Affinity Publisher Public Free Beta Available NOW

[spinko]

Thank you very much for the Publisher Beta.

The mere fact that this app is out on beta now is a huge encouragement to me. It is the key piece of software I needed to transition to Affinity (and kick my dependency on Adobe).

[blackest]

The system requirements seem to be a little over cautious, I saw only EL Capitan supported but installed it on Yosemite anyway.

It was worth waiting for and very intuitive. 

Thank You. 

[Franky Drappier]

First of all: congratulations! First impressions of Publisher are great (on Mac - will be testing the windows version as well). The available tutorials are a big help while making those first steps, but being used to Designer and Photo, the learning curve isn't very steep. With your three programs you've really got a great, seamless Suite.

As reported by others there are some bugs that need some tweaking (the sliders stick, the program simply crashed a couple of times in sierra, hyphenation could be smoother (I need Dutch and French)). I'm also trying to figure out how i can override the vertical alignment of text so not all columns align at the same height at the bottom. 

Other than that, first impressions are great and I'm convinced you'll smooth out those issues in no time (by the time you release the commercial version). Also great that you're releasing the software on both Mac and Windows at the same time: I'm transitioning from Mac to Windows (as quite a few creatives seem to do these days) so running your software on both platforms is fantastic for me. Thanks for that.

I've been dabbling around in Linux lately and I really like it. Any plans of making your software available on Linux? (obviously at the same cost as the other platforms) I've tried to install Photo in Wine but that doesn't seem to work. I have the feeling the Linux community is growing as distro's are getting really good. (It's only a suggestion, naturally)

Thumbs up! 

[LievenL]

Wow I do lik what I see, played briefly, nice and easy to make whatever document. Following this.

[UBogun]

Just adding my congratulations as well:
I am a real long-time print designer, back to the days when what was called DTP was the hottest stuff you could think of. From the early days of PageMaker, over FrameMaker and Quark XPress, I gladly made the change when Adobe presented InDesign. Despite the fact that it never gained the feature to edit PDFs which was presented on the beta events, it was fun to use, and although it was slower than the greedy market leader’s product, the results were much better.

Greediness changed as did the market leadership, and while my business orientation has changed too, I still use InDesign, but the fun has gone. Which is partly because of the monthly share I have to pay even if I spend the whole month programming and not designing at all, but more because it makes me feel a stranger on my Mac. I am overwhelmed by palettes, the windows do not bow to Spaces, the general performance has become rather dissatisfying and some apps of the suite do not feel native at all (talk about the slowest PDF viewer/editor available on macOS – Acrobat DC) …

You could really bring back the fun into layout. I am deeply impressed, even more as this is a first beta. Footnotes would be the only thing that could stop me from switching very soon again. But let’s see what you might come up with before the final release. Really a great piece of software like all Affinity products, and so much more a real Mac app too.

[Azrael]

Congratulations to Affinity on releasing the Beta to Affinity Publisher.

I'm seriously addicted to learning Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo.  Two powerful yet elegant programs.  Delighted to join the Beta for Affinity Publisher.

I've already done two of the 'getting started quick intro' videos for Publisher (and I'm ploughing my way through the Designer and Photo vimeo tutorials list.)

So far, the Beta follows in the strong keystone tradition of Designer and Photo.  Slick and powerful.  Simple and useable.  If you know how to use Designer and Photo you'll basically know how to approach Beta.

Enjoying getting started.  I'll give more feedback as I get into 'it' with the Beta.

 

You now have the Holy Trinity of Design, Photo and Publishing apps.  I'm Adobe and RENT FREE.

 

Anybody who isn't using Affinity's apps, don't know what they're missing.

 

Gold.

 

Azrael.

[Azrael]

36 minutes ago, UBogun said:

Just adding my congratulations as well:
I am a real long-time print designer, back to the days when what was called DTP was the hottest stuff you could think of. From the early days of PageMaker, over FrameMaker and Quark XPress, I gladly made the change when Adobe presented InDesign. Despite the fact that it never gained the feature to edit PDFs which was presented on the beta events, it was fun to use, and although it was slower than the greedy market leader’s product, the results were much better.

Greediness changed as did the market leadership, and while my business orientation has changed too, I still use InDesign, but the fun has gone. Which is partly because of the monthly share I have to pay even if I spend the whole month programming and not designing at all, but more because it makes me feel a stranger on my Mac. I am overwhelmed by palettes, the windows do not bow to Spaces, the general performance has become rather dissatisfying and some apps of the suite do not feel native at all (talk about the slowest PDF viewer/editor available on macOS – Acrobat DC) …

You could really bring back the fun into layout. I am deeply impressed, even more as this is a first beta. Footnotes would be the only thing that could stop me from switching very soon again. But let’s see what you might come up with before the final release. Really a great piece of software like all Affinity products, and so much more a real Mac app too.

Amen.

 

Azrael.

[tokai]

I hope compatibility with the somewhat out-of-date versions of Mac OS X comes soon, so I can give this a test drive too. :)

 

Anyone has an idea why I can't use cursor movements in this input field here? Yikes... makes it hard to write/edit one's post. :)

[Ecifircas]

Woohoo Publisher made it here in summer!  

