Maybe it's a good idea, maybe not ... read

[.: NICKY G. :.]

Excuse my question / request, surely many of you will have different theses about this question, but I was wondering:

Analyzing the two software "Designer and Publisher" I could not, to my great astonishment, notice that Publisher is importing Designer files natively (as is right and normal), but above all once the Designer vector file has been inserted into publisher it is possible to modify the vector directly without having to reopen it in Designer and update the connection instance again. Which is missing even in Illustrator !!!

I also noticed that "Publisher's interface and tools are very similar if not identical to those of Designer".

So to make it short:
Wouldn't it be better to create just one great software by combining "designer and publisher"? By adding in Designer, the few missing drawing features that Designer has. (I would also add that there are very few missing features, and in contrast to Indesign, in Publisher it is possible to manage vectors much better)

So in the end we designers We should learn only 2 software (one of design / layout and the other of photo editing), but above all, images apart, we should not go back and forth between software.

I imagine that many will say that the two software will have to have a life of its own, that everyone was born to do one thing and not the other.
But on balance the reality is that Publisher really lacks few design tools, to function identically as designers. So why not integrate it?

[ivbera]

Hello

I think you are looking for the Persona features. The Beta-Versions of all three starting witch 1.7.0 support the Persona features. Maybe that is why you can't open the designer file?

To my understanding Affinity Photo, Designer and Publisher are based on the same foundation and fileformat.  This is also the reason, why the tools look and work the same or in similar behavior.

I think seperating those three programs makes sense, since not everybody needs the features of the other and it keeps the program clean.
 

 

[Petar Petrenko]

On 5/19/2019 at 9:10 PM, ivbera said:

[...] since not everybody needs the features of the other and it keeps the program clean.

But everybody wants every app to have more than 50% from the others two.

[MikeW]

5 minutes ago, Petar Petrenko said:

But everybody wants every app to have more than 50% from the others two.

Not everyone. I don't. I could care less whether the Persona feature was even present in any of the Affinity applications.

[Petar Petrenko]

Instead of opening the desired app, I think that Persona will bring the interface of that app inside Publisher by temporarily changing the workspace until the job is done.

If this will be the case, then all unspecific features inside any app can be removed.

[MikeW]

I, myself, use a layout application for layout. I (mainly) use a vector drawing application for designing vector assets that will go into the layout application. I use a photo editing application for manipulating images that will go into the layout application. Everything else is some degree of application bloat.

I realize I am likely in the minority.

[Petar Petrenko]

3 minutes ago, MikeW said:

I, myself, use a layout application for layout. I (mainly) use a vector drawing application for designing vector assets that will go into the layout application. I use a photo editing application for manipulating images that will go into the layout application. Everything else is some degree of application bloat.

I realize I am likely in the minority.

I am the same. Just because of that I want:

1. all 3 apps to have only the specific features not present into other two, or
2. all 3 apps to be combined into one.

In both cases they will be bloat free. As I said, maybe Personas will give us the first case.

[Old Bruce]

1 hour ago, MikeW said:

I, myself, use a layout application for layout. I (mainly) use a vector drawing application for designing vector assets that will go into the layout application. I use a photo editing application for manipulating images that will go into the layout application. Everything else is some degree of application bloat.

I realize I am likely in the minority.

Very much a horses for courses fellow myself. I own a video-camera which can take still images and a (regular) camera which can record videos. Those are nice features, I have even used them, but I would have bought both cameras had they been missing.

[MikeW]

10 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

Very much a horses for courses fellow myself. I own a video-camera which can take still images and a (regular) camera which can record videos. Those are nice features, I have even used them, but I would have bought both cameras had they been missing.

Never have used the video function of my phone. I rarely take pictures with it (as opposed to the several Canon and Pentax film & DSLRs we own). I don't own a video recorder.

I don't use salt when I want pepper, either. 

[garrettm30]

I’m not sure how much hope we can place in the idea that the Designer and Photo personas will open up all the capabilities of each of those full apps, unless the persona paradigm in Publisher is different than what it is in the other two apps. If it is indeed following the same pattern as the other apps, then I would expect the Photos persona to be rather like the Pixel persona in Designer; that is, a stripped-down set of some of the tools that one could find in Affinity Photo.

However, arguing against what I just said is the fact that the buttons are labeled “Photo” and “Designer” rather than “Pixel” (as it is named in Designer) and “Vector” (or some such). Perhaps an alternate theory is that the Photo Persona will offer all the tools in the main Photo Persona in Affinity Photo (as opposed to the Liquify, Develop, Tone Mapping, and Export personas), and similarly the Designer persona will offer the same set of tools as the Draw Persona in Affinity Designer.

I seem to recall reading that these personas will require purchased copies of the other apps. I can’t remember whether that is the official word or just forum assumption, but the idea seems a little odd to me, as the personas in the other apps do not function that way: you don’t need Photos to use the Pixel persona in Designer, for example.

Basically I’m just speculating out of curiosity. The one thing I am fairly sure of is that Publisher all by itself is not going to make the other two apps unnecessary. I will be happy to own all three, and I think that together they are a good value for their asking price. I further think it is reasonable to assume that these personas are not just shortcut buttons to “Edit in Photo” and “Edit in Designer.” 

[walt.farrell]

10 minutes ago, garrettm30 said:

I seem to recall reading that these personas will require purchased copies of the other apps. I can’t remember whether that is the official word or just forum assumption

That was stated by Serif early on in the Publisher beta, but I probably won't be able to find the post, and I'm not going to try

We should find out more soon, as Serif have said they plan to activate the Personas after the 1.7 retail versions of Photo and Designer become available, which should be imminent.

[Fixx]

3 hours ago, MikeW said:

I, myself, use a layout application for layout. I (mainly) use a vector drawing application for designing vector assets that will go into the layout application. I use a photo editing application for manipulating images that will go into the layout application

Yes, and even in that order :-D

I often just grab text, vectors and photos to layout, and when project is okayed I edit the text, fix the vector files and colour correct (ah well... correct this and that and perspective too!) photos. That is why easy access to pixel and vector tools is important. 

[MikeW]

Easy access to me is an Edit In... function. 

I am usually editing images while awaiting final text edits. I don't do them inside the layout application. High-zoom applications like Affinity applications are (and QXP) have too soft of image display, at least as regards sharpening. I don't trust the results. Or, maybe I don't trust my inability to trust me.

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, MikeW said:

Easy access to me is an Edit In... function.

We have Edit in Photo, for editing the complete page in Photo, as well as whatever the Photo Persona in Publisher will give us when it's enabled.

Now with beta .371 we also have "Edit Image" in the Context Toolbar when a linked image file is selected.

But you seem to be saying (not quoted; see original post just above) you don't like to edit photos in any of the Affinity applications? If I read that right, what do you consider a "low-zoom" editing application?

[MikeW]

Walt, it's not low zoom. It's the smoothing of pixels when zoomed in to see detail. 

I prefer to use a different image editor. That's pretty simple.

[fde101]

21 hours ago, garrettm30 said:

I’m not sure how much hope we can place in the idea that the Designer and Photo personas will open up all the capabilities of each of those full apps

Serif already confirmed a while back that they will not.  I'm guessing it will have a significant subset of the functionality of the primary persona from each of the two other apps, but not everything.