Jump to content
You must now use your email address to sign in [click for more info] ×

Affinity Publisher - Sneak Preview


TonyB

Recommended Posts

  • Staff
16 minutes ago, VIPStephan said:

I suppose since current Affinity programs support the import of Photoshop and Illustrator files (and since Serif wants people to switch), it would be stupid if APub wouldn’t also support InDesign files, so the question is kind of moot. :)

 

We only support Illustrator via the embedded PDF stream but I get your point. Photoshop file format is also mainly undocumented so again is a constant battle for us to support but we feel it's very important.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, TonyB said:

 

InDesign IDML files are something we would like to support. The format is very large and complex so will not make it into the initial release but we will support them in the future.

 

Hi Tony, feel free to contact me on David AT Markzware DOT nl for we may be able to assist. You can delete this message if you see fit, of course. LOL

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Welcome to the Serif Affinity Forums, David. :)

 

26 minutes ago, Markzware said:

Markzware

 

It would be great if Affinity Publisher could support QuarkXPress documents as well as InDesign files. ;)

 

Alfred spacer.png
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 minutes ago, Alfred said:

Welcome to the Serif Affinity Forums, David. :)

 

 

It would be great if Affinity Publisher could support QuarkXPress documents as well as InDesign files. ;)

 

 

Or for Affinity to release Import plugins later for PP/ID/QX 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Staff

It would be wonderful and I marvel at the optimism in this thread, but Affinity Publisher is not going to replace InDesign, PagePlus and QuarkXPress (and all your QXP plugins written because after n-years QuarkXPress still didn't have all the features everyone wanted) by the time Affinity Publisher launches. It will be good, but to think it will instantly replace all the market leaders from the last 15 years would take a lot of (dis)belief.

It just goes to show how keen you are to move away from the current offerings, which we appreciate.

However with our ground up suite based approach there is a chance we can deliver the next great go to tool.

Patrick Connor
Serif Europe Ltd

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility lies in being superior to your previous self."  W. L. Sheldon

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

28 minutes ago, LCamachoDesign said:

I find this worrying... tables are an essential feature even in a word processor, let alone a DTP. :/

 

Essential for you, perhaps, but I’m sure there are many users of word-processing and DTP software who never use tables. Besides, as anyone who has used an old-fashioned typewriter will know, there are workarounds.

Alfred spacer.png
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Maybe we the windows users are a little bit spoiled since we got a more complete version for designer and photo :P

Current Workstation:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5500 - MOBO: Asus B450 - RAM: 16GB DDR4 2667Mhz - GPU: AMD Radeon 7850 1GB
NVMe SSD: Crusial P3 1TB M.2 -  SSD: Samsung Evo 850 256GB  - PSU: XFX TS450 - OS: Win10

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Some of us Windows users are quite happy with the way things go. :D

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.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the Great AD and AP. DTP is still used by commercial houses, but honestly, the world seems to be moving to e documents. I use Apple iBooks Author. It is free, but if you want to use all the widget functionality ( 3D Collada files, Video, etc) you have to publish to the iBooks store and give Apple 30% (the file format is xxx.iBooks instead of xxx.ePUB). Yes, you can publish anywhere in the open format, PDF or ePUB, but you lose all the widget functionality. I guess you can guess where I am going....sure would be nice it Serif would create the widget 3D, video capabilities, Q and A testing, etc of ePUB in a more open environment for eBooks. Thanks

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On ‎27‎/‎02‎/‎2018 at 10:01 AM, Patrick Connor said:

It would be wonderful and I marvel at the optimism in this thread, but Affinity Publisher is not going to replace InDesign, PagePlus and QuarkXPress (and all your QXP plugins written because after n-years QuarkXPress still didn't have all the features everyone wanted) by the time Affinity Publisher launches. It will be good, but to think it will instantly replace all the market leaders from the last 15 years would take a lot of (dis)belief.

It just goes to show how keen you are to move away from the current offerings, which we appreciate.

However with our ground up suite based approach there is a chance we can deliver the next great go to tool.

I'm actually hoping that Publisher replaces Illustrator, not InDesign. Illy's text engine is miserable and 2018 update broke it in a number of frustrating ways. If I can produce packaging design without fighting the engine all the time it's already a plus.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

27 minutes ago, LCamachoDesign said:

I'm actually hoping that Publisher replaces Illustrator, not InDesign. Illy's text engine is miserable and 2018 update broke it in a number of frustrating ways. If I can produce packaging design without fighting the engine all the time it's already a plus.

 

Why would you want a DTP app to replace Illy? Designer should do the job once your current concerns about it are addressed: it already has good text handling, and if you want to produce packaging design I can’t imagine that the continued absence of linked text frames would bother you too much.

