Another tool that works alongside Paragraph Styles is Character Styles. Paragraph Styles is an area that is critical in order to create consistency within a document. When inserting new pages, a Master Page can be selected as a base for any new page. Placeholders such as page numbers can be inserted into text boxes on the Master Pages. The program has support for Master Pages, providing the ability to define common layouts to maintain consistency. I was encouraged to see support for multiple page sizes, including configurations for single pages or facing pages layouts.

Page management is an important aspect of any book.

These are the main elements of a page layout program that I consider essential. Then, after nearly four years, in June 2019, Affinity Publisher was released to the public, completing the triad.ĭepending on the type of publications you create, there will be different tools that are critical to consider in a page layout program as a possible alternative to your current software suite. There was speculation online that Affinity Publisher would flounder in beta forever and might never be released as a full-fledged software package. With Designer and Photo being released within less than a year, there was some expectation that a page layout program would follow shortly after. Without a program for building pages, it would be difficult to consider this offering as an alternative workflow. The one missing piece to this puzzle was a page layout program to bring these together into a compelling package. Then in July 2015, Serif released Affinity Photo, which brought together a duo of programs for drawing and photo workflows. The introduction of Affinity Designer in October 2014 was an interesting addition to the market, but on its own not considered an alternative to the long-standing players in this space. Affinity Publisher is the long-anticipated program in the Affinity family. After evaluating the other programs in the Affinity lineup, it is time to examine the final program in this collection from Serif.

Serif affinity publisher