How to Use Affinity Publisher: Interface Basics
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- čas přidán 26. 06. 2024
- Today we’re going to take a tour of Affinity Publisher, professional level publishing software ideal for creating covers and interiors for your low-content books.
▶ DOWNLOAD MY FREE GUIDE: 3 Steps to Publishing Your First Low-Content Book in Less Than a Day: bit.ly/3SM6emp
Affinity Publisher is a true alternative to the much more expensive Adobe InDesign, and will help you streamline your design process, save you time, and help you create print-ready book files that are up to spec and ready to rock and roll.
Here’s what you’ll learn about, and the time stamp where you can find each feature:
Document set-up-3:21
Preview Mode-7:00
Tool Bars-7:57
Typography-9:31
Table Tool-19:22
Shape Tool-22:00
Gradient Fill Tool: 22:36
Opacity-23:48
Colour Palette-24:55
Stroke-25:15
Pages-25:55
Layers-26:18
Images-27:57
Grids and Guides-28:40
Bleed-31:52
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LINKS DISCUSSED:
Affinity Publisher: affinity.serif.com/en-us/publ...
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MORE LOW-CONTENT PUBLISHING TIPS: www.rachelharrisonsund.com/
FREE PRIVATE FACEBOOK GROUP: bit.ly/2kSTsaZ
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Say hi on social:
Facebook: rachelharris...
Instagram: / rachel_harrisonsund - Jak na to + styl
Thanks Rachel. This was great. I've been using Adobe products for almost 20 years. I remember being very upset when they switched from single pay to licensing. Frustrated with the high yearly cost I was desperate to find a cheaper alternative. Thanks to Affinity Software I was able to replace InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator for a one time fee of approximately $120 CAD (I got the software during 50% OFF sale.) I was happily surprised to discover how easy and intuitive the software is to use. If you're tired of paying hundreds of dollars a year, make the change today. You won't regret it... I don't.
Great video Rachel, thank you so much for the value of the videos you gave us! Also using Affinity suite since many years!
Thanks so much, Rachel. I've been using the Affinity Suite now for 3 months and just love it. Looking forward to more Publisher videos.
Awesome! It's a great program!
Really useful, thanks. I bought all 3 Affinity Porducts when they were on sale with absolutely no idea what I was going to do with them. Now I've got a document to produce and this video was great for showing me the basics to get started.
Awesome tutorial. I think I will be referring back to this video MANY times. Thank you so much for posting this!
Great Video. You didn't overwhelm me. I felt that as soon as I open the program. I love how you can change between the programs even though I haven't done a full blow project yet. This is well worth the money.
Thank you, Rachel! This series on Publisher is an answer to prayer.😊
Aw, glad you'll find them useful!
Thanks Rachel for the introductory course. It was very clear and concise.
Thank you for this tutorial. You really broke this down in a way I actually understood.
Very nice and easy to follow tutorial. Thank you! 📚
A very good overview. I was discouraged to find a decent alternative to the expensive Adobe CC suite that you can't own since a while are forced to rent a licence.. These Affinity products and those tutorials really motivate me to do the transition. Thanks!
Thank you for this tutorial. I bought Affinity Publisher last year, but haven't even opened it yet. I followed your instructions and found it very clear. You explain things really well.
Woohoo! Affinity's "Spring Sale" is happening now so I picked up Publisher and Designer for about $27 apiece USD.
Rachel, I just can't thank you enough for these software tutorial videos. They are a lifesaver. I hope you're having a fantastic day. ❤
Thank you for a great and thorough tutorial! I really needed this! Can’t wait for more of your videos. 👍👍 You’ve got a new sub 👌
Thanks, Nina! I'm so glad you're finding my videos useful!
Its a great video!! Thanks for the review and basic tutorials, it really helpful. Love you❤
Thank you so much. Excellent starter tutorial.
Thank you for the tutorial. You made it fluid and easy to understand.
Great info-this helped a lot- THANKS!
Thank you for a great tutorial.
