Serif today launched Affinity Publisher and revealed a unique new way of working which the company says is set to revolutionize how creative professionals work.
In a world-first, Serif’s brand new StudioLink technology means owners of its vector design app Affinity Designer and image editor Affinity Photo can use them right there in an Affinity Publisher layout, simply by clicking the relevant product icon.
While Affinity Publisher has its own impressive selection of built-in vector and photo editing tools, StudioLink means for the first time, graphics and images in a layout can be edited using a full array of professional tools, without the need to switch to a different app. The result is a massive streamlining of the creative workflow.
The company also revealed it has updated the pioneering iPad versions of Affinity Designer and Photo to handle Affinity Publisher documents. While Publisher itself will come to iPad later, owners of Affinity Designer and Photo on iPad will be able to open, edit and export Publisher documents, on the move, from today.
The announcements came in a keynote address during an event at Serif’s Nottingham, UK, headquarters today.
Managing Director Ashley Hewson said in a statement: “For too long, millions of creative professionals have found their workflow hindered by incompatible file types, apps which don’t work properly together, and awkward workarounds which cost valuable time. Affinity Publisher with StudioLink takes all that pain away by allowing you to instantly switch to the advanced photo editing features of Affinity Photo and precise vector tools of Affinity Designer without ever leaving the app. It’s the most fluid workflow ever conceived in a creative suite of applications, and we think it’s a game changer.”
From creating simple text-based documents to posters and flyers, or complex brochures and books combining words, images and graphics, the meticulously-engineered features of Affinity Publisher means it runs like a dream, even on the most content-heavy documents.
With essentials like Master Pages, facing-page spreads, grids, tables, advanced typography, text flow and full professional print output, Affinity Publisher delivers all the requirements for a modern-day layout app, tailored to exploit the power of the very latest hardware.
Other key features include:
• OpenType support and glyph browser
• Text decorations and drop capitals
• Linked text frames with advanced flow options
• Text wrapping with fine padding control
• Artistic text including text on a path
• Baseline grid and text frame rulers
• Place PSD, AI, PDF, JPG, TIFF, PNG or Affinity files
• Correct and enhance images with non-destructive adjustment layers
• Incredibly smooth gradient and transparency controls
• Auto generated indexes and table of contents
• RegEx search and replace
• Customizable keyboard shortcuts
• Saveable undo history
• Super smooth pan and zoom at 60fps
• End-to-end CMYK and spot color support
• PDF/X-1a, PDF/X-3, PDF/X-4 output for professional print
Affinity Publisher can import and export all major raster and vector files, including layered PSD, PDF, EPS formats. And it can output print-ready documents in the latest PDF/X formats, including hyperlink support for documents shared online.
“Affinity Publisher with StudioLink is the realisation of the initial vision we had for our apps nine years ago and I could not be more thrilled to finally reveal that vision today,” Hewson added. “This is the reason we called our apps Affinity.”
Affinity Publisher is available with a 20% discount (priced $39.99) for a limited period, and as with all Affinity apps has no subscription. More info here.
Source: Serif (Europe) Ltd.
MacDailyNews Take: Rejoise, Affinity fans and let us know how it works for you!
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Robert P. Hartle” for the heads up.]
How far we have come.
My friend Teri and I put together an ad for Rollie Fingers Hall of Fame baseball cap on a Mac II I had setup in my garage in 88 or 89. It had 3 displays. I had seen 7 on a Mac II at Comdex at one time.
I’d have to get my copy of the issue from storage to see the date it was published. The ad was for Legends Sports Memorabilia Magazine.
Teri and I pooled our resources to pay $830.00 dollars for an Apple Imagewriter II color printer. New on the market and Teri brought me some magazine with an ad and we talked about getting one and we did. Teri was a traditional manual graphic designer doing things the manual way and I was teaching her how to do paste up on a computer.
The Imagewriter II was dot matrix printer.
https://hackaday.com/2019/01/19/full-color-dot-matrix-is-the-art-we-need/
The power at our fingertips.
I’m so excited to try a new ecosystem for graphic design & production! For only $40.00 per app Finally, creative types no longer have to use pirated Adobe software because no-one could afford their astronomical pricing scheme. Subscription based software that won’t work at all when off-line is atrocious. I recently had to give an Adobe Class at our Local Library and we had to delay the class until the internet got back up. We were unable to Launch Adobe Apps offline which had my Blood Boiling! Thank God for Affinity’s Diligence and pray for their Longevity. The Big Boys will try to snuff them out, try and force us to come back to the dark side. Use the Force. Use Affinity!
Brought Affinity Photo and Publisher last night (the price was right), the only company standing in their way is Apple trying to get them to go to the subscription model….
I won’t do subscriptions, no matter who.