Alfred spacer.png
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Alfred said:

I can’t imagine that the continued absence of linked text frames would bother you too much.

Alfred ... is not linked text frames one of the core features of a desktop publishing program? I am not challenging you rather I do not understand the comment.

Thanks

Affinity Designer 2.2.2075 & beta 2.3.1.2212 Affinity Photo 2.2.2075  beta 2.3.1.2212Affinity Publisher  2.2.2075 & beta 2.3.1.2212

Windows 11 Pro Version    22H2
OS build    22621.1928
Processor    Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-10700 CPU @ 2.90GHz   2.90 GHz
Installed RAM    16.0 GB (15.7 GB usable)
System type    64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

yoda.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, Rick G said:

Alfred ... is not linked text frames one of the core features of a desktop publishing program?

 

Yes, of course it is, Rick! Please see below for an edited version of my previous post, which I hope clarifies the point I was trying to make.

 

2 hours ago, Alfred said:

Why would you want a DTP app [such as Affinity Publisher] to replace Illy? Designer ... already has good text handling, and if you want to produce packaging design I can’t imagine that the continued absence of linked text frames [in Designer] would bother you too much.

 

Alfred spacer.png
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, Alfred said:

 

Yes, of course it is, Rick! Please see below for an edited version of my previous post, which I hope clarifies the point I was trying to make.

 

 

Thank you sir. My coffee has not kicked in yet

Affinity Designer 2.2.2075 & beta 2.3.1.2212 Affinity Photo 2.2.2075  beta 2.3.1.2212Affinity Publisher  2.2.2075 & beta 2.3.1.2212

Windows 11 Pro Version    22H2
OS build    22621.1928
Processor    Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-10700 CPU @ 2.90GHz   2.90 GHz
Installed RAM    16.0 GB (15.7 GB usable)
System type    64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

yoda.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, Alfred said:

 

Why would you want a DTP app to replace Illy? Designer should do the job once your current concerns about it are addressed: it already has good text handling, and if you want to produce packaging design I can’t imagine that the continued absence of linked text frames would bother you too much.

DTP's tend to have better typographic control and better asset placement/management. Illustrator has historically been used for packaging and other sorts of design work (posters, brochures, leaflets, etc) because 1. it was an additional expense to buy InDesign for both designer and printer/manufacturer, but mainly 2. InDesign is a massive beast of complexity and terrible UI choices, if you want to do just a couple of pages you'll get it done faster in Illustrator.

Illustrator is a vector DRAWING application, it would have no business in doing any sort of layout, or content handling, it should be used for illustration and drawings only. But the unwieldiness of the proper application for this (InDesign) has turned it into the default choice.

Anyway, I digress, I'll take whatever does the job best and fastest.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 minutes ago, LCamachoDesign said:

...

Illustrator is a vector DRAWING application, it would have no business in doing any sort of layout, or content handling, it should be used for illustration and drawings only...

 

Just a tidbit. Adobe has used Illy for their manuals in the past. Seems silly to me.

 

And to Alfred,

 

When I was using PP regularly but also had DP installed, I never used DP for a brochure or flier. And if I had DP installed today (PP still is), I wouldn't use it for such work.

 

If frame threading never makes it to AD (silly decision to exclude it), I too would opt to use APub for simple work over AD. Oh, and if image/resource linking doesn't make it to either, I may make a flier, a poster, etc., in AD or APub (whichever makes sense for the job), but wouldn't use either for serious work until such time as linking is available.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 minutes ago, MikeW said:

If frame threading never makes it to AD (silly decision to exclude it), I too would opt to use APub for simple work over AD.

 

For a brochure or flyer, of course you would, but for packaging design? :/

 

Alfred spacer.png
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, Alfred said:

 

For a brochure or flyer, of course you would, but for packaging design? :/

 

 

I suppose it depends on what packaging design means. But I have done packaging design in, well, about everything I have used. Unless I need labeled measurements and/or die-lines, I have use Q, ID, AI, XDP, CD, etc. About the only application I have never used for a package design is Viva Designer. If die-lines need created, I'll just use CD from the start. But typographically (simply meaning type elements here), CD is slower than say Q is to layout the text, size it, etc.

 

Even so, there may be elements I do use a vector application for and place into the layout application. Like nutritional labels. Hence but one reason I want linked assets in both APub and AD.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

AD is fine for few pages, I have managed a 12 page catalog so far and I will push it all the way to 24 pages just to see where are the limits.

I can sacrifice some control over the text for more design freedom, with indesign and illustrator I had to be back and forth between the 2 to change design elements even for a 4 pages brochure.