Very concise and informative introduction to Affinity Publisher. Really enjoyed listening to this tutor and learnt so much from her.
Thank you
Excellent tutorial. You are a great instructor.
Extremely helpful - thank you so much Rachel! 😀
Nice tips on the basics. Thank you very much!
You're welcome, Maximilan!
Excellent. Thank you.
This was so timely. Have been mulling over taking the plunge and purchasing Affinity Publisher. At $50 it's a steal-deal. I also appreciate your "designer's eye" as it helps me understand design concepts. Thank you!
Half price now
Thanks for the very helpful video.
great video thanks so much!
Great tute. I'm in. Thank you! I'm subscribing and looking forward to more.
Awesome! Thank you!
Thanks Rachel! Excellent!
Thanks a lot, that was really helpful
You're welcome, Youssef!
Wow... Thanks for the tutorial
Thank you so much for this excellent tutorial! Comprehensive & clear for beginners. I've just started learning the Affinity suite in earnest , and this is very helpful. BTW, your diction is beautiful!
Glad it was helpful! And thanks for the lovely compliment!
it’s very good thanks
Thanks for doing this affinity publisher tutorial 🎉 I’ll be following along with your affinity tutorials. I also have the design app by affinity as well as the photo app and hope you may do tutorials with them as well. School taught InDesign and photoShop and autocadd all of which are too expensive-so I’m seeking to learn alternatives. Again thank you for teaching us all out here.🎉🎉
Thank you so much, Rachel. Can you make a video for a wedding or a birthday invitation? one for a mockup t-shirt design or jewelry.
I am a severe noob so I hope this helps others like me, who got lost in the first 7 minutes.
If you are in Windows, preview mode is ctrl+shift+w. ctrl+w alone makes it all go away...lol.
Also when she went from a single page to a double page she just double clicked on the Master A and page 1 icons on the left.
I am learning a lot, thanks for doing this tutorial!
Took me a while to figure this out xD Thanks for sharing the shortcut!
Thanks so much for those useful tips, Donny!
@@RachelHarrisonSund Anytime! I hope I didn't come off as rude or anything. I was just throwing out what I thought were helpful add on tips. Love your videos!
Thanks for the tip. Ctrl-W made everythng go away, and nothing I pressed would make it come back: Ctrl-Z, Ctrl-shift-W (which I found in the menus), Esc ... Grr... I had to shut down and restart... Then I found this helpful comment.
Thank you for the nice video
Thank you a lot, I don’t know this app exist, it is a great app 👍
That was a good start. Now I gotta figure out "HIGH" content publishing - because the project I'm starting with is gonna be about 300 pages (created w Scrivener) and now I'm ready to get it into print and eBook form. Thanks,.
This is excellent! I create vector images in Designer & was placing those in Publisher. But for a long time confused how to get facing pages into single for KDP. Considered all kinds of long workarounds, even redo...then suddenly...so easy. Thanks much.
Right! Subscription model is really iritating in InDesign. And this prices… They loose market because of that. I’ve found no big difference beetwin these two programs. Great, intuitive software. Godd job Affinity! You win.
Great video! Thanks. Love your way of teaching. Could you make a video on how to upload a formatted book (in a Word document) into Affinity Publisher so as to create a file that can be uploaded to KDP for a print book? Thanks.
Hey - just want to mention that CTRL-W on Windows closes documents and browser tabs! I just closed your video and then closed my unsaved doc without thinking 😂
The preview button was easy to use, and the key command (CTRL+SHIFT+W) was easy to find under the View menu.
Oops! I work on a Mac, so I'm not always aware of the PC equivalents. Glad you figured it out!
Thank you
I recently purchased Affinity Publisher as it is currently 50% (offer expires on the 20th of June though) and most tutorials tend to have me rewinding multiple times because the speaker is either speaking very quickly or is muffled somehow but the speed (not too fast yet well-paced) and the clarity with which you speak is quite a relief. I have extremely limited experience with INDesign (how much experience can one truly get from a 7 Day trial?) so I am really starting from a very basic starting point in terms of knowledge. I know enough to subscribe though, lol.
