Affinity Publisher 1.9

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

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Syphon

Affinity Publisher 1.9 is out!

While there is several new features and improvements, two things pop out: Package and Data Merge.

The Package feature is finally here and I tried it. Thumbs up!
It package fonts and images just like InDesign.
Interesting is that when you open the folder with the package files, it saves a copy of the Affinity Publisher (.afpub) as a package document (.afpackage) which you can open in Affinity Publisher.
And my understanding is just like InDesign, Publisher loads the fonts temporary while working on the document.
So this is a huge step! I believe more people, especially those that want to dump Adobe, will flock to AP.

Then there is Data Merge!
Was kinda surprised that this feature came around sooner, but don't get excited. I already found a problem with it.
When importing a mailing list with empty fields for envelopes, there is no place to tell it to skip the empty field like you can in InDesign.
So you end up with a AP document that has blank address lines. So you have to go through and delete the blank lines.
Kinda disappointed but hope that Serif fix that soon or maybe I am missing something. Maybe there is a work around.

But I do believe more people will start to use Affinity Publisher over time.
-Joe
Freelance Designer | Illustrator | Photo Editor
iMac • Mac OSX 10.15 Catalina
Affinity Publisher • Affinity Photo • Affinity Designer
Adobe InDesign • Adobe Photoshop • Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Acrobat

Slappy

Cool, I need to update. I'd honestly not done anything with it since the first release.
A little diddie 'bout black 'n cyan...two reflective colors doin' the best they can.

zox

This is first time I am trying PUblisher (I've had Designer since beta days) and big news is that allows "passthrough" for placed PDF's.
That was kind of let down since it was "re-frying" your PDFs and screwing embedded fonts, not it can pass PDF intact through.
I downloaded trial and will be testing it for 90 days, thanks to new offer but I am already inclining to pay.

What I see in the future will be challenge of Adobe fonts, but we'll cross that bridge.

Now, if someone can come up with Acrobat replacement, that would be really something that would be something...

Syphon

Quote from: zox on February 07, 2021, 03:09:40 PM
This is first time I am trying PUblisher (I've had Designer since beta days) and big news is that allows "passthrough" for placed PDF's.
That was kind of let down since it was "re-frying" your PDFs and screwing embedded fonts, not it can pass PDF intact through.
I downloaded trial and will be testing it for 90 days, thanks to new offer but I am already inclining to pay.

What I see in the future will be challenge of Adobe fonts, but we'll cross that bridge.

Now, if someone can come up with Acrobat replacement, that would be really something that would be something...

I think they should hook up with Google Fonts just like they did with Unsplash, Pixabay, and Pexels.
Freelance Designer | Illustrator | Photo Editor
iMac • Mac OSX 10.15 Catalina
Affinity Publisher • Affinity Photo • Affinity Designer
Adobe InDesign • Adobe Photoshop • Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Acrobat

RMPrepress

I know this thread is old BUT...
We just got a job that was designed with Affinity Publisher.
Has anyone else used this application and what thoughts do you have on it.
Manager/Default IT Guy - 2022 Mac Studio, Apple M1 Max, 64 GB - Ventura 13.6
Kodak Prinergy 10.0, Kodak Insite 9.5 and Kodak Proofing System 10.0
Epson SureColor P9000 w/XRite Spectroproofer - G7 Master Printer
Heidelberg Prinect 2022 + Suprasetter 106 CTP

Joe

I have it. It works. Can't beat the price but you get what you pay for. If I was still working professionally I would go with Adobe CC. But I am just a poor retiree so that is what I have. ;D
Mac OS Sonoma 14.2.1 (c) | (retired)

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

bornrd

Quote from: RMPrepress on July 13, 2022, 02:19:16 PMI know this thread is old BUT...
We just got a job that was designed with Affinity Publisher.
Has anyone else used this application and what thoughts do you have on it.

We don't use it at work because of some limitations with the pdf "distiller".

