Very Dissapointed - StudioLink Lacks Full Features of Designer & Photo

[MCFC_4Heatons]

We have no use for Publisher but purchased it as we wanted an integrated version of Designer & Photo - unfortunately its not a FULL Photo and Designer Integration so there's still a need to do 'edit in Photo' or 'edit in Designer' for some features, which is VERY dissapointing - I would suggest some of the information about StudioLink has been misleading.

[Rick G]

I think the idea is to do all the heavy lifting in Photo and designer and then use studio link for tweaking as needed. The Publisher interface is not really set up to do the major design work of Photo and Designer

[walt.farrell]

43 minutes ago, Rick G said:

The Publisher interface is not really set up to do the major design work of Photo and Designer

What do you consider "major design work"?

[Move Along People]

-

[Rick G]

1 hour ago, walt.farrell said:

What do you consider "major design work"?

See what @haakoo said then "major design work of Photo and Designer" (why did I know Someone was going to call me on that?)

If you have a Graphic or digital art, build them in the appropriate program(s). Publisher being a page layout program is less suited to building 40 layers of adjustments for your photo than is ... Photo. Studio link adds a better than expected set of tools for doing more than just simple tweaks but if you need more you should probably EDIT IN PHOTO / DESIGNER

Trying to do the major lifting of photo within Publisher is akin to building a spreadsheet in Word. Yes it CAN be done but it is not the right tool for the job

Sorry if I was unclear

[Tourmaline]

On 7/12/2019 at 4:04 AM, MCFC_4Heatons said:

We have no use for Publisher but purchased it as we wanted an integrated version of Designer & Photo - unfortunately its not a FULL Photo and Designer Integration so there's still a need to do 'edit in Photo' or 'edit in Designer' for some features, which is VERY dissapointing - I would suggest some of the information about StudioLink has been misleading.

So basically you expected a full Designer and Photo integration for the price of Publisher alone? If so, what purpose have the stand alone versions if this was the case?!

[walt.farrell]

3 minutes ago, Tourmaline said:

So basically you expected a full Designer and Photo integration for the price of Publisher alone? If so, what purpose have the stand alone versions if this was the case?!

I don't think MCFC_4Heatons has said that. They already own Designer and Photo. They were hoping that Publisher would give them the integration into a single application, given they own all three.

[Tourmaline]

21 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

I don't think MCFC_4Heatons has said that. They already own Designer and Photo. They were hoping that Publisher would give them the integration into a single application, given they own all three.

They still have full integration, with edit in....It's a roundtrip to either of the two apps but you can go back and forth as you like. The tools in Publisher are basic, so you can do all the edits you like either being basic or expert. As Haakoo also suggested.

Full integration would mean no need for the stand alone versions, or if you interpret it differently all features used in the stand alone apps. 

There is only so much room for menu's etc in an app so combining all 3 into one app would mean sacrifises, wich expert don't want, they need the extended set of features in the stand alone apps.

Studiolink is far from being a dissapointment to me and a lot of other users...

You have the power of basic edits at your fingertips or extended features of each app with edit in...best of both worlds.

 

I think the words very dissapointing is a bit harsh...Studiolink offers way more then any competition.

 

[MCFC_4Heatons]

5 hours ago, Tourmaline said:

So basically you expected a full Designer and Photo integration for the price of Publisher alone? If so, what purpose have the stand alone versions if this was the case?!

How would that work? You need registered versions of Photo and Designer for the the Design & Photo personas to work inside Publisher.  We already had licensed copies of Photo and Designer, we bought Publisher purely for bringing the features of Photo and Designer into one single app. Unfortunately we were wrongly under the impression all features of Designer & Photo would be integrated which is not the case .....

Your profile says you're an advanced member ???

Some of the so-called advanced members on here seem to be leading a culture of attacking people on the forums  who dare critise any aspect of Affinity software.  Questioning how and why is how we improve things.

[Mark Ingram]

On 7/12/2019 at 3:04 AM, MCFC_4Heatons said:

 I would suggest some of the information about StudioLink has been misleading.

Which information? Please let us know and we can look at improving it.

[Tourmaline]

7 hours ago, MCFC_4Heatons said:

How would that work? You need registered versions of Photo and Designer for the the Design & Photo personas to work inside Publisher.  We already had licensed copies of Photo and Designer, we bought Publisher purely for bringing the features of Photo and Designer into one single app. Unfortunately we were wrongly under the impression all features of Designer & Photo would be integrated which is not the case .....

