Affinity Publisher 1.9

Started by Syphon, February 07, 2021, 11:25:17 AM

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Rodi

So I use Affinity Publisher a fair amount in my shop. It does some things really well. I use it to check fold panels, it gets insanely high percentages. If I have a PDF that need real editing, it's really pretty great, for the most part.

I have thrown hail Mary's and won and intercepted to the opposition when all I had to do was sit on the ball. But that being said, it's not ready for prime time, but has it's purposes. Hey, they have Pantone!

I had a 1 color job that i had to adjust the panels for folding and it would process the file out no matter what. That sucked. I have a job we take in regularly that comes in process that should be k + 368. I set up Master pages and it's worked great. Has cut time down on a number of jobs to next to nothing.

It won't replace InDesign, but it can work along it, and in some ways is way better. I use it a lot to check for folio placement and it's great set up one page and check em. I like it a lot.
Gabba Gabba Hey

Possum

I don't think any of us mind Adobe getting some real competition.
Tall tree, short ropes, fix stupid.

Rodi

Quote from: Possum on April 06, 2023, 01:49:40 PMI don't think any of us mind Adobe getting some real competition.
Exactly.

Thinking about using non standardized programs comes with some issues. I think partly the known issues of the industry standard programs leads many to believe they are perfect, when in fact we do little workarounds that once seemed so big, and learning, really learning a program is hard, to each their own.

I laud Serif for having the temerity to do what they think is right. Personally, I love both Publisher and Designer a lot. Photo, well lets just say, it's not always easy for me, a curves photo imaging kinda guy compared to that behemoth!!

Type engine could be better, some fonts get all kinds a whacky and have to be outlined to export well (fun fun fun~!), but I am trying to learn it. You could do worse with a page layout program (quark since who knows when!!, what happened to that once great program!!?) than Publisher.

I do use Publisher as pdf editor as well, it's pretty neat, it gets the page sizes right, you embedd then edit. it's pretty neat.

Gabba Gabba Hey

Slappy

I never thought about using it to edit supplied PDFs, might give it a go and see how it handles font mappings from a customer supplied file. That part makes me a little uneasy.
A little diddie 'bout black 'n cyan...two reflective colors doin' the best they can.

Rodi

Ya know if ya got a client who wants work done in page layout program (switching vendors, wonder why!!) but only has a PDF this is a great way of getting there. It is not perfect, Affinity Suite is not ready for Prime Time, but it's good if you have  no other choices.
Serifs forum is kinda hideous, but there is some good knowledge there too.
Gabba Gabba Hey

Rodi

Found a perfect work job for Affinity 2.04. digital (this way I can fix it in InDesign if need be after proofing) job that was sent both sides on a letter size sheet (I mean, c'mon like I have to do your diaper clean up again?). Drop n crop 11 sets to 22 half letter sheets. Nice and quick.

I will keep it going as the confidence level rises. Honestly, when disaster hits I usually put it a way for a bit, but it's like I am a fly to flame with Affinity software. Hurt me more.
Gabba Gabba Hey

Joe

In case anyone uses the affinity forums...