Super helpful, thank you! What is the purpose of gutters in the grid boxes (confused because there is obviously content in them)?
Very good introduction to an impressive piece of software. Please note that on Windows ctrl+w will close the program, not show a preview like on a Mac. On Windows use ctrl shift w for a preview.
Thanks again! I didn't take that into account; very helpful.
Hi Rachael! Thank you for your wonderful tutorial. After watching your video, I was inspired to purchase the app but came across problems right from the start. First, it was the book size A5 that only comes in the metric system. I tried to change the measurements to inches but it did not work. Then, I could not find a command to add the gutter width to the page. In your video, the gutter came into place automatically. How can I fix that problem?
Thanks so much for this tutorial I really needed it I was pretty scared to even try it. I do have one question when you go to save it at the end do you save it in a editable format and a PDF? I saw you only saved as a PDF and if you wanted to edit it again what would you do?
Great video - thanks for making it. As you were discussing how to set the initial parameters, I wondered: If you've set the document's default color space as CMYK - when you place an image file that was saved in one of the usual-and-accustomed RGB color spaces (sRGB, Adobe RGB, possibly even ProPhoto RGB), what occurs when you place the image within the AP file? Does AP immediately do a conversion to CMYK "on the fly"?
Or - if the project is primarily images originally in RGB color space - let's say it's a book of photographs - is it better to leave the document in RGB color space and allow the book company simply to do all of the conversion as it's preparing the PDF you've exported for the print run?
Thanks it just went on sale for half price and I bought it. Super excited to learn it, I am so sick of photoshop charging soooo much more.
Awesome! Glad you got the deal and I hope you enjoy it!
Thank you! This is wonderful. Would Canva work also?
Hi Rachel! I was wondering if you could do an updated version of Affinity Publisher since it doesn't look like this when you click new anymore, and if you could do one to make a colouring book/activity book cover from the interior that will be inside the book?
Without the GLARING MISTAKE made in the document setup, this would be a good video. When you set an inside bleed you will end up with the incorrect size document when uploading it to KDP. To avoid problems on the export when using an inside bleed you would have to turn off facing pages for it to work as a bleed is meant to work. You can check this out for yourself by checking the size of your document pages within Adobe Acrobat Reader. Click -- menu -- document properties -- In the description tag you will see the size of the pages. When saving a document using an inner bleed it will add an extra .125 inches to the width of your document and will be refused by Amazon for being the incorrect size. Don't set an inner bleed for KDP on export.
Thank you for this informative video. So happy I got rid Adobe.
Glad it was helpful!
I was thinking about buying Designer, but considering the very basic and not often work I do, I think Pages or Word is enough for me, anyway this video helped me clear that.
Hi Rachel! I'm liking the look of Affinity Publisher a lot. I think I'm going to give it a go for designing my future books. I'm currently using Canva. I'm probably going to try the free version soon and see how I find it. Do you know if Affinity Publisher has a way of changing the size of the document/margins/bleed after setting/designing the book project? I'm dreading I might put the wrong sizes required for kdp and that I will have to redesign the whole book from the start.
So I would like to be able to play with that in case I get it wrong. I thought to ask you first since you've been using this software for longer, maybe you can point me quicker in the right direction, before I make silly mistakes.
Thank you for making this video, it's very helpful! Have a wonderful day!🤗
Affinity is now 50% off and I bought it for $24. Awesome. Just wanting to learn how to use it now.
OMG I just can't wait for next week. I had just finished a course on how to use Indesign right before my Adobe annual membership needed to be renewed. I HATED paying that monthly fee even though I had a discounted price of $36 per month. So I cut the Adobe cord and signed up for all 3 Affinity programs. Luckily the timing was perfect to catch them all on sale.
I have a question for you: In your opinion, what do you think is the main difference between Indesign and Publisher? I don't see much difference, (other than being able to switch personas back and forth to Photo or Designer on the fly), but I'm still a newbie for both programs. Thank you so much for this video series.
