What to use until Publisher?

[Leslie Richelle]

At the risk of starting a flame war:

My Adobe subscription expires in May (hooray!) and I intend to a) not renew it, and ii) complete the transition to Affinity. I already have Designer and Photo and am learning how to use them, BUT...Publisher may not be ready for Prime Time in May. No aspersion intended to the team—coding for page layout must be inherently more complex than for vector or bitmap manipulation—and we should  appreciate the team's dedication to producing a quality product, not their adherence to a schedule.

So my question is: what are people using in the "not-InDesign" category while they wait for Publisher?

[Alfred]

14 minutes ago, Leslie Richelle said:

Publisher may not be ready for Prime Time in May

 

Publisher will not be ready for prime time in May. It might not even be ready for its first public beta in June or July, and the retail release is unlikely to be available for several months after that.

 

The possible alternatives depend on your platform, your needs and your budget.

 

[John Rostron]

I use PagePlus (on Windows only) which works fine for my small-scale needs.

John

[Leslie Richelle]

2 hours ago, John Rostron said:

I use PagePlus (on Windows only) which works fine for my small-scale needs.

John

Thank you, John.

I have PagePlus X9, but don't know if it can be imposed upon to do a book. Says it can do, but I'm still not sure. What do you think?

[Leslie Richelle]

2 hours ago, Alfred said:

 

Publisher will not be ready for prime time in May. It might not even be ready for its first public beta in June or July, and the retail release is unlikely to be available for several months after that.

 

The possible alternatives depend on your platform, your needs and your budget.

 

Thank you, Alfred. Like you, I'm running Windows 10 on an i3. Budget approximately negative .0000000000000000001% GDP that little island nation in South Pacific that doesn't show on maps.

Do you think PagePlus X9 can handle a dozen-chapter book with lots of graphics?

[Paul Martin]

I haven't tried it myself, but PagePlus X9 has an add-on called bookplus which appears to do the job.

I doubt if you'll find cheaper or better.

 

Paul

[MikeW]

If at all possible, don't use BookPlus. 

 

Do place all images in a subfolder. Do link to those images.

 

Do use images of an appropriate size for their purpose. One of the major failings I have seen in some user's publications is using far larger pixel dimensions than necessary.

 

Don't copy/paste images or choose to embed them.

 

PP is quite capable to do the work. 

 

[John Rostron]

1 hour ago, Leslie Richelle said:

Thank you, John.

I have PagePlus X9, but don't know if it can be imposed upon to do a book. Says it can do, but I'm still not sure. What do you think?

I've only used PP X9 for small-scale work, as  I said. Just threefold leaflets, flyers and a 12-page booklet.

John

[Leslie Richelle]

1 hour ago, Paul Martin said:

I haven't tried it myself, but PagePlus X9 has an add-on called bookplus which appears to do the job.

I doubt if you'll find cheaper or better.

 

Paul

I saw that. Then had a senior moment and forgot it. Thanks, shall check into it.

[Alfred]

20 minutes ago, Leslie Richelle said:

I saw that. Then had a senior moment and forgot it. Thanks, shall check into it.

 

I would forget it again if I were you, Leslie! BookPlus dates back to the days when computers were less powerful and had megabytes rather than gigabytes of RAM. It's useful for collaborative projects such as the Affinity Workbooks, but its benefits are outweighed by its drawbacks for simple books created on a modern PC.

 

[Leslie Richelle]

3 hours ago, MikeW said:

If at all possible, don't use BookPlus. 

Do place all images in a subfolder. Do link to those images.

Do use images of an appropriate size for their purpose. One of the major failings I have seen in some user's publications is using far larger pixel dimensions than necessary.

Don't copy/paste images or choose to embed them.

PP is quite capable to do the work. 

 

Seems BookPlus gets "bad press" (sorry!)

All images in subfolder and linked: check; makes good sense.
Use images sized right (meaning don't place giant pngs and then size them down?): check.
Don't copy/paste images: hadn't thought of that, but: check.

Thanks for the tips. I am encouraged.

[Leslie Richelle]

1 hour ago, Alfred said:

 

I would forget it again if I were you, Leslie! BookPlus dates back to the days when computers were less powerful and had megabytes rather than gigabytes of RAM. It's useful for collaborative projects such as the Affinity Workbooks, but its benefits are outweighed by its drawbacks for simple books created on a modern PC.

 

Got it. The KISS principle: Keep It Simple, Stupid! Thanks for the advice.

[dynozawr]

At the moment I use QuarkXpress 2017. It does the job but overall interface not as intuitive as InDesign. So bit of a learning curve there for me. 

[seanf]

Quote

Do you think PagePlus X9 can handle a dozen-chapter book with lots of graphics?

I'm sure it can. I regularly use it for school newsletters with page counts ranging from 12-36 pages and with many pictures. I also used PPX9 to produce professionally printed school yearbooks. The last one was 144 pages with hundreds of photos and graphics.

[Uncle Mez]

13 hours ago, seanf said:

I'm sure it can. I regularly use it for school newsletters with page counts ranging from 12-36 pages and with many pictures. I also used PPX9 to produce professionally printed school yearbooks. The last one was 144 pages with hundreds of photos and graphics.

Very interesting. 

Can PPX9 handle a creation communication kit for social media such as : banner, profile picture, flyer etc... All created in the same project but scaled in different size formats using the same fonts, pictures etc... 

I mean can I work on a project of 120 pages all declined in different sizes but using same color and text content for the same client using PPX9? 

[Alfred]

18 minutes ago, Arnaud Mez said:

Very interesting. 

