Affinity Publisher

[Seneca]

Hi Hokusai,

I completely disagree with you. Let me explain.

I don't want to see the Affinity Publisher to become a web authoring tool either.

But we live in a different world from the one from 10 years ago. Publishers need to repurpose their content so that it can be used in epubs, web pages, etc. Unless, you want to continue living in a bubble.

So, inevitably, I think the Affinity Publisher should have some bare essentials to at least export the contents of whatever it's dealing with in a html format and its style in css format. That's not too much to ask from a modern application. Publishing books without being able to wrap it up in an ePub would also be crazy in my opinion.

Having said all that, lets wait and see what the Affinity team can bring to the table early Next Year and we'll take it from there. :rolleyes:  

[Hokusai]

Seneca,

 

I agree with you, the ability to make or export e-pubs would be great (and expected at least at some point). When I was talking about "web" capabilities I was thinking more along the lines of the html tools and other web content tools that are in InDesign and Quark Xpress but e-publishing features would be welcomed and greatly appreciated. Maybe having the ability to export a layout in a html format would be okay but I just hate to see the Affinity team wasting time coding web "features" into a layout program. About 15 years ago or so there was this idea or should I say pipe dream in the world of publishing that one day designers would build things in a layout program and then it would exported or saved as a PDF for traditional publishing and then as html (and css, etc) for the web. This never happened and yet, Adobe and Quark both added tools to make web content. I often felt that these tools were never well thought out and they didn't work well and they weren't implemented well either. In my opinion, these tools were unnecessary because traditional publishing and web publishing were and continue to be very different and they require different tools for the job. Creating content for the web requires a dedicated app for designing web based content and lumping them in with a program that is focused toward more traditional publishing seems a waste of time. Now of course things have changed a little (but not so much) in that e-pubs are more common. For me, e-pubs are more similar to traditional publishing than web content and so I would think that tools to create e-pubs would be a great addition but tools for making html and other web based technologies would best be left to a dedicated program. Also PDF files are often used on the web but PDF files are still basically the same format as traditional publishing (with some minor differences of course) and so having some additional PDF features (like some of those from Acrobat) would be nice, in my opinion. Instead of having web type tools, I would prefer to have two programs that were integrated well but served two different and yet distinct purposes, one for more traditional publishing things (including e-pubs and PDF files made for the web). The only reason I mention this is, some people still seem to hang on to the idea that they want one App to rule them all (pardon my Lord of the Rings reference). An App that can do everything and yet nothing well.

 

I am sure that the Affinity team has some innovative things in store for Affinity Publisher (or whatever it is called) and I'm looking forward to it.

 

Hokusai

[Yogi9409]

I have been a user of PagePlus since version 3, but having now switched to a Mac and have Affinity Photo, I just hope that they improve the appearance of the software.  At the moment, especially on a 27 inch iMac, it is simply too dark and claustrophobic.  

[Stephen_H]

Also like Affinity Press. It has a very high-end professional sound to it. (Bureau is too difficult to spell). It implies robust colour management and accurate proofing tools that pros demand.

 

Affinity HardCopy also caught my eye. It sounds hardcore with a focus on text. It also distinguishes itself from the rest by implying the final output will be physical – not virtual like images, websites, apps, ebooks, interfaces etc that use RGB.