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

Recommended Posts

  • 2 months later...

There are several instances where this is important, and frankly, one of the ONLY reasons I keep InDesign around. I produce several multi-fold brochures with 7-8 panels. Each panel is a page, but can be arranged as a spread. Specific work is done in each panel, and often a single image spans all pages/folds. However, individual page size is adjusted to allow for folding space. Doing this in Designer is quite tedious and creates a much more convoluted workflow.

Another example are book cover designs where front, back and spine are separate pages arranged as a spread. This is particularly helpful when the author is finalizing the book and the page count often changes, thus the spine width must also change. Again, doing this in designer is tedious and create extended workflow.

The issue of export to pdf with crops, working on individual design elements and such is critical in the print publishing workflow.

So second, third or 10th this request.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 8/30/2018 at 3:41 PM, Dave Harris said:

demark nominal pages with guides

1995 has called and wants its workaround back! :P

In other words:
+3 for multi-page spreads

MacBookAir 15": MacOS Ventura > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // MacBookPro 15" mid-2012: MacOS El Capitan > Affinity v1 / MacOS Catalina > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // iPad 8th: iPadOS 16 > Affinity v2

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Hello !

I see several Posts about this feature and, I agree, it is a very important one : my designer girl convinced me because she uses it in Adobe's software and it is an enabler to industrialize the creation process.

I am bored of such heavy applications (all the Adobe's) and pushed to get an Affinity Designer license... Now she is asking me nearly everyday why I did that choice, and only because the lack of this feature.

I do not see is a recent answer from the Affinity team. Are you working on it ? Or is it at least in your backlog ?

@Ash, maybe you are one of the right guys to give us a feedback ?

 

Many thanks by advanced, and congrats for the great quality of your products, indeed ! 😊

Eric

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

I've posted about this elsewhere, but will reiterate here. When I'm designing a 7-panel accordion fold piece, using one large page with individual marks and guides is at best cumbersome. If the piece needs to be adjusted, or the client wants a change that requires a panel to change size, or the printer needs a panel size tweaked, this causes a huge amount of work that will likely break something else.

On the other hand, if you can have a 7-page spread, and panel 3 needs to be adjusted by 1/16", it doesn't require anything more than changing the page, ensuring they're butted up together and you're done.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 2/2/2021 at 12:42 AM, loukash said:

1995 has called and wants its workaround back! :P

In other words:
+3 for multi-page spreads

Meanwhile, I have actually figured out a pretty usable workflow for multipage spreads.
If you have Designer, that is:

apu_ade_multipage_spreads.png.b90826715f7c53e405909338a6530631.png

apu_ade_multipage_spreads2.png.7089278594c92ed06e9f592c6dc84161.png

Won't work for brochures where you need just one extra foldout spread unless you set up the complete brochure as nested artboard spreads.
Unfortunately it's either spreads or artboards in Affinity documents. Cannot be mixed up.

MacBookAir 15": MacOS Ventura > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // MacBookPro 15" mid-2012: MacOS El Capitan > Affinity v1 / MacOS Catalina > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // iPad 8th: iPadOS 16 > Affinity v2

Link to comment
Share on other sites

schmidt9 hits it out of the park. Yes to all the above. Thanks schmidt9 for the comprehensive list.

At the moment I have long banner pages (actually long website pages) I just need to see side by side for viewing on a standard landscape monitor. But I do not wish to combine them into one spread just to do this. I have encountered many of schmidt9's examples in 25 yrs of design. Basically this is document imposition tools.

Anyway, guys at Affinity, I love your work and thank you for rescuing the design community from the ransomware that Adobe became. I rave about your stuff to every designer I meet and have converted my team to it. And I, and I am sure all the others above, want it to be the giant killer we see it as. Thanks guys. I'm crossing my pinkys 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@schmidt9 As far as I see there is no "opinion of the Affinity team", just a very polite statement of facts.

Considering how long it took Adobe to bring this to InDesign and that Publisher is currently at version 1.9.3, I find the fact that such big changes are not planned for version 1 anymore reasonable.

My guess is that "spread options" is somewhere on the list of future features, but that things simply have to be prioritised.

Be patient and use other software -- no one is forcing you to use Publisher ifnit doesn't meet your needs. I myself have two regular jobs that I still do in InDesign because no other software can do it the way I need it.

