Affinity launch Publisher But there is a massive kick in the tail

Terrywoodenpic · 20 Jun 2019

I have just been watching the new Affinity launch., as I had already purchased the Affinity Publisher ( (have previously had the Beta version)

The launch video is well worth watching, in many way it is quite mind blowing in concept as it links Photo, Designer and publisher in a way that Adobe can only dream about, as they all share a common framework.
You need to see it to believe it. No Razzmatazz just the bees knees. With now more than 2.000,000 users they have a long way to go, but they are sure to tick a lot of peoples boxes.

https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/li...&utm_campaign=Affinity_Live&mc=AFFINITYLIVE19

Nikon f1.8 · 20 Jun 2019

Just watched this and it looks really interesting from a designers point of view, but they have to overcome the fact that Adobe is the dominant software in the print industry. I know most now supply press ready PDF's but it is the training and learning of new software that is going to be the problem, I cannot see Affinity making inroads into the printing industry on a large scale, but I do wish them all the luck with their venture.

john.margetts · 20 Jun 2019

Linking between Publisher and Photo works well. I have had a quick fiddle without reading anything or watching videos and it is, at least mostly, intuitive.

EDIT: linking from Publisher to Photo works well but I can see no way to link to Publisher from Photo.

Terrywoodenpic · 20 Jun 2019

Nikon f1.8 said:
Just watched this and it looks really interesting from a designers point of view, but they have to overcome the fact that Adobe is the dominant software in the print industry. I know most now supply press ready PDF's but it is the training and learning of new software that is going to be the problem, I cannot see Affinity making inroads into the printing industry on a large scale, but I do wish them all the luck with their venture.

Unlike photography the graphic design and printing industry is surprisingly quick to change.
Quark Express absolutely dominated the industry for many years and was the go to software of the printing industry.
Adobe was miles behind and only had the "Amateur" pagemaker to offer. However it brought out Indesign and swept all before it. in less than a year it was dominant.
I was heavily involved in Printing and Photography at the time and we completely changed over with in six months of its introduction.

I can see the graphics and printing industries, which are now so completely linked by digital workflows, absolutely welcoming the time saving by having a common platform for the Photo, design and publishing workflows. especially as so many outputs are for direct to Digital printers and direct to plate litho. Or Equally likely for use online.

Affinity have clearly carved out sufficient users (and cash flow) to keep up further developments perhaps in the Web arena and digital asset management.

Imagine a seamless platform between Photo, and the equivalent of Lightroom added to the mix..

It is this single platform and file format with interchangeable tools, and the non destructive nature of the edits that is so impressive.

As to publisher, it is a fully professional tool with all the necessary tools and outputs from day one. Though it will certainly have further improvement in the course of time.

Affinity Photo needs far more work on its raw processor before it can match Adobe, but in the long term that will undoubtedly come.

ancient_mariner · 20 Jun 2019

Interesting. One of the things that has stopped me even considering Serif products was early experiences with the Serif DTP package, and particularly being hassled by sales guys trying to flog an upgrade that I plainly didn't want to buy. When software updating time comes round next year, I'll look a little more closely at Photo.

Terrywoodenpic · 21 Jun 2019

ancient_mariner said:
Interesting. One of the things that has stopped me even considering Serif products was early experiences with the Serif DTP package, and particularly being hassled by sales guys trying to flog an upgrade that I plainly didn't want to buy. When software updating time comes round next year, I'll look a little more closely at Photo.

Serif is now a private company it was sold to its managers. Affinity is the result. And unusually it is British owned.

garryknight · 21 Jun 2019

When the iPad version of Publisher is released next year, I wonder if Serif will dominate on iPad and Adobe on the desktop. I also wonder if Serif are thinking of implementing seamless file conversion between the various formats.

jerry12953 · 21 Jun 2019

Terrywoodenpic said:
Affinity have clearly carved out sufficient users (and cash flow) to keep up further developments perhaps in the Web arena and digital asset management.

(Gets on hobbyhorse......) You've got to wonder why Adobe couldn't have done the same.......

Terrywoodenpic · 21 Jun 2019

jerry12953 said:
(Gets on hobbyhorse......) You've got to wonder why Adobe couldn't have done the same.......

Adobe have all these things However they have all been developed at different times, and they have worked hard to link them But they are all separate programs.
Affinity has the advantage of being developed as a unit from scratch If you watch the video will will understand what an advantage that gives them.
Affinity "personas" are all developments on a common base, so are already linked. In fact when you change from one to another Only the "tools" change. visually everything else remains the same. There is no Opening of another program.

garryknight said:
When the iPad version of Publisher is released next year, I wonder if Serif will dominate on iPad and Adobe on the desktop. I also wonder if Serif are thinking of implementing seamless file conversion between the various formats.