Also, it can't open InDesign-Layouts, making a switch long and tedious
macOS Catalina 10.15.7/Windows 10 - Adobe CC - Fuji XMF 6.13 - Luxel T9000 CTP E - KBA Rapida 105 universal - Heidelberg GTO - Heidelberg Windmill - Heidelberg Cylinder - Heidelberg Speedmaster 52 - Schelter & Giesecke PHOENIX A - Rockstroh VICTORIA - Lenpoligrafmash NEOTYPE N-7F - Konica Minolta C3080 - HP DesignJet ZP6810 - Epson Stylus Pro 4900 - Heidelberg Stahlfolder - Müller-Martini APOLLO - Müller-Martini PRESTO II - PERFECTA Cutting System

I have no idea what the f*ck I'm doing in prepress but here we are

www.ruegen-druck.de | @ruegendruck

––––––––––––––––––––––
They will chop you down just to count your rings

Joe

I think it can open IDML documents from InDesign. Unless they dropped that functionality. Never really had a need for it so I don't know how well it worked.
Mac OS Sonoma 14.2.1 (c) | (retired)

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

bornrd

Quote from: Joe on July 14, 2022, 06:43:55 AMI think it can open IDML documents from InDesign. Unless they dropped that functionality. Never really had a need for it so I don't know how well it worked.
I think you're right.

So, as I said tedious. Each time you'd have to re-do something or update some dates or else, you'de either have to do it with pitStop or convert the File with InDesign first, which basically means we'd have to still pay adobe for like 5 years until all of our database has been converted or outated. I think it'll never happen but it would be amazing. I mean, 50 bucks for DTP is unbeatable
macOS Catalina 10.15.7/Windows 10 - Adobe CC - Fuji XMF 6.13 - Luxel T9000 CTP E - KBA Rapida 105 universal - Heidelberg GTO - Heidelberg Windmill - Heidelberg Cylinder - Heidelberg Speedmaster 52 - Schelter & Giesecke PHOENIX A - Rockstroh VICTORIA - Lenpoligrafmash NEOTYPE N-7F - Konica Minolta C3080 - HP DesignJet ZP6810 - Epson Stylus Pro 4900 - Heidelberg Stahlfolder - Müller-Martini APOLLO - Müller-Martini PRESTO II - PERFECTA Cutting System

I have no idea what the f*ck I'm doing in prepress but here we are

www.ruegen-druck.de | @ruegendruck

––––––––––––––––––––––
They will chop you down just to count your rings

RMPrepress

Thanks guys.
Downloaded the trial and it looks interesting especially the way they have integrated their versions of Photoshop and Illustrator right into Affinity Publisher.  One thing i noticed right away is how much quicker it is compared to InDesign.
It seems to be gaining some traction out there as the reviews are very positive.
It has only been out about two years so Im sure it will only get better.
Who knows could be a scenario like 15 - 20 years ago when InDesign came along and slowly but surely squeezed out Quark as the de facto page layout/desktop application.
Manager/Default IT Guy - 2022 Mac Studio, Apple M1 Max, 64 GB - Ventura 13.6
Kodak Prinergy 10.0, Kodak Insite 9.5 and Kodak Proofing System 10.0
Epson SureColor P9000 w/XRite Spectroproofer - G7 Master Printer
Heidelberg Prinect 2022 + Suprasetter 106 CTP

bornrd

Quote from: RMPrepress on July 14, 2022, 06:59:20 AMThanks guys.
Downloaded the trial and it looks interesting especially the way they have integrated their versions of Photoshop and Illustrator right into Affinity Publisher.  One thing i noticed right away is how much quicker it is compared to InDesign.
It seems to be gaining some traction out there as the reviews are very positive.
It has only been out about two years so Im sure it will only get better.
Who knows could be a scenario like 15 - 20 years ago when InDesign came along and slowly but surely squeezed out Quark as the de facto page layout/desktop application.
Yeah, the Persona function is amazeballs.

