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[Implemented] Is it possible to package a project in Publisher?


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We pre-flight artwork sent in by customers prior to it being sent to production for printing. As deadlines are always tight not having all of the file components slows the process down.

Packaging significantly speeds up the workflow by making it easier for customers who are using your program for print production.

I would love to see the Affinity suite as part of our production process.

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Just to repeat what I think is stated in other threads (or maybe this one earlier: I have read the whole thing, but not today), Serif is moving toward a packaging solution. Collecting images in the new 1.8 is the first step.

And now I had this thought: packaging will make reporting bugs a little easier when linked resources and fonts are involved.

If Serif really wants to take it to the next level, once they get the packaging solution complete, they could also use that same functionality to add a button or menu item somewhere (I'm thinking a button in the Miscellaneous portion of preferences) that would upload a packaged file directly to Serif so that they could have all they need to investigate a problem, including app configuration and relevant system specs.

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  • 1 month later...
On 9/24/2018 at 2:19 AM, Tom Schülke said:

By the way !

i just tried it...  it works..    bind all footage into your document...  bring it to another pc..   and say   "make linked"   now publisher asks you for the folder of the linked footage for your document...   and          tadaaaaa.....     saves it to those location..

only wird thing is..    filesice doesent change after saving the document that now is linked...   at my case it stayed at about 970 MB..  and didnt change filesice even when the footage was saved to another folder... 

any ideas about this ?  is that a bug ?

This is really a bad solution, a proper packager should be in place, especially if Affinity Publisher still need to maintain the images embedded to preview, even if it says they are linked. And as you point out this works with a fairly large file, almost a Gigabyte. But I wonder how this going to behave with even larger files. Photoshop itself won't handle properly over 5 Gb, I always test to see how far I can go with a software since the computer is more than capable that kind of file size in memory. The funny thing is that even Microsoft Publisher, the most basic publication application has this feature.

Not to have a proper packager is a huge mistake, the reason you create publications is mostly to send to print, most digital printers are OK with a PDF file but most reputable printers prefer to have the original file. They are dealing with thousands of prints per day and their schedule is tight as Air Control on an Airport, a small delay because of an error on a PDF can cost millions of dollars in delays, with the original file they can make adjustments on the fly.

And I don't know if any young freelance know this, fonts are software and many printers do not have the time to update their font catalog, because they probably have the font in the system doesn't mean is the same font, and what they look in the screen is nothing close to what you see in your screen. And the PDF will used the font installed in the system is currently open, fonts are not saved with the document. Try to print a PDF file from the web that uses licensed fonts and you will see what I mean by this. Of course, this is only one variable from the many could go wrong when moving a design to another computer on an alien network.

On 7/15/2019 at 2:53 PM, idyguy said:

I'm a freelance graphic designer (35+ years) and ALL my clients want the finished product and all related files for archive as well. Also, if you work in a collaborative environment, it's sometimes necessary to pass along projects to another designer. Being able to easily package any project is a great advantage and time-saver. And as you stated, it's not impossible to hand-collect all the files in a particular project—it's just time-consuming. It seems to me that not being able to package a design is a glaring omission on the part of the developers. I have to wonder if the software developers have ever worked as graphic designers in the real world. Just my humble opinion...

And this is very true, if you have been in the business for as long idyguy, I'm almost getting there, not any reputable firm will take seriously Affinity Publisher without this feature. This should be your higher priority. Right now I have to have a meeting and back up everything I suggested to my agency of considering Affinity Publisher as a replacement for InDesign, it is that serious.

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I agree with pretty much everyone in this thread, packaging is an important feature. I am anal about this with Indesign. I start the job with everything just loose in a folder but once it is approved I package the job. I now know I have fonts and all linked images in the document. No more hunting around for images and no unnecessary images saved. The packaged folder gets filed, everything else tossed in the trash. 

Not having this would drive me nuts if I were using Publisher professionally there are other things I would want before this, mainly the ability to place PDF's properly in a Publisher document without making it editable. It is still early days for Affinity and lots of great work, but Publisher has a long way to go before it will have me leave Indesign. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi

Packaging is critical feature for Publisher to be used in professional production environments.

Back in the day, before Quark had this feature, there were many utilities that would do this and they sold well as it's really important when you're in a company that creates 100's of projects a year.

I guess this depends on how Affinity wants to position their products. They may want to leave the pro users to Adobe (and Quark - they're still kicken!) which is fine, but if they want to go for the pro market there are a still couple of things they need to add not be the just little brother to the pros that gets used by hobbiests (although a great solution for that).

At this point in time, Affinity stuff is "ever so close, but not quite there" for pro use (I've now done 5 projects using all the products so I have some idea of what I speak).

Keep it up Affinity Folks! - great stuff over all just not for agency use at this time.