From what he was saying it seems that all of the three File formats are actually the same. Perhaps they only identify which "Program" "persona" to open. That was not made clear. However it is also clear that when the "persona" is changed the formats of the various components do not have to be converted.

Dave Canon · 21 Jun 2019

I watched a much of the video and these developments are interesting. It is impossible to predict the future but it is unlikely that Adobe could hold its position forever. Of course we do not know what Adobe have in the pipeline either? With a regular income from the subscription model, Adobe should have the resources for significant continuing development. I am not a designer so only the photography aspects are relevant for me. I have no issue with the Adobe subscription model at the current prices and I am very content with my LR/PS workflow. To drive me to seriously consider using a different photographic package would require a good DAM facility with the editor and probably an unacceptable price rise from Adobe. However, if I was a young professional designer, I might take a different view.

Dave

garryknight · 21 Jun 2019

Terrywoodenpic said:
From what he was saying it seems that all of the three File formats are actually the same.

I should have made it clearer. I was talking about seamless file conversion between Affinity format and Adobe format.

Canon said:
To drive me to seriously consider using a different photographic package would require a good DAM facility
Dave

Yes, DAM is completely missing from Photo. If they ever add a Persona/module for that, it could be an Adobe killer. Especially for iPad users.

Terrywoodenpic · 21 Jun 2019

Dave Canon said:
I watched a much of the video and these developments are interesting. It is impossible to predict the future but it is unlikely that Adobe could hold its position forever. Of course we do not know what Adobe have in the pipeline either? With a regular income from the subscription model, Adobe should have the resources for significant continuing development. I am not a designer so only the photography aspects are relevant for me. I have no issue with the Adobe subscription model at the current prices and I am very content with my LR/PS workflow. To drive me to seriously consider using a different photographic package would require a good DAM facility with the editor and probably an unacceptable price rise from Adobe. However, if I was a young professional designer, I might take a different view.

Dave

I have much the same outlook, however I do have a couple of ongoing projects using Affinity publisher, so i have taken advantage of the low discount price to buy "Photo" as well.
I will spend some time exploring and learning "Photo" as it seamlessly runs alongside Publisher.
However i will still use Adobe classic as my main photo applications, until such time as Affinity have a DAM and better raw processor. But by that time I should have some familiarity with the way "photo" works.
I am expecting Adobe to become too costly at some point, and I will be ready for the move.

Terrywoodenpic · 21 Jun 2019

garryknight said:
I should have made it clearer. I was talking about seamless file conversion between Affinity format and Adobe format.
.

As far as I know it can read and save as Adobe files. But I do not save anything in Adobe formats, only as raw, tiffs and jpegs. It would be counter productive for them to base their systems too closely on Adobe. The process will never be seamless as some layers need to be rasterised, as the way they are formed in each program is not the same.

garryknight · 21 Jun 2019

Terrywoodenpic said:
The process will never be seamless.

Isn't that always the way? Maybe we'd all settle for 'transparent'.

Harlequin565 · 21 Jun 2019

Interesting video, thanks for the link.

Terrywoodenpic said:
I am expecting Adobe to become too costly at some point, and I will be ready for the move.

Me too. Adobe used to release new versions of LR with feature rich promoted elements to tempt me to upgrade. With the subscription model it feels as though they've just sat back and taken my money, giving me a dehaze tool and the finger.

garryknight said:
Yes, DAM is completely missing from Photo.

Sadly, DAM is the most important bit for me so I too hope that Affinity (and the other companies boasting feature rich image editing software) can rectify this.

If there was software out there that could offer the features of Lightroom's asset management, I'd switch in a heartbeat.

Nikon f1.8 · 21 Jun 2019

Harlequin565 said:
Interesting video, thanks for the link.

Me too. Adobe used to release new versions of LR with feature rich promoted elements to tempt me to upgrade. With the subscription model it feels as though they've just sat back and taken my money, giving me a dehaze tool and the finger.

Sadly, DAM is the most important bit for me so I too hope that Affinity (and the other companies boasting feature rich image editing software) can rectify this.

If there was software out there that could offer the features of Lightroom's asset management, I'd switch in a heartbeat.

Have you tried Capture One, I find that it is easy to use and it has DAM as well, works great with my D750 images and there is loads of tutorials on youtube for it which I found invaluable.