Affinity Publisher - Sneak Preview

[RobWu]

Would love to see this beta show up earlier (like now....), and understand that changes or rough patches will show up during testing.
I'm slowly finalizing a genealogy project, and would love to start with AP on creating a book for the family.

[Bri-Toon]

4 hours ago, Alfred said:

That’s a very fair point! I wonder whether there’s room to make a simple change to the wording (e.g. from “New to Affinity” to “New to this store”).

 

That sounds like a better option. A change of a link's name and not page or store, I don't think would interfere with checkouts. Of course, that's not my call.

 

6 hours ago, MattP said:

 

I really liked the sound of one of your 'possibilities', but couldn't possibly say which...

 

I know which one. It is 13 under the AP functions in MBOROWIEC's post. Take a look. I bet you anything that's it.

[af-user]

On 18.12.2017 at 1:34 PM, MattP said:

I just want to bring this post back to the top and dwell on it for a little while... You know I can't help but say a little too much most of the time, but I've been told in no uncertain terms that I'm not allowed to confirm or deny the function of these buttons... So I was trying to think what I could say about the subject, so: They're not there by accident. They're not placeholders. They're awesome. Nobody else offers this, nor could they.

 

So my question to you is: What do you think they do? 

 

Affinity Studio

will be born, if you own all 3/4 products, containing all personas.

It is totally possible from what I know.

[dannyg9]

Thank you. A thousand times over. I will wait patiently. I've had enough of defending my choice NOT to join the CC over at "A***e"

As for any naysayers about Affinity and their products: Go ahead. Keep on raining, Affinity will STILL be the parade.

Cue Metallica's "For Whom The Bell Tolls" when Publisher Beta is released.

[Jens Krebs]

On 18/12/2017 at 0:34 PM, MattP said:

I just want to bring this post back to the top and dwell on it for a little while... You know I can't help but say a little too much most of the time, but I've been told in no uncertain terms that I'm not allowed to confirm or deny the function of these buttons... So I was trying to think what I could say about the subject, so: They're not there by accident. They're not placeholders. They're awesome. Nobody else offers this, nor could they.

 

So my question to you is: What do you think they do? 

Glad, that you can at least confirm that they are awesome (I kind of suspected that already).

I do have an idea, or rather a wish, on what they should or could do ... if they do what I think they do, I'd be over the moon, if they do anything else, I'll probably still be super-happy with them. :0)

[Wikinger]

Affinity Photo, Designer, Publisher ....

3 icônes cliquables sur la même page (un 3 en 1) ??

[Max Basok]

On 12/18/2017 at 2:34 PM, MattP said:

I just want to bring this post back to the top and dwell on it for a little while... You know I can't help but say a little too much most of the time, but I've been told in no uncertain terms that I'm not allowed to confirm or deny the function of these buttons... So I was trying to think what I could say about the subject, so: They're not there by accident. They're not placeholders. They're awesome. Nobody else offers this, nor could they.

 

So my question to you is: What do you think they do? 

are there even any Personas there? it's obvious they're clickable, but there is no any outline around them (like there is in Photo/Designer when you choose one of Personas). more than this — there is no Export Persona around there and I would never believe it won't. something very strange is going on here…

[Seneca]

Towards the end of the movie there was something that amounted to paragraph rules in inDesign parlance.

I hope we will be able to set the Left, Top, Right and Bottom rules on a paragraph and most importantly that these are part of the Paragraph Style. Otherwise they will be pretty useless.

 

Also, it would be super-cool if we were able to choose an element for Left, Top, Right and Bottom from the Assets Catalogue  that would scale according to the paragraph height and length. And why stop there, why couldn't we have Top-Left, Top-Right, Bottom-Left and Bottom-Right places to choose elements for from the Assets Catalogue.

I see so many possibilities there.