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I'm new here, but a "package/collect for output" feature is a necessity for all the reasons stated by fellow "publishistas". Embedding hi-res images may be OK for a single-page flyer, but for a multipage catalog or publication, it would make the file unwieldy at the least. That's why there were so many (expensive) "packaging/collecting" apps back in the day until Quark & Adobe wised up.

 

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6 minutes ago, Cranky Old Huckster said:

I'm new here, but a "package/collect for output" feature is a necessity for all the reasons stated by fellow "publishistas". Embedding hi-res images may be OK for a single-page flyer, but for a multipage catalog or publication, it would make the file unwieldy at the least. That's why there were so many (expensive) "packaging/collecting" apps back in the day until Quark & Adobe wised up.

 

The Collect function already exists, as part of the Resource Manager. The question is, does it collect enough for you?

-- Walt
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Does it collect lilnked files and fonts? I didn't get that impression from the posts, if so, I seat corrected (don't have a standing desk).

(If it collected my laundry and took it to the laundry, it would be genius!)

[UPDATE: I tried the Resource Manager and collected the images in a sample document. What it did was that it moved the linked files to a new folder I created. A "package" feature duplicates the linked files into a new folder and leaves the originals in place. In a shared workflow, Publisher's method would be chaos. Or at least a mean way to stick it to the man.]

Edited by Cranky Old Huckster
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@Cranky Old Huckster The collect feature is new as of 1.8, and there was some indication at that time that it was just a starting point toward a comparable package feature. I do not know how soon we could see the next step, but at least we have a sense of the direction they are headed. Presently, it is images only (not fonts).

Perhaps a simple suggestion for Serif at this time is the option to duplicate images rather than moving them.

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Hi. I tried the collect solution via Resource Manger and it's not the same.

Look, lets' all be honest. We all need the same functionality that the "Package" has in InDesign. No "do this and then it asks you for that" type of thing. Just the same thing. We don't want Affinity to try and re-invent the wheel.

The reason is that is the way professionals need their files handled. Full stop. You may think it's overkill or not a big deal, but if you're dealing with many staff (and some freelancers who have differing amounts of experience), you need a proven system that will work -- even after a year or more where the original machine might have been reformatted or changed.

I'm not sure if it's legal concerns preventing this seemingly straight-forward feature but perhaps they don't want to raise the anger of Adobe, but that's what the pro market needs.

 

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  • 3 months later...

Packaging files is a must, in order to make the leap to Publisher. @F+C is spot on. This is industry standard for printers/design agencies. 

I came across this thread, because I was trying to walk a customer through how to package their Affinity Publisher file and send it to us, only to find that there was no such feature.

So, count my vote for this feature, too.

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On 5/20/2020 at 9:42 AM, F+C said:

Hi. I tried the collect solution via Resource Manger and it's not the same.

Look, lets' all be honest. We all need the same functionality that the "Package" has in InDesign. No "do this and then it asks you for that" type of thing. Just the same thing. We don't want Affinity to try and re-invent the wheel.

The reason is that is the way professionals need their files handled. Full stop. You may think it's overkill or not a big deal, but if you're dealing with many staff (and some freelancers who have differing amounts of experience), you need a proven system that will work -- even after a year or more where the original machine might have been reformatted or changed.

I'm not sure if it's legal concerns preventing this seemingly straight-forward feature but perhaps they don't want to raise the anger of Adobe, but that's what the pro market needs.

 

I agree completely. Adobe has many many years of refinement and bringing features needed and requested by pro users. I have said this before as you have expressed, somethings they just need to plain copy. No one cares who did it first, just that the end product is functional and does the job in organized way. While I could work without packaging files, it would be chaotic and not something I would want to do if avoidable. This, among other issues with Publisher make it unusable for most pro users in my opinion. Thankfully we are still in version 1, if this was version 5 and people were still trying to get these basic features I would say Serif was way out of touch. Many of the features needed will be in the next version I predict as they need you to have a reason to pay for an upgrade (not a bad thing). 

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  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...
On 10/13/2020 at 5:51 PM, Patrick Connor said:

Readers of this thread may be interested to try the first beta implementation of Package in the latest Affinity Publisher Beta

Great!

Please add an option to generate the folder automatically, because it will be annoying to package multiple projects when we have to create a folder for each project manually. Folder name could be the project name.

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On 9/19/2018 at 10:55 AM, Fixx said:

It is just a handy helper. Maybe there are workflows where it is important but for most of us it is not.

How many is "most of us" and who are "us"? You sound like a politician, where "us" are the fully paid-up believers - ehhh... members - and they're the only "legitimate votes" ;-)

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46 minutes ago, kfriis said:

How many is "most of us" and who are "us"? You sound like a politician, where "us" are the fully paid-up believers - ehhh... members - and they're the only "legitimate votes" ;-)

Thank you for your feedback. As package function is available in 1.9 beta I think there is no reason to continue arguing this.

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