Affinity Publisher
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- This topic has 12 replies, 10 voices, and was last updated 4 years, 9 months ago by
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Does anyone have any information on this InDesign competitor that’s in the works? Has anyone previewed it?
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Nope. They’ve been talking about it for the past year or so. But they recently said it took 6 years to get their pixel-editing tool finished, so while I’m very curious about Publisher, I’m not holding my breath.
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I guessing it would have to be better than good for someone to switch, it would have to be fantastic and even then, I would find it hard to switch personally, my workflow is way too entrenched in the adobe way. I remember switching years ago from Quarks and that took quite a lot to move, and it was because Quark was simply getting too expensive especially here where we used the French version.
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I can’t see them being a giant killer, like InDesign was against Quark. At least, not in book publishing.
The book industry is too heavily invested in Adobe (at least the publishers that I work with). There are still some Quark hold-outs (mainly in the UK), and when the U.S. publisher buys the rights to that book, they have us convert to InDesign.
And that’s what will happen with Affinity Publisher. They will ask that it be converted.
Now–once it comes out, I’m sure the company I work for will be asked if we have it, and I will probably buy a copy for myself to learn it, and the company will buy a couple. But only on the off-chance that we get such a request.
I’ve had the same experience with upgrading my Quarks. We haven’t done a full Quark job since InDesign 2 or InDesign 3. So we’re talking a lot of years. We had a few Quark 7 jobs during that time, but not many.
Anyway–I kept my Quarks upgraded to Quark 8, Quark 9, and recently Quark 10 and 2015. In that time, each and every Quark file had to be converted to InDesign. And Quark 10 and Quark 15–one single job came in. ONE! Talk about a waste of money to upgrade :(
Anyway–I’m rambling on. Right now InDesign is King of the Hill and I can’t see anyone toppling them.
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Extra artwork fees to convert Affinity to InDesign – then extra artwork fees to correct all their errors.
It seems to be for Mac only – which 99% of my clients aren’t Mac centric, so I can’t see it being an issue for me. Just when I get Affinity files I’ll have to charge etc for fixing and making print ready.
If supplied as PDF with Bleed and a colour sample provided I’ll happily print it.
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I do about 60/40 QXP versus ID work. I own a license for ID2Q, but not the other way around if that says anything. Most all my Q customers are US based with a smattering in Europe.
I think it is more who the clients are instead of some general demographic.
In general I am software agnostic. I have my own preferences for making or manipulating assets, but in the end I don’t really care.
As a tidbit, Serif will be bringing the Affinity line to Windows in the future.
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Just had an email from Affinity, with a link to download the beta of Publisher. I had signed up for the beta, so I’m not sure if I can post that link here as it’s tied to my email address.
However, it’s downloadable from:
https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/publisher/Watch this space…
Regards, Chris. -
I love InDesign and you guys (David and Anne-Marie and Erica and all youze guys) — but I just can’t stand Adobe’s subscription model and am as done as done can be. I uninstalled Photoshop and Illustrator a year ago and switched to Affinity Photo and Designer. It’s been a wonderful choice. I’ve been waiting anxiously for Affinity Publisher, and just downloaded the beta today (Yay!!). Honestly I don’t see switching from InDeisgn for a while just because so much of my work depends on it, but I look forward to the day when I can wave goodbye to Adobe and it’s @#$! subscription model forever.
Why am I saying all of this? Because I think your publication and your conferences are fantastic, and I hope that you take a look at this suite of tools and get involved. My fantasy is to someday go to an Affinity Photo/Designer/Publisher conference run by David and Anne-Marie.
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Thank you, Kathleen! Please do come back and tell us what your experience with Affinity Publisher is over time.
Here’s a short story: About 15 years ago, after I had mostly stopped using QuarkXPress and started using (and recommending) InDesign, I had a meeting with some executives form Quark. They asked me what they could do to convince me to start recommending QX again. I had a simple answer: Just make QuarkXPress better than InDesign. If there were a design tool better than InDesign, I would love to tell the world about it.
Publisher is clearly a 1.0 product, and my sense is that it’s greatest strength so far is that it will be inexpensive. That may be compelling from a hobbyist or student perspective, but it’s not compelling from a “pro” perspective. What matters to me is the ability to create awesome designs — great type, great color, great output options, etc. — with as little effort as possible.
In the meantime, we have published a “First Look” here:
Look for more on Affinity products on our sister site, CreativePro.com
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Yes — this is very definitely a beta. I think they are on the right track, but there is a long way to go. Even before getting the beta I knew I’d be waiting until 2.0 or beyond before even considering a permanent switch… too much of my livelihood depends on InDesign right now.
One thing I’d like to bring into this conversation just so all the viewpoints are out there: I’m not switching for matters of cost as much a deep hatred for the subscription model. While I like the Affinity $50-per-app price tag, I certainly would have been happy to pay more. I am one of those that paid the full price for each of the Adobe apps and I dutifully kept them up to date for years.
I am and have been a full-time freelancer for many years, and in lean times in the past I could decide to delay an update if I needed to. With the subscription model that option is gone — and while I’ve been fortunate to not have any of those lean times lately, the whole thing irks me quite a lot. I love InDesign (so much that colleagues tease me about it). If Adobe hadn’t gone to the subscription model, I would be a hardcore Adobe loyalist forever and I’d see no need to ever look elsewhere. I’m one of the annoying complainers who contacted Adobe maybe a half-dozen times since they went subscription telling them that it sucks, but I guess not enough of us complained.
When I switched from Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator to Affinity Photo and Designer a year ago, it was incredibly liberating! I look forward to someday switching from Adobe inDesign to Affinity Publisher — but I think that is a long way off. (And anyway, Adobe Acrobat Pro is pretty superior to all the alternatives out there, so I’ll never be able to completely leave the Adobe fold. Sigh.)
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Hi!
Fyi: Application is RTM since middle of the month: Affinity publisher 1.7.1
I bought it yesterday to test it. I hate definitively Adobe subscription model so I still work with CS6. if Publisher application is on a good track, maybe next version, 2 or 3 will be the replacement for my Indesign CS6… Something like anticipation or prevention.
Anyway, it is a good thing to avoid situations where only one product is present to address a specific market.
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