***** NEWSFLASH ***** Affinity Publisher Page Layout beta has been released

Started by Joe, August 30, 2018, 10:50:05 AM

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wonderings

Quote from: Joe on August 31, 2018, 09:10:58 AMYeah you can't say they copied the way other page layout apps work. They have their own groove going...

 :rotf:

For me that is one of the biggest hurdle. I am not spending my evenings trying to learn a new bit of software and it is not as straightforward or something I want to commit any live jobs to. I guess my real hope is that Affinity does take some significant marketshare to make Adobe notice and bring back standard software licenses that never expire and have no monthly payments.

Joe

Buy a lottery ticket. You have better odds of winning that then Adobe going back to the old way of selling software.
Mac OS Sonoma 14.2.1 (c) | (retired)

The seven ages of man: spills, drills, thrills, bills, ills, pills and wills.

Slappy

Quote from: wonderings on August 31, 2018, 08:40:19 AMNot sure if I am doing something wrong but if I am not I hate the way it handles text. If I resize a text box it actually resizes and stretches the text itself. My words did not reflow to fit the text box. This alone would keep me from using it unless they have done something different to accomplish such an easy task.

**edit** guess I am finding all the things I do not know about Affinity. There are 2 text options, one "artistic text tool" and "frame text tool" I was using the wrong one, if I use "frame text tool" it works as it should.
When I made a Frame Text box, I'd already added some random pics and for some reason it locked that text frame to a Layer with one of the photos & I couldn't get back to the text! It's an odd way of operating, but I'll try to get some feedback going for the Beta forum, it's a hot mess in there already with people taking it out for a spin.
A little diddie 'bout black 'n cyan...two reflective colors doin' the best they can.

wonderings

I did notice issues with placing PDF's. I tried a manual for a high school we are printing, I think the PDF's were originally created from Word. No issues imposing, viewing or even placing in Indesign (only done as a test). Tried to open a multipage PDF in Publisher and do not see any options to select what pages, or anything, it simply just opens the first page. The PDF also did not impose well, all sorts of weird $ signs all over it. It obviously does not handle PDF's well as this was a basic cover of a manual all black with the pie symbol and black text.

Joe

Once you place the PDF you can select which page is displayed here:

[attach width=400]18970[/attach]

One thing I can't find is a way to bring in the PDF via its media, crop, bleed or trim box. It appears to just use the Media box all the time.

Once I imported a couple of PDF's and generated a new PDF it looked like the new PDF had some kind of lines of corruption but when you zoom in it appears they really aren't there.
Mac OS Sonoma 14.2.1 (c) | (retired)

The seven ages of man: spills, drills, thrills, bills, ills, pills and wills.

wonderings

Quote from: Joe on September 01, 2018, 07:23:53 AMOnce you place the PDF you can select which page is displayed here:

[attach width=400]18970[/attach]

One thing I can't find is a way to bring in the PDF via its media, crop, bleed or trim box. It appears to just use the Media box all the time.

Once I imported a couple of PDF's and generated a new PDF it looked like the new PDF had some kind of lines of corruption but when you zoom in it appears they really aren't there.

I guess this is all just their attempt to show they are different then Indesign, though it is not the best approach with some of these things. This should all be done from the getgo when you place a PDF. This is probably personal preference though so I doubt there will be any change with this. My PDF's are certainly messed up, zoomed in or not they are a complete mess

This is one I tested right now. Views perfectly in Indesign, complete mess in Publisher. Still beta so they have time to work this stuff out, but if I cannot trust it with PDF's it will remain in my applications folder collecting dust
Screen Shot 2018-09-01 at 9.44.22 AM by B P, on Flickr


Joe

I would try a PDF not created in Word. The PDF I practiced with looked OK when placed. It had been created in InDesign but yeah if that PDF looks fine in InDesign that isn't a good sign. It took them 3 years to get this far with it so it is going to take some time to get everything fixed. It is a long, long way from being an InDesign replacement at this stage.
Mac OS Sonoma 14.2.1 (c) | (retired)

The seven ages of man: spills, drills, thrills, bills, ills, pills and wills.

wonderings

Quote from: Joe on September 01, 2018, 08:03:34 AMI would try a PDF not created in Word. The PDF I practiced with looked OK when placed. It had been created in InDesign but yeah if that PDF looks fine in InDesign that isn't a good sign. It took them 3 years to get this far with it so it is going to take some time to get everything fixed. It is a long, long way from being an InDesign replacement at this stage.