Your profile says you're an advanced member ???

Some of the so-called advanced members on here seem to be leading a culture of attacking people on the forums  who dare critise any aspect of Affinity software.  Questioning how and why is how we improve things.

Improving things is only done by constructive comments...

"You bought Affinity Publisher with mislead information, and you don’t need it... Hmmm..."

You don't do research before you buy something???

 

[Tourmaline]

7 hours ago, Pattou said:

I agree

Those APub 'personas' could be there for users who do not own APh/AD allowing them to edit pictures (bitmap/vector) with some apps features. I like the idea of apps integration but right now, one have 5 UI to set up (plus 5 for betas)... my brain may bug on this but Studio Link would be more meaningful if opening the full APh/AD UI for users owning the 3 licences IMHO .

And as long as pictures (whatever they are) are truly linked and sync, I do not see a problem opening the 3 apps instead of personas through SL.

P.

I don't see the problem either.

If you did some research you would know how it works but instead uses the term misleading for his lack of research...

 

I've been here from the beginning on this forum and I can't recall Serif made any promises or assumptions that all features of Designer or Photo would work.

As I stated before, you can't cram in all features from 3 apps into one application.

That's why Photoshop for instance has some new features and loses some others...There is a limit you can put in a UI...

@Peter Petrenko,

They could do that, yes. Calling it Publisher light...

[CarlM]

Keynote and the website make it clear that Studiolink doesn't actually run all the apps as one but allow access to the functionality of the sister apps from within the application you are working.

"With Affinity Publisher, you can directly link to your other Affinity apps through StudioLink. The first technology of its kind, this revolutionary feature takes the pain out of publishing by allowing you to instantly switch to the advanced photo editing features of Affinity Photo and precise vector tools of Affinity Designer without ever leaving the app."

As Rick G said, do the heavy lifting in the app and once you're in Publisher (for example) tweak if needed. I don't believe there was ever any suggestion that Studiolink was going to create one massive super app that can do everything. Personally I wouldn't want that anyway.

[walt.farrell]

12 hours ago, Tourmaline said:

I can't recall Serif made any promises or assumptions that all features of Designer or Photo would work.

In fact, they were reasonably clear during the Publisher beta that it would not be all of Photo or all of Designer. They stated that only the primary personas (Designer Persona, Photo Persona) would be availble, and the other personas would not be available.

The surprise that they did not mention was that the Photo Persona of Publisher would not include the Plugin facility nor the New Panorama, New Stack, New HDR Merge, New Focus Merge, or New Batch Job functions. For me, those are not a big loss, but for anyone wanting all the functions of Photo's Photo Persona they would be.

On the other hand, the Affinity Store has a good description. Look at the section on Publisher's features, and scroll down to the part about StudioLink.

[Jowday]

On 7/12/2019 at 7:30 PM, ErrkaPetti said:

Do a refund, mission completed and you can go back to whatever you used earlier...

There you are again with your only statement: TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT.

You should join a cult - you will love it. But that message of yours makes zero value in this or any other thread.

This reminds me of you. Same principle. Same succes rate: 

[Rick G]

9 hours ago, ErrkaPetti said:

Ha! 

Talk for yourself! Yeah, as you can see I HATE when people vining over things that makes me introduce a headache...

This is software, it’s not the end of the world, bla bla bla... You get it...

As I can see it, also this user is exaggerating this topic and behave childish, whatever the answer is, he think he has be fooled by Serif, and he bought Publisher even if he didn’t need it because he thought that Publisher was not only Publisher, it was Publisher Super Deluxe with a complete armada of function from three different programs, although it was clear that this not was the case...

both you and I will never give up our statements, so, better dig down the indian axes...