Perfect timing! Honestly, they are almost the same. InDesign has more features, but none that you'll need for the purposes of LCP.
I bought Affinity Publisher today thanks to videos like yours. It’s hard for me to see where the black cursor is especially on the black background. I’m sure there’s a way to make the cursor BIGGER and WHITE or YELLOW on black. By the time I find where the black cursor is located, the presenter is done showing whatever they’re showing. Other than that, GREAT STUFF.
Please note that the current version (1.7.3) does not support footnotes or endnotes. I expect those features will be added later. Apart from that Affinity Publisher is a joy to use and incredibly well thought out.
Thanks for the tip Nils; I didn't know that!
This was an awesome introduction! Though I am curious, what is KDP that is mentioned a few times?
Also, when you inserted the image, I was confused on how to do that and it took me a few minutes to google how that was done, even though it was a tool on the left side. Maybe just be more conscientious about that?
Thanks for the video!
Hi Scott; thanks so much for watching! KDP is the Kindle Direct Publishing Platform. This is a self-publishing platform that you can use to self-publish nonfiction, fiction, and low-content books such as daily planners, journals, guest books, activity books, etc. If you'd like more information you can download my free guide, 3 Steps to Publishing Your First Low-Content Book in Less Than a Day by clicking the link in the description. And thank you for your feedback on the image insertion portion of the tutorial. I'll keep that in mind for next time. :)
Kindle direct publishing… the pub part of Amazon
Thank you! I would give you two thumbs if it was possible:)
Great video. Thank you. But I am having trouble with the pen drawing straight lines. When I hold shift and draw it expands in both directions from the initial point. Does this happen to anyone else? How do I fix this so I can just draw a straight line from point A to point B?
I've never even used indesign, but I'm considering getting this!
This is a GREAT alternative to InDesign. It's got all the features you'll need for LCP, and it's a fraction of the cost of InDesign.
@@RachelHarrisonSund Thanks! :)
Hi Rachel, I have watched a bunch of your videos, this particular one at least 3 times. I bought Affinity publisher to make my interiors with (I have used Designer & Photo for a while so I am familiar with their interface) I have followed this video to the letter as far as a document set up but no matter what I do when I upload my interior I get this error:
"You chose 6.0" by 9.0" trim size but your interior file was submitted at 6.24" by 9.24"
I have tried making another preset with the same numbers and settings but I keep getting the same error :/ I spent two hours last night making a unique custom interior and cover but I can't get the darn thing published. Any ideas? Thanks
I need your guidance in terms of buying affinity products. I am getting into LCB KDP. Do I need both design and publisher, or publisher will be enough?
Hi Rachel, Is there a possibility to increase the page height and width of an existing image?
Could you save presets, print, style-sheets, colours, output settings, etc?
Could you drag-and-drop Photoshop images onto the page?
I'm going to give it a go.
Do you have an affiliate link to purchase before I buy this?
does that extra space for the gutter you mentioned just come out automatically? I didn't see you add anything specific in the settings when you started?
Thanks for sharing! As to printing, I have a question: How can I export my pdf to print with color separations. I'm trying to send the pdf file to the printer and they keep telling me that the body text and grayscale images appear in CMYK, as the colour images. I'm not sure how to fix it. Any ideas? Thanks!
For years I have been working with QarkXPress.
In QarkXPress, if I paste a long text of three pages, the software opens three new pages following the first.
The reason why I have never used InDesign is that this automatic opening of as many pages as necessary is not automatic.
You have to link the pages.
Will Affinity Publisher 2 automatically create as many pages as needed for these long texts.
Thanks.
