El Capitan
☛ Affinity V2.3 apps ◆ MacOS Sonoma 14.2 ◆ iPad OS 17.2

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1 hour ago, v_kyr said:

QuarkXPress does the same here, especially their update checking tool.

No, it runs as a service and only checks at the entered schedule. As well, you can switch it to manual and it doesn't phone home.

 

The check for a license only occurs if something the license is tied to changes according to the system check. I have one system not even connected to the Internet and it is happy with it.

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16 hours ago, bor said:

I Feel the same, Adobe is for long time on the market and peoples used it for years, and simply they will not switch to learn new ways to do stuff, and for last - this is a big suite, nowdays graphic designer is NOT just a graphic designer, it's more obvious to be motion designer also (After Effects, Animate CC) or Video Editor (Premiere Pro). Adobe has solutions for that and for that simple reason switching is a such problem. My freelance worklfolw right now looks like so: AD and AP for graphic design, Davinci Resolve for video editing but Adobe with his After Effects and InDesign still remains. And those two last program keeping me to continue beign screwd by ~63E per month subscription.

If You know any good alternative to AE, please let me know.

 

There is another EXCELLENT program that is right under your nose, and you missed it! It is called Fusion, and it is made by the same folks who develop DaVinci Resolve, Blackmagic Design. In fact, it is older and more mature than DaVinci Resolve, and quite honestly, its node-based architecture makes it MUCH easier, both to learn AND to use. It is simply amazing, and has a VERY active support community. around it. There is a TON of YouTube videos available for Fusion, as well as full-blown tutorial courses. I recommend this one to get your feet wet: http://tale2tell.com/fusion-tutorials/. Of course, you will need to un-learn some things, but once you get the concept. flexibility and power of nodes, everything else will fall into place for you rather quickly. It is also rather intuitive to use, but not as much as the Affinity family, though.

 

As for InDesign, I have been using Affinity Designer very effectively, even for posters and multi-page spreads. It does most of what I used ID for previously, and it does it MUCH better. The only thing that I have missed is the ability to manage text flows for long documents. But if you are not dealing with long documents like books, but truly are using ID primarily for graphic design, then you really need to move to Designer, really! One of the many surprising things I learned after using the Affinity family of products, is how much I was being handicapped by the crappy design of the entire Adobe suite. Designer is so much more intuitive, responsive and a pure joy to use. It also makes for a quicker workflow, too!

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3 hours ago, LibreTraining said:

For PDF editing mostly we use PDF X-Change Editor. Just got some other PDF editors to test. One has a built-in feature to add links to index entries (currently using an Acrobat plug-in to do this).

So the only thing we need Acrobat for is to edit the page numbers to match the page text. Once we find another tool to do this - Acrobat is gone. Anyone know of an alternative with that feature?

 

A couple of good alternatives are PDF Element 6 Pro for Mac/Windows, or PDF Expert for Mac/iOS. They are both just as good as, if not better, than Acrobat. 

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14 minutes ago, Michael Sheaver said:

A couple of good alternatives are PDF Element 6 Pro for Mac/Windows, or PDF Expert for Mac/iOS. They are both just as good as, if not better, than Acrobat. 

 

Unless one is using the preflight capabilities of Acrobat...

 

To my knowledge, there are only two PDF applications capable of actually running preflight checks and fixups and those are Adobe Acrobat and callas pdfToolbox...and callas makes the preflight and fixups in Adobe Acrobat (it is licensed to Adobe).

 

Mike

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It's good to see Affinity making progress with their software and the upcoming page layout program looks promising. I am using Affinity Designer as my main drawing program now and for the most part enjoying it, but to say it's a better program than Illustrator at the moment simply isn't true. There are still improvements to be made and I hope Affinity are in this for the long haul.

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4 hours ago, Michael Sheaver said:

There is another EXCELLENT program that is right under your nose, and you missed it! It is called Fusion

Yep, i notice that, even already installed some time ago, but after years of using AE, i just cannot sip into it. I give it shot in near time though.

 

4 hours ago, Michael Sheaver said:

Affinity Designer very effectively, even for posters and multi-page spreads.

AD is not suitable for part of my job, where i need to design many spreads in periodic magazines which i working on, it's just not designet to be able do this like AP or ID

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