Sending a feature request and giving reasons is fine, complaining is not necessary in my opinion. People from Serif read this forum and I'm sure every feature request is considered and noted down somewhere (except for proper support of 1-bit images). They'll do it when there's time for it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Jens Krebs said:

except for proper support of 1-bit images

And yet it works.
If you painstakingly follow the "procedure", that is:

 

MacBookAir 15": MacOS Ventura > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // MacBookPro 15" mid-2012: MacOS El Capitan > Affinity v1 / MacOS Catalina > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // iPad 8th: iPadOS 16 > Affinity v2

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
On 4/23/2021 at 6:01 PM, Clayton King said:

I've posted about this elsewhere, but will reiterate here. When I'm designing a 7-panel accordion fold piece, using one large page with individual marks and guides is at best cumbersome. If the piece needs to be adjusted, or the client wants a change that requires a panel to change size, or the printer needs a panel size tweaked, this causes a huge amount of work that will likely break something else.

On the other hand, if you can have a 7-page spread, and panel 3 needs to be adjusted by 1/16", it doesn't require anything more than changing the page, ensuring they're butted up together and you're done.

I can totally agree. It just makes sense. Another advantage of having this feature is that you can export individual pages as PDF's for the client to review or for the printer to print (some printers want individual pages, not spreads). If all 7 pages are on a single "page" as it has to be done currently in AP that is not possible.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

I've just come to this thread after searching Google how to do a 3-page spread. It's really disappointing that I can't do this, and such a big one too as anything requiring more than 2 pages that might need to move about is now going to be a real fiddly procedure.

I really hope this becomes a thing in the not too distant future, but I guess after 3 years it doesn't look likely... 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, there are few things that have kinda stumped me and that is one of them. I have to say I have had to do some serious rethinking about how I work and I have been often delighted and amazed by the result. 

I am currently using the symbols feature to do some diabolical duplication work on drawings that are 16 metres by 20 metres. Wayfinding design for a city block sized building done at 1:10 scale. It's totally nuts. Symbols are really powerful. 

Would it be helpful to create your pages then convert the pages to symbols to then throw around as you see fit? No it's not a three page spread but it might be a path to another way. 

Kind regards

Rob

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 7/29/2021 at 9:14 AM, Rob Luxford said:

Yeah, there are few things that have kinda stumped me and that is one of them. I have to say I have had to do some serious rethinking about how I work and I have been often delighted and amazed by the result. 

I am currently using the symbols feature to do some diabolical duplication work on drawings that are 16 metres by 20 metres. Wayfinding design for a city block sized building done at 1:10 scale. It's totally nuts. Symbols are really powerful. 

Would it be helpful to create your pages then convert the pages to symbols to then throw around as you see fit? No it's not a three page spread but it might be a path to another way. 

Kind regards

Rob

 

What you suggest probably does have a practical application. However, I think the bigger issue, for this topic of multi-page spreads, at least, is that when designing a multifold piece (i.e., more than 3 fold), the ability to have multiple pages (panels) per spread becomes important. A simple change in paper weight can have a dramatic effect on the size of each panel. One such project I have done for a client every year is a 10 panel roll, where the center-most panel ends up being 5/16" smaller than the outer-most panel. Each panel in between is a width that allows for the roll fold. Last year they wanted heavier stock and the panels all shifted in size 1/16". So setting this up on a single spread and "marking" each panel is insanity.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Clayton King said:

One such project I have done for a client every year is a 10 panel roll, where the center-most panel ends up being 5/16" smaller than the outer-most panel. Each panel in between is a width that allows for the roll fold. Last year they wanted heavier stock and the panels all shifted in size 1/16". So setting this up on a single spread and "marking" each panel is insanity.

This is an interesting real world example why multiple page spreads would be very usefull. Thank you.

d.

Affinity Designer 1 & 2   |   Affinity Photo 1 & 2   |   Affinity Publisher 1 & 2
Affinity Designer 2 for iPad   |   Affinity Photo 2 for iPad   |   Affinity Publisher 2 for iPad

Windows 11 64-bit - Core i7 - 16GB - Intel HD Graphics 4600 & NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M
iPad pro 9.7" + Apple Pencil

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Clayton King said:

One such project I have done for a client every year is a 10 panel roll, where the center-most panel ends up being 5/16" smaller than the outer-most panel. Each panel in between is a width that allows for the roll fold. Last year they wanted heavier stock and the panels all shifted in size 1/16". So setting this up on a single spread and "marking" each panel is insanity.

Yes, that's a good example. The function is unlikely to come soon, though, so workarounds are important. To that end, can you view that as a single wide page, broken into columns, where each column is the same width but the gutters vary to allow for the folding?

If that works, you can lay it out using the Frame Text Tool, and the Text Frame panel:

  1. Calculate the complete width you need, including all the columns and the gutters and the right/left margins.
  2. Create a 1-page document in Publisher with that width.
  3. Draw a Text Frame that completely covers the page, and then switch to the Text Frame panel.
  4. Set the number of columns appropriately. (I used 5 in the example below, and for simplicity I omitted the right/left margins.)
  5. Set it to not link the gutters, so they can be different widths.
  6. Adjust each gutter width as appropriate using the controls in the panel.

image.thumb.png.ce861cb6fc23940f7d95487a469b4e2a.png

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

so workarounds are important. To that end, can you view that as a single wide page, broken into columns, where each column is the same width but the gutters vary to allow for the folding?