[Bri-Toon]

My joking aside, you know how Publisher has been pushed back far from it's original estimation date. Well even though I know nothing about those persona icons or whatever, I have a strange feeling those might be why. Whatever they do, we were told that no other program does it. Spending five years to accomplish whatever this major task is goes to show how hard working Serif is. So I don't care about the delays. Seeing this incredible work and then hearing that the price is the same and there is still no subscription, Serif deserves so much credit. Best software developing company out there.

[LCamachoDesign]

On ‎18‎/‎12‎/‎2017 at 0:34 PM, MattP said:

I just want to bring this post back to the top and dwell on it for a little while... You know I can't help but say a little too much most of the time, but I've been told in no uncertain terms that I'm not allowed to confirm or deny the function of these buttons... So I was trying to think what I could say about the subject, so: They're not there by accident. They're not placeholders. They're awesome. Nobody else offers this, nor could they.

 

So my question to you is: What do you think they do? 

I have a more important question. Where are the Personas buttons? I'm fairly certain that whatever UI choice you're doing with Publisher will also reflect in Designer/Photo, so where will these Personas go in the existing software? That's the real question.

[MattP]

Just now, LCamachoDesign said:

I have a more important question. Where are the Personas buttons? I'm fairly certain that whatever UI choice you're doing with Publisher will also reflect in Designer/Photo, so where will these Personas go in the existing software? That's the real question.

The Persona buttons are in the usual place - they're not showing selected state correctly in this video, nor are there as many of them as there will be in the finished product, but what you can see there is real.

[LCamachoDesign]

Unless they're placed elsewhere in the Mac version of the app (which I don't think they are), the image clearly shows there are no Personas, only the icons for the apps. I'm not saying this is bad or anything, but it might be a clue for those willing to speculate on what's going on.  

I for one have no idea, I'll be happy to discover in the summer.

[Pebowski]

My guess: the 3 icons are the personas. The first one is Publisher, where you can do all the stuff for layout (which is active in this demo), the second is designer, where you can do all vector stuff, and the third is Photo, where the pixel stuff is integrated. So you can do all the things in Publisher without the need to switch programs. I guess, you must have bought Designer and Photo to work this way, Otherwise you can only import pictures.

The Export persona (and others) are simply missing in this preview and come in a later version.

@MattP: can you take pleasure in my theory?

[MattP]

11 minutes ago, Pebowski said:

@MattP: can you take pleasure in my theory?

If I want to retain my job (which I do, haha) then I'm under strict orders not to let my mouth (or fingers in this case!) get the better of me...

[Max Basok]

31 minutes ago, LCamachoDesign said:

Unless they're placed elsewhere in the Mac version of the app (which I don't think they are), the image clearly shows there are no Personas, only the icons for the apps. I'm not saying this is bad or anything, but it might be a clue for those willing to speculate on what's going on.  

I for one have no idea, I'll be happy to discover in the summer.

oh… I think I see 4 new icons for advanced layout settings (bleed, margins, I hope columns)

[Pebowski]

4 minutes ago, MattP said:

If I want to retain my job (which I do, haha) then I'm under strict orders not to let my mouth (or fingers in this case!) get the better of me...

I know, it's hard to remain silent, when the heart is full of cool stuff that the world is waiting for

What ever it will be, I'm sure, it will be great! I'm sure, I'm not the only one who is impatient for summer. :-)

 

[Max Basok]

3 hours ago, Pebowski said:

My guess: the 3 icons are the personas. The first one is Publisher, where you can do all the stuff for layout (which is active in this demo), the second is designer, where you can do all vector stuff, and the third is Photo, where the pixel stuff is integrated. So you can do all the things in Publisher without the need to switch programs. I guess, you must have bought Designer and Photo to work this way, Otherwise you can only import pictures.

The Export persona (and others) are simply missing in this preview and come in a later version.

@MattP: can you take pleasure in my theory?

if you're right and Publisher Persona is active at this video, I have another question: what Publisher can't do, that Designer does? I mean… most menus and tools are the same (and now they have dividers which is nice)

[Huang888]

Its xmas, so I have a wish. At the moment I build all my documents with affinity designer. 