QuoteDear Affinity forum member (XXXXX),
Unfortunately we have become aware that personal data relating to users of the Affinity Forums (https://forum.affinity.serif.com/) may have been accessed from outside the company following a cyber attack on 6 April 2023. It appears that an administrator's account was compromised, allowing access to our forum members list.
What data was accessed?
The data which may have been accessed is what is on your public forum profile (e.g. username, post count, reputation, joining date, etc.), but additionally includes your Email Address and Last Used IP Address which would ordinarily be private. Thankfully we can be sure it would not have been possible to access your forum account password so that has definitely not been compromised in this breach.
Please also be reassured that any information accessed does not include any financial data, purchase history, physical addresses, phone numbers or anything else held within your main Affinity account / AffinityID. The forum is a standalone system which is completely separate from your Affinity account.
We cannot tell what proportion of our forum members' email addresses were accessed – and it's possible this does not affect you in anyway – but we are making all members aware as a precaution.
We have reported this incident to the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) as well as taken immediate steps to make the forum system more secure to avoid this type of attack in future.
What should you do?
We do not think you need to do anything, other than be mindful that this happened and to follow general advice around email and online account security.
One thing to be particularly diligent with is possible email "phishing" attempts. This will be when someone contacts you pretending to be us, requesting you change your password or give other account information to them. If you are concerned about any email being legitimate, don't click any links in the email. If you wish to update any of your forum account details type ‌for‌um.aff‌inity.ser‌if.‌com into your browser and log into your account from there to be sure.
Generally, if you do receive any suspicious email which you think could have originated via this breach (for example if an email you receive addresses you by your forum username) please let us know.
If you wish to make any such reports or have any further questions, then please contact us at dataprotection@serif.com. Full details of Serif's Privacy Policy are available on our website https://affinity.serif.com/privacy/.
Customer data security is something we take extremely seriously and, while cyber attacks are an unfortunate reality of doing business today, we are incredibly sorry that your data may have been accessed in this way.
Sincerely,
Ashley Hewson (Managing Director)
Patrick Connor (Data Protection Officer)
Mac OS Sonoma 14.2.1 (c) | (retired)

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

Rodi

So lets add one to Affinity for being a hail Mary toss and saving the day!

So owners wifes friend had a file for a job that is due tomorrow, a 40 page playbill (41, actually LOL, ditched one page) self. My place is very particular about stuff and generally do not take these kinds of rush jobs. Customers printer broke, first n prolly only job :) we will do!

So PDF comes in no bleed, all images. well I gotta get that cover n back to at least bleed.

Well here is Affinity to the rescue. With ID or any other page layout you gotta bring each page in, time consuming, then check that they are in right position. Yadda Yadda. Well Infinity is different, open Publisher then file new and go to the pdf and it opens it right up. Well I did some creative work on the cover to attain bleed (made pdf 5.75 x 8.75) and reduced ad pages to an acceptable margin and pdf proof made in short order.

I can't say I rely on Publisher as there are some funny items with it, but if all I have is a PDF and I need to do some major editing, it's becoming used more regularly.

Gabba Gabba Hey

Rodi

So upon my last conquest, I hit some low hanging fruit, a Photoshop PDF that had process black type (NOICE!) and was not the correct size with bleed top and bottom. Boom. Worked fine, but this is low hanging fruit. I expect most page layout programs handle this.
Gabba Gabba Hey

Rodi

So an issue comes up.

I have been using Publisher for fold panel checks, well now the updated pdfs don't move ;)

Arrrgghhhh.

I'll restart my computer and see if that somehow does the trick
Gabba Gabba Hey

Joe

Mac OS Sonoma 14.2.1 (c) | (retired)

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

Rodi

#26
So just got an interesting item perfect for Affinity Publisher.
we do small folders run on our digital press. Customer has just sent a pdf only this go round. have to add text and photo. Guess what? Only half bleed going one way :). So I "File" open instead of import and I have all the fonts, we are good to go!

Makee the bleed, give enough bleed for die where it needs it, change the type, add the photo. Actual work about 6 minutes vs at least half hour in pitstop, plus I have easy live type to work with in case there are any changes.

Affinity Publisher (awful name, btw) is an up and down program for me, but sometimes I do force it. It's really pretty slick. Where text did reflow it actually was better than the pdf that was from InDesign.
Gabba Gabba Hey

Tracy

so it opens the pdf and then it is live text? hmm that is interesting

Rodi

Yes it does. But there is a cool thing too, you can open a pdf (say a catolog) the whole enchillada or import and embedd then edit the pdf from inside. It's really pretty danged cool.

Now fair warining, there are workarounds that have to be learned that are not what we in prepress would normally have to do, but it's very powerful for a number of situations.
Gabba Gabba Hey

Rodi

So I had an interesting issue yesterday, with hair falling out of my head precipitously yesterday. Affinity Publisher 1.1.1 the latest and greatest! Well, file won't bleed for an envelope. Try as I might, was terrible. Then I put it into InDesign cause it's the master of the univers, right? Well blah blah blah, same!! WTF! So, some dummy forgot to use the bleed setup in Elecroc. Any guesses? 8)
Gabba Gabba Hey