I’m opening this discussion for those who create documents or books using Affinity Publisher. I’ve been using them for years and have been creating documents ever since Publisher was first released and using the Affinity Suite of applications.
I know Matthew has the Affinity applications but I haven’t seen any discussions of their use on this forum, especially since Publisher allows for so much fine tuning of typography.
Feel free to jump into this topic.
MaxClass
Hadn’t heard about this app until you mentioned it. Don’t remember MB mentioning it either. So thanks for introducing those like me to it. It’s always gratifying to discover alternatives to Adobe apps—in this case, InDesign. Not that Adobe apps are bad, because they’re not, but dealing with Adobe itself and its whole subscription ecosystem (not to mention its extremely limited tech support) is beyond infuriating. In fact, because of a recent particularly maddening issue I had with Adobe, for the first time in something like a decade, I’m Adobe free, and it feels wonderful. I’ve found suitable software alternatives and am beyond relieved not to have to depend on Adobe’s monopoly anymore.
I myself have done document design off and on for decades (love it). In fact, I remember doing desktop publishing when PageMaker was a thing. Of course, I realize that as wonderful as these desktop publishing apps are, they’re not substitutes for word processors—the right tool for the right job. But still, it’s very good to learn of Affinity Publisher for those looking to do the desktop-publishing side of document creation. I had no idea it existed. Thanks again for mentioning it.
Michael, your welcome.
I’ve been using all three of the Affinity application since the day they were first released about five years ago, and they just keep getting better with each release. These people are about as professional as it gets and they really listen to input from users.
You absolutely can not go wrong by owning these applications. All three applications use the same file format too. This means that any one of the applications can open the files created by the other two. The files are 100% interchangeable between platforms like Windows and Mac and you can put them on all the computers you own.
If your a Mac user all three applications are available on iPad and the files are also interchangeable with your other computers.
I use Affinity Publisher for virtually every document I produce. Publisher can also import any InDesign file exported in IDML format in addition to being able to place any Word file directly into a Publisher document. There is a special technique I use to not bring in Word’s Styles if anyone is interested.
If you can do something in Word, Publisher can do it better. It also has unlimited zoom so you can get to detail as the smallest level.
Go to Youtube and search for Affinity Publisher for more videos than you can watch in a month.
Once you buy the apps, and I suggest you buy them directly from Serif, the parent company, get the Universal License for a discount over buying them individually. All upgrades are free through each version and version 2 was just released. If there is an update available you are notified when you launch an application.
Publisher has an amazing ability to do Data Merge directly into any document you set up to receive, like client information.
If you search on YouTube also look for Affinity Studio Link which is amazing.
Oh, lord. I just realized Affinity has three apps—not just Publisher (desktop publishing) but also Photo (photo manipulation) and Designer (vector images). I completely missed this until you pointed it out. I haven’t used any of these apps but see that each has a 30-day trial, and there’s no freakin’ subscription. I can’t believe how well-priced they are—each is 70 bucks, but you can get all three for $165? Shocking. Now I just need a project to give me an excuse to buy this software (anything to stick it to Adobe). But before that, I’m going to take your suggestion to watch some of Affinity’s YT videos—I want to get a sense of the UI and features.
Until now, the only other [viable] alternative to Photoshop I knew of was the free app GIMP. As for alternatives to Adobe Illustrator, I’d heard of the likewise free app Inkscape, and of course the paid app CorelDRAW. As for alternatives to InDesign, I’d only ever heard of QuarkXPress. I’m not sure how these products compare/contrast with those from Affinity. But beyond the software itself, major considerations for me include pricing (affordable vs. astronomical), licensing/updates (perpetual vs. subscription), and dealing with the company itself (customer care, tech support, etc.). Affinity looks like it’s well-worth it in all respects. I’m excited to look into all this.
Michael,
If you purchase all three Affinity applications with the Universal License you will never be sorry and you will never need anything else, except maybe a Spreadsheet application. If you a Mac user, like myself all Macs come with Numbers. You will also have a top of the line profession suite that does everything you can imagine.
The beauty is there were all designed to work in total harmony with each other and they do exactly that. If you can think of it, the Affinity applications can do it from designing, photo editing, and any kind of documents.
Do not let the price fool you for a second. These applications are making a hugh dent in the Adobe counterparts and they just keep getting better.
Glad to have brought these to the forefront. More people need to know about them.