It looks and feels nice; I'm looking forward to see how it further evolves

 

[Patrick Connor]

1 hour ago, tokai said:

I hope compatibility with the somewhat out-of-date versions of Mac OS X comes soon, so I can give this a test drive too. 

We solved the Yosemite and Mavericks compatibility issues in the release build (on the last day) what OS do you have that is not supported. Lion and Mountain Lion cannot work until we are on the Mac App Store (for sandboxing reasons) but all later Mac OSX and MacOS are supported in this first Affinity Publisher release.

[and relax]

Thank you very much for the opportunity to participate in the Publisher beta test. The initial tutorials are super helpful.

[tokai]

1 hour ago, Patrick Connor said:

We solved the Yosemite and Mavericks compatibility issues in the release build (on the last day) what OS do you have that is not supported. Lion and Mountain Lion cannot work until we are on the Mac App Store (for sandboxing reasons) but all later Mac OSX and MacOS are supported in this first Affinity Publisher release.

I actually just tried the beta earlier already (still on Yosemite for a bunch of reasons)... after I read the whole thread here. And it works (at least it launches and shows up... didn't dig in yet). What doesn't work is switching to the 2 other personas (doesn't like Apple Store bought Designer/Photo it seems)   A weekend ahead.. so I hopefully will find some time to test things and see, if it fits into my pipeline/ is useful for my workflow.

What I hope the final version gets some "Privacy" settings (at launch it fired up a whole bunch of network connections... some even still over port 80). That's something I don't like at all, I'm very honest about. Hopefully that's just for the beta. Also it should inform the user about the privacy implication (what data do you collect, what do you do with the collected data; how can I force their deletion, etc. the whole GDPR shebang that is required these days. :) ). Better it doesn't do unasked network connections at all, of course.

[R C-R]

12 minutes ago, tokai said:

What doesn't work is switching to the 2 other personas...

This has been reported about a zillion times so far & the staff have explained that this doesn't work because it requires the not yet ready version 1.7 updates to Photo & Designer.

Regarding privacy & what user data they collect, click the "Privacy Policy" link at the bottom of this & every other forum page for comprehensive info about that. In addition, it has been explained a few times in the forums that some network connections are initiated by the apps to do things like update Welcome screen items (like for special offers & to download sample files).

I am not sure about this but I think Apple's Help Viewer app sometimes also "phones home" if you open the built-in app help to check for updated help files & to offer the links to 'related' help topics on the web.

[DuctTape]

Thanks, look nice now to figure out how to use it. 

[Auerhahn]

I hope the software, when it is ready, will work better as the installation program. At least the german version does absolutely nothing. it starts, shows for a second »Affinity« in the taskbar and quits. Thank you for thi intersting experience.

[Patrick Connor]

@Auerhahn

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums

Sorry for the poor initial experience. Please can you make your own thread in the relevant mac/Windows bugs forum so this can be logged as it may get lost in this thread, thank you 

[(I:U)]

A BIG THANKS...

[abfdesign]

I just wanted to say that I'm so pleased to have Affinity Publisher here with me. I am playing with the beta and loving it. There are some bugs, but with all out input, I'm sure it will be as perfect as Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer.

Does anyone know how much the actual release will be (ball park)?

Thanks
Andy

[Oval]

2 hours ago, abfdesign said:

ball park

About 42,000 whatever … See here and there … and … now here we are exactly:

“same price, no subscriptions. We want to make software that we would buy and use (and yes, I've bought all variants myself through the App Store just to make sure I get the same experience as other customers) and we want it to be priced to not exclude anyone - we think that's the fair thing to do :)”

[Oval]

On 30. August 2018 at 11:28 AM, Oval said:

when will Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer be available for the deep integration?

please? 

[walt.farrell]

22 minutes ago, Oval said:

please? 

Presumably it will be the 1.7 versions that we've been waiting for, but I haven't seen any promises it estimates from Serif when that might be, exactly.  Personally, with the Publisher beta out, I'm hoping for beta 1.7 versions of Photo and Designer soon.

[Oval]

1 hour ago, walt.farrell said:

haven't seen any promises it estimates from Serif

That’s why we asked, hoping nobody would write or think about (Serif) the context. 

[Patrick Connor]

The release timeline information is confidential, but thanks for asking so nicely. 

I would expect the price to be ballpark same as the other Affinity applications, but this is not my decision 

[Oval]

7 minutes ago, Patrick Connor said:

The release timeline information is confidential, but thanks for asking so nicely. 

I would expect the price to be ballpark same as the other Affinity applications, but this is not my decision

 Thanks, quickest cat in town! 

[Alfred]

7 minutes ago, Patrick Connor said:

I would expect the price to be ballpark same as the other Affinity applications, but this is not my decision 

 

2 hours ago, Oval said:

About 42,000 whatever … See here and there … and … now here we are exactly:

“same price, no subscriptions. We want to make software that we would buy and use (and yes, I've bought all variants myself through the App Store just to make sure I get the same experience as other customers) and we want it to be priced to not exclude anyone - we think that's the fair thing to do :)”