 

Dear Santa Affinity,

 

please make it posible to import my Designer documents into the Publisher. It will be wonderful, if the artboards become Sites in the Publisher-documents. 

 

Your Huang888

[MEB]

Hi Huang888,

Welcome to Affinity Forums

All native Affinity file formats can be opened in any of the apps of the suite. You may not be able to edit everything since some features are exclusive to certain apps but you are  also able to easily switch the document between them going to menu File ▸ Edit in Designer/Photo etc if needed.

[Bri-Toon]

Something that my good eyes detected is that Publisher can create vector and pixel layers.

 

So far for the Affinity Designer exclusives:

• Vector Brush Tool
• Round Corner Tool
• Expanding Strokes

Designer may need to come up with more exclusives after Publisher's release. Even the geometry buttons are in Photo, so it looks like they will be in Publisher as well.

[Max Basok]

9 hours ago, Bri-Toon said:

Something that my good eyes detected is that Publisher can create vector and pixel layers.

 

So far for the Affinity Designer exclusives:

• Vector Brush Tool
• Round Corner Tool
• Expanding Strokes

Designer may need to come up with more exclusives after Publisher's release. Even the geometry buttons are in Photo, so it looks like they will be in Publisher as well.

+ Mesh tool (hey Serif, how about to bring mesh tool not by actual tool… but through changing color of specific node just by selecting it with node tool?) probably. but what about “Designer” Persona in Publisher?

[VIPStephan]

On 12/20/2017 at 11:38 AM, Pebowski said:

My guess: the 3 icons are the personas. […]

The Export persona (and others) are simply missing in this preview and come in a later version.

But that would be a little confusing, UI wise. Currently the Draw, Pixel and Export personas (with their corresponding buttons) are part of AD (don’t have AP, so I don’t know what’s there, but I’m sure there are different personas). If these buttons launch the companion applications, the corresponding personas need to change, too. And UI wise there should be a clear distinction between application buttons and an application’s persona buttons. But if Matt is so excited and says nobody else does what these buttons can do, I’m sure they do more than just launch companion applications. Do they turn APub into AD or AP (and vice versa)?

[Pebowski]

11 minutes ago, VIPStephan said:

But that would be a little confusing, UI wise. Currently the Draw, Pixel and Export personas (with their corresponding buttons) are part of AD (don’t have AP, so I don’t know what’s there, but I’m sure there are different personas). If these buttons launch the companion applications, the corresponding personas need to change, too. And UI wise there should be a clear distinction between application buttons and an application’s persona buttons. But if Matt is so excited and says nobody else does what these buttons can do, I’m sure they do more than just launch companion applications. Do they turn APub into AD or AP (and vice versa)?

I don't think, that they launch the other apps, but only give th possibilities (or a subset) of the other applications inside APub (similar to the Pixel persona in AD, which is a subset of AP). And I don't think that they turn APub in AP or AD, because they all have already the same file format.

But maybe we all are wrong and it is something completely different.  

[Reggie1958]

On 18/12/2017 at 4:55 PM, MEGraphicDesign said:

Since we are all talking about new software, I have a serious question I would like to ask. Maybe something like this already exists, but I would love to hear what, if any, Affinity Products (or Affinity Compatible Applications) are in the works for organizing files and digital assets (along the lines of Adobe Bridge)? 

@MEGraphicDesign Yes I'm looking forward to that too, the last I got from the team was yes it is in pipeline. Yes I too would like the software to be kind of along the lines of Bridge in the sense it doesn't have to maintain a database. 

 

Update:

 

I've seen a post on another thread posted yesterday that confirms that the team are actively working on an asset management app.

[Uwe367]

I´m looking forward to Publisher´s Beta in Summer ´18. I think this will be also a great Software like Photo and Designer.
Thumbs up to the development team... you´re doing for real a very good work.

Thank you very much @all.
Merry Christmas and a happy new year