Can PPX9 handle a creation communication kit for social media such as : banner, profile picture, flyer etc... All created in the same project but scaled in different size formats using the same fonts, pictures etc... 

I mean can I work on a project of 120 pages all declined in different sizes but using same color and text content for the same client using PPX9? 

 

You can only use one page size within a single PPP project file, but you can have a mixture of portrait and landscape pages in the same file.

 

If you have any further questions relating to PagePlus, it would be best to post them to the CommunityPlus Forum.

[Uncle Mez]

9 minutes ago, Alfred said:

 

You can only use one page size within a single PPP project file, but you can have a mixture of portrait and landscape pages in the same file.

 

If you have any further questions relating to PagePlus, it would be best to post them to the CommunityPlus Forum.

Thank you @AlfredI believe this is another functionality Publisher should offer, kind of  multichannel multichannel design possibility for the same project,

Different scale, size and orientation would be of great help. 

Enabling people's to create and put together in the same project : a booklet + it's poster + anything needed for the same campaign. 

After creating them all just export or print directly without having to worry of think about opening this project then this other one then other one again when they are all made for the same client or company 

[MikeW]

2 hours ago, Arnaud Mez said:

...this is another functionality Publisher should offer, kind of...multichannel design possibility for the same project,

Different scale, size and orientation would be of great help. 

Enabling people's to create and put together in the same project : a booklet + it's poster + anything needed for the same campaign. ...

 

QXP has a Project / Layout metaphor. That is, one Project can contain different layouts. So in the following screen shot, those tabs are not separate files in a tabbed interface (which Q doesn't have), they are different layouts within the same single-file Project:

 

 

And as there names may indicate, they are different sizes and/or orientations. I use this facility, though I would still keep larger works in a separate Project. There can be shared content as well. The first two Layouts (TB Tri-fold Brochure & D@ Flyer) for instance have some shared text content (the degree list), but they all share the adress and logo elements:

 

 

While this functionality is, or can be, useful, it isn't really necessary. Most applications can export/import colors and styles used across a brand, have libraries for consistent reuse, etc. This AD can do now and APub will also have these capabilities. As AD can have different artboard sizes, it can already do some of what you mention. 

[Wosven]

I used XPress and now ID, but recently I saw some work done by a client with Scribus, and the result was good.

(we do the main publications and he do the other ones with Scibus). PDF for print are OK.

If you can find time to learn it and bypass the interface's "feel", there's a lot of features and options we usually found in the other apps.

And it can import SVG files and modify their colors. For this, I promise myself to play with Scribus more later

[Fixx]

Easiest route is to use old version of InDesign.

Seems our organization will keep old InDesign until we transfer our main products all database driven internet delivery format, and book department probably will upgrade to InDy CC. 

[firstdefence]

My sister has published approx 20 books on Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Milly-Jane-Ayre/e/B00IS1TSCO I'll ask what she uses, I should know but my brain is just putty today.

[Uncle Mez]

Guys !

Thanks a lot for your inputs, this is very important for a lot of person as we are not all at the same level of knowledge regarding Book editing, Publishing etc.

I found that talking so clearly and simply is the best way to bring up some nice ideas that can profit Serif Dev's team to make APub be even better.

From what i have read up to now, most of us here ask functionalities trying to make Affinity products to become what we all are trying to get rid of.

 

So i though, why don't we just raise some points in already existing topics and have all the Genius here to just help by sharing their personal experience in field not comparing and not looking at a precise already existing software but just things that make their day to day job be what it is.

i myself use couple of softwares to process my job and they are all good and Affinity is just what makes me happy because it fits with my needs.

it will evolve and become better, let's give Serif a chance to not kill Affinity products like it was the case for the Legacy tools most of us used and appreciate.

 

Let's put thing together not trying to make APub become ID nor QXP not Scribbus nor one of those out there but just Affinity Apub.

 

Dev's sorry, forgive me if in one way or another, i asked or wrote functionality requests that tends to make APub to look like all my "old soft fiancée".

[MikeW]

Arnaud,

 

There are not many features in a layout application that either don't currently exist or have existed in some layout application in the past. So no matter what, likely a request can be seen as asking for features like the "old soft fiancée" had/has. What can certainly be changed is the "how" those things are implemented. This (the how something is implemented) is an area that can be improved on...or made worse.

 

For instance, in the teaser video for APub, there is a mechanism for an interactive drop cap feature. It looks new. It looks shiny. And it may be nice. I don't know. By the time I set a book, I pretty much already know the fonts to use, the leading, space before/after, etc...and if there is a drop cap, how many lines I want it to occupy and whether the first word or sentence following the drop cap will utilize small caps. That is not to say some, most or all those things may not change during the design, but I do not see who an interactive drop cap feature will serve me. So if the only mechanism for setting a drop cap is some interactive feature, it may not be so nice in practice. For myself anyway.

 

Anyway, I suspect that whatever is being planned for the first release is already in it. I also suspect that for much of the 1.x cycle, the features it will have are already planned at this late date.

 

The beta of APub will hopefully be an interesting one. Whatever Serif plans are for APub, the competition is good for users of it and other layout software.

[Fixx]

Personally I would like APub to have new workflow features. Like automated successive/conditional styles and sharpen on export. These are not necessarily new, they are just done manually with current tools.

[MikeW]

4 hours ago, Fixx said:

Personally I would like APub to have new workflow features. Like automated successive/conditional styles and sharpen on export. These are not necessarily new, they are just done manually with current tools.

 

As  regards auto conditional styles, would you care to elaborate?