This is really great, BUT the present infinity publisher is different
Awesome, thanks Rachel! Similar to photoshop in some ways. What type of Images can you open up in this software? If you imbed a JPEG (RGB) but set final document to CMYK I am guessing that image still print ok? Also, if you want a 120 page journal, does the program allow you to duplicate with one click or more like canva where you have to keep hitting duplicate page till you get to 120? Thanks
start watching at 10:10, but at 10:18 a dialog box pops up and you can specify the number of pages to add
Hey Kerri! You should be able to embed any type of image. Yes, an RGB image will still print, but the colour may be slightly different than what you thought it would be, usually a bit less saturated. Any like @luxurycardstore's comment, you can specify the number of pages you want in your document when you set it up. Alternatively, you can right click on a page in the Pages Palette, click Add Pages, and then specify how many pages you want added. You can also duplicate pages by clicking the little duplicate page icon in the Pages Palette.
Does it accept InDesign files? When opening with Affinity publisher . With every Affinity app or designer sorry not sure
It would be brilliant if you could give metric conversions in your voiceover. I'd have to pick up a rule to remind myself of a quarter of an inch but I can visualise 5mm, in common with the rest of the world outside North America.
I am new at this and on my first document the text is flowing off the right side on the text box. The text wrap function box is not working. I cannot find how to re-edit the master document setup. The current document settings show that 0.125 inch settings like you have. Why isn't my text auto-wrapping like most documents do? Who wants to type things way off into space it's ridiculous to even have such a setting in a professional publishing software.
Sadly the menu has changed and I can't follow this. I don't get the same box and there is no choice for Page preset. I really wanted to use your tutorial tho. so I'll go find another one and hopefully will be able to use your tutorials to get a book done and published with kdp.
Couldn't Serif have added the new features in affinity Publisher into their Pageplus software? I have the x8 version, it does well enough for me and for every one of its users to have qualified for the new features in Affinity. All they needed to have done is redesign Pageplus, or used a dark interface like Affinity. I tried to make the interface darker so I could pretend it's almost an Affinity, but there wasn't a choice for a darker interface. It's a headache to make a transition to something new sometimes...
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When you export the document, I don't understand the part about including or not including the bleed. If I create a cover for KDP, do I include the bleed? If I create a notebook interior or a planner interior do I include the bleed or not? I would be grateful if you could explain it further, since I don't understand it. Thank you very much!
Bleed Explained (perhaps in more detail than necessary):
No printer can actually print an image or color all the way to the edge of a piece of paper. This is because the printing device (even a desktop home printer) has to grab the paper somewhere in order to pull it through the device.
To get around this limitation, professional printers print on larger sheets of paper than is needed, and trim it down to the actual finish size. To complete the illusion of "all-the-way-to-the-edge" printing, the artwork needs to extend past the "Trim line" (the finished dimensions). This is called "bleed". Print company specifications vary, but the necessary bleed is typically .125 inches (3.175 mm) to .25 inches (6.35 mm).
This amount of "extra" artwork is needed because both printing machines and cutting machines introduce some "wiggle" into the process. Slight variations can build up so the extra artwork (bleed) past the trim line literally provides a margin for error. If the artwork only goes up to the trim line and not past it, a white, irregular "halo" of paper could be left on the edge of the finished piece.
As for interior pages, if the artwork is at least .125 inches (3.175 mm) from the edge of the page, (often called the" safe zone") on all pages, you don't need to include bleed (unless your printer requires it) since there is no danger of noticing a slight "halo" when the entire page is surrounded by a white margin anyway.
@@labsquadmedia176 WOW! Excellent explanation, I appreciate very much!
linked files will lower the size of the document embedded files increase doc size. i. e gigs and MB
My text is being typed totally outside of the text box. How to fix it? Can you help me please
What is the relationship between 'master page' and 'page'? it's not clear to me so do you need to set up the master page first, or skip it and just have the regular pages? Thanks, Rachel.
When you create content on a master page, that content will show up on all of your pages in a document (or just the ones that you specify). So use a master when you'd like the content to appear on multiple pages, but use regular pages when you just want that particular content on that one page.
Great video. I have one question. What's the difference between Affintiy and Inkscape?