I sure hope it does. It doesn't really sit right with me giving adobe money in the light of what they've done to my lovely Substance Designer :(
macOS Catalina 10.15.7/Windows 10 - Adobe CC - Fuji XMF 6.13 - Luxel T9000 CTP E - KBA Rapida 105 universal - Heidelberg GTO - Heidelberg Windmill - Heidelberg Cylinder - Heidelberg Speedmaster 52 - Schelter & Giesecke PHOENIX A - Rockstroh VICTORIA - Lenpoligrafmash NEOTYPE N-7F - Konica Minolta C3080 - HP DesignJet ZP6810 - Epson Stylus Pro 4900 - Heidelberg Stahlfolder - Müller-Martini APOLLO - Müller-Martini PRESTO II - PERFECTA Cutting System

I have no idea what the f*ck I'm doing in prepress but here we are

www.ruegen-druck.de | @ruegendruck

––––––––––––––––––––––
They will chop you down just to count your rings

AaronH

We'd use it here (would save us over $3,000 a year) except in the trial I couldn't find a way to view separations or check ink density. Another weird issue was that the data-merge issue of blank lines hasn't been addressed (the ability to skip empty fields/blank lines hasn't been added in). Lastly, data merge makes files insanely huge, but I didn't test that with master pages to see if it didn't make the file huge - it crashed on my m1 mac mini at work and filled the hard drive with what I imagine was a temp file, then when I rebooted it went back to previous hard disk space.

Besides that I liked the program a lot.
Mac & Windows | XMF | Fiery | Oris

bornrd

Yup! Stumps me how simple things like that can (must be) so difficult to implement.
Official suggestion is to write a PDF and then check it in Acrobat/reader.
Way to go for the "Adobe-Killer" smgdh


Been waiting for a blend tool like in Illustrator for Designer for years. A lot of these versatile vector functions that don't even seem that complicated. Blender is free software, and dealing with this stuff effortlessly and in more sophisticated ways, and it's free.

If I could mangle points and anchors in a vector program the way i could in blender, my Illustration productivity would go up at least 150 %


EDIT: Oh, did I mention blender does it in THREE DIMENSIONS? That's one more than necessary! Yes, bezier curves, not just wavefronts!
macOS Catalina 10.15.7/Windows 10 - Adobe CC - Fuji XMF 6.13 - Luxel T9000 CTP E - KBA Rapida 105 universal - Heidelberg GTO - Heidelberg Windmill - Heidelberg Cylinder - Heidelberg Speedmaster 52 - Schelter & Giesecke PHOENIX A - Rockstroh VICTORIA - Lenpoligrafmash NEOTYPE N-7F - Konica Minolta C3080 - HP DesignJet ZP6810 - Epson Stylus Pro 4900 - Heidelberg Stahlfolder - Müller-Martini APOLLO - Müller-Martini PRESTO II - PERFECTA Cutting System

I have no idea what the f*ck I'm doing in prepress but here we are

www.ruegen-druck.de | @ruegendruck

––––––––––––––––––––––
They will chop you down just to count your rings

Joe

Quote from: bornrd on July 19, 2022, 02:14:42 AMYup! Stumps me how simple things like that can (must be) so difficult to implement.
You have to remember that the people doing the coding don't really know the ins and outs of what they are coding for. That is the biggest reason why a lot of software doesn't work exactly as we think it should. Hello Adobe....
Mac OS Sonoma 14.2.1 (c) | (retired)

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

bornrd

Quote from: Joe on July 19, 2022, 07:20:06 AM
Quote from: bornrd on July 19, 2022, 02:14:42 AMYup! Stumps me how simple things like that can (must be) so difficult to implement.
You have to remember that the people doing the coding don't really know the ins and outs of what they are coding for. That is the biggest reason why a lot of software doesn't work exactly as we think it should. Hello Adobe....
That is also the reason why blender adds more amazing features avery 3 months as if it's the second coming of christ.


The power of open source and community!
macOS Catalina 10.15.7/Windows 10 - Adobe CC - Fuji XMF 6.13 - Luxel T9000 CTP E - KBA Rapida 105 universal - Heidelberg GTO - Heidelberg Windmill - Heidelberg Cylinder - Heidelberg Speedmaster 52 - Schelter & Giesecke PHOENIX A - Rockstroh VICTORIA - Lenpoligrafmash NEOTYPE N-7F - Konica Minolta C3080 - HP DesignJet ZP6810 - Epson Stylus Pro 4900 - Heidelberg Stahlfolder - Müller-Martini APOLLO - Müller-Martini PRESTO II - PERFECTA Cutting System

I have no idea what the f*ck I'm doing in prepress but here we are

www.ruegen-druck.de | @ruegendruck

––––––––––––––––––––––
They will chop you down just to count your rings