Now I simple make the whole thing in AD, even if it start to slow down because of the many pictures, I find it easier and faster to just make it page by page in ad (to avoid the slowdown).

Sure it is not and I hope it will never be a DTP program (I don't want it to end up like the adobe behemoths that try to do everything and end up with a complex, huge and slow program) but as far as a few pages work go (or multi pages with low demands on text control) I think it handle.

I will agree for linked assets, they are a pain if you forget to embed them but they will make the whole work so much easier. Actually this is the only pain I have with doing DTP work in AD, in the first draft I place a picture that need background removal and I remove the background later, I have to insert the picture again and add again the right attributes. With a linked file I should at worst had to update the link.

Current Workstation:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5500 - MOBO: Asus B450 - RAM: 16GB DDR4 2667Mhz - GPU: AMD Radeon 7850 1GB
NVMe SSD: Crusial P3 1TB M.2 -  SSD: Samsung Evo 850 256GB  - PSU: XFX TS450 - OS: Win10

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The need to create a DTP software by Affinity I believe is aware that AD has some limitations in the management of many pages.

 

See the AP and AD icons in the interface foreshadowing advanced interoperability.

 

What would give me great satisfaction is to have the possibility to isolate and modify every single element of the paginated form in the "persona" AD or AP.

It would be a great thing to be able to concentrate simply on a single element isolated from the graphic context.

 

Obviously all the tools of the text will be necessary for a good job.

 

In fact all this happens in Adobe products but often it is very rough and with an interface too complex.

A new way of seeing and doing things is the great news of Affinity ... keep it up !!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 2/28/2018 at 8:47 PM, MikeW said:

 

Just a tidbit. Adobe has used Illy for their manuals in the past. Seems silly to me.

 

 

Manuals was written and produced with FrameMaker, long before InDesign existed at all and I assume, they are written still with FrameMaker, and not only by Adobe. Best former DTP and probably still today. Bad only Adobe killed it for OS X/MacOS. I was using FrameMaker at times of NeXTStep and it already had at least all the functions asked for in this blog. So that might be the goal for Affinity Publisher at first.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

While noticing today's new upgrades for AP and AD, I stumbled across this news and the video. Sounds great! 

 

While I oftentimes hate to admit it, I started out on PageMaker 1.0 with the then brand new LaserWriter ($6k+) and Mac SE. I not only used virtually all early DTP/graphics software and new iterations for many of my companies (including a media production company), I also taught the software during its several-year rollout. Also evangelized and set-up numerous ad agencies, media producers, newspapers, printers and university "commercial art" departments in the "new" electronic publishing and graphics methods and equipment/software. Over the years, I used and taught most of the popular software packages. Some good, many terrible. I came from the "manual" world, so understood what was really needed for day-to-day production versus flashy features.

 

My 2¢ on the new A-Publisher is that I hope it can correctly open recent InDesign documents (we've stayed pre-cloud). While I saw one poster who wondered why anyone wanted to open an old document, the reality of media production has been and still is the ability to use the thousands of client files we store to either update materials, specifications, pics, etc., or to use an old publication/document as the basis for a totally "new" design -- but a "new" design that uses much of the old design as its basis. Just how it is for commercial design/publication work. And clients most often aren't willing to simply abandon otherwise good publications. Many just don't spend money for total from-scrartch redo's. Thus recycling is critical to a normal workflow.

 

If accurate import of InDesign (notice that I didn't ask for import of PageMaker docs????  ;-D ) is not available or working well, it would terribly slow down the adoption of this new software. Just can't spend client's money rebuilding hundreds and hundreds of previously created work.

 

There are many other "base" features that are important in DTP, but I assume Affinity has studied ID for quite some time. But it doesn't hurt to verify with people who make their living with this software every day for many, many years what are "nice to have" versus "critical". Could mean the difference between rapid adoption versus a multi-year roll-out. 

 

I'll keep my eyes and ears open to see how this all shapes up. Very encouraging. While our staff still occasionally curse and swear at things that can't be done in AP and AD, overall have been very pleased. So that bodes well for Publisher!

--------------------

iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2020 i7 72GB) • AMD Radeon Pro 5700 XT 16 GB • macOS Ventura
MacBook Pro, 13", M1 2020 • 16 GB • macOS Ventura
iPad Air 2022

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Quote

Essential for you, perhaps, but I’m sure there are many users of word-processing and DTP software who never use tables. Besides, as anyone who has used an old-fashioned typewriter will know, there are workarounds.

 

You clearly haven't tried to do anything serious with the current AD implementation of tabs. Rumour has it that the Geneva War Crimes Tribunal is considering banning it as cruel and unnatural punishment.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Guidelines | We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.