Can everyone stop for a minute and catch our collective breath? This seems to be all over a misunderstanding of Studio link and has mushroomed into the current nastiness

Most of us don't have the impression that Serif tried to "fool" us. The suggestion that you can get a refund is not unwarranted The root seems to be that someone had conceived and expectation that was higher than the software was designed to deliver. Rather than giving up on Publisher, try using it as designed. Do you major art work in the proper programs then if you have to adjust a node or remove a pimple from a nose while doing page layout, use the studio link within Publisher for the minor fixes. You might just find that studio link is a slick time saver

But if this is not the program for you, get the refund and go back to what does work for you (and I say that with no rancor) Publisher is still clawing it's way into the market. However it is rising quickly and many of us agree that it may be worth the wait

But seriously, lets all calm down. As @ErrkaPetti said, this is just a piece of software

[Dazmondo77]

All I'm gonna say is StudioLink is GENIUS and I've completely embraced it in my workflow

[Guyon]

On 7/11/2019 at 10:04 PM, MCFC_4Heatons said:

We have no use for Publisher but purchased it as we wanted an integrated version of Designer & Photo - unfortunately its not a FULL Photo and Designer Integration so there's still a need to do 'edit in Photo' or 'edit in Designer' for some features, which is VERY dissapointing - I would suggest some of the information about StudioLink has been misleading. 

I am so confused. You got to try it before you bought.  You knew what the program did and did not do.  What magic did you expect to happen by purchasing?  LOL

Look APub does not do the #1 thing I want which is Epub, but I knew that before purchase. But I am not complaining, This is just the initial release of a new product.  If you go back and look at Adobe InDesign sift release it was HORRIBLE.  Crashes, and minimal functions.    I bet APub is so much better than InDesign 1.0 sift release.  In fact, InDesign still can not do StudioLink

 

[MCFC_4Heatons]

3 minutes ago, Guyon said:

I am so confused. You got to try it before you bought.  You knew what the program did and did not do.  What magic did you expect to happen by purchasing?  LOL

Look APub does not do the #1 thing I want which is Epub, but I knew that before purchase. But I am not complaining, This is just the initial release of a new product.  If you go back and look at Adobe InDesign sift release it was HORRIBLE.  Crashes, and minimal functions.    I bet APub is so much better than InDesign 1.0 sift release.  In fact, InDesign still can not do StudioLink

 

StudioLink was disabled was disabled in the beta until near the end

[Guyon]

1 minute ago, MCFC_4Heatons said:

StudioLink was disabled was disabled in the beta until near the end

 Oh, I see.  But everyone knew that you this was just a link, not the other full packages.  Even in the name, it says link.

This is no biggie,  Get a refund a buy Photo or designer, whatever you need.  They are mega-powerful at a rock bottom price.

[TMHaffinityforGraphics]

I can see the OP's point the headline says use all your affinity apps in one place... or something to that effect.

I personally feel like publisher has been great, and it is helpful to bounce between personas to make minor edits etc while pulling docs together.

Now that ive made my position clear....I would also be willing to pay double for publisher if it were full featured...namely the photo plugins, specialized personas like liquify would be a bonus.

For those of us who already got a great deal on the publisher base package license, an add-on purchase would be rather tasty!! I'd buy it tomorrow!

[debraspicher]

On 10/20/2022 at 10:39 PM, TMHaffinityforGraphics said:

I can see the OP's point the headline says use all your affinity apps in one place... or something to that effect.

I personally feel like publisher has been great, and it is helpful to bounce between personas to make minor edits etc while pulling docs together.

Now that ive made my position clear....I would also be willing to pay double for publisher if it were full featured...namely the photo plugins, specialized personas like liquify would be a bonus.

For those of us who already got a great deal on the publisher base package license, an add-on purchase would be rather tasty!! I'd buy it tomorrow!

I'm not against such a product existing (I personally don't find appeal in it...), but curious what workflow users who like this approach are actually invisioning? Surely managing multiple files, particularly anything batch-oriented would be difficult with just photos. So is the point to be able to have a simple floating window when updating a thumbnail for example with the "full" functionality of Photo? Is it just about "making tweaks"? This part makes sense if it's just to not have to "escape" the program for certain types of edits. But surely not ALL functionality...

I can see where a Publisher "EX" might exist that basically just has the extra filters, personas (like liquify) available... perhaps a middle-ground for people who ONLY do Publisher-esk jobs. But for those of us who do raster/vector only stuff for web-work/asset design primarily, etc... we're not needing Publisher UI very often, so it's far too extraneous. So I think it would have to be a new program... and it's a lot to ask Serif to create additional workload for specific use cases? Maybe? I'm not sure what is being asked.

The other consideration, we're still in v1 phase, so I'm sure as time goes on, the 3 programs are going to start evolving as very different behemoths. Think Pokemon.