Hi Cathy, Publisher is a professional desktop publishing tool. Traditionally this meant the tool to define and layout any printed material, like brochures magazines and books. Publisher lets you define areas to lay down text and images in funky ways so is ideal for defining low content books or even novels and eBooks. Inkscape is a tool for creating images that are vector based. In other words the images can be enlarged and transformed without losing resolution. You can make pages in Inkscape and save as PDFs but its really for making images and publisher is a better tool for for this purpose. Hope that makes sense.
Great answer from @Rik Williams! Affinity Publisher is for desktop publishing and Inkscape is for creating and editing vector graphics. Affinity also has a vector editing program called Affinity Designer.
Thanks Rachel. I use Microsoft Publisher at work and it has two insert page functions 'blank page' and insert 'duplicate' page. I think Affinity would have this feature? I'm sure it would 🙏
Yes, you can access these from the pages palette.
@@RachelHarrisonSund thanks
Hi there, quick question about the bleed...is it a default on affinity? And is it the 0.125 inch requirement needed for KDP? I saw other videos showing you how to calculate the bleed and set it up manually. If affinity publisher does it automatically that would be great. I have affinity designer and think it’s a great product. Thanks for your A+ videos! It’s very helpful 👍🏼
Yes, Affinity does have a default of 0.125" bleed. (At least mine does when I open it up.) Be sure to check when you're creating your document, just to be sure. And yes, 0.125" is the requirement needed for KDP-this is an industry standard bleed. Thanks for watching!
Rachel Harrison-Sund thank you for your help 😁
👍👍👍
Yep. Correctly guessed you were from Canada, but did not pick up on Brit accent anywhere in there. :}
Can you make a planner template in a 8x10 for example, then save the file with a new name and resize the template to fit a 6x9? Or do you have to create 2 different templates starting with the correct document size? Thanks
I'd create two different templates, otherwise your text will shrink to a smaller size when you resize it, most likely resulting in some illegibility.
Rachel Harrison-Sund thanks! I also just found this video by Rebecca czcams.com/video/gAV1-NnLg9M/video.html. I guess worth a try and see how it works.
In KDP can you have photos that cover both facing pages or does only one page ever get diplayed at a time in theelectronic ebook format?
For ebooks, only one page will be displayed at a time.
@@RachelHarrisonSund Thanks for confirming that for me.
I’m used to putting together all my interiors in PowerPoint. Do you recommend doing 100 page document in affinity designer?
At first I was like why do I need this. Canva and powerpoint does it for free. But this is definitely worth it. Its a one time payment of 27 Dollar. Currently on offer cause of covid. I have to say it was definitely worth it. The difference between a professional and consumer software is night and day. Definitely worth it
What is the difference between Affinity Publisher and Pixlr?
Hi Rachel, I've watched a couple of your videos now, but I'm totally baffled about something. Where did you get the children's book template from for an ebook on Amazon Kindle? I am hoping to self-publish a story on Kindle, but using Affinity Publisher first. Any help would be much appreciated. Many thanks, Debbie
Hi Debbie! The only templates I use are the KDP cover templates. All of my book interiors I create from scratch.
@@RachelHarrisonSundHi again, sorry for asking again, but how did you get it from KDP? I'm struggling to find one
@@debbiestorey7763 in case you didn't find it yet, here it is: kdp.amazon.com/en_US/cover-templates
Everything is clear and perfectly explained, but that icon above looks like a flea dancing the macarena...
Hi there. Just to mention: This software is even 50% cheaper today (2021).
What is KDP?
Hi Joe, it's the Kindle Direct Publishing Platform, which is Amazon's print on demand book creation platform.
I apprecite your vid and its good basic info. But then this program makes me nuts!! hit the wrong button and all the tools disapear, hours in the forums and trying to sort it and I still have no idea wtf to do. grrrrrrr.
Try pressing Tab. This toggles the tool bars.
don't choose black in a rgb hex field - use the cmyk: 0, 0, 0, 100
Funny, but as of Dec 2, 2019, Affinity Publisher is less than $35 USD. Thanks for this video.
Back Friday / Cyber Monday sale