Thanks Walt,

I'm all for workarounds just as you are 🙂. And I think your suggestion is a good start.

But: columns are not pages. They could be used as some kind of 'column guides' but the layout itself might need to be on seperate layers above.

It very much depends on the final design, though. E.g. flowing text with headlines and pinned images could work that way. Multiple placed objects on different backgrounds would be harder to create that way.

d.

Affinity Designer 1 & 2   |   Affinity Photo 1 & 2   |   Affinity Publisher 1 & 2
Affinity Designer 2 for iPad   |   Affinity Photo 2 for iPad   |   Affinity Publisher 2 for iPad

Windows 11 64-bit - Core i7 - 16GB - Intel HD Graphics 4600 & NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M
iPad pro 9.7" + Apple Pencil

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Set it to not link the gutters, so they can be different widths.

Publisher's feature to resize the columns with a mouse is really great. Resizing the gutter with CTRL+drag would be a very nice addition.

All the latest releases of Designer, Photo and Publisher (retail and beta) on MacOS and Windows.
15” Dell Inspiron 7559 i7 Windows 10 x64 Pro Intel Core i7-6700HQ (3.50 GHz, 6M) 16 GB Dual Channel DDR3L 1600 MHz (8GBx2) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M 4 GB GDDR5 500 GB SSD + 1 TB HDD UHD (3840 x 2160) Truelife LED - Backlit Touch Display
32” LG 32UN650-W display 3840 x 2160 UHD, IPS, HDR10 Color Gamut: DCI-P3 95%, Color Calibrated 2 x HDMI, 1 x DisplayPort
13.3” MacBook Pro (2017) Ventura 13.6 Intel Core i7 (3.50 GHz Dual Core) 16 GB 2133 MHz LPDDR3 Intel Iris Plus Graphics 650 1536 MB 500 GB SSD Retina Display (3360 x 2100)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 minutes ago, dominik said:

But: columns are not pages. They could be used as some kind of 'column guides' but the layout itself might need to be on seperate layers above.

It very much depends on the final design, though. E.g. flowing text with headlines and pinned images could work that way. Multiple placed objects on different backgrounds would be harder to create that way.

Yes, they would be column guides for any non-text layout.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 minutes ago, Petar Petrenko said:

Publisher's feature to resize the columns with a mouse is really great. Resizing the gutter with CTRL+drag would be a very nice addition.

Yes, that would be nice.

Edit: Also nice: if Column Guides could have variable gutters.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Clayton, Dominik, Walt, Loukash  et al. 

Have a kick around of this. 

Typical A4 three fold example. 100, 99 and 98mm pages set on A4 trim page. Then stuffing around to make a 12 panel variant with micro adjusted pages.  

1)
Art on the six DL pages converted to six separate symbols in designer. (In this case crops inside the symbol) Symbol then inside its own group (to allow individual cropping). 

2)
Opened in Publisher. Pages in this file then arranged as per a typical client presentation and imposed for print. Then got carried away pages 5 and 6. 

The advantages of this technique may seem minor at first, much like grouping and copying some stuff but it is in effect like having live pages liberated from the constricts of the file definition. Pages you can selectively trim, flip, rotate and order however you like. Make micro adjustments and keep all changes localised and synchronised. 

Changes made to one symbol update in every instance of that symbol, so feel free to copy and arrange how you like. Duplicate symbols add little to the file size.

I'm not saying it's a guaranteed solution for multiple page spreads but I think it may be a powerful work around while this limitation is in place and an interesting way to rethink pages and file definitions. 

I haven't checked how page numbers work in it. That would be amazing if it worked.

 

Rob.

Test.afpub

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Rob Luxford said:

Have a kick around of this. 

 

Hello @Rob Luxford,

thank you for sharing. Actually this is similar to how I worked on a CD sleeve project and it worked pretty good for me. The advantage to me is that I can always work in a visually correct vertical display and still check the entire design in its context.

Cheers,
d.

Affinity Designer 1 & 2   |   Affinity Photo 1 & 2   |   Affinity Publisher 1 & 2
Affinity Designer 2 for iPad   |   Affinity Photo 2 for iPad   |   Affinity Publisher 2 for iPad

Windows 11 64-bit - Core i7 - 16GB - Intel HD Graphics 4600 & NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M
iPad pro 9.7" + Apple Pencil

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • 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.