Well I am sure a properly created PDF will be fine but I want the garbage stuff to work. I cannot remember the last time I had an issue with any PDF placed in Indesign. I am sure it has happened but it is so rare I cannot remember an instance of it.

Any other bit of software I have that could run or rip this handles it fine, only Publisher has an issue with the file at the moment. I am sure that will be fixed with new updates, or well it better be. If you cannot trust it to handle simple PDF's who is going to use it?


Joe

Quote from: wonderings on September 04, 2018, 06:24:43 AMIf you cannot trust it to handle simple PDF's who is going to use it?

Quark users do it all the time. :rotf:

Seriously though I do agree with you. It certainly isn't ready for prime time yet.
Mac OS Sonoma 14.2.1 (c) | (retired)

The seven ages of man: spills, drills, thrills, bills, ills, pills and wills.

wonderings

Quote from: Joe on September 04, 2018, 11:41:56 AM
Quote from: wonderings on September 04, 2018, 06:24:43 AMIf you cannot trust it to handle simple PDF's who is going to use it?

Quark users do it all the time. :rotf:

Seriously though I do agree with you. It certainly isn't ready for prime time yet.

It is a start at least, I think I would still use it over Quark even in its beta stage. Another thing I noticed missing is no way to package a file. This is a big one for me as I package everything. I like having all assets and fonts in each folder, makes life so much simpler.

Joe

Mac OS Sonoma 14.2.1 (c) | (retired)

The seven ages of man: spills, drills, thrills, bills, ills, pills and wills.

StudioMonkey

So to sum up;
- its not ready for release
- when it is (and if they fix everything) it might be as good as Quark  :vomit:
- it's cheaper than InDesign but not as good
- it doesn't handle fonts, text boxes, picture boxes or PDFs particularly well
- it's never going to be industry standard
- I'll still need PhotoShop and Illustrator

What exactly is my motivation here? I mean, I'm just not feeling it.  Maybe if I hated Adobe more for making a great piece of software then holding us to ransom for using it . . .
Time flies like an arrow - fruit flies like a banana

Joe

Quote from: StudioMonkey on September 24, 2018, 04:22:52 AMSo to sum up;
- its not ready for release
- when it is (and if they fix everything) it might be as good as Quark  :vomit:
- it's cheaper than InDesign but not as good
- it doesn't handle fonts, text boxes, picture boxes or PDFs particularly well
- it's never going to be industry standard
- I'll still need PhotoShop and Illustrator
- I'll still need Acrobat/Pitstop

What exactly is my motivation here? I mean, I'm just not feeling it.  Maybe if I hated Adobe more for making a great piece of software then holding us to ransom for using it . . .

Added to your list.
Mac OS Sonoma 14.2.1 (c) | (retired)

The seven ages of man: spills, drills, thrills, bills, ills, pills and wills.

wonderings

Quote from: StudioMonkey on September 24, 2018, 04:22:52 AMSo to sum up;
- its not ready for release
- when it is (and if they fix everything) it might be as good as Quark  :vomit:
- it's cheaper than InDesign but not as good
- it doesn't handle fonts, text boxes, picture boxes or PDFs particularly well
- it's never going to be industry standard
- I'll still need PhotoShop and Illustrator

What exactly is my motivation here? I mean, I'm just not feeling it.  Maybe if I hated Adobe more for making a great piece of software then holding us to ransom for using it . . .

It is missing a lot of stuff to make it a viable alternative to Indesign. PDF support is one of them, they are focused on making the software able to edit PDF's rather then importing a PDF properly without the need to edit. PDF editing is trick as it is already, I think this is a wrong focus for them.

Missing things like preflight and variable data merging are big ones as well. Ultimately if it cannot match Indesign feature for feature it will never be a viable alternative. The software is snappy I will give them that. I think their real market is someone who is somewhat capable at design for themselves but not doing it for a living as a pro. I have recommended the Affinity software to some people as I do believe it is the best bang for your buck if you are not a pro. I think Affinity is also stuck trying to bring about powerful software at a cheap price point which means they will never get the pro features or if they do it will be a long time coming.

I did notice there was another new update released
https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/68378-affinity-publisher-public-beta-170133-mac/

Slappy

It's a Beta release and still very early in development, so I wouldn't be insanely critical. It's probably never going to be geared towards the "power" users but I'd even like something lightweight to use at home for small projects, free of the Adobe Tax. If it turns out to a heavy hitter down the road, even better.
A little diddie 'bout black 'n cyan...two reflective colors doin' the best they can.